E.E. Cummings

By: Suzette Cedeno

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Childhood Born: October 14th, 1894 in

Cambridge Massachusetts. When he was 8 years old to 22

years old he wrote 1 poem daily.

He drew, wrote poems and played with other children in his neighborhood.

Free Hand drawing became a habit and he did it throughout his life.

Company of his parents friends William James and Josiah Royce who were both philosophers. http://poetrydispatch.files.word

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Birthplace Map

http://maps.google.com/m?hl=en&source=hp&q=Cambridge+Massachusetts&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Cambridge,+MA&gl=us&ei=XwKPS8nZNpCYtgegq9CkCw&ved=0CAgQ8gEwAA&oi=slow

Childhood

His father purchased a farm called Joy Farm in New Hampshire where he enjoyed

- cutting wood - long walks - riding his bicycle Showed no interests

in sports, but he enjoyed rowing.

http://www.gvsu.edu/english/cummings/viewofjoyfm.jpg

Family

His father was Edward Cummings -Sociology professor in Harvard University - Unitarian clergy man His Mother was Rebbeca Cummings - spend time with children - introduced poetry to Cummings Sister Elizabeth Cummings

Adolescence

He was taken out of private school and was placed in Agassiz school.

He showed his gift of memorizing poems by Emerson and Longfellow.

His interests in high school were History and Language Arts, but he was uninterested in Philosophy and Logic.

Around his parents he was well behaved and obedient, but at school he showed his rebellious side.

Education

He graduated Magna Cum Laude and in 1915 (when he earned his B.A.).

He gave a speech about the New Art of Matisse, Duchamp Stravinsky, and Gertrude Stein.

Most of his time was spent in Harvard Poetry Society where he heard of Amy Lowell and Robert Frost.

During this time, Imagist poets Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and Hild Doolittle were writing brief poems that conveyed images and free verse. They claimed that meter, rhyming, and other traditional writing outdated.

Education Graduated from

Harvard - In 1915 and

received his Bachelors of Arts Degree

- In 1916 earned his Masters of Arts Degree.

- He majored in Classics and English.

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Poetry

Inspired by Pound’s poem the Return he began to experiment with spacing and typography.

Later on his signature became: - lack of capital letters - creative placing of punctuation - some of his poems didn’t even make sense

After Graduating

He moved to New York where he got a job writing letters to a publishing company. He quit the job after 3 months. This was the last time he worked.

Then worked as an ambulance driver and after he wrote letters back home expressing his feeling towards World War I he was imprisoned.

His imprisonment lead to him writing his first book The Enormous Room.

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Occupation

E.E. Cummings - Poet - Painter - Novelist -Playwright - Lecturer

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Poetry and Friends

Tulips and Chimneys was his first published book of poems.

In 1927, he wrote a autobiographical play called Him.

Most of his friends were involved in literature.

2 of his friends Scholfield Thayer and J. Sibley Watson purchased a magazine where his poems and drawings appeared. http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/

bookcenter/programs/spotlights/images/tulipschimneys_000.jpg

Marriages Had 3 marriages 1. Elaine Orr (who

actually left her husband to be with

Cummings) lasted only 6 months. 2. Ann Barton lasted a

few years. 3. Marion Morehouse

(actress, model photographer) and lasted the remainder of his life.

Had a daughter named Nancy in his first marriage.

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Awards

In 1950 earned Academy of American Poets fellowship.

In 1951 &1952 received Guggenheim fellowship.

In 1953, he was Charles Eliot Norton Lecturer at Harvard.

In 1958, earned Bollingen Prize. In 1959 received a grant from the

Ford Foundation.

Death Died of cerebral

hemorrhage at Joy Farm on September 3rd, 1962.

He was buried in Forest Hills

Cemetery in Boston. Later on his wife

Marion died in 1969 and was buried along side Cummings.

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Paintings

http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/orient/images/114.jpg

http://www.shwedarling.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/

notes_carryyourheart.jpg

Bio Poem

EdwardCreative, Unique, Rebellious, Obedient Sibling of ElizabethLover of Free Verse PoemsWho fears samenessWho needs less workWho gives creativityWho would like to seek the worldResident of Cambridge, Massachusetts Cummings

Bibliography

http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

http://www.marcopolopoet.nl/PoemOP/e_e_cummings.htm

http://kathi.kathihill.com/eecummings/cummingsee.html

http://www.notablebiographies.com/Co-Da/Cummings-E-E.html

http://project1.caryacademy.org/echoes/poet_ee_cummings/defaulte.e._cummings.htm

http://www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/eecummings.html