{"product_id":"spoon-river-anthology-9780743255073","title":"Spoon River Anthology","description":"\u003cb\u003eA CLASSIC IN AMERICAN POETRY.\u003c\/b\u003e.. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e When \u003ci\u003eSpoon River Anthology\u003c\/i\u003e was published in 1915 it garnered immediate national attention for its truth and its shocking transgression of societal mores. A collection of poems from the graveyard of a rural Illinois town, \u003ci\u003eSpoon River Anthology\u003c\/i\u003e poignantly captures the politics, love, betrayals, alliances, hopes, and failures of this small American town. Here is the respected doctor, jailed for swindling; here is the chaste wife, rapt with desire; here is the pastor, angry and resentful; here is the quiet man, filled with unrequited love and devotion. Beneath the midwestern values of honesty, community, family, hard work, and chastity, \u003ci\u003eSpoon River Anthology\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the disillusionment and corruption in modern life. \u003cbr\u003e With the publication of \u003ci\u003eSpoon River Anthology\u003c\/i\u003e Masters exploded the powerful myth that small-town America was a social utopia. Here for the first time was a community that people recognized in its wholeness and complexity. Comprised of distinctly modern poems that collectively read as a novel, \u003ci\u003eSpoon River Anthology\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of a quiet midwestern town whose truths and contradictions are celebrated by its dead.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eEdgar Lee Masters\u003c\/b\u003e was born in 1868 in Garnett, Kansas. He achieved fame in 1915 with the publication of \u003ci\u003eSpoon River Anthology.\u003c\/i\u003e Though he never matched the success of \u003ci\u003eSpoon River Anthology, \u003c\/i\u003e Masters was a prolific writer of diverse works. He published several volumes of poems including The \u003ci\u003eGreat Valley\u003c\/i\u003e (1916), \u003ci\u003eAlong the Illinois\u003c\/i\u003e (1942), \u003ci\u003eThe Serpent in the Wilderness\u003c\/i\u003e (1933), and \u003ci\u003eInvisible Landscapes\u003c\/i\u003e (1935). In the 1940s he was awarded the Poetry Society of America medal, the Shelley Memorial Award, and the Academy of American Poets Fellowship. Edgar Lee Masters died in Melrose, Pennsylvania, in 1950 and is buried in Petersburg, Illinois\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Touchstone Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50491969831186,"sku":"9780743255073","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_c3807ba0-5364-4d11-ba80-445c863a1545.jpg?v=1748529023","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/spoon-river-anthology-9780743255073","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}