Spoon River Anthology: 100th Anniversary Edition

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

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 he 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 their 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, as undeniably corrupt and cruel as the big city, is home to murderers, drunkards, crooked bankers, lechers, bitter wives, abusive husbands, failed dreamers, and a few good souls. The freshness of this masterpiece undiminished, Spoon River Anthology remains a landmark of American literature.

With an Introduction by John Hollander and an Afterword by Ronald Primeau

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451530585
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/03/2007
Series:	Signet Classics Series
Edition description:	Anniversary
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	453,235
Product dimensions:	4.19(w) x 6.70(h) x 0.84(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

As a young man, Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950) rebelled against what he believed to be the hypocrisy of small-town life and went to Chicago, where he practiced law for thirty years. He published eleven books of verses, plays, and essays before beginning his masterpiece, Spoon River Anthology (1915). Later, Masters, Carl Sandburg, and Vachel Lindsay initiated a poetic renaissance in the Midwest, with Chicago as its center.

John Hollander (1929–2013) was an acclaimed American poet and the Sterling Professor emeritus of English at Yale University. His books include Spectral Emanations: New and Selected Poems, Harp Lake, In Time and Place, and Blue Wine and Other Poems. Hollander was also the author of a number of critical works, including Rhyme’s Reason: A Guide to English Verse.

Ronald Primeau is Professor of English and Director of the MA in Humanities at Central Michigan University. He has published books on Edgar Lee Masters, Herbert W. Martin, the literature of the American highway, and the rhetoric of television. He has edited works on Masters, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and the dynamics of literary influence.

Read an Excerpt

Spoon River Anthology

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By Masters, Edgar Lee

Tor Classics

Copyright © 1997 Masters, Edgar Lee
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780812539042

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The Hill
 
 
Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and Charley,
The weak of will, 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, 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 the revolution?-
All, all, are sleeping on the hill.
 
They brought them dead sons from the war,
And daughters whomlife had crushed,
And their children fatherless, crying--
All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.
 
Where is Old Fiddle: 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 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.
 
All new material in this edition copyright 1996 by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.

Continues...

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Excerpted from Spoon River Anthology by Masters, Edgar Lee Copyright © 1997 by Masters, Edgar Lee. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

