Any history of the development of the short story in America must begin with Edgar Allan Poe's review of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales in 1842. This is not because Poe necessarily invented the short story; but rather, because later generations of short story writers, editors, and students invented Poe as the founder of the genre. From perhaps 1885 to 1950, Poe's words were “universally quoted” and imitated with what H. S. Canby once called a “servility which would have amazed that sturdy fighter.” His review, in turn, was retrospectively canonized as the birthdate of the short story in America. And although this literary-historical reconstruction spent itself by mid-century, it was nevertheless so powerful that Poe's words remain easily the most pervasive in the history of the genre. He was, and continues to be, both the patron saint and the neighborhood bully of the American short story.

As Canby suggests, Poe's words have been so persuasive to later generations of short story writers that his case represents a rather extraordinary example of literary influence. It is tempting to say that later generations used Poe, or constructed a version of his literary philosophy that was convenient to their purposes. But the most intriguing fact about Poe's presence is the degree to which his words have not been distorted, but taken with a dead seriousness that has had the effect of distortion.