Spoon River Anthology (Audio Editions)

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Summary: Important to another century ...
Review: Edgar Lee Masters was a Chicago attorney who, long before Lake Woebegone, wrote of the mythical village of Spoon River, IL. Specifically, of the real stories of the people in it's graveyard. Now that they're dead the truth can finally be told. And almost all of them lived lives of terrible lies. I was introduced to it in Jr. High, was blown away at the realization that people all around me probably had these same kinds of secrets, living with them hidden, or hoped they were hidden. Paraphrasing, "I was of the party of Prohibition (anti-alcohol), villagers thought I died from eating watermelon. It was my liver. Every day at noon I slipped behind the partition at the drug store and had a generous drink from the bottle labeled Spiritum Fermenti!" The several poems that introduce Hamilton Greene are as powerful as anything I've ever read. Do yourself a huge favor, read this book! And then imagine yourself in the Spoon River graveyard, finally able to tell the truth about your life.

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Summary: Surprisingly Interesting
Review: Had to read this for school & was at first put off by its irrelevance to anything current. However, was completely drawn in & swept away. A really good read - moving & timeless.

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Summary: Excellent reading! Rates #1 in "Spoon River Illinois"
Review: Ilive in Spoon River (Lewistown Illinois) Masters came from here, and he covered human nature at its worst and best after he left here. The book has been at the top of students and in theatres since it was published' I am the historian here in Lewistown Ill. and the characters are as alive today as they were then! It is 'must' reading for all literature lovers, American or English styles. Masters left here in 1894,went to Chicago and New York City and left his mark that can never be erased from the annals of literature. He graduated here from Lewistown High school in 1886, and practised law here. However "Spoon River Anthology" lives on here in the 'valley of the 'unmythical' Spoon River! The book is real, the town is real, and the River is real! In 1925 Masters told in an article review on his "Genesis of Spoon River"....."If there was ever a town called Spoon River" IT IS Lewistown, Illinois!" Read the book, then visit the town in Central Illinois during the autumn Spoon River Scenic Drive Festival Days! Come See the real Spoon River, and see a part of what Masters saw! Human Nature - and nature itself!

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Summary: A nice stick-it-in-your-pocket edition of a classic
Review: Inspired by The Greek Anthology, a collection of brief poems from the Hellenistic World including epitaphs written from the perspective of the deceased, Edgar Lee Masters wrote a series of monologues spoken by dead townspeople (some more fictional than others) who inhabited Spoon River, the area in Illinois where Abe Lincoln once lived. Real people include Anne Rutledge (Abe's first girlfriend) and Fiddler Jones, who worked in Lincoln's general store as a boy.

But this book isn't about Abraham Lincoln. It's about the trait that we will all, both saints and sinners, one day have in common: death. And it is about the small triumphs of life that the dead remember. Just as William Carlos Williams was a doctor, and his poetry was informed by his contact with everyday people, so too Masters. He was a lawyer and a keen observationist. He writes directly and frankly, especially about male-female relations, which earned this book a bit of a scandalous reputation in its time. Of course, it is mild enough today that the book is assigned reading in junior highs, even in the South.

I've read this book three times through, and often re-read individual favorites. And I have it in easy reach on my shelf because I plan to keep re-reading it. There is something about the people of Spoon River and their sentiments that keeps me coming back. As May Swenson says, in her introduction to this edition, Masters "bequeathed to us a world in microcosm." A world, in my opinion, worth exploring again and again.

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Summary: Spoon River Anthology - If You Read No Other Book...
Review: Make Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters "the" one book to read before you leave this earth! This is the book you set by your bedside and "read" before you start your day and again read before you go to bed! It's the "Master" and without a doubt one of the best literatures I've ever read - A True Classic! Read this book; send one to your loved ones and a few to those that need simple philosophy in their lives! All ages need the words of Edgar Lee Masters... but above all, learn from these poems. It's one of the few books that I don't fall to sleep too!

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Summary: We Are Spoon River
Review: There is no Spoon River, IL. Check your map. Several towns argue that they stake their claim in being what Masters asserted to be this mythical town. Petersburg and Lewistown, two towns of otherwise minor repute seem closest... but it is so much better we haven't an actual town... Spoon River's residents are our next door neighbors, whether we live in Central Illinois or Central Florida, or southern Alaska.

Masters has written not fables, but the essence of American life. He hasn't captured the life and times of 1915, but has instead recorded in 1915 the life and times of our present day America.

The same reason the paintings of Norman Rockwell makes sense is why Edgar Lee Masters poetry makes sense. To read the quick messages on the gravestone of one man, learning a little bit him, and something about a neighbor or two, we can learn a little about how we live in communities today.

Our lives, like Jimmy Stewart's character in "It's a Wonderful Life" found out, interact and impact everyone we meet. Who we love, who we should love and who we reject. And when we die, others feel the loss. Masters has aptly put this in a humorous, yet insightful way into short verses.

The poems don't rhyme. The meter is not solid, and the poetics aren't intricate. They aren't poems like Poe's or Dickinson, not in the way they wrote American poems. Don't expect iambic pentameter-based sonnets or villanelles. Expect a conversation, and listen in.

The poetry here is in the subtle use of social nuance. In the nuances are his insight and wit. Two readings will bring to light what you miss in the first.

Buy this book, read it slow. It reads faster than most poetry book, but don't get caught in the temptation to zoom through each poem just because you can.

After you read it, see the play if it happens to be performed in your town.

I fully recommend it.

Anthony Trendl