Edward Estlin Cummings

e.e. cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1894. He studied at Harvard. During World War I, while serving with a volunteer ambulance corps in France, he was arrested by the French authorities and detained for a period in a concentration camp. This experience led to his first book, "The Enormous Room" (1922), one of the masterpieces of anti-war literature. Cummings successfully explored almost every genre of literature and also pursued painting. Examples include his plays "Him" (1928) and "Santa Claus" (1946); a dance scenario, "Tom" (1935); a significant number of sketches, oil paintings, and watercolors; the renowned travel journal "Eimi" (1938); and, of course, his 11 poetry collections. He was a member of the Academy of American Poets and was awarded the Bollingen Prize in 1957, the highest honor for poetry in America. Cummings mostly lived in New York, previously in Paris, and occasionally at his farm in New England. He traveled throughout Europe and visited Greece twice (in 1950 and 1960). He passed away in September 1962 in North Conway, New Hampshire, at the age of 67.