Editing E. E. Cummings (section)

===Post-war years===
Cummings returned to Paris in 1921, and lived there for two years before returning to New York. His collection ''[[Tulips and Chimneys]],'' was published in 1923, and his inventive use of grammar and syntax is evident. The book was heavily cut by his editor. ''XLI Poems'' was published in 1925. With these collections, Cummings made his reputation as an [[avant-garde]] poet.<ref name="fountn bio"/>

During the rest of the 1920s and 1930s, Cummings returned to Paris a number of times, and traveled throughout Europe. In 1931 Cummings traveled to the [[Soviet Union]], recounting his experiences in ''[[Eimi (book)|Eimi]]'', published two years later. During these years Cummings also traveled to Northern Africa and [[Mexico]], and he worked as an essayist and portrait artist for ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' magazine (1924–1927).{{sfnp|Sawyer-Lauçanno|2004|pp=256–275}}{{sfnp|Sawyer-Lauçanno|2004|loc=Chapters 11 and 12: "Abroad"; "An American In Paris"}}{{sfnp|Friedman|1964|loc=Chapter 7: "''Eimi'' (1933)". pp. 109–124|ref=FriedmanBook}}

In 1926, Cummings's parents were in a car crash; only his mother survived, although she was severely injured. Cummings later described the crash in the following passage from his ''i: six nonlectures'' series given at Harvard (as part of the [[Charles Eliot Norton Lectures]]) in 1952 and 1953:{{sfnp|Friedman|1964|pp=153–154, 305|ref=FriedmanBook}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cummings |first1=E. E. |title=i: Six Nonlectures |date=1954 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA, U.S. |pages=2–20 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/sixnonlectures0000eecu_d1u1/page/2/mode/ |chapter-url-access=registration |language=English |chapter=i & my parents: Nonlecture one |series=[The Charles Elliot Norton Lectures 1952–1953]}}</ref>
{{blockquote|1=A locomotive cut the car in half, killing my father instantly. When two brakemen jumped from the halted train, they saw a woman standing – dazed but erect – beside a mangled machine; with blood spouting (as the older said to me) out of her head. One of her hands (the younger added) kept feeling her dress, as if trying to discover why it was wet. These men took my sixty-six-year old mother by the arms and tried to lead her toward a nearby farmhouse; but she threw them off, strode straight to my father's body, and directed a group of scared spectators to cover him. When this had been done (and only then) she let them lead her away.|2=E. E. Cummings (1952). "i & my parents: Nonlecture one", p. 12}}

His father's death had a profound effect on Cummings, who entered a new period in his artistic life. He began to focus on more important aspects of life in his poetry. He started this new period by paying homage to his father in the poem "my father moved through dooms of love".{{efn|"my father moved through dooms of love", [https://web.archive.org/web/20050315070117/http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~richie/poetry/html/aupoem114.html via —Berkeley]<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~richie/poetry/html/aupoem114.html |title=My father moved through dooms of love |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20050315070117/http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~richie/poetry/html/aupoem114.html |archive-date=March 15, 2005 |df=mdy-all|website=Poetry: Berkeley}}</ref>}}<ref>{{cite book |first=Gary |last=Lane |date=1976 |title=I Am: A Study of E. E. Cummings' Poems |url= https://archive.org/details/iamstudyofeecumm0000lane |url-access=registration |location=[[Lawrence, Kansas]] |publisher=University Press of Kansas |isbn=0-7006-0144-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/iamstudyofeecumm0000lane/page/41 41–43]}}</ref>

In the 1930s, Samuel Aiwaz Jacobs was Cummings's publisher; he had started the Golden Eagle Press after working as a typographer and publisher.{{sfnp|Sawyer-Lauçanno|2004|pp=241, 366}}