Review of E. E. Cummings' Erotic Poems

Abstract

The latest compilation of Cummings material is entitled Erotic Poems, published in February 2010 by W. W. Norton. Its editor is George James Firmage, who was also responsible for such important books as E. E. Cum-mings: A Bibliography (1960), E. E. Cummings: A Miscellany Revised (1967), and especially the centennial edition of Cummings’ Complete Po-ems (1994), the definitive edition of Cummings’ poetic material. The book under review is the first compilation of Cummings’ erotic poems, and it publishes some of Cummings’ erotic drawings as well. Previously, only Richard Kostelanetz’s AnOther E. E. Cummings (1998) collected together a group of twenty eight erotic poems. In this case, the editor arranged other groups of poems under various headings, so besides “Erotic Poetry,” we also find sections labeled “Language Experiments,” “Texts Set to Music,” and “Self-Prefaces,” among others. Because of this, the nature of Erotic Poems is completely new for those who are interested on the works by the American author.