School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-Reef has penned an engaging and informative chronicle of the life of this talented and unconventional artist. Each chapter is packed with details of cummings's life and work, all carefully documented with source notes. Period photos and reproductions, including a number of cummings's drawings and paintings, illustrate his life and the world events that he experienced. His unique poetic style is explained and illustrated with well-chosen selections. His financial hardships as well as his romantic struggles and failed relationships are also examined. An excellent resource for students of the poet's literary works, this is also a solid example of literary biography, and as such should also appeal to readers interested in the lives of noteworthy artists. A high-quality effort.-Elaine Fort Weischedel, Milton Public Library, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
(Middle School, High School) Growing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts (a town dedicated to the adulation of Longfellow and Lowell), may have led Edward Estlin Cummings to rebel, but Reef makes it clear that the king of experimental poetry was deeply grounded in the very structure he subverted. At the Latin School and later Harvard, he studied with famous scholars, all the while supported by a stable, loving family throughout a life of personal, professional, and political challenges. Reef explores the dynamic interaction of events and poetry to portray a man whose story would not be complete without an understanding of both. Though Cummings is famous for his lighter verse, Reef emphasizes the shock with which audiences greeted his frequently contentious work. One printer left a blank page in Cummings's 1935 book No Thanks rather than publish a poem beginning ""they speak whatever's on their mind / they do whatever's in their pants / the boys i mean are not refined / they shake the mountains when they dance."" Cummings's life reads like a romantic adventure, though Reef takes care to include his darker moments of conflict (with father, lovers, daughter, critics) and the toll taken by two world wars and the Depression. A generous selection of black-and-white photographs vivifies the facts, while the spacious format gives Cummings's words room to spread out on the page as only he could arrange them. Endnotes include sources for all quotes (hurray!), and there's also a conscientious bibliography, a glossary, a list of Cummings's major works, a section of photo credits, and an index. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A cogent biography weaves life and poetry together for an appreciative look at the unconventional and exacting artist. Reef takes readers from the happy childhood that nurtured his flair for theatrics, as well as his ear for language and rhythm, through his career at Harvard, where he encountered the avant-garde, to his rather feckless adulthood, in which his only real constant was his dedication to his art. Braided into this flowing account are the artistic and literary lions Cummings met along the way, the loyal friends and family who supported the poet as he traveled and wrote and the women he loved and sometimes married. An abundance of archival illustrations sets the scene throughout, and Cummings's poetry is reproduced in its full typographical idiosyncrasy. Graceful commentary on the poems, both as works themselves and as they related to events in his life, make this effort stand out. It would have been made even stronger with fuller contextualization of Cummings's work among his contemporaries; as it is, it represents a solid introduction to one of the early 20th-century's more provocative American poets. (notes, bibliography, glossary, index) (Biography. YA) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Many teens have studied and liked at least a few of Cummings' poems, so this thoroughly researched survey of Cummings' life is sure to generate interest in the classroom and beyond. Reef chooses revealing anecdotes from the poet's youth that will speak directly to teens. After Cummings passed from confident child to awkward teen, Reef notes that he was so self-conscious about his acne that he hid his face behind a newspaper when riding on streetcars. Numerous direct quotes from Cummings, his family, and his friends, along with many photos personalize the story, and Reef's enthusiasm for poetry is clear in her well-chosen excerpts from Cummings' poems and those of his contemporaries. She also skillfully places the poet within a larger cultural context, showing connections between his poetry and interests and the artistic and political movements of his times. Unfortunately, source notes refer only to direct quotes, but an extensive bibliography, a list of Cummings' works, and a glossary will aid researchers. A clear, engaging portrait of a poet whose refusal to write and live according to convention will endear him to teens. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2006 Booklist
