Product Description
"Spoon River Anthology" is a collection of poetry taken from the tombstones of the dead in a small rural American town. There is of course no Spoon River as the entire town and its inhabitants are fictional. "Spoon River Anthology" is Masters's masterpiece, a collection of poetry that reveals the posthumous confessions of the transgressions of a group of small-town Americans. Together this collection reads like a novel exposing the fallacy in the idea of the rural American utopia. "Spoon River Anthology" is a truly original work of American literature. ... Read more

Product Description
The innovative free verse collection of small-town life that made Edgar Lee Masters a legend

A literary sensation when it appeared in 1915, Spoon River Anthology earned Edgar Lee Masters comparisons to T. S. Eliot and Walt Whitman. The characters who speak here tarnish the pure image of their Midwestern hamlet by holding forth from the grave with tales of illicit love affairs, betrayed confidences, political corruption, and miserable marriages. The first serious work of psychological naturalism, this artful indictment of small-town hypocrisy influenced Theodore Dreiser, William Faulkner, and other luminaries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

We Are Spoon River
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 "Spoon River Anthology" by Edgar Lee Masters.

Anthony Trendl
http://anthonytrendl.blogspot.com ... Read more

Product Description
Here are Masters's dramatic monologues written in free verse about a fictional Midwestern town called Spoon River.The dead, "sleeping on the hill" in their village cemetery, awaken to tell the truth about their lives, toppling the myth of the moral superiority of small-town life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Spoon River Anthology
A true classic of American literature, Edgar Lee Masters paints the characters in sparse, direct language, with sardonic humor and irony. Each vignette captures the essence of the person that was his subject in just 2 or 3 paragraphs. I say "was" since they are all residents of a graveyard in a small midwestern town in 1915. Some were victims of jealousy, others were shot by the sheriff: many came to untimely deaths. Masters' genius is also evident in the timeless interconnections between characters. A most worthy addition to any bookshelf.

Dramatic Reading Poetry
Let me take issue with one review: this is not at all difficult, not if the reader reads the free verse, first-person poetry aloud. I have used these poems for decades now in my writing classes.
Each poem is a first-person narrative, spoken from the grave. And, no, it is not morbid. Not at all. Mabel Osbourne speaks about how the geranium someone has planted over her has been left to die since no one has watered it. And that, she says, is what happened to her in Spoon River (a fictional Illinois town). She is pathetic. And then there is the most wonderful final line utter by Margaret Fuller Slack, the novelist whose deathw was very ironic. And speaking of her, many of the charcters in this anthology--there are over 200 speakers--are actual historical personages including Anne Rutledge.
One of the aspects I love is the juxtaposition of characters, i.e., husbands and wives telling their stories which show very different points of view toward their failed marriages. And in Spoon River there are many failed marriages even though almost no one was able to divorce.
Edgar Lee Masters has some very defined, progressive views about society. And that is what makes these dramatic poems so relevant today.
This is material that more English teachers should be using. It makes poetry so available to students. And it is well worth buying this just to find out what that last line is in "Margaret Fuller Slack."

Get the historical context
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.

Spoon River Anthology
A wonderful set of monologues written from the perspectives of the deceased citizens of Spoon River.

Voices of Humanity
I was turned on to this book after hearing the Richard Buckner release The Hill in which the musician uses the Spoon River Anthology as the basis for his conceptual music. After listening to that disc, I was compelled to read the actual work by Edgar Lee Masters. What I found was a book that was written in 1915, but that brings to life the voices of humanity louder than anything I've read in recent years. This book is more poetry than prose, but the stories of the residents of Spoon River that are collected within the pages are stories that are not soon forgotten.

This book has moved me more than anything else I've read in recent years, and I highly recommend that others read this outstanding work of art.
... Read more

Product Description

The Hill

Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and Charley, The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, the fighter? All, all are sleeping on the hill.

One passed in a fever, One was burned in a mine, One was killed in a brawl, One died in a jail, One fell from a bridge toiling for children and wife- All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.

Where are Ella, Kate, Mag, Lizzie and Edith, The tender heart, the simple soul, the loud, the proud, the happy one?-- All, all are sleeping on the hill.

One died in shameful child-birth, One of a thwarted love, One at the hands of a brute in a brothel, One of a broken pride, in the search for heart's desire; One after life in far-away London and Paris Was brought to her little space by Ella and Kate and Mag-- All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.

Where are Uncle Isaac and Aunt Emily, And old Towny Kincaid and Sevigne Houghton, And Major Walker who had talked With venerable men of the revolution?-- All, all are sleeping on the hill.


