Customer Reviews (1)

Into Cemeteries?
Outstanding quality.I was a little disappointed in the lack of biographical information. ... Read more

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Toward the Gulf. please visit www.valdebooks.com for a full list of titles ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Epitaphs; Cemeteries; Illinois; Literary Criticism / General; Poetry / General; Fiction / Literary; Drama / American; Poetry / General; Poetry / Anthologies; Poetry / American / General; Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (41)

Classic
A book ahead of its time,
Spoon River Anthology
captures over 220 epitaphs
written as poems..
Stories told about their lives..
Poetry about the people
of the Prairie,frontier America,
failure, the breakdown
of the American dream,
Spoon Rover Anthology
captures America around the turn of
the 20th Century & before the first World War,
this is a book of poetry
as much as also American history,
Edgar Lee Masters did his
thing with
SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY..

Spoon River Anthology
THE SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY

If anyone has ever visited a cemetery overlooking a small town, there is a mystical milieu which permeates the place.When a gentle wind blows and the leaves flutter, one can almost sense a faint hint of the collected wisdom entombed there.This collected, faded voice is just barely audible to the listening ear.

For the denizens of the town cemetery, the sunrises and sunsets; the four seasons and life below just roll into days, months and years.Changes take shape and before you know, another generation has passed into the stream of time.


Each marked or unmarked grave has a story to tell.Their story is unique regardless of the length of the life which each person had before being laid to rest in the cemetery.

Edgar Lee Masters takes these faded voices and tell their gripping tales of joy and woe.The different layers of society from the rich to the poor; the righteous to the unrighteous; the joyful to the sad are all here expressing their final sentiments before they begin their sleep without dreams on the hill by the river.Their fading voices forever lost in the silence of the wingless void.

The Spoon River is a metaphor for the river of life.Life is like an old riverboat that drifts along the ebbs of the winding river.For on this riverboat you have an assortment of characters-good and bad, but mostly mediocre lives toiling to survive a mundane existence.

Masters takes these faded voices by he river and bring them to the ears of the living.Some of these voices are quiet like a whisper while others are like jubilee trumpets.

Each voice is important because each voice represents a man or woman who shared a place in this cosmos called Spoon River. Like the distant light of stars which greet us each cloudless night, these voices stir the winds about us until we are enveloped by them like a river fog which drifts about us.These disembodied thoughts are the last vapors ofthe lives touched by the elements of nature and the cruel hand of neighbor and family.

For there can be no greater tragedy for a life, then for it to be forgotten by those individuals touched by it.Masters demands that these faded entities should have their obelisk of immortality.Their words will be still read and pondered long after the human frames of dust are mingled with the soils of time.

Spoon River is not a myth.It is a reality which faces every human soul.For one day each of us regardless of our standing in our own society will be entombed in the cemetery on the edge of town.

What will we have to say from our final resting place?Perhaps, words like these:

Chase Henry: In life I was the town drunkard
Judge Somers: I lie here unmarked, forgotten
Minerva Jones: I thirsted for love! I hungered so for life.
Dorcas Gustine: But silence poisons the soul
Margaret Fuller Slack: Sex is the curse of life!
Robert Davidson: Remember the acorn. It does not devour other acorns.
Editor Whedon: And abortions are hidden.
Elizabeth Childers: Death is better than Life!

Before you read the book, visit your local cemetery and walk among the graves and read those slabs of stone with bits of information about the ones beneath.Then read the book.

The story of America by Americans of all kinds
A classic of American literature, it tells the story of the America I grew up in, the one that still exists and thrives.

Spoon River Anthology(signet classics)
This is incredile writing, Masters ability to give his characters a voice that reachs ones heart and mind simply amazing. Ernest Hyde, is an excellent example of this as well as Amanda Barker,Yee Bow and many others. These are the names of some the voices that Masters sets free. There dry innocent voices are oddly humorous and this is what i find the most refreshing.This is free verse at its finest.

Spoon River flows through humanity
Masters' Spoon River Anthology is as poignant today as when it was written. Part glimpse of history, part poetic essay on the eternal frailties of the human animal, the epitaphs are riveting from first to last. Read it. Then get a spoken word recording. Then read it again. You'll find these characters live on. ... Read more

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1921. A collection of verse from the American poet and novelist who practiced law for nearly thirty years and is best remembered for Spoon River Anthology, a series of poems about his boyhood experiences in western Illinois, and the book that would make his reputation and become one of the most popular and widely known works in all of American literature. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. ... Read more

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Originally published in 1920 1919. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

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And it happened then My mind was hard, as muscles of the back Grow hard resisting cold or shock or strain And need the osteopath to be made supple, To give the nerves and streams of life a chance. ... Read more

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Spoon River Anthology, written by legendary author Edgar Lee Masters is widely considered to be one of the greatest books of all time. This great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, Spoon River Anthology is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this gem by Edgar Lee Masters is highly recommended. Published by Classic Books International and beautifully produced, Spoon River Anthology would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library. ... Read more

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1916. A collection of verse from the American poet and novelist who practiced law for nearly thirty years and is best remembered for Spoon River Anthology, a series of poems about his boyhood experiences in western Illinois, and the book that would make his reputation and become one of the most popular and widely known works in all of American literature. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. ... Read more

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HENRY got me with child, Knowing that I could not bring forth life Without losing my own. In my youth therefore I entered the portals of dust. Traveler, it is believed in the village where I lived That Henry loved me with a husband's love But I proclaim from the dust That he slew me to gratify his hatred. ... Read more

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American Literary Classic ... Read more