From the acclaimed author of American Bloomsbury comes a major reassessment of the life and work of one of America's preeminent twentieth-century poets, our generation's beloved heretic.
This rich, illuminating biography shows Cummings's idyllic childhood years in a mythic part of Cambridge, Massachusetts (the poet's parents were introduced by William James). From the beginning, he displayed the determination of a New Englander, a sense of fun and mimicry, and a desire to stand conventional wisdom on its head. At Harvard, he roomed with John Dos Passos, earned two degrees, discovered high living, and raged against the school's conservative rule.
Headstrong and cavalier, Cummings volunteered as an ambulance driver in World War I, working alongside Hemingway, Joyce, and Ford Madox Ford. His imprisonment as a suspected spy became the basis for his novel The Enormous Room, of which F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote: "Of all the work by young men since 1920-one book survives." After the war, Cummings fled to Greenwich Village to be among other modernist poets of the day-Marianne Moore, Hart Crane, Dylan Thomas-and developed his own distinctive voice against the backdrop of modernism and through the influences of his contemporaries.
Cheever's fascinating book gives us the evolution of an artist whose writing was at the forefront of what was new and daring and bold in an America in transition.
Susan Cheever was born in New York City and graduated from Brown University. A Guggenheim fellow and a director of the board of the Yaddo Corporation, Cheever currently teaches in the MFA programs at Bennington College and The New School. Her many books include My Name is Bill, Home Before Dark, and Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography.