Biography
E.E. Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 4, 1984 to Edward and Rebecca Cummings. Edward Estlin Cummings was named after his father but his family called him by his second name, Estlin. His father was a sociology professor and a political science professor at the famous Harvard University. His mother was a woman who loved to read poetry to her children. Cummings was raised in an educated family; therefore he was known to be a smart boy. His mom played a vital role in terms of poetry in his life, since she encouraged him to write more poetry.(1)
At a young age, Cummings attended the Cambridge Latin high school. Poems, which he wrote, got published in the school newspaper known as “Cambridge Review”. From the year 1911 to 1916, he attended Harvard University, he received a degree in B.A in 1915 and a masters for English and classical studies. Many of Cummings' poems were published in the university newspaper. He himself laboured in the university’s newspaper alongside his fellow friends Dos Passos and S. Foster Damon. In his late University years, his poems got published in the Harvard Advocate. Cummings studied the languages Greek and Latin from an early age, this would explain why some of his poems were in Greek such as "Puella Mea".(1)
After graduating from Harvard he enlisted himself in the Northern-Hajes ambulance Corps, along with his friend Dos Passos. Cummings was unfortunate since there was a mix up in the administration, therefore Cummings was not assigned to an ambulance unit for a total of 35 days during which he stayed in Paris, France. Cummings slowly fell in love with the city of Paris and he returned to the city throughout his life.(1)
In 1970, Cummings and a friend named William Slater Brown, were arrested by the French military due to suspicion of spying. Cummings and Brown had sent letters home, which dragged the attention of the military, the two expressed their opinion and views on anti-war. The two got sentenced to 3 and a half months in a concentration camp located in Normandy. Cummings' father was unsuccessful in bailing out his son even with the help of diplomatic channels. After two months his father wrote a letter to the president and Cummings and his friend Brown were released.(1)
When Cummings was in concentration camp, he decided to use his time wisely by writing the novel “The Enormous Room”. In 1918 he came back to the United States since he was selected in the army. In 1921 he returned to Paris for 2 years, but then moved back again to the United States. During the 1920’s and 1930’s he returned to Paris several times. Cummings tragically passed away on the 3rd of September, 1962 due to Cerebral Hemorrhage.(1)
E.E Cummings
Personal life
Cummings got married twice in his lifetime; astonishingly his longest lasting relationship came outside of marriage. Cummings first marriage, which was to Elaine Orr, began as a love affair. This love affair started in 1918, as stated before, this was a love affair, which meant that she was married to Scotfiels Thayer. This guy was a good friend of Cummings; they knew each other from university, Harvard. During this love affair, Cummings wrote a lot of erotic poetry. This couple had a daughter together; who was born on the 20th of December in 1919 this was his only child.
Elaine and Thayer got a divorce therefore Elaine and Cummings both got married on the 19th of March 1924. This marriage life between the two of them did not work out too well, they separated after just two months and divorced nine months later. Elaine got married to a wealthy businessman who lived in Ireland and she took her daughter Nancy with her. Due to terms, which were in the divorce papers, Cummings was granted custody of Nancy for three months each year.
Cummings married for a second time, this time he married Anne Minnerly Barton on May 1, 1929. This marriage worked out better than the last, but they still got divorced 3 years after getting married. The year in which Cummings separated from Anne; he met a lady which was named Marion Morehouse. She was a fashion model and a photographer. The two did not marry, but they still lived with each other in the same house, until the death of Cummings.