Classic Authors: e.e. cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings was born on October 14, 1894, in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Edward and Rebecca (nee Clark) Cummings. The elder Edward worked as a professor at Harvard College, and later became the minister of Old South Church in Boston.

Edward Estlin attended Harvard University from 1911 to 1916. He earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees in literature. He also worked on the student literary magazine, the Harvard Monthly, and published his first poems in Harvard's student anthology, Eight Harvard Poets(1917). The anthology's editor noticed the plethora of lower-cased letters in the verses, and assuming that they were typos, promptly corrected them. Interestingly, it was an editor who began writing his name e.e. cummings. Although he continued to use the lower case letters, he never officially changed his name.

Like Ernest Hemingway, e.e. served as an ambulance driver in World War I, although he was stationed in France not Italy. He was arrested by the French police on suspicion of treason, probably due to his association with a friend who criticized the war effort in his letters home. Although innocent, e.e. spent four months in a detention camp near Normandy. He was finally released, mostly thanks to his father's influence in the government. Later, e.e. detailed the experience in The Enormous Room(1922).

e.e. returned from the war, and concentrated his efforts on his writing. His first volume of prose, Tulips and Chimneys, appeared in 1923, followed by Is 5 in 1926. In all, he wrote more than a dozen volumes of verse. He also penned two plays, "him" and "Tom" (1915). e.e. also enjoyed drawing and painting, but it was his writing that attracted attention, mostly due to its unconventional style.

In 1919, e.e.'s daughter, Nancy, was born. e.e. married her mother, Elaine Orr, in 1924, but the two divorced later in the same year. Three years later, he married Anne Barton, whom he separated from to be with Marion Morehouse, a skilled photographer. e.e. and Morehouse collaborated on Adventures in Value(1962).

e.e. cummings died of a brain hemorrhage on September 3, 1962, in North Conway, New Hampshire. His Complete Poems was published in 1968.

Sources:

http://www.biography.com/cgi-bin/biomain...

www.poetrytodayonline.com/JUNE.cp.html

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