Born October 14, 1894, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just blocks away from Harvard Yard, Edward Estlin Cummings (known as e. e. cummings) grew up in a happy and intellectually stimulating household. His father, Edward Cummings, was a Harvard professor and, later, a Unitarian minister, who fostered a love for books and knowledge in his children. His mother, Rebecca Haswell Clarke, was descended from a long line ofNew England writers and intellectuals. One of them, Susanna Haswell Rowson, wrote Charlotte Temple, considered by many literary historians to be the first American novel.

As a child, cummings's artistic and literary interests were encouraged by his parents, and he determined early that he wanted to become a poet. After graduating fromCambridge Latin School, cummings entered Harvard, where he studied poetry and the visual arts and contributed poems to the Harvard Advocate and the Harvard Monthly. Cummings was also featured in the anthology...