For Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962), poetry was about more than words and rhythms- though he was skillful at using both. For Cummings, poetry was also about visual efect. A painter as well as a poet, he experimented with the arrangement of words on a page, in the process creating poems that looked (and often sounded) unusual. Handsome, talented, and charming, Cummings lived a life as unconventional as his poetry. He had a daughter by the wife of his best friend, yet he never accepted the role of father. He refused to get a job, yet for years he paid his bills with money he received regularly from his parents. He insisted on his right to do and say what he pleased, both as an individual and as an artist. Blending poetry and biographical text with period photographs and evocative illustrations, this Voices in Poetry title explores the life and work of one of modern literature's most distinctive poets.
