Edward Estlin Cummings (October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962), popularly known as
E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as
e. e. cummings (in the style of his poems), was an
American poetThe poetry of the United States arose first during its beginnings as the constitutionally unified thirteen colonies . Unsurprisingly, most of the early colonists' work relied on contemporary British models of poetic form, diction, and theme...
, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. His body of work encompasses approximately 2,900 poems, two autobiographical novels, four plays and several essays, as well as numerous drawings and paintings. He is remembered as a preeminent voice of
20th century poetryModernist poetry in English is generally considered to have emerged in the early years of the 20th century with the appearance of the Imagists. In common with many other modernists, these poets wrote in reaction to the perceived excesses of Victorian poetry, with its emphasis on traditional...
, as well as one of the most popular.
Name and capitalization
Cummings' publishers and others have sometimes echoed the unconventional
orthographyThe orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example for Kurdish, there can be more than one orthography. Orthography is derived from Greek ὀρθός orthós and γράφειν...
in his poetry by writing his name in lower case and without periods. Cummings himself used both the lowercase and capitalized versions, but according to his widow did not, as reported in the preface of one book, have his name legally changed to "e e cummings". He did, however, write to his French translator that he preferred the capitalized version ("may it not be tricksy"). One Cummings scholar believes that on the occasions Cummings signed his name in all-lowercase, the poet may have intended it as a gesture of humility, and not as an indication that it was the preferred orthography for others to use for his name.
Birth and early years
Cummings was born in
Cambridge, MassachusettsCambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, a nexus of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Notably, Cambridge is home to two internationally prominent...
, on October 14, 1894 to Edward and Rebecca Haswell Clarke Cummings. He was named after his father but his family called him by his middle name. Estlin's father was a professor of
sociologySociology is the scientific or systematic study of human societies. It is a branch of social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, often with the goal of applying such...
and
political sciencePolitical science is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. It is often described as the pragmatic application of the art and science of politics defined as "who gets what, when and how",...
at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
and later a
UnitarianUnitarianism as a theology is the belief in the single personality of God, in contrast to the doctrine of the Trinity ....
minister. Cummings described his father as a hero and a person who could accomplish anything that he wanted to. He was well skilled and was always working or repairing things. He and his son were close, and Edward was one of Cummings' most ardent supporters.
His mother, Rebecca, never partook in stereotypically "womanly" things. She loved poetry and reading to her children. Raised in a well-educated family, Cummings was a very smart boy and his mother encouraged Estlin to write more and more poetry every day. His first poem came when he was only three: "Oh little birdie oh oh oh, With your toe toe toe." His sister, Elizabeth, was born when he was six years old.
Education
In his youth, Estlin Cummings attended Cambridge Latin High School. Early stories and poems were published in the
Cambridge Review, the school newspaper.
From 1911 to 1916, Cummings attended
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
, from which he received a
B.A.Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
degree in 1915 and a
Master's degreeA master's degree is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
for English and Classical Studies in 1916. While at Harvard, he befriended
John Dos PassosJohn Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Dos Passos was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of John Randolph Dos Passos Jr. . The elder Dos Passos was a lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, the son of John Randolph Dos Passos and Mary Hays and the brother of Louis...
, at one time rooming in Thayer Hall, named after the family of one of his Harvard acquaintances,
Scofield ThayerScofield Thayer was an American poet and publisher, best known for his art collection, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and as a publisher and editor of the literary magazine The Dial during the 1920s....
, and not yet a freshman-only dormitory. Several of Cummings's poems were published in the
Harvard Monthly as early as 1912. Cummings himself labored on the school newspaper alongside fellow
Harvard AesthetesThe Harvard Aesthetes is a name given to a group of poets attending Harvard University in a period roughly between 1912 and 1919. It includes:*Malcolm Cowley *E. E. Cummings *S...
Dos Passos and
S. Foster DamonS Foster Damon was an American academic, a specialist in William Blake, a critic and a poet. He was born in Newton, Massachusetts. He was one of the Harvard Aesthetes, and married Louise Wheelwright, sister of John Wheelwright who was another poet identified with that grouping...
