Poe and Baudelaire, both 19th century overlapping contemporaries, contributed heavily to today's sense of the eerie and macabre. Poe influenced pulp-era Weird Tales writers such as H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and Robert E. Howard. All of the aforementioned were accomplished poets as well as prose writers. Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil was banned when it was first published in 1857 and set the tone for later obscenity trials such as the one for Ginsberg's Howl. I would recommend the Oxford World's Classics edition of The Flowers of Evil with the translation by James McGowan. Any thoughts on this?

Poe and Baudelaire : Wonderful !

"The Flowers of Evil" have cast their spell on me when I still was an innocent kid... and yes...my innocence quickly faded away then...

As a french kid eager for more "burning" litterature, Baudelaire soon led me to E.A. Poe ( Baudelaire was the french translator of Poe ) and : wow !!! A new door was opened. It has never been closed since...

No deep thoughts, really. But thank you so much for the recommendation. Poe and Baudelaire are two of my favorite classic "weird storytellers", and both have interesting biographies, too.

Thanks again for your contribution to the group. It is nice to see some activity here.