| Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950)
The poetic legacy of Edgar Lee Masters pretty much begins and ends with his publication of the book "Spoon River Anthology" in 1915. Through more than 200 short monologues, spoken by the past generation's residents of the fictional small town of Spoon River, Illinois, the speakers, now dead and buried on "the hill," reveal a town with its full share of sin, sex, crime, jealousy, scheming, moneygrubbing, envy, backbiting and all the rest. Americans of 1915 were scandalized and the book therefore became a U.S. bestseller.
If you are new to SRA, read Masters' great introduction, "The Hill", then some of the profiles, and return to the town poet's immortal and hilarious epic, "The Spooniad".
| Meet some interesting late citizens of Spoon River. Find the rest at: Poemhunter, where a PDF file can be downloaded. Versions for Kindle and other e-text readers are available at ManyBooks.net
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