. In 1915, his poems were published in the
Harvard Advocate.
From an early age, Cummings studied
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
and Latin. His affinity for each manifests in his later works, such as
XAIPE (Greek: "Rejoice!"; a 1950 collection of poetry),
Anthropos (Greek: "human"; the title of one of his plays), and "Puella Mea" (Latin: "My Girl"; the title of his longest poem).
In his final year at Harvard, Cummings was influenced by writers such as
Gertrude SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer who spent most of her life in France, and who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. Her life was marked by two primary relationships, the first with her brother Leo Stein, from 1874-1914 , and the second with Alice B...
and
Ezra PoundEzra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet, critic and intellectual who was a major figure of the Modernist movement in the first half of the 20th century. He is generally considered the poet most responsible for defining and promoting a modernist aesthetic in poetry...
. He graduated
magna cum laude in 1916, delivering a controversial commencement address entitled "The New Art". This speech gave him his first taste of notoriety, as he managed to give the false impression that the well-liked imagist poet,
Amy LowellAmy Lawrence Lowell was an American poet of the imagist school from Brookline, Massachusetts who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926.- Personal life:Lowell was born into Brookline's prominent Lowell family...
, whom he himself admired, was "abnormal". For this, Cummings was chastised in the newspapers. In 1917, Cummings's first published poems appeared in a collection of poetry entitled
Eight Harvard Poets.
Career
In 1917 Cummings enlisted in the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps, along with his college friend
John Dos PassosJohn Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Dos Passos was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of John Randolph Dos Passos Jr. . The elder Dos Passos was a lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, the son of John Randolph Dos Passos and Mary Hays and the brother of Louis...
. Due to an administrative mix-up, Cummings was not assigned to an ambulance unit for five weeks, during which time he stayed in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He became enamored with the city, to which he would return throughout his life.
On September 21, 1917, just five months after his belated assignment, he and a friend,
William Slater BrownWilliam Slater Brown was a novelist, biographer and translator of french literature. Most notably, he was a friend of the poet E. E...
, were arrested on suspicion of
espionageEspionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, as the legitimate holder of the information may change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
. The two openly expressed
anti-warThe term anti-war usually refers to the opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many activists...
views; Cummings spoke of his lack of hatred for the Germans. They were sent to a military detention camp, the
Dépôt de Triage, in La Ferté-Macé,
OrneOrne is a department in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne.- History :Orne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution, on March 4, 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Normandy and Perche.- Geography :Orne is in the region of...
,
NormandyNormandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is situated along the English Channel coast of Northern France between Brittany and Picardy and comprises territory in northern France and the Channel Islands.Normandy is divided between French and British...
, where they languished for 3½ months. Cummings's experiences in the camp were later related in his novel,
The Enormous RoomThe Enormous Room is a 1922 autobiographical novel by the poet and novelist E. E. Cummings about his temporary imprisonment in France during World War I....
about which
F. Scott FitzgeraldFrancis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the Twenties...
opined, "Of all the work by young men who have sprung up since 1920 one book survives-
The Enormous Room by e e cummings....Those few who cause books to live have not been able to endure the thought of its mortality."
He was released from the detention camp on December 19, 1917, after much intervention from his politically connected father. Cummings returned to the United States on New Year's Day 1918. Later in 1918 he was drafted into the
armyThe United States Army is the branch of the United States Military responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military and is one of seven uniformed services...
. He served in the
12th DivisionThere have been a number of 12th Divisions in the history of the United States Army.*12th Division - A National Guard division established in early 1917 consisting of Illinois...
at Camp Devens, Massachusetts, until November 1918.
Cummings returned to Paris in 1921 and remained there for two years before returning to
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. During the rest of the 1920s and 1930s he returned to Paris a number of times, and traveled throughout
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, meeting, among others,
Pablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso was a Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. Commonly known simply as Picasso, he is one of the most recognized figures in 20th-century art...
