Edgar Lee Masters
(1868–1950)

Edgar Lee Masters is primarily remembered for one volume of his poetry. Yet this volume, Spoon River Anthology, is widely regarded as one of the finest collections of poetry ever produced by an American poet.

Masters was born in Kansas but grew up in rural southern Illinois—the area where Abraham Lincoln had spent his early years. After briefly attending Knox College, Masters studied law in his father's law office and eventually passed the bar exam. In 1891 he moved to Chicago, where he became a successful criminal lawyer. During his spare time, he wrote poems, plays, and essays, and he published some of his poems in the highly regarded Chicago magazine Poetry.

Masters's early poems, which were traditional in form, received little attention. In 1914, however, Masters's direction as a poet changed dramatically when a friend gave him a copy of Selected Epitaphs from the Greek Anthology. This collection included many concise, interconnected epitaphs that each captured the essence of a rhyme and meter for free verse, Masters wrote a series of poems about the lives of people in rural southern Illinois. Published under the title Spoon River Anthology in 1915, the series provoked strong reactions among critics and became a bestseller.

Spoon River Anthology consists of 244 epitaphs for characters buried in the mythical Spoon River cemetery. The dead themselves serve as the speakers of the poems, often revealing secrets they kept hidden throughout their lifetimes. Many types of people are represented, including storekeepers, housewives, and murderers. Some of the characters had lived happy lives, but many more had lived lives filled with frustration and despair. Presented together, the epitaphs paint a vivid portrait of the loneliness and isolation with which people living in the Midwest at the time were often confronted.

Several years after Spoon River Anthology was published, Masters gave up his law practice to devote all of his energy to writing. Yet, while he was able to produce many other volumes of poetry in addition to novels, biographies, and his autobiography, Across Spoon River, he was never able to match the success of Spoon River Anthology.

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