Spoon River Anthology

by Masters, Edgar Lee; Hollander, John

• ISBN13: 9780451525307
• ISBN10: 0451525302
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1992-01-07
• Publisher: Signet Classics

Summary

One of the most striking and original achievements in American poetry is now available in a remarkable edition that comprehends the poet and his book in an entirely new way. This edition of Spoon River Anthology probes the social background of the smalltown world that Edgar Lee Masters loved and hated--and finally transmuted into powerful literary art. Extensive annotations identify the people whose lives inspired the 243 poetic accounts of frustration, violence, struggle, and triumph that once shocked American readers. The most extraordinary feature of this edition is the extensive introduction that provides the key to this misunderstood American classic. The book's relationship to Whitman is clearly established, and the important influences of Browning, Goethe, Spinoza, and others are revealed for the first time. John Hallwas's approach combines cultural, biographical, philosophical, psychoanalytic, mythic, and symbolic insights--and concludes with a stunning reassessment of "Our New Poet." The annotated Spoon River Anthology supersedes 75 years of largely misdirected critical commentary. It will send a new generation of readers back to this surprisingly complex book that probes so deeply into the American consciousness--and will send Masters back into our national anthologies.

Author Biography

Edgar Lee Masters was born in Garnett, Kansas in 1869. As a young man he rebelled against what he believed to be the hypocrisy of small-town life and went to Chicago, where he would practice law for thirty years. He published eleven books of verse, plays, and essays before beginning his masterpiece, Spoon River Anthology, in his mid-forties. When Spoon River Anthology was published in 1915, it was an immediate popular and critical success. With Carl Sandburg and Vachel Lindsay, Masters initiated a poetic renaissance in the Midwest which had its center in Chicago. In 1920, Masters gave up law to devote himself completely to his writing. He took up residence in New York's famed Chelsea Hotel, home to many prominent authors. Masters died in 1950. John Hollander is an acclaimed American poet and the A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of English at Yale University. His books include Spectral Emanations: New and Selected Poems, Harp Lake, In Time and Place, and Blue Wine and Other Poems. Hollander is also the author of a number of critical works, including Rhyme's Reason: A Guide to English Verse.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xv
Altman, Herman	p. 218
Armstrong, Hannah	p. 215
Arnett, Harold	p. 47
Arnett, Justice	p. 53
Atheist, The Village	p. 236
Atherton, Lucius	p. 56
Ballard, John	p. 237
Barker, Amanda	p. 9
Barrett, Pauline	p. 88
Bartlett, Ezra	p. 117
Bateson, Marie	p. 222
Beatty, Tom	p. 148
Beethoven, Isaiah	p. 252
Bennett, Hon. Henry	p. 66
Bindle, Nicholas	p. 45
Bliss, Mrs. Charles	p. 89
Blood, A. D.	p. 69
Bloyd, Wendell P.	p. 80
Bone, Richard	p. 170
Branson, Caroline	p. 205
Brown, Jim	p. 108
Brown, Sarah	p. 34
Browning, Elijah	p. 253
Burke, Robert Southey	p. 70
Burleson, John Horace	p. 76
Butler, Roy	p. 149
Cabanis, Flossie	p. 36
Cabanis, John	p. 121
Calhoun, Granville	p. 178
Calhoun, Henry C.	p. 179
Campbell, Calvin	p. 193
Carlisle, Jeremy	p. 247
Carman, Eugene	p. 128
Cheney, Columbus	p. 220
Chicken, Ida	p. 106
Childers, Elizabeth	p. 188
Church, John M.	p. 83
Churchill, Alfonso	p. 239
Clapp, Homer	p. 57
Clark, Nellie	p. 62
Clute, Aner	p. 55
Compton, Seth	p. 167
Conant, Edith	p. 189
Culbertson, E. C.	p. 174
Davidson, Robert	p. 109
Dement, Silas	p. 171
Dippold the Optician	p. 182
Dixon, Joseph	p. 248
Dobyns, Batterton	p. 145
Drummer, Frank	p. 29
Drummer, Hare	p. 30
Dunlap, Enoch	p. 165
Dye, Shack	p. 175
Ehrenhardt, Imanuel	p. 226
Epilogue	p. 267
Fallas, State's Attorney	p. 79
Fawcett, Clarence	p. 129
Ferguson, Wallace	p. 221
Findlay, Anthony	p. 120
Fluke, Willard	p. 54
Foote, Searcy	p. 150
Ford, Webster	p. 255
Fraser, Benjamin	p. 21
Fraser, Daisy	p. 20
French, Charlie	p. 39