. In 1931 Cummings traveled to the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
and recounted his experiences in
EimiEimi is a 1933 book by E. E. Cummings. It recounts his 1931 trip to the Soviet Union, and his disappointment in the lack of intellectual and artistic freedom he observed....
, published two years later. During these years Cummings also traveled to Northern Africa and
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and worked as an essayist and portrait artist for
Vanity FairVanity Fair is an American Hollywood magazine of pop culture, fashion, and politics published by Condé Nast Publications. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1981 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition...
magazine (1924 to 1927).
Cummings' papers are held at the Harry Ransom Center at the
University of Texas at AustinThe University of Texas at Austin is a public research university located in Austin, Texas, United States, and is the flagship institution of The University of Texas System. The main campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol...
.
Personal life
In 1926, Cummings's father was killed in a car accident. Though severely injured, Cummings's mother survived. Cummings detailed the accident in the following passage from his
i: six nonlectures series given at Harvard in 1952–1953:
... a locomotive cut the car in half, killing my father instantly. When two brakemen jumped from the halted train, they saw a woman standing – dazed but erect – beside a mangled machine; with blood spouting (as the older said to me) out of her head. One of her hands (the younger added) kept feeling her dress, as if trying to discover why it was wet. These men took my sixty-six year old mother by the arms and tried to lead her toward a nearby farmhouse; but she threw them off, strode straight to my father's body, and directed a group of scared spectators to cover him. When this had been done (and only then) she let them lead her away.
His father's death had a profound impact on Cummings and his work, who entered a new period in his artistic life. Cummings began to focus on more important aspects of life in his poetry. He began this new period by paying homage to his father's memory in the poem "
my father moved through dooms of love".
Born into a
UnitarianUnitarianism as a theology is the belief in the single personality of God, in contrast to the doctrine of the Trinity ....
family, Cummings exhibited
transcendentalTranscendentalism was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture, and philosophy that emerged in New England in the early to middle 19th century...
leanings his entire life. As he grew in maturity and age, Cummings moved more toward an
"I, Thou"Ich und Du, usually translated as I and Thou, is a book by Martin Buber, published in 1923, and first translated to English in 1937...
relationship with God. His journals are replete with references to “le bon Dieu” as well as prayers for inspiration in his poetry and artwork (such as “Bon Dieu! may I some day do something truly great. amen.”). Cummings "also prayed for strength to be his essential self ('may I be I is the only prayer--not may I be great or good or beautiful or wise or strong'), and for relief of spirit in times of depression ('almighty God! I thank thee for my soul; & may I never die spiritually into a mere mind through disease of loneliness')."
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
Marriages
Cummings was married three times, including a long
common-law marriageCommon-law marriage, sometimes called de facto marriage, informal marriage or marriage by habit and repute, is a form of interpersonal status which is legally recognized in some jurisdictions as a marriage even though no legally recognized marriage ceremony is performed or civil marriage contract...
.
- Elaine Orr: Cummings's first marriage, to Elaine Orr, began as a love affair in 1918 while she was married to Scofield Thayer
Scofield Thayer was an American poet and publisher, best known for his art collection, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and as a publisher and editor of the literary magazine The Dial during the 1920s....
, one of Cummings's friends from Harvard. The affair produced a daughter, Nancy, born on December 20, 1919. Nancy was Cummings's only child. After obtaining a divorce from Thayer, Elaine married Cummings on March 19, 1924. However, the marriage ended in divorce less than nine months later, when Elaine left Cummings for a wealthy Irish banker, moved to IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
and took Nancy with her. Under the terms of the divorce Cummings was granted custody of Nancy for three months each year, but Elaine refused to abide by the agreement. Cummings did not see his daughter again until 1946.
- Anne Minnerly Barton: Cummings married his second wife Anne Minnerly Barton on May 1, 1929. They separated three years later in 1932. That same year, Anne obtained a Mexican divorce
In the 1960s, many Americans traveled south to obtain a "Mexican divorce." A Mexican divorce was easier, quicker, and less expensive than a divorce in most states. Celebrities who obtained a Mexican divorce include Johnny Carson, Katharine Hepburn, Richard Burton, Marilyn Monroe and Don Hewitt. It...
that was not officially recognized in the United States until August 1934.
