Description

Franklin Library leather edition of E.E. Cummings' "Collected Poems," a Limited edition, one of the 100 GREATEST MASTERPIECES OF AMERICAN LITERATURE series, with a 'SELF-PORTRAIT PAINTING' by Cummings of himself in 1938, published in 1977. Bound in navy blue leather, the book has matching moire silk end leaves, acid-free paper, Symth-sewn binding, a satin book marker, gold gilding on three edges---in near FINE condition---except for 'minor' fading on edges of moire silk. Edward Estlin Cummings, who lived from 1894 – 1962, known as e. e., was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. His body of work encompasses approximately 2,900 poems, two autobiographical novels, four plays and several essays, as well as numerous drawings and paintings. Cummings attended HARVARD where he developed an interest in modern poetry which ignored conventional grammar and syntax, aiming for a dynamic use of language. In 1917, with the First World War ongoing in Europe, Cummings enlisted in the Ambulance Corps. The poem "in Just" literally means "songs of innocence." The poem features children playing at "marbles," "piracies," "hopscotch," and "jump-rope." The names of the children are, first, without capitalization: "eddieandbill," and "bettyandisabel." The effect is to render the hustle, bustle, and speed of children as they come running to the summons of the whistle.; The "wee" suggest not only the whistle, but also the child-like noise of children playing, perhaps imitating a whistle. The world is "mud luscious" and "puddle wonderful." 315 pages----ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS! I offer Combined shipping.