First comprehensive life of one of the twentieth century's greatest poetic innovators E.E. Cummings is best remembered as one of the first poets of the twentieth century to successfully unite poetic tradition with the avant garde; endlessly experimenting with the poetic form, and producing volumes of playfully iconoclastic verse. In this, the first biography of Cummings for twenty-five years, Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno uses his unprecedented access to the poet's own personal papers to present a picture of a man whose literary success was in direct contrast to the chaos of his personal life. From his strained relationship with his Harvard professor father, his war-time incarceration in a French prison camp, his extraordinary, prolific liaisons with young women (and consequent failed marriages), to his writing of some of the most remarkable and tender poetry of the twentieth century, the biographer is expert at weaving together the different and difficult elements of the poet's life. The first biography of E.E. Cummings for twenty-five years EE Cummings is read and studied on literature courses everywhere, and is probably the most prolific American poet of the last century Written with unprecedented access to Cummings' own papers