Edward Estlin Cummings By: Shaurya Gupta

Synopsis of Early Life and Death Edward Estlin Cummings was born on October 14, 1894, at Cambridge, Massachusetts Cumming’s mother was a connoisseur and lover of the liberal art aspect of playwrights and language His father on the other hand was a professor and minister Based on his loving and diverse background, he soon later earned his B.A. and M.A. by 1916 from Harvard University; the same university his father taught at Cummings sadly passed away on September 3, 1962, in North Conway, New Hampshire, due to a brain hemorrhage

Background and Influences After earning his M.A. Cummings- with his good friend- joined the ambulance corps to serve in World War I overseas He was later imprisoned by French authorities for his, at the time, treasonous letters he had written The war heavily influenced his writing and lead to one his most famous novels, he Enormous Room, published in 1922, an autobiography of his time in jail

Styles and Themes Cummings was a fairly versed writer able to write modern types of novels/poems using a very nonconformist basis, but could still write very traditional poems with very witty and whimsical aspects intertwined in Cummings kept a lot of his writing spontaneous to the reader by using pacing, punctuation, capitalization, overall grammar and pacing Themes of his works focused on sexuality, nature, and love Cummings keeps a constant balance of humor, cruelty, and celebration He spent most his later life in Greenwich Village and France writing

Awards and Books Bollingen Prize in Poetry (1958) Boston Arts Festival Award (1957) Guggenheim Fellowship (1951) The Enormous Room (1922) Tulips and Chimneys (1923)

Work Cited http://www.biography.com/people/ee-cummings-9263274 https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/e-e-cummings http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/cummings/cummings_life.htm http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/e-e-cummings