Edward Estlin Cummings (1894–1962), the son of a distinguished clergyman, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Cummings attended Harvard College, where he studied literature and classical and modern languages. During World War I, he volunteered to serve as an ambulance driver in France and was imprisoned by French authorities for writing letters that were critical of the war. On his release and return to the United States, he was drafted into the army. His imprisonment in France provided material for his first book, The Enormous Room, published in 1922.

Cummings challenged popular beliefs and habits in his thought and in his style of writing. His unique style is most evident in his breaking of traditional rules of capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar. In keeping with this style, he even signed his name with lowercase letters: ee cummings. In the beginning, critics did not know whether to reject or applaud his work. The most sincere form of flattery is imitation, however, and many poets imitated the work of Cummings. At the time of his death in 1962, Cummings was one of the most popular poets in the nation, second only to Robert Frost. In addition to writing poetry, Cummings was a talented playwright and a well-regarded painter.