Edgar Lee Masters: A Biography - Softcover

Russell, Herbert K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0252073142 ISBN 13: 9780252073144

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2005

Synopsis

Entertainingly well-written and jargon free, unsentimental but compassionate, using heretofore unavailable material, including the first use of Masters

About this title

Review:

"Russell achieves a splendidly multidimensional view of Masters, the complex man as well as the prolific writer." Library Journal "This is the first full biography of Masters, and it is also likely to be the last, Russell has done his job so well...Crisply written, meticulously researched and documented, this is the biography of Masters for the foreseeable future." James Hurt, author of Writing Illinois: The Prairie, Lincoln, and Chicago

Synopsis:

Now in paperback, this is the first book-length biography of Edgar Lee Masters, author of the celebrated "Spoon River Anthology", one of the most widely read and discussed works of poetry ever written in America. Herbert K. Russell, acknowledged as the foremost authority on Masters, brilliantly conveys the internal contradictions that drove Masters throughout his life. Masters was one of America's most prolific authors yet only one of his works afforded him lasting recognition. He was a successful Chicago lawyer yet he detested the practice of law, and he married twice but was constantly in pursuit of other women.Russell is the first scholar to be allowed to read and quote from all of Masters' diaries, his correspondence, and the unpublished chapters of his 1936 autobiography "Across Spoon River". Russell skillfully tempers Masters' own version of events to craft a nuanced account of the poet's tempestuous relationships, impetuous business decisions, and artistic struggles. Herbert K. Russell, retired director for college relations at John A.

Logan College, Carterville, Illinois, is the editor of "The Enduring River: Edgar Lee Masters' Uncollected Spoon River Poems" and other books.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0252073142
• ISBN 13: 9780252073144
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496