- Marion Morehouse (March 9, 1906 in South Bend, Indiana
South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, on the St. Joseph River. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total of 107,789 residents; its Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 316,663...
– May 18, 1969 in Greenwich VillageGreenwich Village , often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families. Greenwich Village, however, was known in the late 19th – earlier to mid 20th...
, New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
): In 1932, the same year Cummings and Anne separated, he met Marion Morehouse, a fashion model and photographer. Although it is not clear whether the two were ever legally married, Morehouse lived with Cummings until his death in 1962. Morehouse died May 18, 1969, while living at 4 Patchin PlacePatchin Place is a gated cul-de-sac located off 10th Street and Avenue of the Americas in New York City's Greenwich Village. Its ten brick row houses have been home to several famous writers, including Theodore Dreiser, E. E. Cummings, and Djuna Barnes, making it a stop on Greenwich Village walking...
, Greenwich VillageGreenwich Village , often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families. Greenwich Village, however, was known in the late 19th – earlier to mid 20th...
, New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, where Cummings had resided since September 8, 1924.
Poetry
Despite Cummings's consanguinity with
avant-gardeAvant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
styles, much of his work is quite traditional. Many of his poems are
sonnetThe sonnet is one of the poetic forms that can be found in lyric poetry from Europe.The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song". By the thirteenth century, it had come to signify a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme...
s, albeit often with a modern twist, and he occasionally made use of the blues form and acrostics. Cummings's poetry often deals with themes of
loveLove is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure to intense interpersonal attraction...
and nature, as well as the relationship of the individual to the masses and to the world. His poems are also often rife with satire.
While his poetic forms and themes share an affinity with the romantic tradition, Cummings's work universally shows a particular idiosyncrasy of
syntaxIn linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages...
, or way of arranging individual words into larger phrases and sentences. Many of his most striking poems do not involve any typographical or punctuation innovations at all, but purely syntactic ones.
As well as being influenced by notable
modernistsModernist literature is the literary expression of the tendencies of Modernism, especially High modernism.Modernism as a literary movement reached its height in Europe between 1900 and the middle 1920s. Modernist literature addressed aesthetic problems similar to those examined in non-literary...
including
Gertrude SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer who spent most of her life in France, and who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. Her life was marked by two primary relationships, the first with her brother Leo Stein, from 1874-1914 , and the second with Alice B...
and
Ezra PoundEzra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet, critic and intellectual who was a major figure of the Modernist movement in the first half of the 20th century. He is generally considered the poet most responsible for defining and promoting a modernist aesthetic in poetry...
, Cummings's early work drew upon the imagist experiments of
Amy LowellAmy Lawrence Lowell was an American poet of the imagist school from Brookline, Massachusetts who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926.- Personal life:Lowell was born into Brookline's prominent Lowell family...
. Later, his visits to Paris exposed him to
DadaDada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
and
surrealismSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, which in turn permeated his work. Cummings also liked to incorporate imagery of nature and death into much of his poetry.
While some of his poetry is
free verseFree verse - also known as vers libre - is a term describing various styles of poetry that are written without using a strict rhyme scheme, but still recognizable as poetry by virtue of complex patterns of one sort or another that readers will perceive to be part of a coherent whole.-Types:Philip...
(with no concern for
rhymeA rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.-Etymology:...
or
meterIn poetry, the meter is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse meter, or a certain set of meters alternating in a particular order. Prosody is a more general linguistic term, that includes poetical meter but also the rhythmic aspects of...
), many have a recognizable
sonnetThe sonnet is one of the poetic forms that can be found in lyric poetry from Europe.The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song". By the thirteenth century, it had come to signify a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme...
structure of 14 lines, with an intricate rhyme scheme. A number of his poems feature a typographically exuberant style, with words, parts of words, or punctuation symbols scattered across the page, often making little sense until read aloud, at which point the meaning and emotion become clear. Cummings, who was also a painter, understood the importance of presentation, and used typography to "paint a picture" with some of his poems.
