ABSTRACT
June 1920, vol. lxviii, 781–4
Edward Estlin Cummings (1894–1962) emerged as a leading poet of the American avant-garde during the 1920s. His ‘Selected Poems, 1923–1958’ was published by Faber & Faber in 1960. Eliot gave his opinion of Cummings in a letter to Charles Norman dated 13 September 1957: ‘I have a very high opinion of Mr Cummings as a poet, in spite of my dislike of his typography’ (cited by Charles Norman in ‘E.E. Cummings: The Magic-Maker’ (New York, 1964), p. 120). Norman also reports some remarks of Malcolm Cowley's, dealing with Cummings's view of ‘The Waste Land’: ‘E.E. Cummings asked me why Eliot couldn't write his own lines instead of borrowing from dead poets. In his remarks I sensed a feeling almost of betrayal.’
Reprinted in ‘A Miscellany’, edited by George J. Fir-mage and published in 1958 as a privately printed edition. The essay may be found in the edition of 1966, published in London by Peter Owen, on pp. 25–9.
