E. E. Cummings: Complete Poems, 1904–1962 - Hardcover

Cummings, E. E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0871401525 ISBN 13: 9780871401526

Publisher: Liveright, 1994

Synopsis

This centennial edition of E. E. Cumming's Complete Poems, published in celebration of his birth on October 14, 1894, contains all of the poems published or designated for publication by the poet in his lifetime.

At the time of his death in 1962, E. E. Cummings was, next to Robert Frost, the most widely read poet in America. Combining Thoreau's controlled belligerence with the brash abandon of an uninhibited bohemian, Cummings, together with Pound, Eliot, and William Carlos Williams, helped bring about the twentieth-century revolution in literary expression. He is recognized on the one hand as the author of some of the most beautiful lyric poems written in the English language, and on the other as one of the most inventive American poets of his time―in the worlds of Richard Kostelanetz, "the major American poet of the middle-twentieth-century."

About this title

About the Author

E. E. Cummings (1894–1962) was among the most influential, widely read, and revered modernist poets. He was also a playwright, a painter, and a writer of prose. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he studied at Harvard University and, during World War I, served with an ambulance corps in France. He spent three months in a French detention camp and subsequently wrote The Enormous Room, a highly acclaimed criticism of World War I. After the war, Cummings returned to the States and published his first collection of poetry, Tulips & Chimneys, which was characterized by his innovative style: pushing the boundaries of language and form while discussing love, nature, and war with sensuousness and glee. He spent the rest of his life painting, writing poetry, and enjoying widespread popularity and success.

George J. Firmage edited many works by Cummings, including Erotic Poems; Complete Poems, 1904– 1962; and Fairy Tales.

Review

“One of the greatest lyric poets in our language.”
- John Logan, Modern American Poetry

“To return to...his poems is to return to a buoyancy and boisterousness, of course, but also to an odd bountifulness...[encapsulating] a profound sense of wonder and wistfulness.”
- Paul Muldoon, The New Yorker

“Cummings was one of the most spirited and original American writers of the 20th century.”
- Wall Street Journal

Edition details

• Publisher: Liveright
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0871401525
• ISBN 13: 9780871401526
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 1136
• Editor: Firmage George James