E. E. Cummings
(1894–1962)
E. E. Cummings wrote a poem every day for fourteen years, between the ages of eight and twenty-two. By the time Cummings went to college, he was skilled at writing traditional poetry but soon began to write poetry that ignored capital letters and standard punctuation.
In 1917, the First World War was being fought in Europe, though America was not yet involved. Like Ernest Hemingway, another young man who was to become famous as a writer, Cummings volunteered for ambulance service. Cummings had some war tales to tell—he was suspected of espionage and held for months by the French because of the exasperating and mysterious comments he made in the letters he wrote home.
Famous for his love poems, Cummings also wrote poems with a political message. He was very suspicious of groups, governments, or anything that hinted of group thinking. Instead, he promoted the individual in his highly original style.
