Edward Estlin Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 14th October, 1894. Educated at Harvard University and during the First World War he served with an ambulance corps on the Western Front. He was arrested and placed in a detention camp after a letter critical of the military authorities, was intercepted before it reached the United States. This incident inspired his first book, The Enormous Room (1922).

Cummings moved to New York City and in 1923 published his first book of poems, Tulips and Chimneys. This was followed by a second volume, XLI Poems (1925). He shocked critics with his eccentric punctuations and began signing his work e e cummings.

As well as writing poetry, Cummings wrote plays and in 1927 the Provincetown Theatre Group in New York City performed his work, Him. A collection of his drawings and paintings were published in 1931.

Other work by Cummings include a morality play, Santa Claus (1946) and Six Nonlectures (1953). Edward Estlin Cummings died in North Conway, New Hampshire, on 3rd September, 1962. The two-volume, Complete Poems (1968) was published posthumously.