No but Poe invented an entire genre and influenced many contemporaries. Tolkien isn't even the most influential person within modern fantasy, and his writing is way too slow, so I can't vote for him.

poe.

by the way, what does a raven have in common with a writting desk?

Poe 11
Tolkien 8

I only chose Poe because he is slightly ahead of Tolkien in my favorite authors. But Professor Tolkien is one of my favorites and I make it a point to reread the trilogy every summer.

Tolkien

I find Poe to be an outstanding author in every way, and his legacy is far greater, but I have found the stories and characters in Tolkien's Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales will captivate my mind. To me, the idea presented in Tolkien's words are greater, which is why I must say he is my favorite.

How is this the final? Better writers than both have been eliminated. Never really liked Poe, so I'll go with Tolkein

POEXI
TOLKIENX

I like that this is close.

Poe 1011
Tolkien 1010

Because the bracket was flawed from the beginning, gf, but this is what we've got.

You can say that, but if a better writer was eliminated, then at some point, one of these two eliminated some who eliminated someone who... So you can trace it back. If that writer was so good, they would have have bubbled up to the top, but someone beat them.

It's not the bracket's fault that people think Orwell is better than Vergil or Dostoevsky, bo.

That said, bracket-based voting systems are notoriously awful at choosing what would meaningfully be called the favorite candidate of a group of people. I saw a fascinating math talk on it. It's only very slightly more meaningful than randomly choosing a name.

I still maintain that this isn't about better, it's about favorite, and that the two don't have to be connected at all. I would read Orwell over Vergil any day. Dostoevsky is more debatable, but the point is that it is not about better. I'd read Twilight over Shakespeare, but clearly Shakespeare is better; I just hate his writing. On the second look at things, maybe I should have said that in response to gf.

Regardless, it's not like this contest means anything, because if Ray Bradbury were in it, he'd have beaten all of these guys...

Yes, agreed.

Bradbury rules, but Poe v. Bradbury would have been a tough choice.

I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for forgetting Bradbury in the beginning.

Out of all the authors that were in, I wouldn't have picked Poe or Tolkien for even my top 5.

@semck- You don't possibly have a link to that talk, do you? It sounds interesting.

Yeah, that sounds really cool.

"by the way, what does a raven have in common with a writing desk?"

Poe wouldn't have gotten very far without either.

"I'd read Twilight over Shakespeare, but clearly Shakespeare is better; I just hate his writing."

You know, that's fine, but I AM curious--

How much do you hate Shakespeare's writing that you'd read TWILIGHT over him lol?

My teachers used to hear about it every time we pulled out another one of his plays.

Poe 12
Tolkien 10

Edgar Allan Poe invented the Short Story.

Aesop and Homer (gasp!) invented the short story. Poe led a revival of the short story in the 1800s.

holy shit how can y'all not have Poe even in the top 5?!

like I get not #1 but c'mon this dude is a fuckin legend man

People have different tastes. Is that really so hard to comprehend?

Sorry, how did "Homer" invent the short story?

He told short stories...? I'm not sure how to answer that, if only to say that many of the tales he told are classified as short stories. The difference is that his were presented orally. The Iliad is a collection of short poems, not much unlike Poe's own work.

And Homer is a collection of many authors, totally unlike Poe but not unlike the Bible. Also, Poe wrote more than short stories and poems. He went long form on occasion.