Spoon River Anthology

Posting some pictures here of the LEC Spoon River Anthology followed by some comments and some other relevant photographs.

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From the ML (presumably written by George Macy):



(to be continued)

When I read in the ML that Masters and Dreiser knew each other I started doing a little investigation. What I found may interest you.

To begin with, these are some editorial notes from a collection of Dreiser's letters titled 'Letters to Women' (see point 8 in particular):



The notes above pertain, in part, to a letter by Dreiser whose relevant extract (for the purpose of this discussion) I give below:



This letter-extract is to be read together with Masters's introduction to the LEC Spoon River Anthology (henceforth, SRA) where on two occasions Masters writes about Powys having lectured on SRA (with Masters secretly attending one such lecture). I wonder if Powys started taking SRA seriously after hearing Dreiser waxing eloquent about it. For some reason Masters thought it best not to mention in the LEC introduction that he was a personal friend of both Dreiser and also of Powys (for Powys had gone on to befriend Dreiser and Masters eventually).

In his autobiography, Powys has written:

𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝑰 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒖𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒓𝒆𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑴𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅.

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A letter of Dreiser to Masters and a photograph of them together:





(to be continued)

Spoon River Anthology (SRA) comprises of roughly four parts: a blank verse poem which serves as a prologue, a collection of poems in blank verse which is the longest portion of the book, and two other shorter sections.

The prologue gives epitaphs of several people in the third person (with an omniscient narrator) and served as a hook for me at least: I knew I was reading some great literature as soon as I read it. This is what it looks like:





The second part comprises mainly of individual epitaphs usually in the first person. That is, a dead person is writing their own epitaph. There was a peculiarity in these epitaphs in that a peripheral character in an epitaph could become the central character of another epitaph. That is the self-epitaph of a dead person may refer to one or more other people and these people would have their own self-epitaphs in the book. In a way this reminded me of Winesburg, Ohio where a peripheral character in one of the short stories could become the central character in another story in the book. Mid-way through writing Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson, it is recorded, had been given a copy of the SRA and had read it the same day late into the night. When Winesburg, Ohio was eventually published there was so much talk of whether Anderson had been inspired by Masters in the writing of Winesburg, Ohio that Anderson's publisher had to issue a statement saying that several of the Winesburg stories had already been published in magazines by the time SRA was published.

As an example of the peculiar connection in these inter-linked poems, consider these two (among my favourites):





Another one that I liked (notice that in this self-epitaph, the judge mentions a few names--you can be sure that some or all of these people will have their own poems/self-epitaphs in SRA):



(to be continued)

Some of the self-epitaphs are quite short, but still pithy. For instance:



There was one that appealed to me because of the humor:



However, at least two of the poems are not self-epitaphs but something else. The first of these is a tribute to Theodore Dreiser:



(And if you doubt whether Theodore the Poet is the same as Theodore Dreiser, you can consult this rather authoritative reference:

https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2015/novemberdecember/statement/how-the-once-bann...

)

The second of the poems that are not self-epitaphs involves Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had practiced as a lawyer in Illinois and Masters, also from Illinois and coming from a family which included several lawyers, knew some people (among them, some elderly relatives) who had personally interacted with Lincoln. I imagine this poem is based on an actual incident:



One of the self-epitaphs in the book is of Anne Rutledge who, in the epitaph, confesses her love for Lincoln and of his love for her. There are also two or three epitaphs which are believed to be self-epitaphs of Masters himself. Altogether, in his introduction to the LEC edition, Masters informs us that there are two hundred and forty four characters in the book, not counting the ones in the third and fourth section of the book.

(to be continued)

The third section of the book, comprising thankfully only a few pages, I did not particularly like at first glance. It is not blank verse, but rhymed verse, and the style is very different--it is quite dense and not lucid and limpid like the poems in the earlier two sections. In this section all or most of the characters in the first two sections seem to have been dealt with together (along with perhaps some new characters who do not figure in the first two sections).

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The fourth section I found quite different. It seems to be a philosophical meditation on existence. Some mythological or real characters from different religions talk, or are referred to, but the narrators keep changing and sometimes become anonymous (being referred to as 'First Voice', 'Second Voice', etc.). Eventually, the narrator of the poem becomes the Sun (yes, the same Sun around which the earth revolves), then the narrator becomes the Milky Way and finally the book concludes with some words by 'Infinite Space'. I liked the philosophical poetry, but haven't quite understood the embedded philosophy yet. If someone knows of a commentary on this fourth section, or if they have some understanding of this section, please do share here.

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I found the illustrations to be of uneven quality. Two of them I liked which I am giving below; the rest were either above average or average so far as LEC illustrations go. (But I admit I am not a good judge of illustrations.) The overall production quality of this book is very good though and it ranks among my favourites for this reason and also because of the content.

Excellent! Thanks for highlighting this one in depth. Some very beautiful lines in those poems you have highlighted; poignant and intriguing, and I love the concept.

Several times I've pondered ordering this LEC, but I wasn't at all familiar with the work and, until now, had never taken the time to explore it. My mistake! Now bumped right up the wish list.

>6 GardenOfForkingPaths: Do share your thoughts once you've read the book. I am particularly interested in reading what you and others who've read it think of the mysterious philosophical meditation which comprises the final pages of the book.

Surprisingly, there is a bilingual edition (English and Italian translation) published by Alberto Tallone Editore in 2007. Of course, it features the flawless Tallone letterpress printing using a 19th century handpress and the classical, austere Tallone page design. You haven't lived until you have read 'Spoon River Anthology' in Italian.

>8 dlphcoracl: Didn't realize it was so popular in Italy:

https://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/story/entertainment/books/2014/04/16/analyzing-an...

Although I am still not a fan of all the illustrations in this book, I am beginning to like more of them. For instance:



And the corresponding poem:



I think one of the strong points of Boardman Robinson's work is his ability to portray distinctive facial features.

>10 blue.eyes2: "I think one of the strong points of Boardman Robinson's work is his ability to portray distinctive facial features"

Absolutely! His portraits of Ahab and Lear are what make his illustrations for those indispensable.

>11 Django6924: I haven't seen the Lear illustrations yet, but that Ahab illustration has got to be one of the all time great LEC illustrations.