Spoon River Anthology

Masters, Edgar Lee, 1868-1950Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.3

Word count: 170K words
Chapters: 17

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. Author: Masters, Edgar Lee, 1868-1950. Language: English. Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature. Release Date: Apr 1, 1998.

Editor's review

Spoon River Anthology is a poetry collection written by Edgar Lee Masters in the form of epitaphs, in which the dead of the small town of Spoon River each recount their lives. The short pieces echo one another, piecing together the desires, secrets, and regrets beneath a respectable surface. Its value lies in presenting ordinary people's fates in calm, restrained verse, breaking the romantic image of small-town life; the language is spare and lingers long after reading. This is a public-domain Project Gutenberg electronic edition, convenient for searching and reading on the go. It suits literature classes and poetry workshops as a model of narrative poetry and ensemble portraiture, and also suits quiet reading sessions of a few pieces at a time, to savor the contrasts and ironies between short chapters; rather than seeking continuous plot, readers should note how different voices describe the same event differently. The reading setting leans toward independent close reading and discussion.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers who enjoy narrative poetry and ensemble portraiture
Language or literature teachers seeking poetry teaching materials
General readers interested in small-town life and the darker side of human nature
Learners who want to approach American poetry through short pieces

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer continuous, long-form plot-driven novels
Readers expecting light humor or pastoral idyll
Beginners who find reading English poetry in the original difficult

Reading tips

Read three to five pieces a day, jot down character relationships, and after finishing a section look back at earlier and later echoes.
Start by jumping to pieces with interesting titles or identities, then read through the whole book to grasp the ensemble structure.
Have friends take turns reading different characters' self-accounts aloud and discuss the different versions of the same event.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What genre is this book?

It is a poetry collection that lets the town's dead each tell their life stories in epitaph monologues; the pieces are short but interconnected and can be seen as ensemble narrative written in verse.

How difficult is the English?

The verse is generally concise, but it involves many characters, period background, and an ironic tone. Intermediate English reading ability is recommended, along with notes or an introduction.

Does it need to be read in one sitting?

No. The pieces are relatively independent and suit reading in installments; reading the whole book makes it easier to notice the echoes between characters and the different accounts of the same event.

Comments

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About the author

Masters, Edgar Lee, 1868-1950 Author

Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950) was an American poet best known for Spoon River Anthology, a collection of verse epitaphs in which the dead of a small town speak for themselves. In spare, unsentimental lines, these poems expose the secrets, disappointments, and ironies hidden beneath ordinary lives, breaking with the solemn tone of traditional elegy and leaving a clear mark on the subjects and voice of modern American poetry. The library holds nine of his works, including, besides Spoon River Anthology, The Open Sea, The Great Valley, Starved Rock, Mitch Miller, Songs and Satires, Toward the Gulf, and Domesday Book. These touch on nature and regional landscape, the historical memory of the American Midwest, and observations of social life. Masters is generally noted for his realistic portraits of people and places, written in plain language with an ironic edge. Public information about his life and education is limited, so no details are given here.