The Literary World of e. e. cummings

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put up your little armsand i’ll give them all to you to holdevery finger shall have its ringand there won’t a single place dark or unhappy –Little Tree, e. e. cummings Edward Estlin Cummings, (poet, playwright, prose writer, and painter) is remembered as a lover of language, art, and Paris. His creative vision found expression in an array of innovative artistic devices where he stretched each declaration to its limits. His style is instantly recognized by anyone who has read his work. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 14, 1894, he earned a BA and MA in English and classics from Harvard and volunteered to go to France during World War I with the Ambulance Corps. It was during his service with the Corps that he fell in love with Paris. After the war, he remained in Paris, writing and painting. Although he struggled financially throughout his live, he managed to spend a lot of time abroad and had only one job in his life that did not depend on his artistic abilities. I read my first E. E. Cummings book at a very young age when one Christmas I got a copy of a book made from one of Cummings’ poems entitled “Little Tree’’. It is a beautiful poem about a little Christmas tree and is narrated by a little boy. I give this book as a gift to friends with young children as a wonderful way of introducing poetry and creative writing at an early stage. And every Christmas season I go on one of my ‘’celebration’’ walks around the breezy, beautiful streets of Paris visiting the haunts of some of my favorite writers. Last weekend I followed the ghost of E. E. Cummings through the City of Light. 7, rue François-Ier (8th arrondissement). Formerly the Hôtel du Palais. In 1917 E. E. Cummings sailed for France as Part of a detachment of volunteer ambulance drivers. He and a shipmate named William Slater Brown (who would later become one of Cummings’ friends) were accidentally left behind when the rest of the crew disembarked at a suburban station instead. Cummings and Brown were the only two to reach the correct destination at the Hôtel du Palais, headquarters of the Norton Harjes Croix-Rouge Américaine in Paris. Their unit had reached the front lines, while Cummings and Brown awaited their orders. Instead of sitting about idle, the two men spent a blissful month in Paris walking ten to twelve miles a day while waiting for their commander to return. In the evenings they attended the theater and saw Stravinsky’s Petrouchka. The two would be later branded as dangerous non-conformists by their commander, Captain Anderson and their unit agreed angered that the men preferred the company of the French rather than their fellow Americans. E. E. Cummings and William Slater Brown were both audacious letter writers and had written home criticizing both the war and the French. By August both men were arrested by the French military and charged with treasonable correspondence. They received a six-month prison term at La Ferté Macé. Charges were later dropped due to letters written by Cummings’ family to senators, the State Department, and the president of the United States. Despite his imprisonment Cummings later wrote that being in Paris made him feel that he ‘celebrated an immediate reconciling of spirit and flesh, forever and now, heaven and earth.’ He used this experience in ‘’The Enormous Room’’ published in 1922. The Enormous Room, written as a journal of his prison stay, is considered one of the best American works to come out of a war. 9, rue Gît-le-Cœur (6th arrondissement)The Hôtel du Vieux Paris (formerly Hôtel Gît-le-Cœur) serves as the Paris location of the Beat Generation of American writers in the 1950’s. In July 1923, late evening, Cummings, while on the way to a club with friends, stopped to urinate in public near the Hotel and was set upon by a number Gendarmes (French policemen) and taken to the Commissariat on rue des Grandes-Augustins. He was released later that night with the intervention of French writer Paul Morand. All charges were dropped and Cummings went on to attend a party at the apartment of Gilbert Seldes, the editor of the Dial, where posters were put on the wall that read ‘’Reprieve pisseur Américain. 16, rue Pierre-Lescot (1st arrondissement) Métro: Etienne MarcelCummings would often end his evenings meeting friends at a popular all-night restaurant in Les Halles- Au Père Tranquille. This spot became the setting for Act III in his play ‘’Him.’’ 46, rue Saint-André-des-Arts (6th arrondissement)E. E. Cummings, living in a single room here, painted his first self-portrait in 1923. 13, rue du Sommerard (5th arrondissement)Hôtel Marignan: Cummings shared a room with his friend William Slater Brown in 1921. Before his death in Conway, New Hampshire in 1962, Cummings published more than nine hundred poems and other works. Many of Cummings’ manuscripts can be found at the Houghton Library at Harvard University, including his diaries that were released in 1991. Large collections can also be found at the University of Virginia’s Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. To purchase Paris Reflections, please click here.
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