Poetry Reading by Shanid.
E.E. CUMMINGS (1894-1962)
Born Edward Estlin Cummings in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Well to do, supportive family; his father was a professor at Harvard University who later became nationally known as a church minister. Educated at Cambridge Latin School and Harvard University (1910). Detained for 11 weeks on suspicion of espionage in war-torn France. In 1918, Cummings served in the U.S. Army, in Massachusetts, without incident. He travelled extensively during the 1920s and 1930s while working for Vanity Fair magazine. Married Elaine Orr (1924) and Anne Minnerly Barton (1929). In 1952, Harvard University offered him a role as guest professor. Cummings spent the last decade of his life traveling, fulfilling speaking engagements, and relaxing at his summer home. Politically, Cummings was an ardent Republican; his writing style was also quite traditional. Although known for his modernist free-form poetry, with its idiosyncratic syntax and lower-case spellings, many of his most notable poems do not involve such innovations. Died in 1962 in New Hampshire.
Further reading:
'E.E. Cummings: Selected Poems' (Liveright)
'E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962' (Liveright)
