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Spoon River Anthology

Name: Spoon River Anthology
Author: Edgar Lee Masters
ISBN: 9780451530585

by Edgar Lee Masters, Ronald Primeau (Afterword), John Hollander

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Overview

In 1915, Edgar Lee Masters published a book of dramatic monologues written in free verse about a fictional town called Spoon River. Based on the midwestern towns where Edgar Lee Masters grew up, the shocking scandals and secret tragedies of Spoon River were immediately recognized by readers as authentic. Masters raises the dead "sleeping on the hill" in the village cemetery to tell the truth about their lives, and their testimony topples the American myth of the moral superiority of small-town life. Spoon River is as undeniably corrupt and truel as the big city, and is home to murderers, drunkards, crooked bankers, lechers, bitter wives and abusive husbands, failed dreamers, and a few good souls. The freshness of this landmark work has not diminished, and Spoon River Anthology remains an American classic.

A notorious success when it was first published in 1915, this collection of dramatic monologues by over 200 former inhabitants of the fictional town of Spoon River topples the myth of moral superiority in small-town America, as the dead give testimony to their shocking scandals and secret tragedies.

Synopsis

An American poetry classic, in which former citizens of a mythical midwestern town speak touchingly from the grave of the thwarted hopes and dreams of their lives.

About the Author, Edgar Lee Masters

Edgar Lee Masters (1869—1950) grew up in western Illinois and worked as a lawyer. In 1915 he published his major work, Spoon River Anthology, which became an instant bestseller and won several literary awards. Jerome Loving, a recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships for biography, is Distinguished Professor of English at Texas A&M University.