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29-629: Edgar Lee Masters (August 23, 1868 – March 5, 1950) was an American attorney, poet, biographer, and dramatist. He is the author of Spoon River Anthology , The New Star Chamber and Other Essays , Songs and Satires , The Great Valley , The Serpent in the Wilderness , An Obscure Tale , The Spleen , Mark Twain: A Portrait , Lincoln: The Man , and Illinois Poems . In all, Masters published twelve plays, twenty-one books of poetry, six novels and six biographies, including those of Abraham Lincoln , Mark Twain , Vachel Lindsay , and Walt Whitman . He

58-529: A dream out of a blessed sleep – Let's walk, and hear the lark." Edgar's father was Hardin Wallace Masters, whose father was Squire Davis Masters, whose father was Thomas Masters, whose father was Hillery Masters, the son of Robert Masters (born c. 1715, Prince George's County, Maryland , the son of William W. Masters and wife Mary Veatch Masters). Edgar Lee Masters wrote in his autobiography, Across Spoon River (1936), that his ancestor Hillery Masters

87-608: A few cases, not at all. Most notable is Anne Rutledge , regarded in local legend to be Abraham Lincoln 's early love interest (though there is no actual proof of such a relationship); Masters heard this legend from his grandfather. Rutledge's grave can be found in a Petersburg cemetery, and a tour of graveyards in both towns, especially Oak Hill Cemetery in Lewistown, reveals most of the surnames that Masters applied to his characters. After growing up and leaving Lewistown for Chicago, Masters met and befriended William Marion Reedy ,

116-399: A memorial statue of Masters and offers a self-guided walking tour of the graves that inspired the poems. In 2015, the town celebrated the 100th anniversary of the anthology's publication with tours, exhibitions, and theatrical performances. Today Spoon River Anthology often is assigned in high school and college literature classes and as a source of monologues for theatrical auditions. It

145-628: A nursing home on March 5, 1950, in Melrose Park, Pennsylvania , age 81. He is buried in Oakland cemetery in Petersburg, Illinois. His epitaph includes his poem, "To-morrow is My Birthday" from Toward the Gulf (1918): "Good friends, let's to the fields ... After a little walk, and by your pardon, I think I'll sleep. There is no sweeter thing, Nor fate more blessed than to sleep. I am

174-473: A series of poems (this time under the pseudonym Webster Ford) about his childhood experiences in western Illinois, which appeared in Reedy's Mirror , a St. Louis publication. In 1915 the series was bound into a volume and re-titled Spoon River Anthology . Years later, he wrote a memorable and invaluable account of the book's background and genesis, his working methods and influences, as well as its reception by

203-476: A sheet of paper or a notebook hidden away with their copy of the Anthology, saying who was who in town". Masters capitalized on the success of Spoon River Anthology with the 1924 sequel The New Spoon River , in which Spoon River became a suburb of Chicago and its inhabitants have been urbanized. The second work was less successful and received poorer reviews. In 1933, Masters wrote a retrospective essay on

232-469: Is also often used in second-year characterization work in the Meisner technique of actor training. Spoon River Anthology is credited as an initial inspiration for the "audio log" storytelling device in video games as it first appeared in the game System Shock , a narrative technique that became a standard trope of narrative games. Decker Press Too Many Requests If you report this error to

261-491: Is secretly her illegitimate child—forms a gripping, if not pretty, whole. Many of the characters who make appearances in Spoon River Anthology were based on people that Masters knew or heard of in the two towns in which he grew up: Petersburg and Lewistown, Illinois . Masters sometimes substantially disguised the names of these real-life inspirations, but he sometimes disguised them only barely and, in

290-851: The Illinois was released in 1942. Masters was awarded the Mark Twain Silver Medal in 1936, the Poetry Society of America medal in 1941, the Academy of American Poets Fellowship in 1942, and the Shelly Memorial Award in 1944. In 2014, he was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. Spoon River Anthology The first poem serves as an introduction: "The Hill" Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and Charley, The weak of will,

319-492: The Illinois Supreme Court. In 1911 he started his own law firm, despite three years of unrest (1908–1911) caused by extramarital affairs and an argument with Darrow. Two of his children followed him with literary careers. His daughter Marcia Masters pursued poetry, while his son Hilary Masters became a novelist. Hilary and his half-brother Hardin wrote a memoir of their father. Masters died in poverty at

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348-470: The Wilderness in 1933, Richmond in 1934, Invisible Landscapes in 1935, The Golden Fleece of California in 1936, Poems of People in 1936, The New World in 1937, and More People in 1939. Two of his later volumes were published by the Decker Press after its founder, James Decker, asked Masters for permission to print his work; Masters agreed and Illinois Poems was published in 1941 and Along

377-565: The composition of Spoon River Anthology and the response it received, entitled "The Genesis of Spoon River". He recounts, among other things, the "exhaustion of body" that befell him while writing, which eventually manifested in pneumonia and a year-long bout of illness as the work was being prepared for publication. He claims that the Lewistown residents who strove to identify the poems' characters with real people did so only "with poor success". More recently, Lewistown celebrated its relationship to Masters's poetry. The Oak Hill Cemetery features

406-560: The critics, favorable and hostile, in an autobiographical article notable for its human warmth and general interest. Although he never matched the success of Spoon River Anthology , he published several other volumes of poems including Book of Verses in 1898, Songs and Sonnets in 1910, The Great Valley in 1916, Song and Satires in 1916, The Open Sea in 1921, The New Spoon River in 1924, Lee in 1926, Jack Kelso in 1928, Lichee Nuts in 1930, Gettysburg, Manila, Acoma in 1930, Godbey, sequel to Jack Kelso in 1931, The Serpent in

