Development of Edgar Poe's literary reputation in Russia: on the issue of biographical sources

The author focuses on the development of Edgar Poe's literary reputation in Russia, using two essays on his biography written by Konstantin Balmont and Valery Bryusov as a study case. Both poets prepared and published their own collected translations of Edgar Poe's poems, supplementing them with critiques and commentary as well as essays on the poet's life. Each of the translators expressed in his collection his attitude to Edgar Poe's work, drawing his «portrait». The article aims to compare the two «portraits» and to identify methods of presenting Edgar Poe's works to the Russian reader.