Talk:Tales of Mystery & Imagination

Necessary?
Is this article really necessary? I mean, there are many, many posthumous collections of the works of several authors. I don't see how this one meets notability requirements enough to have its own article. Besides, I could argue that the much more popular collection of Poe's works was "The Raven edition" from 1901. Or, the widest-circulation version was the Barnes & Noble Classics edition. Why would any of these have their own articles? --Midnightdreary (talk) 15:37, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Nope. Six years later, and I'm still more convinced than ever that this article should be deleted. Or, we could always make ones for The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, another arbitrary posthumous collection with a frequently re-used title. --Midnightdreary (talk) 14:00, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

The title entices to a degree that has generated activity over 100 years
The article's page was created by people looking for information as they left it blank - that's usually a call for information. I have tried to help whomsoever wants the information.

I suspect one reason for the interest is Tales of Mystery and Imagination have had a musical album of the same title named after this book and contains scores based on some of the individual tales.

So it fulfils requirement 3 from Wikipedia for a notable books: "The book has been considered by reliable sources to have made a significant contribution to a notable motion picture, or other art form, or event or political or religious movement. "

...since music comes under art form.

I am now guessing but a further reason may be that LAY seekers of knowledge on Poe may type this search title in - it's certainly well-frequented on Google - library versions I used, and online publishers' comments, suggested this title often continues to be used to sell Poe's stories by publishers, probably partly as the suggestive title helps them sell their books.

If someone could provide some information on this page on whose idea it was historically to link the series of musical scores to this specific title of the book that would be nice.

--Frank1829 (talk) 04:59, 3 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Though I disagree that this book passes the guidelines for notability, if it is to remain it is in need of serious work. For one, the book itself is a primary source and therefore not a reliable source, including the introduction, which certainly would tout it as one of the most important Poe collections. I certainly question that it is "critically regarded" (as claimed by the intro); Tales of Mystery and Imagination is basically a "complete works of Poe" - are critics touting the collection (as the line implies) Poe's work in general? A good portion of the info that was here was also incorrect; much of Poe's work was most definitely collected during his lifetime in such books as Tales and The Raven and Other Poems, not to mention his early work in Tamerlane and Other Poems. The innocuous line about Rufus Griswold is also incredibly misleading ("his literary acquaintance"? How cute! How about "his greatest enemy who purposely set out to destroy him"?). Arthur Gordon Pym was listed as a short story (!!). The line about Poe's popularity in France, though true, is also misleading. It first mentions a 1908 translation, then notes his popularity in France in the 19th century - it's written as suggesting a cause and effect, but clearly is not chronological. Additionally, the list of films is irrelevant to Tales of Mystery and Imagination; how can one prove that a version of "The Fall of the House of Usher" was inspired by this collection, and not just on the fact that it is a good, easily available story? --Midnightdreary (talk) 11:02, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Hi. I've tried to take your comments on board and guarded or removed controversial statements.--Frank1829 (talk) 01:05, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Awesome. I'm going to look into this later using some of the Poe scholarly sources I have; I'd like to get a better idea how important/notable others deem this collection. I might take a long time getting to it - feel free to send me a personal message if I forget. --Midnightdreary (talk) 01:18, 4 June 2009 (UTC)