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E. E. Cummings

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Writers and critics

   Edward Estlin Cummings ( October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962),
   abbreviated E. E. Cummings, was an American poet, painter, essayist,
   and playwright. His publishers and others have sometimes echoed the
   unconventional capitalization in his poetry by writing his name in
   lower case and without periods, as e e cummings; Cummings himself did
   not approve of this rendering.

   Cummings is probably best known for his poems and their unorthodox
   usage of capitalization, layout, punctuation and syntax. There is
   extensive use of lower case; word gaps, line breaks and gaps appear in
   unexpected places; punctuation marks are omitted or misplaced,
   interrupting sentences and even individual words; grammar and word
   order are sometimes strange. Many of his poems are best understood when
   read on the page. When read in the correct fashion, his poems often
   paint a syntactical picture as vital to the understanding of the poem
   as the words themselves.

   Despite Cummings' affinity for avant-garde styles and for unusual
   typography, much of his work is traditional. Many of his poems are
   sonnets, and he occasionally made use of the blues form and acrostics
   as well. Cummings' poetry often deals with themes of love and nature,
   as well as the relationship of the individual to the masses and to the
   world. His poems are often satirical as well. But, while his poetic
   forms and even themes show a close continuity with the romantic
   tradition, his work universally shows a particular idiosyncrasy of
   syntax or way of arranging individual words into larger phrases and
   sentences. Many of his most striking poems do not involve any
   typographical or punctuational innovations at all, but purely syntactic
   ones.

   During his lifetime, he published more than 900 poems, along with two
   novels, several plays and essays, as well as numerous drawings,
   sketches, and paintings. He is remembered as one of the preeminent
   voices of 20th century poetry.

Education and early career

   From 1911 to 1916 Cummings attended Harvard, from which he received a
   B.A. degree in 1915 and a Master's degree for English and Classical
   Studies in 1916. While at Harvard, he befriended John Dos Passos.
   Several of Cummings' poems were published, beginning in 1912, in the
   Harvard Monthly, a school newspaper on which Cummings worked with
   fellow Harvard Aesthetes Dos Passos and S. Foster Damon, and in 1915 in
   the Harvard Advocate.

   From an early age, Cummings studied the classical languages of Greek
   and Latin. His affinity for both can be seen in his later works, such
   as XAIPE (the title of one of his collections and "Rejoice!" in Greek),
   Anthropos (the title of one of his plays and "mankind" in Greek), and
   "Puella Mea" (the title of his longest poem, and "My Girl" in Latin).

   In his final year at Harvard, he came under the influence of the works
   of avant garde writers, such as Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound. Cummings
   graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1915, and delivered a
   controversial commencement address, entitled "The New Art". This speech
   gave him his first taste of notoriety as he managed to give the
   impression that he thought the well-liked imagist poet, Amy Lowell was
   "abnormal," when his intention was to praise her. Cummings was
   chastised in the newspapers.

   In 1917, Cummings' first published poems appeared in a collection of
   poetry entitled Eight Harvard Poets. That same year Cummings went to
   France as a volunteer for the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps in World
   War I. Due to an administrative mix-up, Cummings was not assigned to an
   ambulance unit for five weeks, during which time he stayed in Paris.
   Cummings 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 Brown, were arrested on suspicion of
   espionage (the two openly expressed pacifist views on the war). They
   were sent to a concentration camp, the Dépôt de Triage, in La
   Ferté-Macé, Orne, Normandy, where they languished for 3½ months.
   Cummings' experiences in the camp were later related in his novel The
   Enormous Room about which F. Scott Fitzgerald 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 army. He served in the 73rd Infantry Division at
   Camp Devens, Massachusetts, until November 1918.

   Cummings returned to Paris in 1921 and remained there for two years
   before returning to New York. During the rest of the 1920s and 1930s he
   returned to Paris a number of times, and traveled throughout Europe,
   meeting, among others, Pablo Picasso. In 1931 Cummings traveled to the
   Soviet Union and recounted his experiences in Eimi, published two years
   later. During these years Cummings also traveled to Northern Africa and
   Mexico and worked as an essayist and portrait artist for Vanity Fair
   magazine (1924 to 1927).

Poetry

   As well as being influenced by notable sources modernists including
   Stein and Pound, Cummings' early work drew upon the imagist experiments
   of Amy Lowell. Later his visits to Paris exposed him to Dada and
   surrealism, which in turn permeated his work.

