Editing E. E. Cummings (section)

== Literary overview ==
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=== Poetry ===
As well as being influenced by notable [[Modernism|modernists]], including [[Gertrude Stein]] and [[Ezra Pound]], Cummings was particularly drawn to early [[Imagism|imagist]] experiments; later, his visits to Paris exposed him to [[Dada]] and [[Surrealism]], which was reflected in his writing style.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Norman |first=Charles |title=E. E. Cummings, a biography |publisher=E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc |year=1967 |location=U.S.A. |pages=38}}</ref> Cummings critic and biographer Norman Friedman remarks that in Cummings's later work the "shift from simile to symbol" created poetry that is "frequently more lucid, more moving, and more profound than his earlier".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Friedman |first=Norman Friedman |title=E. E. Cummings: The Art of His Poetry |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |year=2019 |isbn=9780801802072}}</ref>

Despite Cummings's familiarity with avant-garde styles (likely affected by the [[calligram]]s of French poet [[Apollinaire]], according to a contemporary observation<ref>Taupin, Rene (1985). ''The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry 1927''. (Translated by William Pratt). AMS Inc: New York {{ISBN|0404615791}}</ref>), much of his work  draws inspiration from traditional forms. For example, many of his poems are [[sonnet]]s, albeit described by Richard D. Cureton as "revisionary{{nbsp}}... with scrambled rhymes and rearranged, disproportioned structures; awkwardly unpredictable metrical variation; clashing, mawkish diction; complex, wandering syntax; etc."<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Cureton |first=Richard D. |date=2020 |title=Pararhyme in E. E. Cummings' "Sonnets—Realities" |url=https://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/cummings/issue3/Turco3.html |journal=University of Michigan}}</ref> He occasionally drew from the [[blues]] form and used [[acrostic]]s. Many of Cummings's poems are satirical and address social issues{{efn|For example, "why must itself up every of a park"}} but have an equal or even stronger bias toward [[Romanticism]]: time and again his poems celebrate love, sex, and the season of rebirth.{{sfnp|Friedman|1964|pp=3–22, 47|ref=FriedmanBook}}{{efn|For example, "[anyone lived in a pretty how town]"}}

While his poetic forms and themes share an affinity with the Romantic tradition, critic Emily Essert asserts that Cummings's work is particularly modernist and frequently employs what linguist Irene Fairley calls "[[Syntax|syntactic]] deviance".<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Fairley |first=Irene |title=E. E. Cummings and ungrammar : a study of syntactic deviance in his poems |publisher=Watermill Publisher |year=1975 |location=Searington, N.Y.}}</ref> Some poems do not involve any typographical or punctuation innovations at all, but purely syntactic ones; many of the poems he is best known for, however, do possess a stylistic typography he made his own, particularly in his insistent use of the lower case 'i'.

<!---NB **The typography is Cummings's original setting**--->
{{Quote box |width=350px |align=right ||salign=right
 |quote  =<poem>
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
                                            i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
</poem>
 |source =From "i carry your heart with me(i carry it in" (1952){{efn|[http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179622 "i carry your heart with me(i carry it in"] at the [[Poetry Foundation]].}} }}

While some of his poetry is [[free verse]] (and not beheld to [[rhyme]] or [[meter (poetry)|meter]]), Cureton has remarked that many of his sonnets follow an intricate rhyme scheme, and often employ [[pararhyme]].<ref name=":1" /> A number of Cummings's poems feature his typographically exuberant style, with words, parts of words, or punctuation symbols scattered across the page, wherein Essert asserts "feeling is first" and the work begs to "be re-read in order to be understood";<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Essert |first=Emily |date=Fall 2006 |title="Since Feeling Is First": E. E. Cummings and Modernist Poetic Difficulty |journal=Spring |issue=14–15 |pages=199 |jstor=43915269 }}</ref> Cummings, also a painter, created his texts not just as literature, but as "visual objects" on the page, and used typography to "paint a picture".<ref name="fountn bio"/><ref>{{cite journal |last=Landles |first=Iain|author-link=Iain Landles |title=An Analysis of Two Poems by E. E. Cummings |journal=Spring: Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society |date=2001 |issue=10 |pages=31–43 |jstor=43898141  |issn=0735-6889}}</ref>