	Introduction	xv
	Altman, Herman	218
	Armstrong, Hannah	215
	Arnett, Harold	47
	Arnett, Justice	53
	Atheist, The Village	236
	Atherton, Lucius	56
	Ballard, John	237
	Barker, Amanda	9
	Barrett, Pauline	88
	Bartlett, Ezra	117
	Bateson, Marie	222
	Beatty, Tom	148
	Beethoven, Isaiah	252
	Bennett, Hon. Henry	66
	Bindle, Nicholas	45
	Bliss, Mrs. Charles	89
	Blood, A. D.	69
	Bloyd, Wendell P.	80
	Bone, Richard	170
	Branson, Caroline	205
	Brown, Jim	108
	Brown, Sarah	34
	Browning, Elijah	253
	Burke, Robert Southey	70
	Burleson, John Horace	76
	Butler, Roy	149
	Cabanis, Flossie	36
	Cabanis, John	121
	Calhoun, Granville	178
	Calhoun, Henry C.	179
	Campbell, Calvin	193
	Carlisle, Jeremy	247
	Carman, Eugene	128
	Cheney, Columbus	220
	Chicken, Ida	106
	Childers, Elizabeth	188
	Church, John M.	83
	Churchill, Alfonso	239
	Clapp, Homer	57
	Clark, Nellie	62
	Clute, Aner	55
	Compton, Seth	167
	Conant, Edith	189
	Culbertson, E. C.	174
	Davidson, Robert	109
	Dement, Silas	171
	Dippold the Optician	182
	Dixon, Joseph	248
	Dobyns, Batterton	145
	Drummer, Frank	29
	Drummer, Hare	30
	Dunlap, Enoch	165
	Dye, Shack	175
	Ehrenhardt, Imanuel	226
	Epilogue	267
	Fallas, State's Attorney	79
	Fawcett, Clarence	129
	Ferguson, Wallace	221
	Findlay, Anthony	120
	Fluke, Willard	54
	Foote, Searcy	150
	Ford, Webster	255
	Fraser, Benjamin	21
	Fraser, Daisy	20
	French, Charlie	39
	Frickey, Ida	166
	Garber, James	241
	Gardner, Samuel	227
	Garrick, Amelia	118
	Godbey, Jacob	146
	Goldman, Le Roy	243
	Goode, William	230
	Goodhue Harry Carey	12
	Goodpasture, Jacob	46
	Graham, Magrady	183
	Gray, George	65
	Green, Ami	192
	Greene, Hamilton	111
	Griffy the Cooper	67
	Gustine, Dorcas	44
	Hainsfeather, Barney	86
	Hamblin, Carl	126
	Hately, Constance	10
	Hatfield, Aaron	251
	Hawkins, Elliott	161
	Hawley, Jeduthan	158
	Henry, Chase	11
	Herndon, William H.	211
	Heston, Roger	113
	Higbie, Archibald	184
	Hill, Doc	32
	Hill, The	1
	Hoheimer, Knowlt	27
	Holden, Barry	78
	Hookey, Sam	59
	Houghton, Jonathan	173
	Howard, Jefferson	94
	Hueffer, Cassius	7
	Hummel, Oscar	135
	Humphrey, Lydia	242
	Huxley, Scholfield	233
	Hutchins, Lambert	142
	Hyde, Ernest	112
	Iseman, Dr. Siegfried	50
	Jack, Blind	75
	James, Godwin	203
	Joe, Plymouth Rock	224
	Johnson, Voltaire	163
	Jones, Fiddler	61
	Jones, Franklin	82
	Jones, "Indignation"	23
	Jones, Minerva	22
	Jones, William	229
	Judge, The Circuit	74
	Karr, Elmer	187
	Keene, Jonas	97
	Keene, Kinsey	14
	Kessler, Bert	141
	Kessler, Mrs.	139
	Killion, Captain Orlando	246
	Kincaid, Russell	250
	King, Lyman	204
	Knapp, Nancy	77
	Konovaloff, Ippolit	196
	Kritt, Dow	228
	Layton, Henry	194
	Lively, Judge Selah	95
	M'Cumber, Daniel	103
	McDowell, Rutherford	214
	McFarlane, Widow	125
	McGee, Fletcher	5
	McGee, Ollie	4
	M'Grew, Jennie	219
	M'Grew, Mickey	133
	McGuire, Jack	43
	McNeely, Mary	102
	McNeely, Paul	101
	McNeely, Washington	100
	Malloy, Father	191
	Marsh, Zilpha	240
	Marshal, The Town	42
	Marshall, Herbert	64
	Mason, Serepta	8
	Matheny, Faith	232
	Matlock, Davis	217
	Matlock, Lucinda	216
	Melveny, Abel	159
	Merritt, Mrs.	186
	Merritt, Tom	185
	Metcalf, Willie	234
	Meyers, Doctor	24
	Meyers, Mrs.	25
	Micure, Hamlet	208
	Miles, J. Milton	231
	Miller, Julia	37
	Miner, Georgine Sand	104
	Moir, Alfred	180
	Newcomer, Professor	131
	Night-Watch, Andy the	33
	Nutter, Isa	85
	Osborne, mabel	210
	Otis, John Hancock	119
	Pantier, Benjamin	15
	Pantier, Mrs. Benjamin	16
	Pantier, Reuben	17
	Peet, Rev. Abner	93
	Pennington,Willie	235
	Penniwit, The Artist	107
	Petit, The Poet	87
	Phipps, Henry	197
	Poague, Peleg	157
	Pollard, Edmund	152
	Potter, Cooney	60
	Puckett, Lydia	28
	Purkapile, Mrs.	137
	Purkapile, Roscoe	136
	Putt, Hod	3
	Reece, Mrs. George	90
	Rhodes, Ralph	132
	Rhodes, Thomas	105
	Richter, Gustav	244
	Robbins, Hortense	144
	Roberts, Rosie	134
	Ross, Thomas, Jr.	92
	Russian Sonia	84
	Rutledge, Anne	207
	Sayre, Johnnie	38
	Scates, Hiram	156
	Schirding, Albert	96
	Schmidt, Felix	168
	Schrceder the Fisherman	169
	Scott, Julian	238
	Sexsmith the Dentist	68
	Sewall, Harlan	195
	Sharp, Percival	154
	Shaw, "Ace"	51
	Shelley, Percy Bysshe	35
	Shope, Tennessee Claflin	223
	Sibley, Amos	114
	Sibley, Mrs.	115
	Siever, Conrad	31
	Simmons, Walter	147
	Sissman, Dillard	172
	Slack, Margaret Fuller	48
	Smith, Louise	63
	Soldiers, Many	202
	Somers, Jonathan Swift	124
	Somers, Judge	13
	Sparks, Emily	18
	Spears, Lois	52
	Spooniad, The	257
	Standard, W. Lloyd Garrison	130
	Stewart, Lillian	143
	Stoddard, Judson	249
	Tanner, Robert Fulton	6
	Taylor, Deacon	58
	Theodore the Poet	41
	Thornton, English	164
	Throckmorton, Alexander	123
	Todd, Eugenia	98
	Tompkins, Josiah	138
	Trainor, the Druggist	19
	Trevelyan, Thomas	153
	Trimble, George	49
	Tripp, Henry	177
	Tubbs, Hildrup	176
	Turner, Francis	81
	Tutt, Oaks	160
	Unknown, The	122
	Wasson, John	201
	Wasson, Rebecca	213
	Webster, Charles	190
	Weirauch, Adam	116
	Weldy, "Butch"	26
	Wertman, Elsa	110
	Whedon, Editor	127
	Whitney, Harmon	140
	Wiley, Rev. Lemuel	91
	Will, Arlo	245
	William and Emily	73
	Williams, Dora	71
	Williams, Mrs.	72
	Wilmans, Harry	199
	Witt, Zenas	40
	Yee Bow	99
	Zoll, Perry	181
	For Further Reading	285