   While some of his poetry is free verse (with no concern for rhyme and
   scansion), many of his poems have a recognizable sonnet 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. As a painter, Cummings understood the importance of
   presentation, and used typography to "paint a picture" with some of his
   poems.

   Even in his earliest work the seeds of Cummings' unconventional style
   seem well established. At age six Cummings 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.

   Cummings' first published work following The Enormous Room was a
   collection of poems entitled Tulips and Chimneys (1923). The collection
   was the public's first encounter with his characteristic eccentric use
   of grammar and punctuation. An example:

   l(a

   le
   af
   fa

   ll

   s)
   one
   l

   iness

   Some of Cummings's most famous poems do not involve much if any odd
   typography or punctuation at all, but still carry his unmistakable
   style. For example, the aptly titled " anyone lived in a pretty how
   town" 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"?
   Cummings' unusual style can be seen in his poem "Buffalo Bill's/
   defunct" from the January 1920 issue of The Dial.
   Enlarge
   Cummings' unusual style can be seen in his poem " Buffalo Bill's/
   defunct" from the January 1920 issue of The Dial.

   Readers sometimes experience a jarring, incomprehensible effect because
   the poems do not accord with the conventional combinatorial rules that
   generate typical English sentences. (For example "Why must itself..."
   or "they sowed their isn't [...]"). His readings of Gertrude Stein in
   the early part of the century probably functioned as a springboard into
   this aspect of his artistic development (in the same way that Robert
   Walser's work acted as a springboard for Franz Kafka). In some
   respects, Cummings's work shows more stylistic continuity with Stein's
   than with any other poet or writer.

   In addition, a number of Cummings' poems feature in part or in whole
   intentional misspellings; several feature 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" and "puddle-wonderful".

   Many of Cummings' poems address social issues and satirize society (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 spring (see "anyone lived in a pretty how town" in its
   entireity).

   His talent extended to children's books, novels, and painting. A
   notable example of his versatility is an Introduction he wrote for a
   collection of the comic strip Krazy Kat.

   An example of Cummings' unorthodox typographical style can be seen in
   his poems " the sky was candy luminous..." and " a leaf falls
   loneliness".

Criticisms

   Cummings has been criticized for allowing himself to become static in
   technique, and accordingly showing a lack of artistic growth. He has
   also been labeled by some as a misanthrope due to his sometimes harsh
   satire. For a time there was a claim that some of his early works
   feature racist and anti-semitic overtones. However, it is more often
   noted by critics that although his approach to form did not often vary,
   his messages grew stronger, harsher, and more effortlessly romantic in
   his final years.

Cummings as a painter

   Self-portrait sketch by Cummings, circa 1920

   Sketch by Cummings, from the January 1920 Dial

   Cummings always considered himself just as much a painter as he was a
   poet or writer. Especially in his later years, spent at his home in New
   Hampshire, Cummings would paint during the day and then write at night.

   Beginning with his years at Harvard and continuing on into the 1920s,
   Cummings identified with the artistic movements of Cubism, Dada, and
   Surrealism. He particularly admired the work of Pablo Picasso.

   Cummings first received critical acclaim for his drawings and
   caricatures published in the literary magazine the Dial during the
   1920s. Cummings later gained recognition as a painter, participating in
   a number of art shows. He also published CIOPW, a collection of works
   in the mediums charcoal, ink, oil, pastel, and watercolor, in 1931.

List of shows

   Cummings' paintings were placed in a number of shows during his
   lifetime, including:
     * Two paintings in a show of the New York Society of Independent
       Artists (1919, 1920)
     * Show of paintings at the Painters and Sculptors Gallery in New
       York, New York (1931)
     * Show at the Kokoon Arts Club in Cleveland, Ohio (1931)
     * Show of oils and watercolors at the American British Art Gallery in
       New York, New York (1944)
     * Show of oils, watercolors, and sketches in Rochester, New York
       (1945)
     * Show of watercolors and oils at the American British Art Gallery in
       New York, New York (1948)

Cummings as a playwright

   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 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 Symposiums. The play consists of
       dialogue between Man, the main character, and three "infrahumans",
       or inferior beings. The word anthropos is the Greek word for "man",
       in the sense of "mankind".