The seeds of Cummings's unconventional style appear well established even in his earliest work. At age six, he wrote to his father:<ref>''Selected letters of E. E. Cummings'' (1972). Edward Estlin Cummings, Frederick Wilcox Dupee, George Stade. University of Michigan p. 3 {{ISBN|978-0-233-95637-4}}</ref>

{{poemquote|1=FATHER DEAR. BE, YOUR FATHER-GOOD AND GOOD,
HE IS GOOD NOW, IT IS NOT GOOD TO SEE IT RAIN,
FATHER DEAR IS, IT, DEAR, NO FATHER DEAR,
LOVE, YOU DEAR,
ESTLIN.}}

Following his autobiographical novel, ''[[The Enormous Room]]'', Cummings's first published work was a collection of poems titled ''[[Tulips and Chimneys]]'' (1923). This early work already displayed Cummings's characteristically eccentric use of grammar and punctuation, although a fair amount of the poems are written in conventional language.<ref name="fountn bio" />

{{Quote box |width=300px |align=right ||salign=right
 |quote  =<poem>
anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did

Women and men (both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain
</poem>
 |source =From "[[anyone lived in a pretty how town]]" (1940){{efn|[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/22653/anyone-lived-in-a-pretty-how-town Text from the Poetry Foundation]: [anyone lived in a pretty how town]<ref>{{cite book|date=1991 |last1=Cummings |first1=E. E. |title=Complete Poems 1904-1962 |editor=George J. Firmage |chapter=[anyone lived in a pretty how town] |publisher=Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/22653/anyone-lived-in-a-pretty-how-town |access-date=10 August 2023 |via=Poetry Foundation|orig-date=Poem first published 1940, ''Poetry Foundation Magazine'', '''LVI''' (V)}}</ref>}} }}

Cummings's works often do not follow the conventional rules that generate typical English sentences, or what Fairley identifies as "ungrammar".<ref name=":4" /> In addition, a number of Cummings's poems feature, in part or in whole, intentional misspellings, and several incorporate phonetic spellings intended to represent particular dialects.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Friedman |first=Norman |date=Dec 1957 |title=Diction, Voice, and Tone: The Poetic Language of E. E. Cummings  |journal=PMLA |volume=72 |issue=5 |pages=1036–1039  |doi=10.2307/460378 |jstor=460378 |s2cid=163935794 }}</ref> Cummings also employs what Fairley describes as "[[Morphological derivation|morphological]] innovation", wherein he frequently creates what critic Ian Landles calls: "unusual [[Compound (linguistics)|compounds]] suggestive of 'a child's language'" like "'mud-luscious' and 'puddle-wonderful'".<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Landles |first=Ian |date=October 2001 |title=An Analysis of Two Poems by E.E. Cummings  |journal=Spring |issue=10 |pages=31–43 |jstor=43898141 }}</ref> Literary critic [[R. P. Blackmur]] has commented that this use of language is "frequently unintelligible because [Cummings] disregards the historical accumulation of meaning in words in favor of merely private and personal associations".{{sfnp|Friedman|1967|pp=61–62}}

Fellow poet [[Edna St. Vincent Millay]], in her equivocal letter recommending Cummings for the [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] he was awarded in 1934, expressed her frustration at his opaque symbolism. "[I]f he prints and offers for sale poetry which he is quite content should be, after hours of sweating concentration, inexplicable from any point of view to a person as intelligent as myself, then he does so with a motive which is frivolous from the point of view of art, and should not be helped or encouraged by any serious person or group of persons{{nbsp}}... there is fine writing and powerful writing (as well as some of the most pompous nonsense I ever let slip to the floor with a wide yawn){{nbsp}}... What I propose, then, is this: that you give Mr. Cummings enough rope. He may hang himself; or he may lasso a unicorn."<ref>Millay to Mr. Moe of the Guggenheim Foundation, March 1934. Quoted in Milford, Nancy (2001) ''Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay'', Doubleday: New York, NY. p370.</ref>

Cummings also wrote children's books and novels. A notable example of his versatility is an introduction he wrote for a collection of the comic strip ''[[Krazy Kat]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Olsen|first=Taimi|title=Krazies...of indescribable beauty: George Herriman's ''Krazy Kat'' and E. E. Cummings|journal=Spring|number=14/15|date=October 2005|publisher=E. E. Cummings Society|pages=220–221|jstor=43915279}}</ref>