The seeds of Cummings's unconventional style appear well established even in his earliest work. At age six, he wrote to his father:
FATHER DEAR. BE, YOUR FATHER-GOOD AND GOOD,
HE IS GOOD NOW, IT IS NOT GOOD TO SEE IT RAIN,
FATHER DEAR IS, IT, DEAR, NO FATHER DEAR,
LOVE, YOU DEAR,
ESTLIN.
Following his novel
The Enormous RoomThe Enormous Room is a 1922 autobiographical novel by the poet and novelist E. E. Cummings about his temporary imprisonment in France during World War I....
, Cummings's first published work was a collection of poems entitled
Tulips and ChimneysTulips and Chimneys is a collection of poetry by E. E. Cummings, published in 1923. This collection is the first dedicated exclusively to Cummings' poetry; his work had been published previously alongside others' in Eight Harvard Poets....
(1923). This work was the public's first encounter with his characteristic eccentric use of grammar and punctuation.
Some of Cummings's most famous poems do not involve much, if any, odd typography or punctuation, but still carry his unmistakable style, particularly in unusual and impressionistic word order. For example, the aptly titled "
anyone lived in a pretty how townanyone lived in a pretty how town is a poem written by e.e. cummings. First published in 1940, the poem details the lives of residents in a nameless town. Like much of Cummings's work, the poem is actually untitled, so critics use the first line to refer to the poem. Cummings often wrote in a...
" begins:
anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did
Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain
"why must itself up every of a park" begins as follows:
why must itself up every of a park
anus stick some quote statue unquote to
prove that a hero equals any jerk
who was afraid to dare to answer "no"?
Readers sometimes experience a jarring, incomprehensible effect with Cummings's work, as the poems do not act in accordance with the conventional combinatorial rules that generate typical English sentences. (For example, "why must itself..." or "they sowed their isn't..."). His readings of
SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer who spent most of her life in France, and who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. Her life was marked by two primary relationships, the first with her brother Leo Stein, from 1874-1914 , and the second with Alice B...
in the early part of the century probably served as a springboard to this aspect of his artistic development (in the same way that
Robert WalserRobert Walser , was a German-speaking Swiss writer.-1878 - 1897:...
's work acted as a springboard for
Franz KafkaFranz Kafka was a major fiction writer of the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia , Austria–Hungary...
). In some respects, Cummings's work is more stylistically continuous with Stein's than with any other poet or writer.
In addition, a number of Cummings's poems feature, in part or in whole, intentional misspellings, and several incorporate phonetic spellings intended to represent particular dialects. Cummings also made use of inventive formations of compound words, as in
"in Just-", which features words such as "mud-luscious", "puddle-wonderful", and "eddieandbill." This poem is part of a sequence of poems entitled
Chansons Innocentes; it has many references comparing the "balloonman" to
PanPan , in Greek religion and mythology, is the companion of the nymphs, god of shepherds and flocks, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music. His name originates within the Greek language, from the word paein, meaning "to pasture". He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same...
, the mythical creature that is half-goat and half-man.
Many of Cummings's poems are satirical and address social issues (see "why must itself up every of a park", above), but have an equal or even stronger bias toward romanticism: time and again his poems celebrate love, sex, and the season of rebirth (see "anyone lived in a pretty how town" in its entirety).
Cummings's talent extended to children's books, novels, and painting. A notable example of his versatility is an
introductionIn an essay, article, or book, an introduction is a beginning section which states the purpose and goals of the following writing. It usually begins with something interesting that intrigues the reader and causes him or her to want to read on. The sentence in which the introduction begins can be...
he wrote for a collection of the
comic stripA comic strip is a sequence of cartoons that tells a story, often humorous, though adventures and soap opera-like dramas are also prevalent. They are written and drawn by a comics artist or cartoonist, and many are published on a recurring basis in newspapers and on the Internet.In the UK and the...
Krazy KatKrazy Kat, a critically acclaimed comic strip by George Herriman, was published in American newspapers between 1913 and 1944. It first appeared in William Randolph Hearst's New York Evening Journal, and Hearst was a major booster for the strip throughout its run...