Download Spoon River AnthologyNow! ... Read more

Product Description
I was born in London on the eighteenth of June 1815. The battle of Waterloo was being fought as I entered this world. Thousands were giving up their lives at the moment that life was being bestowed upon me. My father was in that great battle. ... Read more

Product Description
This complete and unabridged Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classic of Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology features an extensive glossary and reader's notes to help readers better understand and fully appreciate Masters' work. IN THE TOWN OF SPOON RIVER, ILLINOIS, the dead have been given one final opportunity to speak to the living in the form of epitaphs. Take a stroll through the graveyard; the words on each tombstone create an image of the way the person's life was lived. Together, these tombstones tell of a community that strove for perfection and goodness and relied heavily on faith-but, things don't always turn out as planned... Discover their secrets, heartaches, and regrets; sympathize with their guilt, anger, and sorrow; mourn with those the dead left behind; wander through the history these individuals made through their actions. Ultimately, this cemetery tells of lives that were far from perfect- sometimes, they were even far from good. Through their epitaphs, it becomes clear that these townspeople-neighbors, friends, lovers, family members, and even murderers-saw each other very differently, but now, they all are at rest, as equals, sleeping on the hill. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Classic
This really is a classic. Each poem is a person's story, usually one of pain and isolation. It could well serve as the basis for a multi-monologue play. Those who enjoyed this book might want to consider reading Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio." It's prose, but similarly a tale of many characters, who are similarly living lives of pain and isolation.

Brings Back Pleasant Memories
Spoon River is a truly classic collection of creative storytelling and universal emotion.Each character's voice further stimulates the imagination and helps to paint the picture of this fictitious yet very real town. This book is also a gift to actors and theater lovers everywhere.When I was in acting school, I was lucky enough to be assigned the "monologue" of the Lois Spears character (the gratefully blessed blind woman).This was an amazing experience for me as was being introduced to this lovely book.
-Christine Whitmarsh

NOT for a young, impressionable mind
". . .What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness,
anger, discontent and drooping hopes?
Degenerate sons and daughters,
Life is too strong for you--
It takes life to love Life."

So speaks Lucinda Matlock on page 239 in an earlier edition of this book. What comes before is 238 pages of despair. . .more despair. . .all despair. It is all ugliness: the reminiscenses of the drunks, the cruel, the broken of small town American; the confessions of its corrupt and its envious; the sights of a courthouse arson, the fetuses washed into the river. . .

I can't think of anything more depressing than this "poetic" picture of crushed Americans. This is too strong for me.

Classic worth re-reading
It's wonderful that a new volume of the Spoon River Anthology has been published after many years.The print is excellent, the size is perfect (a trade paperback.)Edgar Lee Masters' characterizations are timeless,insightful, and beautifully written.

Spoon River Anthology
This is a magnificent collection of short prose and monologues. It's the entire collection and not the stage version (the stage version is condensed and doesn't include all the pieces). All the pieces are given by characters who have come back from the grave to tell a short annecdote about themselves while alive. Some are humorous, some are tragic, and some are moralistic. Most characters are fictitious, but some are not. This is a classic peice of work and extremely well written.
... Read more

Product Description
Illustrated by John Sloan ... Read more

Product Description
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:JOHN MARSHALL.Among the signs of the times which bode ill for the purity of republican principles is the much- vaunted plan of celebrating the memory of John Marshall. This analysis of the movement is indisputably true—namely, if its patrons were devoted to the rights of men instead of the powers of government, if they were stirred by the principles of liberty instead of the glory of the state they would propose to celebrate by proper memorials the achievements and sacrifices of some one of the many men who pledged life and sacred honor in the cause of American liberty and who sought to bequeath it to posterity when it was attained.Those thinkers who place the state on a higher plane than men are usually engaged in defending unequal rights. When rights are unequal the state must be strong enough not only to make them so, but to keep them so. It ought to be a plain truth to everyone that the only justification for government is the preservation of equal rights. Men are endowed with the love of liberty and with an intuitive sense of its axiomatic truth. And when the constitution was adopted its climacteric end was stated in the preamble to be the preservation of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. But in proportion as the government becomes strong men become v/eak. In proportion asthe functions of government are multiplied individual liberty is decreased. Therefore as we must have both government and liberty what powers shall the government have? There is but one answer to this question. When the government is strong enough to protect each man in the enjoyment of equal freedom it has attained the full measure of legitimate power.One of the envious shadows that has fallen from the black cockade of federalism is the forgery of history against those who believed in libe... ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more