a life in lowercase
By: Tyler Phillips
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a life in lowercase By: Tyler Phillips |
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Tyler Phillips |
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e. e. cummings a biography
Cummings grew up in a well-educated family. His father was sociology professor at Harvard. He was also a noted Unitarian clergyman. Cummings developed an interest in poetry when he was young. To help develop his writing he went to Harvard his parents also supported him. He studied there from 1911 to 1915. His interest in literature increased and he joined the Harvard Monthly, he was on the editorial board. In his last year of collage he became interested in avant-garde art, modernism, and cubism. He began to include these ideas in his poetry and art. He first published his poems in 1917 in the anthology Eight Harvard Poets. That was the first time began writing “i” in the lower case. It was meant to symbolize the humbleness and the uniqueness of the individual. It was not published that way, because the editor thought that it was an error. With World War I going on in Europe, Cummings joined the French-based Norton-Harjes Ambulance Service. There he spent most of his off time in Paris looking at art, which later shaped his work. He spent four months in an internment camp in Normandy on suspicion of treason. He was released because of his father’s connection in government and it was just a misunderstanding. He was drafted almost as soon as he returned to New York, and spent almost a year in Camp Danvers, Massachusetts. He spent most of the 20s and 30s traveling in Europe, living in New York and Paris. During that time he was known not only for his poetry, but also his paintings. In 1931 he traveled to the USSR, because of his interest in government, he was disappointed that there was a lack in personal and artistic freedom. He later wrote about his experiences in his book Eimi (1933), which was an expanded version of his diary that he kept during the time. Cummings early works were influenced by Gertrude Stein's and Amy Lowell's works. Cummings received the Shelley Memorial Award for poetry in 1944, the Charles Eliot Norton Professorship at Harvard for the academic year 1952-53, and the Bollingen Prize for Poetry in 1958. He composed many different types of work including prose pieces, drama, and even a ballet. Cummings height in popularity was during the 1940s and 1950s, He gave poetry readings to college students in the United States until his death in 1962. He is said to be a great writer not only writing great pieces of poetry, but also lovely paintings.
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