E. E. Cummings: Modernist Painter and Poet

The Magic Maker: E. E. Cummings
(New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1972), pp.
255-76, and chronological references
in Kennedy's biography Dreams in the
Mirror, the chief work on Cummings's
painting is by Rushworth Kidder:
"E. E. Cummings, Painter," Harvard Li-
brary Bulletin 23 (April 1975): 117-38;
"'Author of Pictures': A Study of
Cummings's Line Drawings in The
Dial," Contemporary Literature 17
(1976): 470-505; "'Twin Obsessions':
The Poetry and Paintings of E. E.
Cummings," Georgia Review 32
(Summer 1978): 342-68; "Cummings
and Cubism," Journal of Modern Liter-
ature 7 (April 1979): 225-91; and by
Milton A. Cohen: PoetandPainter: The
Aesthetics of E. E. Cummings's Early
Work (Detroit: Wayne State University
Press, 1987), pp. 33-64; E. E.
Cummings' Paintings: The Hidden Ca-
reer (Dallas: University of Texas at
Dallas and Dallas Public Library, 1982).
26 E. E. Cummings, "when faces called
flowers float out of the ground," 67,
XAIPE (1950), reprinted in Complete
Poems, p. 665. This and other poems
by Cummings appearing in this article
are reprinted by persmission of Live-
right Publishing Corp. ? 1923, 1925,
1931, and renewed 1951, 1953, 1959
by E. E. Cummings; ? 1973, 1976,
1978, 1979 by the Trustees for the
E. E. Cummings Trust; ( 1973, 1976,
1978, 1979 by George James Firmage.
27 E. E. Cummings, "n(o)w," xxxviii,
W[ViVa] (1931), reprinted in Com-
plete Poems, p. 347.
28 E. E. Cummings, i: Six Nonlectures,
Charles Eliot Norton Lectures re-
corded at Sanders Theatre, Harvard
University, 1952-53, phonograph rec-
ords, Caedmon TX 1186-91, 1965.
74 Spring 1990
29 E. E. Cummings, "ygUDuh," VII, 1 x 1
[One Times One] (1944), reprinted in
Complete Poems, p. 547.
30 E. E. Cummings, foreword to is 5
(1926), reprinted in Complete Poems,
p. 223. See also Cohen, Poetand-
Painter, p. 151.
31 Of course line in painting can also
convey passing time, as painters from
Tommaso Giovanni di Masaccio
(1401-1428) to Picasso have demon-
strated. But Cummings, in striving for
instantaneity in his painting, ignored
this potential.
32 E. E. Cummings, "Buffalo Bill's," vii,
Portraits, TULIPS, Tulips and Chimneys
(1923), reprinted in Complete Poems,
p. 60.
33 E. E. Cummings, "r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r,"
13, No Thanks (1935), reprinted in
Complete Poems, p. 396.
34 In E. E. Cummings: The Poet as Artist
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1960), chap. 5, Norman
Friedman traced Cummings's poem
"rosetree,rosetree" through numerous
drafts. Both as dynamic process and
crafted object, his poems confirm
Cummings in the classical role of
maker-poietes, as he himself acknowl-
edged: "If a poet is anybody, he is
somebody ... who is obsessed by
Making." Foreword to is 5, reprinted
in Complete Poems, p. 223.
35 Cummings, "Notes," 1940, Cummings
Papers.
36 As late as 1940, Cummings could de-
clare, "Apparently I've found my style
in painting," confirming not the dis-
covery so much as the search. "Notes,"
1940, Cummings Papers.