.
Examples of Cummings's unorthodox typographical style can be seen in his poem "
the sky was candy luminous...".
Plays
During his lifetime, Cummings published four plays:
HIM (1927),
Anthropos: or, the Future of Art (1930),
Tom: A Ballet (1935), and
Santa Claus: A Morality (1946).
- HIM, a three-act play, was first produced in 1928 by the Provincetown Players
The Provincetown Players was an amateur group of writers and artists who, at the early part of the 20th Century, wanted to see a change in American theatre and created a company committed to producing new plays by exclusively American playwrights...
in New York City. The production was directed by James Light. The play's main characters are "Him", a playwright, and "Me", his girlfriend. Cummings said of the unorthodox play:
Relax and give the play a chance to strut its stuff—relax, stop wondering what it is all 'about'—like many strange and familiar things, Life included, this play isn't 'about,' it simply is. . . . Don't try to enjoy it, let it try to enjoy you. DON'T TRY TO UNDERSTAND IT, LET IT TRY TO UNDERSTAND YOU."
- Anthropos, or the Future of Art is a short, one-act play that Cummings contributed to the anthology Whither, Whither or After Sex, What? A Symposium to End Symposium. The play consists of dialogue between Man, the main character, and three "infrahumans", or inferior beings. The word anthropos is the Greek
Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
word for "man", in the sense of "mankind".
- Tom, A Ballet is a ballet
Ballet is a formalized type of performance dance, which originated in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century French courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form...
based on Uncle Tom's CabinUncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the United States, so much in the latter case that the novel intensified the...
. The ballet is detailed in a "synopsis" as well as descriptions of four "episodes", which were published by Cummings in 1935. It has never been performed. More information about the play as well as an illustration can be found at this webpage from the E. E. Cummings Society.
- Santa Claus: A Morality
Santa Claus: A Morality is a play written by 20th century poet E. E. Cummings in 1946. The play is an allegorical Christmas tale consisting of one act of five scenes. In the play, Santa Claus deals with the increasing materialism and lust for knowledge around him and becomes consumed by it because...
was probably Cummings's most successful play. It is an allegorical Christmas fantasy presented in one act of five scenes. The play was inspired by his daughter Nancy, with whom he was reunited in 1946. It was first published in the Harvard College magazine the Wake. The play's main characters are Santa Claus, his family (Woman and Child), Death, and Mob. At the outset of the play, Santa Claus's family has disintegrated due to their lust for knowledge (Science). After a series of events, however, Santa Claus's faith in love and his rejection of the materialism and disappointment he associates with Science are reaffirmed, and he is reunited with Woman and Child.
Final years and death
In 1952, his
alma materAlma mater is Latin for "nourishing mother". It was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, and in Medieval Christianity for the Virgin Mary. In modern times it is ordinarily used to refer to the university or college a person attended...
, Harvard, awarded Cummings an honorary seat as a guest professor. The
Charles Eliot Norton LecturesThe Charles Eliot Norton Professorship of Poetry at Harvard University was established in 1925 as an annual lectureship in "poetry in the broadest sense" and named for the university's former professor of fine arts. Distinguished creative figures and scholars in the arts, including painting,...
he gave in 1952 and 1955 were later collected as
i: six nonlectures.
Cummings spent the last decade of his life traveling, fulfilling speaking engagements, and spending time at his summer home,
Joy FarmJoy Farm was a home of poet E. E. Cummings .The site, located in the town of Madison, New Hampshire, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971....
, in
Silver Lake, New HampshireSilver Lake is a village located at the shore of Silver Lake in the town of Madison, New Hampshire, in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. Joy Farm, summer home of E. E. Cummings, is a National Historic Landmark located north of the village....
.
