E. E. Cummings

E. E. Cummings was a very famous American poet.

He was also a painter, an author, and a playwright. Many people think he was one of the most important poets of the 20th century. He was known for his very special way of writing. He often used small letters instead of big ones. He also changed how words and grammar looked on the page. This style is called modernist free-form poetry. He wrote about 2,900 poems during his life.

His writing style was very different from others. He used what is called idiosyncratic syntax. This means he used a very unusual way of putting words together. He liked to experiment with how letters and words looked on the paper. Some people thought his work was very daring and original. One writer said his poems were very attractive to many different readers. He wanted to change how people saw the world through his words.

Cummings had an interesting life that included many travels. During World War I, he worked as an ambulance driver. He was once held in a military camp in France. He later wrote a book called The Enormous Room about this time.

He also traveled to the Soviet Union in 1931. He wrote a travel book called EIMI about that trip. He even worked as a portrait artist for Vanity Fair magazine.

He was born on October 14, 1894, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father was a professor at Harvard University.

Cummings went to Harvard too and earned two degrees there. He graduated magna cum laude in 1915. He was even part of the Phi Beta Kappa society. Later in life, Harvard gave him an honorary seat as a guest professor. He gave special lectures there in 1952 and 1953.

Cummings lived a long and busy life. He spent much of his time in New York City. He lived in Greenwich Village starting in 1924. He also loved spending summers at Joy Farm in New Hampshire.

He died of a stroke in 1962 at the age of 67. At the time he died, he was the second most widely read poet in the United States. People still study his work in schools today.