E.E. Cummings

1. E.E. Cummings “what if a much of a which of a wind” “somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond”

2. E.E. Cummings • 1894-1962 • Edwin Estlin Cummings was born in Cambridge , Massachusetts – son of a Unitarian minister • Attended Harvard during the Imagist movement • Allowed him to experiment and break old traditions in his writing • Graduated from Harvard in the midst of WWI • Volunteered before American involvement (ambulance corps) • Arrested and imprisoned through a French censor – Intercepted one of his typographically odd letters – suspicion of espionage – Released three months later • He drew on the above experience to produce his first book of prose The Enormous Room (1922) • Prime example of rugged individualism • Felt poetry was a question of individuality • Altered conventional English syntax - made typography and the division of words part of the shape and meaning of a poem

3. E.E. Cummings • After WWI, he returned to France • Refined the eccentric shifts of syntax and typography that would soon become his trademark • In 1923, he published his first collection of poetry, Tulips and Chimneys, followed by XLI Poems (1925), and is 5 (1926) • His poetry is often marked by celebration of love, nature’s beauty, and an almost Transcendentalist affirmation of the individual • He reserved his mischievous wit for satires meant for urban humans • Died in the United States after spending his final time between an apartment in NYC and a lake house in New Hampshire