“The Minister's Black Veil” and its author evaluated by contemporariesInitially, of course, Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories were not classified among those of other American and British writers. But his reputation, as well as the popularity of his works, gradually grew, even among contemporary critics, until he was recognized as a "man of genius". Edgar Allen Poe, in a review of Hawthorne's work, said in Godey's Lady's Book, November: 1847, no. 35, pp. 252-6: It has never been fashionable (until recent times) to speak of him in a summary of our best authors. . . . Hawthorne's "peculiarity" or similarity, or monotony, would be enough, in its mere character of "peculiarity", and without reference to what the particularity is, to deprive him of any chance of being appreciated by the public. But we can naturally no longer be astonished at his lack of appreciation, when we find him monotonous on the worst of all possible points, on that point which, having the least concern with Nature, is furthest from nature. . popular intellect, popular sentiment and popular taste. I am referring to the allegorical tension that completely overwhelms most of his subjects. Thus, literary critic Edgar Allan Poe believes that Hawthorne's heavy reliance on allegory was the cause of his lack of popularity during the 1830s and 1840s. In 1848, James Russell Lowell wrote a piece of poetry entitled "Hawthorne" for the periodical A Fable for Critics: “There is Hawthorne, with a genius so narrow and so rare that one hardly sees at first glance the force that is there; a frame so robust, with a nature so gentle, so serious, so graceful, so supple and so light, deserves to be encountered from Olympus; Should flower, after cycles of struggle and beating, with a single trembling, failed anemone; its strength is so tender, its savagery so gentle. The author considers that now, “after cycles of struggle and beating,” Hawthorne is finally. becoming recognized for his work in 1850, Herman Melville wrote "Hawthorne and His Mosses" for The Literary World, August 17 and 24 editions, in which he humbly acknowledged the genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne.: