GREAT BOOKS 37: Edgar Allan Poe, with J. Gerald Kennedy (Louisiana State University)

<p>"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary," is the line many remember from middle or high school, or a Simpsons episode. It's the opening of Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" which flutters not only though America's collective unconscious but is celebrated in Europe, Latin America and Asia as one of the great achievements of American culture. The inventor of the detective story, teller of thrilling and enthralling tales of terror, and progenitor to Hitchcock, Stephen King and much of Netflix's programing, Poe deserves to be understood. I spoke with one of the great experts on Poe, Professor <a href= "https://www.lsu.edu/hss/english/people/kennedy.php">J. Gerald Kennedy</a> at Louisiana State University who's written award-winning <a href= "https://www.amazon.com/Romancing-Shadow-J-Gerald-Kennedy/dp/0195137108" target="_blank" rel="noopener">books</a> on Poe in <a href= "https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Nation-Literary-Nationalism-Cultural/dp/0195393694" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American culture</a>. Professor Kennedy very movingly told me about the connection to his late grandfather via Poe, why he considers Poe to be so important, and how to understand <a href= "https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Dark-Whiteness-Literary-Imagination/dp/0679745424" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Toni Morrison's famous declaration</a> that Poe is key to understanding American writers' use of Black characters in their construction of the white mythology of American culture.</p> <p><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir= "auto">///////////////</span></p> <p><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto">Follow us:</span></p> <p><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto">TWITTER - <a href= "https://twitter.com/ulibaer">@ulibaer</a> </span></p> <p><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir= "auto">INSTAGRAM - <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/ulinyc/">@ulinyc</a> </span></p> <p><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto">(THINK ABOUT IT PODCAST) - <a href