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Edgar Lee Masters |
Edgar Lee Masters was born and raised in the Midwest and worked as a lawyer for most of his life until, after several unsuccessful poems and essays, he published The Spoon River Anthology at the age of forty-seven. It was a collection of 215 poems, each the epitaph of one of the dead in his mythical small Spoon River cemetery. Told in their own laconic voice, they exposed the moral decay, hypocrisy, and despair Masters had found at the heart of Middle American life.
The book was an overnight sensation, the most popular volume of poetry ever published in America. But as a result of the scandal that exploded around him, Masters had to leave town. After traveling briefly in Europe, he settled in New York, living in the Chelsea Hotel and trying to duplicate his astonishing feat. Thirty-nine books followed—biographies, poetry, novels—all without success. He died in a nursing home thirty-five years later with no assets left except the copyright to his famous book.
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Immortal Poets: Their Lives and Verse, by Christopher Burns |