Facts on E.E. Cummings

I

-Biographical Data

a) Born in 1894

b) Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts

c) Edward and Rebecca Haswell Clarke Cummings, father was a professor of sociology and political science at Harvard University and later a Unitarian minister.

d) His only sibling, a sister, Elizabeth, was born six years after he was.

e) From 1911 to 1916, Cummings attended Harvard University, from which he received a B.A. degree in 1915 and a Master's degree for English and Classical Studies in 1916.

f) Cummings was married three times, including a long common-law marriage

g) Died in 1962

II.

-Literary Career

A.

-Early Influence

1. Gertrude Stein

2. Ezra Pound

B.

-Beginnings as a writer

1. In 1917, Cummings enlisted in the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corp

2. Cummings' first published work was a collection of poems entitled Tulips and Chimneys (1923)

C.

-Works

1. Many of Cummings' poems address social issues and satirize society but have an equal or even stronger bias toward romanticism