Have you ever wondered why e. e. cummings always used lower case for his name? Actually, it was because of a mistake a publisher made in his book Eight Harvard Poems, that was written in 1917.
Edward Estlin Cummings was born on October 14, 1894 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His parent�s names were Edward and Rebecca. In 1896, his sister Elizabeth was born. His mom taught him how to write poetry at age 8, while his dad taught him to paint abstract art. His family was well known for their academics, which explains Edward being a freshman in high school at age 12. He then later went to Harvard and received his BA in 1915 and his MA in 1916. At Harvard, Edward turned his poetry talents toward experimental modes of modernism. He fragmented or abandoned traditional grammar, correct language, and punctuation in order to get directly to the basic nature of the poem. Cummings was well known for the way he wrote his poems. For example in a middle of a sentence he would put a capital letter, parentheses, etc.
Edward was a pacifist, so he enlisted into World War I as an ambulance driver so he wouldn�t be drafted and be forced to fight. He was imprisoned for three months because of a friendship with another American named William Slater Brown, who had criticized the Allied War effort. In jail, he wrote his first book, The Enormous Room that was based on wartime experiences. He later became a private for the American Army, but never had to go to war again.
After the war, he spent time in New York and then Paris. In Paris he studied art and painted. He returned to New York in 1924. His first collection of poems were Tulips and Chimneys, XLI Poems, and Is 5. They were published in the 1920s.
E. E. Cummings married three times. His first marriage to Elaine Orr (who left her husband for him) lasted only 6 months. His second marriage to Ann Barton lasted only a few years. He at last met Marion Morehouse in 1938. She was an actress, model, and photographer, whom he married and lived with for the remaining 30 years of his life. He had one daughter, Nancy, from his first marriage.
Cummings won several awards, including the Dial Prize and the National Book award for Poems 1923-1954. Some of his most famous poems are nobody loses all the time, let it go, and in Just.
Edward Estlin Cummings died on September 3, 1962 in his home in North Conway, New Hampshire. I will always remember his unique style.