Cummings, E. E. (Edward Estlin Cummings), 1894–1962, American poet, b. Cambridge, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1915. His poetry, noted for its eccentricities of typography (notably the lack of capitalization), language, and punctuation, usually seeks to convey a joyful, living awareness of sex and love. Among his 15 volumes are Tulips and Chimneys (1923), his first collection, 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 written about World War I. Cummings was also an accomplished artist whose paintings and drawings were exhibited in several one-man shows.
See his Complete Poems, 1913–1962 (2 vol., 1972; rev. ed. 2013); biographies by R. S. Kennedy (1980), C. Sawyer-Lauçcanno (2004), and S. Cheever (2014); N. Friedman, Cummings: The Growth of a Writer (1980); J. A. Rosenblitt, The Beauty of Living: E. E. Cummings in the Great War (2020).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: American Literature: Biographies