Cummings included ethnic slurs in his writing, which proved controversial. In his 1950 collection ''Xaipe: Seventy-One Poems'', Cummings published two poems containing words that caused outrage in some quarters. Friedman considered these two poems to be "condensed" and "cryptic" parables, "sparsely told", in which setting the use of such "inflammatory material" was likely to meet with reader misapprehension. Poet [[William Carlos Williams]] spoke out in his defense.<ref Name="Reef">''E. E. Cummings'' (2006) by Catherine Reef, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p. 115 {{ISBN|978-0-618-56849-9}}</ref>{{sfnp|Friedman|1964|loc=pp. [https://archive.org/details/eecummingsgrowth0000frie/page/152/mode/2up 153–154]: "This is a condensed and cryptic tale, and it is likely that Cummings counted too heavily on the reader's ability (1) to think clearly about racial issues and their accompanying languages, and (2) to make inferences about what the poem says on the basis of a sparsely told parable{{nbsp}}... I think the trouble is the same here, that the poem uses inflammatory material in too condensed and cryptic a fashion."|ref=FriedmanBook}}<ref name="Cummings, 1950">Cummings (1950). ''Xaipe: Seventy-one Poems''. New York: Oxford University Press.</ref>
{{Verse translation|lang=en|italicsoff=y
|one day a nigger
caught in his hand
a little star no bigger
than not to understand

"i'll never let you go
until you've made me white"
so she did and now
stars shine at night.
|
a kike is the most dangerous
machine as yet invented
by even yankee ingenu
ity(out of a jew a few
dead dollars and some twisted laws)
it comes both prigged and canted|attr1=no. 24, from ''Xaipe'' (1950)|attr2=no. 46, from ''Xaipe'' (1950)}}

Cummings biographer Catherine Reef notes of the controversy:<ref Name="Reef" />
{{blockquote|1=Friends begged Cummings to reconsider publishing these poems, and the book's editor pleaded with him to withdraw them, but he insisted that they stay. All the fuss perplexed him. The poems were commenting on prejudice, he pointed out, and not condoning it. He intended to show how derogatory words cause people to see others in terms of stereotypes rather than as individuals. "America (which turns Hungarian into 'hunky' & Irishman into 'mick' and Norwegian into 'square-head') is to blame for 'kike,'" he said.}}

===Plays===
During his lifetime, Cummings published four plays. ''[[Him (Cummings play)|HIM]]'', a three-act play, was first produced in 1928 by the [[Provincetown Players]] in New York City. The production was directed by James Light. The play's main characters are "Him", a playwright, portrayed by [[William Johnstone (actor)|William Johnstone]], and "Me", his girlfriend, portrayed by [[Erin O'Brien-Moore]].

Cummings said of the unorthodox play:{{sfnp|Kennedy|1994|p=295}}
{{blockquote|1=Relax and give the play a chance to strut its stuff—relax, stop wondering what it is all 'about'—like many strange and familiar things, Life included, this play isn't 'about,' it simply is. ... Don't try to enjoy it, let it try to enjoy you. <small>DON'T TRY TO UNDERSTAND IT, LET IT TRY TO UNDERSTAND YOU.</small>"}}

''Anthropos, or the Future of Art'' is a short, one-act play that Cummings contributed to the anthology ''Whither, Whither or After Sex, What? A Symposium to End Symposium''. The play consists of dialogue between Man, the main character, and three "infrahumans", or inferior beings. The word ''[[Greek language|anthropos]]'' is the [[Greek language|Greek]] word for "man", in the sense of "mankind".

''Tom, A Ballet'' is a ballet based on ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]''. The ballet is detailed in a "synopsis" as well as descriptions of four "episodes", which were published by Cummings in 1935. It remained unperformed until 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/cummings/Tom.html |title=''Tom: A Ballet'' (1935) |last=Webster |first=Michael |website=Spring: The Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society |access-date=December 14, 2023}}</ref>

''[[Santa Claus: A Morality]]'' was probably Cummings's most successful play. It is an allegorical Christmas fantasy presented in one act of five scenes. The play was inspired by his daughter Nancy, with whom he was reunited in 1946. It was first published in the Harvard College magazine, ''Wake''. The play's main characters are Santa Claus, his family (Woman and Child), Death, and Mob. At the outset of the play, Santa Claus's family has disintegrated due to their lust for knowledge (Science). After a series of events, however, Santa Claus's faith in love and his rejection of the materialism and disappointment he associates with Science are reaffirmed, and he is reunited with Woman and Child.