     * Tom, A Ballet is a ballet based on Uncle Tom's Cabin. 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 was probably Cummings' 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' family has disintegrated due to their
       lust for knowledge (Science). After a series of events, however,
       Santa Claus' 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.

The final decade

   In 1952, his alma mater Harvard awarded Cummings an honorary seat as a
   guest professor. The Norton lectures he gave in 1952 and 1953 were
   later collected as i:six nonlectures.

   Cummings spent the last decade of his life largely traveling,
   fulfilling speaking engagements, and spending time at his summer home,
   Joy Farm, in Silver Lake, New Hampshire.

Awards

   During his lifetime, E. E. Cummings received numerous awards in
   recognition of his work, including:
     * Dial Award (1925)
     * Guggenheim Fellowship (1933)
     * Shelley Memorial Award for Poetry (1944)
     * Harriet Monroe Prize from Poetry magazine (1950)
     * Fellowship of American Academy of Poets (1950)
     * Guggenheim Fellowship ( 1951)
     * Charles Eliot Norton Professorship at Harvard (1952-1953)
     * Special citation from the National Book Award Committee for his
       Poems, 1923-1954 (1957)
     * Bollingen Prize in Poetry (1958)
     * Boston Arts Festival Award (1957)
     * Two-year Ford Foundation grant of $15,000 (1959)

Personal life

   E. E. Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Edward and
   Rebecca Haswell Clarke Cummings. Cummings' father was a professor of
   sociology and political science at Harvard University and later a
   Unitarian minister. He and his son were close, and Edward was one of
   his son's most ardent supporters. Raised in a liberal family, Cummings
   was writing poetry as early as 1904 (age 10). His only sibling, a
   sister, Elizabeth, was born six years after he was.
   Image:EECummings pd1.jpg
   Graduation photo from the Cambridge Latin School, 1911.

   In his youth Cummings attended Cambridge Latin High School. Early
   stories and poems were published in the Cambridge Review, the school
   newspaper.

   In 1926 Cummings' father was tragically killed in a car accident.
   Though severely injured, Cummings' mother survived. Cummings detailed
   the accident in the following quote, from Richard S. Kennedy's
   biography of Cummings, Dreams in the Mirror :

          "... 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, 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" .

   Any short biography of Cumming's life would be incomplete without
   including a brief summary of Cumming's spiritual life. Born into a
   Unitarian family, he exhibited transcendental leanings his entire life.
   As he grew in maturity and age, Cummings moved more towards an "I,
   Thou" relationship with his God. His journals are replete with
   references to “le bon Dieu” and as well 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

   Cummings died in 1962 in North Conway, New Hampshire, after having a
   cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 67. He is buried in Forest Hills
   Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts.

Marriages

   Cummings was married three times, including a long common-law marriage.

   Cummings' first marriage, to Elaine Orr, began as a love affair in 1919
   while she was married to Scofield Thayer, one of Cummings' friends from
   Harvard. The affair produced a daughter, Nancy, who was born on
   December 20, 1919. Nancy was Cummings' 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, moving to Ireland
   and taking Nancy with her. Although under the terms of the divorce
   Cummings was granted custody of Nancy for three months each year,
   Elaine refused to abide by the agreement. Cummings did not see his
   daughter again until 1946.

   Cummings married his second wife, Anne Minnerly Barton, on May 1, 1929.
   The two separated three years later in 1932. That same year, Anne
   obtained a divorce in Mexico, although it was not officially recognized
   in the United States until August 1934.

   In 1932, the same year he and his second wife separated, Cummings met
   Marion Morehouse, a fashion model and photographer. Although it is not
   clear whether the two were ever officially married, Morehouse would
   live with Cummings for the remainder of his life.

Audio recordings

   Among other free contemporary (2006) public domain poetry and public
   domain readings, interpretations/readings of Cummings' poetry can be
   heard/downloaded from LibriVox.org here:
     * All in green my love went riding

     * Buffalo Bill 's - - - A Wikipedia page image of this poem

     * i have found what you are like

     * IF

     * it may not always be so;and i say

     * nobody loses all the time

     * O sweet spontaneous

     * the/ sky/ was

     * this is the garden;colours come and go,

     * Thy fingers make early flowers of

     * when life is quite through with

     * Where’s Madge then,

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