In 1915, Edgar Lee Masters published a book of dramatic monologues
written in free verse about a fictional town called Spoon River, based
on the Midwestern towns where he grew up. The shocking scandals and
secret tragedies of Spoon River were immediately recognized by readers
as authentic. Masters raises the dead "sleeping on the hill" in their
village cemetery to tell the truth about their lives, and their
testimony topples the American myth of the moral superiority of
small-town life. Spoon River, as undeniably corrupt and cruel as the big
city, is home to murderers, drunkards, crooked bankers, lechers, bitter
wives, abusive husbands, failed dreamers, and a few good souls. The
freshness of this masterpiece undiminished, Spoon River Anthology
remains a landmark of American literature.
With an Introduction by John Hollander and an Afterword by Ronald
Primeau