Edward Estlin Cummings was born October 14, 1894, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Edward and Rebecca Haswell Clarke Cummings. His father had studied at Harvard and at Oxford before teaching English, sociology, and political science at Harvard University. Edward was ordained minister of the South Congregational Society, Unitarian, of Boston in 1900, and many of his sermons were published during his lifetime. Cummings' mother delighted in caring for her children. She had a deep aesthetic appreciation of the world and enjoyed helping her husband with all kinds of activities, even shingling the roof. Rebecca Cummings learned to drive an automobile early and taught her children their letters and how to keep diaries. The Cummings family was fairly well-off, having the first telephone in…
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Citation: McGinnis Bailey, Misty. "E. E. Cummings". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1093, accessed 24 November 2024.]
