cummings, e. e.

Cummings, E. E. (Edward Estlin Cummings), 1894–1962, American poet, b. Cambridge, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1915. His poetry, noted for its eccentricities of typography, language, and punctuation, usually seeks to convey a joyful, living awareness of sex and love. Among his 15 volumes of poetry are Tulips and Chimneys (1923), Is 5 (1926), and 95 Poems (1958). A prose account of his war internment in France, The Enormous Room (1922), is considered one of the finest books ever written about World War I. Cummings was also an accomplished artist whose paintings and drawings were exhibited in several one-man shows.

Bibliography

See his Complete Poems, 1913–1962 (2 vol., 1972); biographies by R. S. Kennedy (1980) and C. Sawyer-Lauçcanno (2004); N. Friedman, Cummings: The Growth of a Writer (1980).

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cummings, e. e. (Edward Estlin) (1894–1962) poet, writer, painter; born in Cambridge, Mass. He studied at Harvard (B.A. 1915; M.A. 1916). As a volunteer ambulance driver in World War I, he got in trouble with the French who kept him in a detention camp for six months; he described the experience in The Enormous Room (1922). He traveled widely but was based in New York City. He is known for his idiosyncratic and typographically inventive poetry, such as Tulips and Chimneys (1937, complete edition). He wrote various works for the stage and was an accomplished painter.