Frickey, Ida	p. 166
Garber, James	p. 241
Gardner, Samuel	p. 227
Garrick, Amelia	p. 118
Godbey, Jacob	p. 146
Goldman, Le Roy	p. 243
Goode, William	p. 230
Goodhue Harry Carey	p. 12
Goodpasture, Jacob	p. 46
Graham, Magrady	p. 183
Gray, George	p. 65
Green, Ami	p. 192
Greene, Hamilton	p. 111
Griffy the Cooper	p. 67
Gustine, Dorcas	p. 44
Hainsfeather, Barney	p. 86
Hamblin, Carl	p. 126
Hately, Constance	p. 10
Hatfield, Aaron	p. 251
Hawkins, Elliott	p. 161
Hawley, Jeduthan	p. 158
Henry, Chase	p. 11
Herndon, William H.	p. 211
Heston, Roger	p. 113
Higbie, Archibald	p. 184
Hill, Doc	p. 32
Hill, The	p. 1
Hoheimer, Knowlt	p. 27
Holden, Barry	p. 78
Hookey, Sam	p. 59
Houghton, Jonathan	p. 173
Howard, Jefferson	p. 94
Hueffer, Cassius	p. 7
Hummel, Oscar	p. 135
Humphrey, Lydia	p. 242
Huxley, Scholfield	p. 233
Hutchins, Lambert	p. 142
Hyde, Ernest	p. 112
Iseman, Dr. Siegfried	p. 50
Jack, Blind	p. 75
James, Godwin	p. 203
Joe, Plymouth Rock	p. 224
Johnson, Voltaire	p. 163
Jones, Fiddler	p. 61
Jones, Franklin	p. 82
Jones, "Indignation"	p. 23
Jones, Minerva	p. 22
Jones, William	p. 229
Judge, The Circuit	p. 74
Karr, Elmer	p. 187
Keene, Jonas	p. 97
Keene, Kinsey	p. 14
Kessler, Bert	p. 141
Kessler, Mrs.	p. 139
Killion, Captain Orlando	p. 246
Kincaid, Russell	p. 250
King, Lyman	p. 204
Knapp, Nancy	p. 77
Konovaloff, Ippolit	p. 196
Kritt, Dow	p. 228
Layton, Henry	p. 194
Lively, Judge Selah	p. 95
M'Cumber, Daniel	p. 103
McDowell, Rutherford	p. 214
McFarlane, Widow	p. 125
McGee, Fletcher	p. 5
McGee, Ollie	p. 4
M'Grew, Jennie	p. 219
M'Grew, Mickey	p. 133
McGuire, Jack	p. 43
McNeely, Mary	p. 102
McNeely, Paul	p. 101
McNeely, Washington	p. 100
Malloy, Father	p. 191
Marsh, Zilpha	p. 240
Marshal, The Town	p. 42
Marshall, Herbert	p. 64
Mason, Serepta	p. 8
Matheny, Faith	p. 232
Matlock, Davis	p. 217
Matlock, Lucinda	p. 216
Melveny, Abel	p. 159
Merritt, Mrs.	p. 186
Merritt, Tom	p. 185
Metcalf, Willie	p. 234
Meyers, Doctor	p. 24
Meyers, Mrs.	p. 25
Micure, Hamlet	p. 208
Miles, J. Milton	p. 231
Miller, Julia	p. 37
Miner, Georgine Sand	p. 104
Moir, Alfred	p. 180
Newcomer, Professor	p. 131
Night-Watch, Andy the	p. 33
Nutter, Isa	p. 85
Osborne, mabel	p. 210
Otis, John Hancock	p. 119
Pantier, Benjamin	p. 15
Pantier, Mrs. Benjamin	p. 16
Pantier, Reuben	p. 17
Peet, Rev. Abner	p. 93
Pennington,Willie	p. 235
Penniwit, The Artist	p. 107
Petit, The Poet	p. 87
Phipps, Henry	p. 197
Poague, Peleg	p. 157
Pollard, Edmund	p. 152
Potter, Cooney	p. 60
Puckett, Lydia	p. 28
Purkapile, Mrs.	p. 137
Purkapile, Roscoe	p. 136
Putt, Hod	p. 3
Reece, Mrs. George	p. 90
Rhodes, Ralph	p. 132
Rhodes, Thomas	p. 105
Richter, Gustav	p. 244
Robbins, Hortense	p. 144
Roberts, Rosie	p. 134
Ross, Thomas, Jr.	p. 92
Russian Sonia	p. 84
Rutledge, Anne	p. 207
Sayre, Johnnie	p. 38
Scates, Hiram	p. 156
Schirding, Albert	p. 96
Schmidt, Felix	p. 168
Schrceder the Fisherman	p. 169
Scott, Julian	p. 238
Sexsmith the Dentist	p. 68
Sewall, Harlan	p. 195
Sharp, Percival	p. 154
Shaw, "Ace"	p. 51
Shelley, Percy Bysshe	p. 35
Shope, Tennessee Claflin	p. 223
Sibley, Amos	p. 114
Sibley, Mrs.	p. 115
Siever, Conrad	p. 31
Simmons, Walter	p. 147
Sissman, Dillard	p. 172
Slack, Margaret Fuller	p. 48
Smith, Louise	p. 63
Soldiers, Many	p. 202
Somers, Jonathan Swift	p. 124
Somers, Judge	p. 13
Sparks, Emily	p. 18
Spears, Lois	p. 52
Spooniad, The	p. 257
Standard, W. Lloyd Garrison	p. 130
Stewart, Lillian	p. 143
Stoddard, Judson	p. 249
Tanner, Robert Fulton	p. 6
Taylor, Deacon	p. 58
Theodore the Poet	p. 41
Thornton, English	p. 164
Throckmorton, Alexander	p. 123
Todd, Eugenia	p. 98
Tompkins, Josiah	p. 138
Trainor, the Druggist	p. 19
Trevelyan, Thomas	p. 153
Trimble, George	p. 49
Tripp, Henry	p. 177
Tubbs, Hildrup	p. 176
Turner, Francis	p. 81
Tutt, Oaks	p. 160
Unknown, The	p. 122
Wasson, John	p. 201
Wasson, Rebecca	p. 213
Webster, Charles	p. 190
Weirauch, Adam	p. 116
Weldy, "Butch"	p. 26
Wertman, Elsa	p. 110
Whedon, Editor	p. 127
Whitney, Harmon	p. 140
Wiley, Rev. Lemuel	p. 91
Will, Arlo	p. 245
William and Emily	p. 73
Williams, Dora	p. 71
Williams, Mrs.	p. 72
Wilmans, Harry	p. 199
Witt, Zenas	p. 40
Yee Bow	p. 99
Zoll, Perry	p. 181
For Further Reading	p. 285
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