EE Cummings was an American poet known for his unconventional use of grammar and language. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1894 and began writing poetry at age ten. He attended Harvard and was influenced by avant-garde writers. He served in World War I and traveled extensively in the 1920s and 1930s. He was briefly married twice and had one daughter. He received a position as an honorary professor at Harvard in 1952 and died in 1962. Cummings won more than ten awards for his literary work and his poems continue to be popular.
EE Cummings was an American poet, essayist, playwright, novelist, and painter known for his unconventional use of grammar, punctuation, and language. Although his name makes many people imagine a strange poem filled with dashes, brackets, and incoherent capitalization, much of his work was more conventional in form, though his syntax was always idiosyncratic. He often coined evocative words or phrases, like lush mud and glowing candy, and used language as much for its sound as for its meaning. He was one of the most popular and influential American poets of the 20th century.
Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 14, 1894, the son of Edward, a Harvard professor and Unitarian minister, and his wife Rebecca. His father supported his literary inclinations and he began writing poetry at the age of ten. His first poems and short stories were published in his primary school’s literary magazine.
He attended Harvard from 1911 to 1916, earning a Master’s degree in English and Classical Studies. During his studies, his literary works were published in the Harvard Monthly and the Harvard Advocate. In 1915, Cummings discovered the work of avant-garde writers such as Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound, who would have a significant influence on her style. You gave a commencement speech at your graduation on the subject of avant-garde poetry.
After graduation, he enlisted in a European Ambulance Corps, but his assignment was delayed for five weeks due to an administrative error. He spent the intervening time in Paris, for which he developed a lifelong affection. Five months after he started working as an ambulance driver, he and a friend, William Slater Brown, were arrested on espionage charges. The two were buried in a prison camp in Normandy for three and a half months. Cummings would later write about his experience in his novel The Enormous Room.
Shortly after returning to the United States on New Year’s Day 1918, Cummings was drafted into the Army and served in Massachusetts for most of the year. During the 1920s and 1930s, he rose to prominence as a writer and traveled the world, experiencing different cultures and meeting other artists. He spent most of his time in New York and Paris, but also visited the Soviet Union, North Africa and Mexico. In this period he also works on the staff of Vanity Fair as an illustrator and essayist.
In 1926, her parents were in a serious car accident and only her mother survived. She wrote about her father and his death in many of his works, as her upbringing was very influential throughout the poet’s life. Not only did his father encourage his artistic endeavors, but he also instilled a profound lifelong spirituality in his son.
Cummings was briefly married twice, for nine months in 1924 to Elaine Orr and for three years to Anne Minnerly Barton starting in 1929. He had one daughter with his first wife, named Nancy, born four years before their marriage , but had no contact with her for over 20 years after their divorce. In 1932 he met fashion photographer and model Marion Morehouse, and the two lived together for the rest of Cummings’ life.
He received a position as an honorary professor at Harvard University in 1952 and has given a number of lectures. He spent his last years traveling and speaking in public. EE Cummings died on September 3, 1962. He won more than ten awards for his literary work during his lifetime, and his poems continue to be popular and often anthologized.
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