Review by Choice Review
Adding some 250 pages to the previous edition of the Cummings Complete Poems, this edition by George J. Firmage includes corrections of previously published texts apparently misread from manuscripts by typesetters, the unpublished poems issued as Etcetera in 1983, and a number of poems previously uncollected but published in obscure sources. Remarkably, the new edition is not considerably thicker than the prior one, though typeface is pleasingly consistent with what is already familiar to the reader. An unusual entry is Cummings's translation of Louis Aragon's Le Front Rouge. It and others of the new inclusions are of literary interest for their own sakes, though naturally many of these pieces are of peripheral significance. These matters may be left to the energies of graduate students, as perhaps may the business of corrected texts; certainly, no list of the changes made has been provided, and it may well be argued that the presence of one would only interfere with the pleasure of the general reader, as well as that of most academics. This definitive collection, perhaps this time finally living up to its name, may strike the individual collector as a bit pricey, but it can hardly be ignored by responsible college or university libraries, nor by central collections in municipal libraries of any real size or inclusiveness. A necessary volume of the work of a major American poet, who seems to have been, simultaneously, a pioneer and someone who perceived the limits to which his stylistic innovations could be taken.-J. M. Ditsky, University of Windsor
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
When Edward Estlin Cummings died in 1962, he was, next to Robert Frost, the most widely read American poet. He is still so popular--and justly so, for his ebullience, his playfulness, his musicality (he did, after all, write some of the most singing lyrics in English since the Elizabethans)--that whenever more of his poetry is found to have escaped publication, a new complete edition is in order. Thirty-six poems in this massive collection have not been published in the U.S. before, and they, along with the 164 previously unpublished poems in Etcetera [BKL Mr 1 84], justify this expansion of the Complete Poems [BKL Ja 1 73] that will no doubt justify in circulation its place in most American lit collections. ~--Ray Olson
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
With the able hand of editor Firmage, Liveright (the poet's first book publisher) has brought out the definitive edition of Cummings's poetry. This volume has been prepared directly from the poet's original manuscripts, preserving the original typography and format. It includes all the previously published works, from Tulips (1922) to Etcetera (1983), as well as 36 uncollected poems that originally appeared in little magazines or anthologies. These uncollected poems include Cummings's important translation of Louis Aragon's Le Front Rouge , with the French text en face . Firmage has written a brief introductory note and provided an extremely helpful index of first lines. This volume is a godsend for specialist and general reader alike, providing all of Cummings's poetry from the juvenilia of 1904 to the poems written just before his death in 1962. A mandatory purchase for all libraries.-- Daniel L. Guillory, Millikin Univ., Decatur, Ill. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
