Spoon River Anthology: 100th Anniversary Edition (Signet Classics)

Review of a book that I wanted in my library

There is no Spoon River, IL. Check your map. Several towns argue that they stake their claim in being what Masters asserted to be this mythical town. Petersburg and Lewistown, two towns of otherwise minor repute seem closest... but it is so much better we haven't an actual town... Spoon River's residents are our next door neighbors, whether we live in Central Illinois or Central Florida, or southern Alaska.Masters has written not fables, but the essence of American life. He hasn't captured the life and times of 1915, but has instead recorded in 1915 the life and times of our present day America.The same reason the paintings of Norman Rockwell makes sense is why Edgar Lee Masters poetry makes sense. To read the quick messages on the gravestone of one man, learning a little bit him, and something about a neighbor or two, we can learn a little about how we live in communities today.Our lives, like Jimmy Stewart's character in "It's a Wonderful Life" found out, interact and impact everyone we meet. Who we love, who we should love and who we reject. And when we die, others feel the loss. Masters has aptly put this in a humorous, yet insightful way into short verses.The poems don't rhyme. The meter is not solid, and the poetics aren't intricate. They aren't poems like Poe's or Dickinson's, not in the way they wrote American poems. Don't expect iambic pentameter-based sonnets or villanelles. Expect a conversation, and listen in.The poetry here is in the subtle use of social nuance. In the nuances are his insight and wit. Two readings will bring to light what you miss in the first.Buy this book, read it slow. It reads faster than most poetry books, but don't get caught in the temptation to zoom through each poem just because you can.After you read it, see the play if it happens to be performed in your town.I fully recommend it.Anthony TrendlAmericanSpeechwriter.com

I read most of these -over 100- very excellent short character analysis of small town mid-American characters about 60 years ago in high school. However, only a few are easy to recollect: those that are haunting in a way. I bought the book to reread these stories.

I downloaded two versions of this anthology. The OTHER one, also in ebook format, had the poems/epitaphs broken and not complete on a single page. It was quite distracting. This one, on the other hand, has the text complete and viewable on each page at the print size I used. It also has great introductory material so you can understand what makes this book special. It is a real American classic.I read this many years ago in a high school lit class. I was inspired to reread it before a trip to the rural county where I was born, since we were visiting mainly the cemetery where many generations of my parents' families were buried. It was this edition of the book, which made real for me the angst of dreams trampled, hardships endured, all hidden from prying eyes.I won't critique the writing of Edgar Lee Masters. Others do that very well. Does his work apply to us today? For me, it prepared me to stand in the middle of this quiet cemetery with the blue August sky overhead, revisit my childhood, reflect on innocent joy, missed opportunities, and on past/future hardships before my time comes to lay down beside my progenitors. I felt such a kinship with this place. This place is more a part of me than I realized.Perhaps the rather small volume will allow you to enter fully into such an experience as well.

I'm biased. My family all are from Lewistown, Illinois--most probably the context for much of the Anthology, and all of my family are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery (my name is on my parents' tombstone). My grandfather came to visit me years ago and was recounting stories from his past. I asked him if he'd read the Anthology. He hadn't but promptly read it and made marginal notes in my copy. He recognized many of the real-life characters and events. Now many of the graves of those "real life" characters are identified with markers. I just returned last month from a visit to Petersburg and the boyhood home of ELM, as well of the cemetery where he, his family, and other "characters" are buried. Interestingly enough, my grandmother and aunt took me to the same cemetery in the 50's, and the memory stuck--most probably because of Anne Rutledge. You can't grow up in Illinois without Abraham Lincoln being your hero. After visiting the boyhood home and the cemetery, I went on to Lewistown to spend most of the day photographing the graves of ELM's characters as well as those of my family, their friends, and others. How often does one find a literary work that is so grounded (no pun intended) in one's own past?

Added to my home library.

This is a difficult book, but its worth taking the time to navigate it. I strongly believe this is not a book to read in a conventional way; if you try to read it from cover to cover, most probably you will lose interest. There are a couple of good ways to approach this book; (a) research on the internet and read the monologues that you can get most background for, once you get the hang of the stories you can go ahead and read the rest by yourself. (b) You can try to follow a specific character throughout the book and figure out who talks about him/her, and what people does this character addresses. (c) Finally, (my favorite method) chose some monologues randomly and read them out-loud, better yet, ask someone to read them to you. These monologues where meant to be outspoken and a lot of them you will understand better if you hear them. You will appreciate how detailed they are; even on the way the author uses punctuation.It is a true piece of art.

It's a classic. I remembered it from reading it in high school (long, long ago). short snippets of a person's life. makes for easy reading in a doctor's office or on the bus. loved the commentary at beginning and the end. makes you think about how to summarize your own life.

Das Buch ist mir im Laufe meines Studiums aufgefallen. In meinem English Literature Kurs sollte ich hierzu einen Vortrag halten und normalerweise leihe ich mir die Bücher einfach in der Unibibliothek aus, doch dieses hat mich ehrlich fasziniert, weswegen ich es mir unbedingt kaufen wollte.Und ich wurde nicht enttäuscht!! Die "Gedichte" sind echt super und verstecken eine Vielzahl von Weisheiten und Expertise.Ich kann es besonders all denen ans Herz legen, die, wie ich, eine literarische Ader haben!Hier hat der Autor ein wahres Werk vollbracht!! Wirklich!

The book arrived with this paper sticked on the cover. The glue was really strong and made me work a lot to remove it without damage to the cover.Was it hard to see this before packing and shipping the book?Also, I expected a little better quality.The suggested price printed on the back cover is lower than the price I actually paid.But Spoon River Anthology is an amazing poem collection.