Lindsey Graham

I welcome it.

His defiant gaze bores into you, and you struggle to find words.

Mr. Poe, you are a talented poet, but I believe if you're not careful, your behavior will overshadow your work.

You walk away, feeling astonished by Poe's arrogance.

It seems to you that whatever he thinks of the Boston literary elite, he's just given them the ammunition to doom his faltering career.

From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers.

Our history, your story.

On our show, we'll take you to the events, the times, and the people that shaped America and Americans, our values, our struggles, and our dreams.

We'll put you in the shoes of everyday people as history was being made, and we'll show you how the events of the times affected them, their families, and affects you now.

In October 1845, the Boston Lyceum invited Edgar Allan Poe to recite a new original poem.

Instead, he deliberately insulted his elite audience by reciting an incomprehensible poem from his youth.

The performance sparked anger and ridicule in the Boston press.

It was one of several acts of self-sabotage that contributed to Poe's mixed reputation.

Many years would pass before he claimed his standing as one of America's greatest writers.

Poe emerged on the scene at a time when American literature was considered inferior to British and European works.

In 1820, a British literary magazine famously sneered, In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book?

A chorus of writers across the Atlantic insisted this new nation had no real literature.

But over the next century, a diverse array of writers would craft a distinctly American literary tradition, putting pen to paper to reflect America and to shape it.

From Gothic mansions to the banks of the Mississippi River, from the California coast to a small-town Alabama courthouse, American literature has traversed a landscape as vast and varied as America itself.

Throughout history, American authors have explored the unique struggles and aspirations of a young nation.