He died on September 3, 1962, at the age of 67 in
North Conway, New HampshireNorth Conway is a census-designated place in eastern Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,069 at the 2000 census. A year-round resort area, North Conway is the largest village within the town of Conway, which is bounded on the east by the Maine state line. The White...
of a stroke. His cremated remains were buried in Lot 748 Althaea Path, in Section 6,
Forest Hills CemeteryForest Hills Cemetery in the Forest Hills area of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts is a historic cemetery, greenspace, arboretum and sculpture garden...
and Crematory in Boston. In 1969, his third wife, Marion Morehouse Cummings, died and was buried in an adjoining plot: Lot 748, Althaea Path, Section 6.
Awards
During his lifetime, Cummings received numerous awards in recognition of his work, including:
- Dial Award
For the literary award presented by The Dial magazine in the 1920s, see The Dial.The Dial Award was presented annually by the Dial Corporation to the male and female American high-school athlete/scholar of the year.-Awardees:...
(1925)
- Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
(1933)
- Shelley Memorial Award
The Shelley Memorial Award of more than $3,500, given out by the Poetry Society of America, was established by the will of the late Mary P. Sears. The prize is given to a living American poet selected with reference to genius and need....
for Poetry (1944)
- Harriet Monroe
Harriet Monroe was an American editor, scholar, literary critic, and patron of the arts. Monroe is best known as the founder and long time editor of Poetry Magazine. She was born in Chicago, Illinois and died in Arequipa, Peru.Monroe was the first editor at Poetry Magazine when she founded it in...
Prize from Poetry magazine (1950)
- Fellowship of American Academy of Poets (1950)
- Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
(1951)
- Charles Eliot Norton
Charles Eliot Norton, was a leading American author, social critic, and professor of art. He was a militant idealist, a progressive social reformer, and a liberal activist whom many of his contemporaries considered the most cultivated man in the United States.-Biography:Norton was born at...
Professorship at Harvard (1952–1953)
- Special citation from the National Book Award
The National Book Awards are among the most eminent literary prizes in the United States. Started in 1950, the awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the prior year, as well as lifetime achievement awards including the "Medal of Distinguished Contribution to...
Committee for his Poems, 1923-1954 (1957)
- Bollingen Prize
The Bollingen Prize, which is presently awarded every two years by Beinecke Library of Yale University, is a prestigious literary honor bestowed on an American poet in recognition of the best book of new verse within the last two years, or for lifetime achievement.-Inception and controversy:The...
in Poetry (1958)
- Boston Arts Festival Award (1957)
- Two-year Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
grant of $15,000 (1959)
Further reading
- SPRING:The Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society
- Bloom, Harold, Twentieth-century American literature, New York : Chelsea House Publishers, 1985-1988. ISBN 9780877548027.
- Friedman, Norman (editor), E. E. Cummings: A Collection of Critical Essays.
- Friedman, Norman, E. E. Cummings: The Art of his Poetry.
- James, George, E. E. Cummings: A Bibliography.
- Kennedy, Richard S., Dreams in the Mirror: A Biography of E. E. Cummings.
- McBride, Katharine, A Concordance to the Complete Poems of E.E.Cummings.
- Mott, Christopher
Christopher "Chris" Mott is a lecturer and the teaching assistant coordinator in the department of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. -Background:...
. "The Cummings Line on Race." Spring: The Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society, vol. 4, pp. 71-75, Fall 1995.
- Norman, Charles, E. E. Cummings: The Magic-Maker, Boston, Little Brown, 1972.
- Sawyer-Lauçanno, Christopher, E. E. Cummings: A Biography, Methuen, 2005. ISBN 0413774864.
External links
- E. E. Cummings, Lifelong Unitarian Biography of Cummings and his relationship with Unitarianism
- E.E. Cummings Collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a public research university located in Austin, Texas, United States, and is the flagship institution of The University of Texas System. The main campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol...
- Poems by E. E. Cummings at PoetryFoundation.org
- The paintings of E. E. Cummings
- Jonathan Yardley, E.E. Cummings: A Biography, Sunday, October 17, 2004, Page BW02, The Washington Post Book Review
- Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno, E.E. Cummings: A Biography, Sourcebooks, Inc., 2004, ISBN 1570717753, 9781570717758, 606 pages
Audio recordings
Public domain poetry and readings: