Charles Brockden Brown wrote the first American Gothic novel, Wieland: or, The Transformation: An American Tale and laid the foundation for American Gothic literature. Despite such a remarkable achievement, Brown is far from the best-known American Gothic writer. In fact, the most famous American Gothic writer, and arguably the most famous Gothic writer in the world, is Edgar Allan Poe. It may be strange that the creator of American Gothic literature can be relatively easily dismissed when Poe is mentioned. The reason is that Poe refined and perfected American Gothic literature. Although Charles Brockden Brown was undoubtedly the father of American Gothic literature when he created Wieland or The Transformation, Edgar Allan Poe is the most influential Gothic writer and became more important than Brown, as can be seen in The Raven, The Pit and the Pendulum and The Tell-Tale Heart. The first American Gothic novel is Wieland by Charles Bockden Brown. Brown was the first American writer to decide to incorporate European Gothic into American culture (White). To do this, he took the writing style of European Gothic literature and combined it with American places, characters, societies, and events, creating a new eclectic literary genre: American Gothic. However, using American culture was not enough to make Wieland accessible to Americans. What really made it an American Gothic novel was that its plot was based on a real murder. The story of the murder follows: “One winter night in 1781, a farmer in upstate New York was reading his Bible when he heard (or thought he heard) a voice speaking to him from the darkness. . . [Yates] then killed his wife, two sons and his infa...... middle of paper ......m represents his realization that his one true love and purpose will exist" never again." This truly beautiful yet dark theme culminates near the end of the poem when the narrator exclaims, “Take your beak from my heart and take shape before my door!” » (Poe, Raven, 101). This line proves as essential to the poem as blood is to the brain because "The reader now begins to regard the Raven as emblematic - but it is not until the very last line of the stanza that the intention of make emblematic of Sad and It is permitted to see distinctly the Memory without end” (Szumskie 147). This, combined with the growing tension as the raven says "Never again" with increasing meaning, resulted in a denouement unlike anything seen before in Gothic literature, resulting in the most influential Gothic literary work of all the time..