Poe's Early Ambivalence toward Antebellum Literary Democracy

By focusing on Edgar Allan Poe's lesser-known early literary career prior to his rise as a celebrated critic and author, I claim that the earlier Poe already prefigures the later Poe who reveals ambivalence toward antebellum literary democracy with an oscillating desire to cater to the reading public's tastes and to distinguish himself from other popular writers. From his early literary career, Poe had not only conspicuously displayed his keen sense of the democratic nature of literary world but also fully internalized and heavily advertised it for recognition. In particular, he never hesitated to take a series of strategies to promote his first three published works and was very serious about the importance of winning the literary contest to establish a reputation and make a commercial success. Like the later Poe haunted by the necessity to produce a commercially calculated work also designed for critical attention, the earlier Poe I restore to the context of antebellum literary democracy had a keen sense of how to follow the dominant logic of contemporary cultural democracy and to compose fine, distinctive works.