===Art===
Cummings was an avid painter, referring to writing and painting as his <q>twin obsessions</q><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cohen |first=Milton |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/59693901 |title=Poetandpainter: The aesthetics of E. E. Cummings's early works |date=1987 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn=0-8143-1845-2 |oclc=59693901}}</ref> and to himself as a <q>poetandpainter.</q><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Cohen |first=Milton |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/9353165 |title=E. E. Cumming's paintings: The hidden career |date=1982 |publisher=University of Texas at Dallas |oclc=9353165}}</ref> He painted <q>continuously, relentlessly, from childhood until his death, and left in his estate more than 1600 oils and watercolors (a figure that does not include the works he sold during his career) and over 9,000 drawings.</q><ref name=":2" /> In a self-interview from ''Foreword to an Exhibit: II'' (1945), the artist asked himself, <q>Tell me, doesn't your painting interfere with your writing?</q> and answered, <q>Quite the contrary: they love each other dearly.</q><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cummings |first1=E. E. |title=E. E. Cummings: A Miscellany |date=1966 |publisher=Peter Owen Limited |location=London |page=316 |edition=First British Commonwealth |url=https://archive.org/details/eecummingsmiscel0000unse/page/n9/mode/2up}}</ref>

Cummings had more than 30 exhibits of his paintings in his lifetime.<ref name=":2" /> He received substantial acclaim as an American [[Cubism|cubist]] and an abstract, avant garde painter between the World Wars, but with the publication of his books ''[[The Enormous Room]]'' and ''[[Tulips and Chimneys]]'' in the 1920s, his reputation as a poet eclipsed his success as a visual artist.<ref name=":2" /> In 1931, he published a limited edition volume of his artwork entitled ''[[CIOPW]]'', named for his media of charcoal, ink, oil, pencil, and watercolor. About this same time, he began to break from [[Modernism|Modernist]] aesthetics and employ a more subjective and spontaneous style;<ref name=":2" /> his work became more representational: landscapes, nudes, still lifes, and portraits.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hobbs |first=Patricia |date=2018-10-18 |title=Recent Gift Illustrates Poet's 'Twin Obsessions' |url=https://columns.wlu.edu/recent-gift-illustrates-poets-twin-obsessions/ |access-date=2023-02-21 |website=The Columns |language=en}}</ref>

===Name and capitalization===
Cummings's publishers and others have often echoed the unconventional [[orthography]] in his poetry by writing his name in lower case.<ref name="friedman92" /> Cummings himself used both the lowercase and capitalized versions, though he most often signed his name with capitals.<ref name="friedman92">{{cite journal |last=Friedman |first= Norman |date=1992 |title=Not "e. e. cummings" |journal=Spring |volume=1 |pages=114–121 |url= http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/cummings/caps.htm |access-date=December 13, 2005}}</ref>

The use of lower case for his initials was popularized in part by the title of some books, particularly in the 1960s, printing his name in lower case on the cover and spine. In the preface to ''E. E. Cummings: The Growth of a Writer'' by Norman Friedman, critic Harry T. Moore notes Cummings "had his name put legally into lower case, and in his later books the titles and his name were always in lower case".<ref name=preface/> According to Cummings's widow, however, this is incorrect.<ref name="friedman92" /> She wrote to Friedman: "You should not have allowed H. Moore to make such a stupid & childish statement about Cummings & his signature." On February 27, 1951, Cummings wrote to his French translator D. Jon Grossman that he preferred the use of upper case for the particular edition they were working on.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Friedman |first=Norman |date=1995 |title=Not "e. e. cummings" Revisited |journal=Spring |volume=5 |pages=41–43 |url= http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/cummings/caps2.html |access-date=May 12, 2007}}</ref> One Cummings scholar believes that on the rare occasions that Cummings signed his name in all lower case, he may have intended it as a gesture of humility, not as an indication that it was the preferred orthography for others to use.<ref name="friedman92" /> Additionally, ''[[The Chicago Manual of Style]]'', which prescribes favoring non-standard capitalization of names in accordance with the bearer's strongly stated preference, notes "E. E. Cummings can be safely capitalized; it was one of his publishers, not he himself, who lowercased his name."<ref name="chicago84">{{cite book |publisher=Chicago University Press|date=2010|title=Chicago Manual of Style|edition=16|section=Capitalization of Personal Names|page=388}}</ref>