[3] According to Publishers Weekly, the book has remained "renowned among horror readers for the 'ornate morbidity' of its contents.
Barnitz wrote in the Decadent poetry style, drawing inspiration from Gothic and macabre poets such as Thomas Lovell Beddoes, Eric Stenbock, and James Thomson, among others.
A classmate of poet Wallace Stevens, Barnitz’s work reflected his cynicism and misanthropy.
In 1901, Midwest newspapers reported his death as accidental due to an enlarged heart.
H. P. Lovecraft referred to Park Barnitz as “a vivid decadent of the fin de siècle period who modelled his verse on Baudelaire & killed himself soon after graduation from Harvard.”[5]