435-478: The fish-frys of long ago, Of the horse-races of long ago at Clary's Grove, Of what Abe Lincoln said One time at Springfield. Each of the following poems is an autobiographical epitaph of a dead citizen, delivered by the dead themselves. Characters include Tom Merritt, Amos Sibley, Carl Hamblin, Fiddler Jones and A.D. Blood. They speak about the sorts of things one might expect: Some recite their histories and turning points, others make observations of life from

464-588: The originals. Among these new additions were "Andy the Night-Watch", "Isa Nutter," "Plymouth Rock Joe" and "The Epilogue." Spoon River Anthology was a critical and commercial success. Ezra Pound 's review of the Spoon River poems begins: "At last! At last America has discovered a poet." Carl Sandburg 's review is similarly glowing: "Once in a while a man comes along who writes a book that has his own heart-beats in it. The people whose faces look out from

493-509: The outside, and petty ones complain of the treatment of their graves, while few tell how they really died. The subject of afterlife receives only the occasional brief mention, and even those seem to be contradictory. Speaking without reason to lie or fear the consequences, they construct a picture of life in their town that is shorn of façades. The interplay of various villagers—such as a bright and successful man crediting his parents for all he's accomplished, and an old woman weeping because he

522-488: The owner, publisher and editor of the St. Louis-based literary magazine Reedy's Mirror . By the time Masters wrote the poems that became Spoon River Anthology, he had published some poetry with some success; these prior poems, however, were more conventional in style and subject matter. Masters later wrote that it was Reedy, through his criticism and friendship, who encouraged him to write "something more distinctive than what I

551-436: The pages of the book are the people of life itself, each trait of them as plain or as mysterious as in the old home valley where the writer came from. Such a writer and book are realized here." The book sold 80,000 copies over four years, making it an international bestseller by the standards of the day. Meanwhile, those who lived in the Spoon River region objected to their portrayal in the anthology, particularly as so many of

580-479: The poems' characters were based on real people. The book was banned from Lewistown schools and libraries until 1974. Even Masters's mother, who sat on the Lewistown library board, voted for the ban. (Masters claimed "My mother disliked [the anthology]; my father adored it".) Despite this, the anthology remained widely read in Lewistown; local historian Kelvin Sampson notes that "Every family in Lewistown probably had

609-535: The proud, the happy one?— All, all are sleeping on the hill. One died in shameful child-birth, One of a thwarted love, One at the hands of a brute in a brothel, One of a broken pride, in the search for heart's desire; One after life in far-away London and Paris Was brought to her little space by Ella and Kate and Mag— All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill. Where are Uncle Isaac and Aunt Emily, And old Towny Kincaid and Sevigne Houghton, And Major Walker who had talked With venerable men of

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638-464: The pseudonym Webster Ford. William Marion Reedy , owner, publisher and editor of the magazine revealed the poems' true authorship in November 1914, after 21 weekly entries. The first bound edition of Spoon River Anthology was published by The Macmillan Company in 1915 with a total of 213 poems. Masters added 33 new poems in the 1916 edition, expanding on new characters with connections to some of

667-456: The revolution?— All, all are sleeping on the hill. They brought them dead sons from the war, And daughters whom life had crushed, And their children fatherless, crying— All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill. Where is Old Fiddler Jones Who played with life all his ninety years, Braving the sleet with bared breast, Drinking, rioting, thinking neither of wife nor kin, Nor gold, nor love, nor heaven? Lo! he babbles of

696-402: The strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, the fighter? All, all are sleeping on the hill. One passed in a fever, One was burned in a mine, One was killed in a brawl, One died in a jail, One fell from a bridge toiling for children and wife— All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill. Where are Ella, Kate, Mag, Lizzie and Edith, The tender heart, the simple soul, the loud,

725-405: The town's cemetery at Oak Hill and the nearby Spoon River , were the inspirations for many of his works, most notably Spoon River Anthology , his most famous and acclaimed work. He attended Knox Academy in 1889–1890, a now defunct preparatory program run by Knox College , but was forced to leave by his family's inability to finance his education. After working in his father's law office, he

754-582: Was admitted to the Illinois bar and moved to Chicago, where he established a law partnership in 1893 with the law firm of Kickham Scanlan. He married twice. In 1898 he married Helen M. Jenkins, the daughter of Robert Edwin Jenkins, a lawyer in Chicago, and had three children. From 1903 to 1911, Masters was partners in the firm of Darrow, Masters and Wilson with Clarence Darrow , the famous trial lawyer, and Francis S. Wilson , who later served as Chief Justice of

783-613: Was born in Garnett, Kansas , to attorney Hardin Wallace Masters and Emma Jerusha Dexter. His father had briefly moved to set up a law practice, then soon moved back to his paternal grandparents' farm near Petersburg in Menard County, Illinois . In 1880 they moved to Lewistown, Illinois , where he attended high school and had his first publication in the Chicago Daily News . The culture around Lewistown, in addition to

812-539: Was doing, somehow, someway, but without telling me how to do it." Masters in particular credited Reedy with introducing him to the Greek Anthology , a collection of classical period epigrams , to which Spoon River Anthology is stylistically similar. Spoon River Anthology originally was published in serial form in Reedy's Mirror from May 29, 1914, until January 5, 1915. The poems were attributed initially to

841-418: Was the son of "Knotteley" Masters, but family genealogies show that Hillery and Notley Masters were, in fact, brothers. Masters first published his early poems and essays under the pseudonym Dexter Wallace (after his mother's maiden name and his father's middle name) until the year 1903, when he joined the law firm of Clarence Darrow . Masters began developing as a notable American poet in 1914, when he began

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