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E. E. CummingsEdward Estlin Cummings (October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962) was an American poet, writer, and painter. Cummings is probably best known for the unusual style used in many of his poems, which includes unorthodox usage of capitalization and punctuation, with unexpected punctuation interrupting sentences and even individual words. Several of his poems are also typeset on a page in an unusual fashion, and appear to make little sense until read aloud. Life Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to a liberal family, Cummings was writing poetry as early as 1904 (age 10). From 1911 to 1916 he attended Harvard University, from which he received a B.A. degree in 1915 and a Master's degree in 1916. Also while at Harvard, Cummings met and befriended John Dos Passos. Cummings' first text was also published in a university newspaper in 1912. 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. His first published poems appeared in a collection in 1917. Cummings went to France as a volunteer for the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps in the First World War. However, after five months, Cummings and a friend were arrested on suspicion of espionage (the two openly expressed pacifist views on the war). The two were sent to a detention camp for four months. After being released, Cummings returned to the United States and was drafted into the army. He served in the 73rd Infantry Division at Camp Devens, Massachusetts, until November 1918. In the early 1920s Cummings returned to France and travelled throughout Europe, meeting, among others, Pablo Picasso. During the rest of the 1920s and 1930s he travelled widely, including to the Soviet Union, and lived both in France and the USA. He was married three times, first to Elaine Orr, with whom he had a daughter, Nancy, and later to Anne Barton and Marion Morehouse. Cummings died in 1962 in North Conway, New Hampshire, after having a stroke at the age of 67. Cummings' style While some of his poetry is free verse (with no concern for rhyme and scansion), many of his poems have a recognisable sonnet structure of 14 lines, with an intricate rhyme scheme. His signature style is typographically exhuberant, 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. Many poems tackle social issues and satirise society, but an equal or even stronger bias is towards romanticism: time and again his poems celebrate love, sex and spring. 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 his favorite comic strip, Krazy Kat. An example of Cumming's unorthodox typographical style can be seen in his poem "the sky was candy luminous..." Typography of Cummings' name His name is frequently written in lowercase, e.e. cummings, as the lowercase form was a concept for a cover design by one of his publishers. Cummings himself capitalised his name however. Published works - Eight Harvard Poets (1917)
- The Enormous Room (1922), a novel based on his war experiences.
- Tulips and Chimneys (1923)
- &, (1925)
- XLI Poems (1925)
- Is 5 (1926)
- Him (1927)
- {No Title} (1930)
- Anthropos or The Future of Art (1930)
- CIOPW (1931)
- ViVa? (1931)
- Eimi (1933)
- No Thanks (1935)
- Tom (1935)
- Collected Poems (1938)
- 50 Poems (1940)
- 1 x 1 (1944)
- Santa Claus, A Morality (1946)
- Xaipe (1950)
- i: six nonlectures (1953)
- Poems 1923-1954 (1954)
- 95 Poems (1958)
- 73 Poems (1963)
External links Listening Poems and Biographies Paintings Cummings, E.E. Cummings, E.E. Cummings, E.E. Cummings, E.E. Cummings, E.E. Cummings, E. E. Cummings, E. E. Cummings, E. E.
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