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E. E. Cummings - by  Susan Cheever (Paperback) - 1 of 1

E. E. Cummings - by Susan Cheever (Paperback)

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Highlights

  • One of the Best Books of the Year: The Economist, San Francisco Chronicle Cummings, in his radical experimentation with form, punctuation, spelling, and syntax, created a new kind of poetic expression.
  • About the Author: Susan Cheever was born in New York City and graduated from Brown University.
  • 272 Pages
  • Biography + Autobiography, Literary Figures

Description



About the Book



A major reassessment of the life and work of the novelist, painter, and playwright considered to be one of America's preeminent twentieth-century poets. Cummings was and remains controversial--called "a master" or "hideous." In Susan Cheever's rich biography we see his idyllic childhood years in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his sternly religious father and his loving, attentive mother. We see Cummings--slight, agile, playful, a product of a nineteenth-century New England childhood; his love of nature; his sense of fun, laughter, mimicry; his desire from the get-go to stand conventional wisdom on its head. At Harvard, he earned two degrees, discovered alcohol, fast cars, and burlesque, and raged against the school's exclusionary upper-class rule. He grew into a dark young man and set out on a lifelong course of rebellion against conventional authority. Headstrong and cavalier, he volunteered as an ambulance driver in World War I, working alongside Hemingway and Joyce. He permanently fled to Greenwich Village to be among other modernist poets of the day, and we see the development of both the poet and his work against the backdrop of modernism. Cheever's book gives us the evolution of an artist whose writing was at the forefront of what was new and daring and bold in an America in transition.--From publisher description.



Book Synopsis



One of the Best Books of the Year: The Economist, San Francisco Chronicle

Cummings, in his radical experimentation with form, punctuation, spelling, and syntax, created a new kind of poetic expression. Because of his powerful work, he became a generation's beloved heretic--at the time of his death he was one of the most widely read poets in the United States.
Now, in this rich, illuminating biography, Susan Cheever traces the development of the poet and his work. She takes us from Cummings's seemingly idyllic childhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts, through his years at Harvard (rooming with Dos Passos, befriending Malcolm Cowley and Lincoln Kirstein). There, he devoured the poetry of Ezra Pound, whose radical verses lured the young writer away from the politeness of the traditional nature poem towards a more adventurous, sexually conscious form. We follow Cummings to Paris in 1917, and, finally, to Greenwich Village to be among other modernist poets of the day--Marianne Moore and Hart Crane, among them. E. E. Cummings is a revelation of the man and the poet, and a brilliant reassessment of the freighted path of his legacy.



Review Quotes




"An absorbing rehearsal of a vibrant life. . . . Cheever revives Cummings as a gregarious, quirky iconoclast through her evocative prose." --San Francisco Chronicle

"A smart and readable portrait." --NPR

"[Cheever] is an astute observer of the inner life of writers and how they work. . . . This biography succeeds where other works have failed, by making this tricky poet understandable." --The Economist

"A delight." --The New York Times

"Effectively situates Cummings within a larger literary and cultural movement. . . . Cummings's life is inherently interesting, dramatic, and sad, and Cheever highlights its colorful and tragic aspects." --The Boston Globe

"Deeply personal. . . . A textured inspection of some of the more intriguing faces of the multifaceted Cummings." --The Plain Dealer

"Cheever's biography stands as a welcomed introductory attempt to understand Cummings's impact. . . . One of the best efforts to situate a Modernist inside the larger historical context. . . . Filled in with entertaining research and deep thinking about the lives of artists." --Daily Beast

"[Cummings's] individualism makes him just about as American as apple pie; and as vital to the tradition of American poetry as Whitman, Dickinson, and Frost. I can only express gratitude to biographers like Cheever for keeping him alive today." --J. P. Poole, Bookslut

"Affecting. . . . Deeply satisfying. . . . Ms. Cheever is the kind of biographer who can maintain both an intimacy and dispassionate relationship with her subject." --New York Journal of Books

"Cheever's reconsideration of Cummings and his work charms, rattles, and enlightens in emulation of Cummings' radically disarming, tender, sexy, plangent, and furious poems." --Booklist (starred review)

"This sympathetic life may win Cummings a new generation of readers." --Kirkus Reviews




About the Author



Susan Cheever was born in New York City and graduated from Brown University. A Guggenheim fellow and a director of the board of the Yaddo Corporation, Cheever currently teaches in the MFA programs at Bennington College and The New School. She lives in New York City.

www.susancheever.com

Dimensions (Overall): 7.9 Inches (H) x 5.2 Inches (W) x .8 Inches (D)
Weight: .6 Pounds
Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up
Number of Pages: 272
Genre: Biography + Autobiography
Sub-Genre: Literary Figures
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Format: Paperback
Author: Susan Cheever
Language: English
Street Date: April 28, 2015
TCIN: 1009231294
UPC: 9781101910481
Item Number (DPCI): 247-31-4924
Origin: Made in the USA or Imported
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Estimated ship dimensions: 0.8 inches length x 5.2 inches width x 7.9 inches height
Estimated ship weight: 0.6 pounds
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