Talk Stephen King: Stephen King and Edgar Allan Poe

Check out Brighton Gardner's book, Stephen King, A Face Among The Masters. The chapter on Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King is great!

Here's a few lines from the book:

Michael Connelly produced an interesting book a few years ago titled In The Shadow Of The Master. It was a collection of Poe’s stories with introductions from famous authors. King provided an introduction to The Tell Tale Heart, and noted that crime writers such as John D. MacDonald and Thomas Harris are what he calls “the children of Poe.”

What about Stephen King? Is he a child of Poe ? Not quite. King has said that he has been more inspired by other writers. However, the writers he most admired as a young person had been influenced by Poe. Writers like Robert Block, H.P. Lovecraft, and Ray Bradbury are all men who fell under Poe’s spell, and they in turn influenced Stephen King. King has suggested that Poe is more like his twisted grandfather.

Child or grandchild, the relationship is still pretty close and the genes show. Edgar Allan Poe’s DNA is all over Stephen King’s work. Both Poe and King have an intense interest in the horror genre. In fact, Nick Mamatas, author of Under My Roof, suggested in a 2008 article for The Smart Set that Poe was one of the first authors of modern horror because he was not focused on bringing a moral resolution to the story. Poe was simply interested in letting the story tell itself. This is something King routinely does, emphasizing that the most important thing is for the writer to get out of the way enough to let the story unfold the way it needs to . He does not feel a need to guide the novel toward his own moral compass, but allows the plot and characters unfold naturally in the setting he’s created.