Baudelaire's discovery of Poe and his devotion to the establishment of Poe's greatness in France is one of the crucial events of modern literature. So clearly are the thought and art of Poe and Baudelaire intertwined that we cannot consider the one writer without almost at once thinking of the author. Baudelaire's translations are the standard texts in which Poe's writings are read in France. This article discusses several rival translators of Poe's literature who have almost been totally forgotten but still deserve attention because they helped to create a climate for the dissemination of Poe's writtings among the French reading public and stimulated Baudelaire's efforts.