Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography/A-class review/Edgar Allan Poe

The following discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of this review is not approved for A-class

Edgar Allan Poe

Another core biography that needs confirmation for A-class. Errabee 00:26, 30 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose I am opposing for two major reasons and one minor reason.

• The structure of this article is poor. Since it is a biography page, there should be more information on Poe's life. Also, I find the headings slightly odd "Life," "Career," and "Death." The "Literary and artistic theory" section is unorganized. Some of what is "Legacy" should be in a section about Poe as a writer. The "Legacy" section is also too long; it needs to be condensed. The page should be dominated by information about Poe and his writings. The "Popular culture" section has lists rather than paragraphs.
• The page is poorly-sourced. The editors need to do a lot of research and radically revise this page. There should be many more citations from reliable biographies for the biography section and the literary sections should rely on the work of literary critics. What is the consensus among Poe scholars regarding Poe's aesthetic theory, for example, or his contribution to detective fiction? To answer the question "what is the consensus among Poe scholars" (and the consensus view is what wikipedia aims to present) requires extensive research. I do not see evidence of that here. Awadewit 00:52, 30 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
• There is no list of works on the page. Although Poe wrote a lot, there should be at least a partial list of major works with a link to a separate page that lists his entire oeuvre. Awadewit 01:10, 30 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose. Maybe it's just me, but I think a "biography" article should have more than just one section dealing with the subject's "life". I personally think that there is enough potential content regarding his life specifically to constitute a full article, and that the "artistic" sections could easily be spun off into one or more separate articles. However, I acknowledge that I am rather new at this game, so if anyone presents contradictory information I reserve the right to change my opinion. John Carter 00:57, 30 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The article seems to have three sections on the life: "Life," "Career," and "Death," but, like you, I do not feel that these are adequate, and the description "Career" makes the user think that the biographical description is over. On the point about dividing an author's works from their life, I am generally against that. I think that an overview is at least necessary. Some works need separate pages for a more extensive treatment, but I do feel that there should be a discussion of the author's literary output since that is the reason they are notable. See Mary Wollstonecraft and Anna Laetitia Barbauld for examples of literary biographies that have recently become FAs. Awadewit 01:10, 30 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In this particular page, over two-thirds of the total length of the article proper is devoted to his literary career, with only about 12,000 words of 40,000 total in the article dealing with the subject's life per se (Life, Career, Death). I agree with having "some content" relating to the subject's career, but 2/3 of the article might be a bit excessive. Also, based on my own experience with the subject's biography, admittedly in the distant past, I think there are grounds for saying the existing content on his life might be comparatively insufficient. But, like I said, I read up on him several years ago, and may have gotten some things confused. John Carter 01:34, 30 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You do know that I agree with you, right? I was just trying to add more information to the debate and more nuances. If you notice, in my oppose I also said that there needed to be more biographical information. Awadewit 02:12, 30 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Understood. Just amplifying and substantiating my previous comments for anyone else who might see this for clarification purposes. Sorry if it was so poorly phrased that it was reasonably taken as something else. John Carter 02:29, 30 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

• Oppose per Awadewit above. - Duribald 16:44, 30 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose: Overall, I agree entirely with Awadewit and John Carter (see above). Much of this article is well-written, and it contains much good information. There are, however, a number of significant things to be addressed:

• Citations needed for all facts. (Have added citation needed tags to article in some, but not all, of these places.)
• Citations that are given fail to include page numbers
• Given Poe's writing, there should certainly be a substantial, chronological list of his writings, ideally separated by category (poetry, short stories, essays, etc), with years of original publication.
• While there are a good number of excellent "hard" references for Poe, this article has not relied on many of them. Moreover, while some of the websites cited are clearly credible ".edu-type" references, others seem to be less credible.
• Given Poe's importance, I agree that the section on his life should be significantly expanded with the section on Griswald perhaps done more briefly in one paragraph. (There is an article on Poe's death, which seems a better spot for such a full discussion of Griswald's obituary and whatnot.) It also seems odd to have the Griswald bit as its own dedicated section with the entire life of the article's more than worthy subject rolled into one single, relatively short section, given the importance of the subject.
• Info box probably needs more biographical facts: parents, foster parents, siblings

Jancarhart 16:53, 1 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page, such as the current discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.