E e cummings biography by susan cheever

In the Coda to her new biography of E. E. Cummings, Susan Cheever acknowledges that her subject’s reputation has waned in the past 20 years: “These days he is too popular for the academy and often too sassy to be taught in high school.”

Nevertheless, Edward Estlin Cummings remains one of the few poets that just about every adult English-speaking American has heard of, even if he is more a name than a person.

A major reassessment of the life and work of the novelist, painter, and playwright considered to be one of America's preeminent twentieth-century poets.

A major reassessment of the life and work of the novelist, painter, and playwright considered to be one of America's preeminent twentieth-century poets.

The book is short for a biography of a man with a long history, but it concentrates on the high and low points and avoids the lulls that are.

EE Cummings, a brillant and gifted poet and artist.

More like 4 1/2 stars.

In an adaptation from her new biography of E. E. Cummings, Susan Cheever recalls one winter night in when he rocked her teenage world.

Cheever’s project, of course, is to transform that name into a three-dimensional human being, and, overall, she succeeds.

Cummings was born into a life of privilege in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father was a Harvard professor and a minister of the Cambridge Congregational Church; his mother was, if anything, even more well-heeled.

Estlin (as his family called him) was apparently “a good boy,” but like many college students before and after him, he rebelled against the strict, decorous environment in which he was raised