The book was an instant bestseller and found an immediate echo in the hearts of millions of readers from small rural towns and remote little settlements all over America. It allows the reader to have a glimpse of the great humane thinker and compassionate mind that created the Spoon River Anthology. This autobiographical companion piece provides wonderful insight into the workings of the creative mind and is itself a document of great human interest. In 1930, Masters wrote The Genesis of Spoon River, in which he describes the book's background, its concerns, the conditions in which he wrote and also how it was received by readers. Finally, in 1915, the entire collection was compiled into a single volume entitled the Spoon River Anthology.
These were published in a St Louis magazine, under another fictitious name, Webster Ford. He initially considered writing a novel about his early experiences, but soon gave up the idea.įrom 1914, he began publishing a series of poems based on his experiences in Lewistown, Illinois, where he spent his childhood. However, Masters secretly nursed literary ambitions and his first book of verse and several essays were published under the pseudonym of Dexter Wallace. For nearly a decade, one of his partners was the legendary lawyer, Clarence Darrow. Finally, he completed his education in law and set up a law practice in Chicago. Though he continued to study privately, he was compelled to work on a series of dull and uninspiring jobs. His father's financial problems forced the young Masters to abandon ideas of college and take up a job instead. The only difference is that they're all dead! The two hundred and forty-four poems that form the Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters is really a series of epitaphs about the citizens of a fictional town called Spoon River and deals with the “plain and simple annals” of small town America.Įdgar Lee Masters grew up in a small town in Illinois. Two hundred and twelve residents of a small town tell their stories without fear of recrimination or ridicule.
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