Edward Estlin Cummings (1894 - 1962), known to the literary world
as e. e. cummings , spelled his name with lower case letters,
although his publishers were (and still are) afraid to allow that
on the book covers. His poems are generally untitled and
indicated by first lines. He had a significant influence on the
literature and philosophy of the Beat Generation.
E. e. Cummings (I had to capitalize one of e's because it began
a sentence :-) wrote poetry that's supposed to be printed in a
fixed-width font. Before the computer age, that always meant a
typewriter. He did this because spaces are some of his important
vocabulary words ... or perhaps he did it to torture high school
English teachers. (See the samples below.)
One of the two popular volumes is
Selected Poems by E. E. Cummings
[sic], with an introduction by R. S. Kennedy.
It contains 156 poems and and also 12 illustrations by e. e. cummings.
An alternative would be
100 Selected Poems by E. E. Cummings
[sic]
published by Grove Press, but it is similar in price to the other
volume and yet less complete.
Sadly, it comes down to this: you may choose to give your
financial support to Grove Press because of its important role in
the preservation of avant garde literature, even through
the tough years of censorship, during which Grove Press maintained
its integrity -- or you may choose to buy the more economical
edition instead. I state the facts.