 Click here to listen to this story on the Kaidankai podcast. Spoon River Anthology is a series of poetic stories about the lives of ordinary people as told by their ghosts. There's love and hate, betrayal and loyalty, comedy and tragedy. The characters get to tell their versions of murder, rape, revenge, accidents, and all the seedy sides of life as well as acts of heroism and lofty rhetoric meant to inspire. Spoon River Anthology was beloved from the moment it was published --except for the people on whom the poems were based. Ezra Pound said, "At last! At last America has discovered a poet." Carl Sandburg was equally impressed: "Once in a while a man comes along who writes a book that has his own heart-beats in it. The people whose faces look out from the pages of the book are the people of life itself, each trait of them as plain or as mysterious as in the old home valley where the writer came from. Such a writer and book are realized here." But the townsfolk on whom Masters based the poems banned the book. Even Masters' mother voted to ban it. Read the poems highlighted in today's podcast and all the poems in the anthology at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1280 Today's readers are: Dr. Siegfried Iseman--Bruno Vannieu Fiddler Jones--Donald Guadagni Dora Williams--Johanna Collier Mrs. Williams--Ellen Fryer Wendell P. Blood--Michael Rhys Russian Sonia--Katherine Quevedo Pauline Barrett--Luisa Piemontese Mrs. Charles Bliss--Marian Hara Rev. Lemuel Wiley--Timothy Gould Elsa Wortman--Janice Ryan Amos Sibley--Timothy Gould Mrs. Sibley--Marian Hara Amelia Garrick--Sarah Greaves John Hancock Otis--Charles Kowalski Anthony Findlay--Timothy Gould Alexander Throckmorton--Charles Kowalski Jonathan Swift Somers--Renata Pavrey Eugene Carman--Andi Brooks Roscoe Purkapile--Linda Gould Mrs. Purkapile--Vicky Muehlheisen Mrs. Kessler--Enne Tesse Burt Kessler--Linda Gould Lillian Stewart--Katherine Quevedo Edmund Pollard--Radhika Iyer Ida Frisky--Peggy Otake Seth Compton--Tim Law Richard Bone--Johanna Collier Tom Merritt--Joshua St. Clair Mrs. Merritt--Jill Trade Elizabeth Childers--Renata Pavrey Edith Conant--Snigdha Agrawal Harry Williams--Michael Rhys John Wasson--J.L. Short Lyman King--Lily Thukral Ann Rutledge--Peggy Otake Rebecca Wasson--Vicky Muehleisen Hannah Armstrong--Sarah Dittmore Lucinda Matlock--Linda K. Vandermeer Kadota Davis Matlock--Linda Gould Herman Altman--Donald Guadagni Wallace Ferguson--Herve Suys Samuel Gardner--Joan Lambert Bailey Dow Kritt--Yutaka Jay Miura (age 6) William Goode--J.L. Short Scholfield Huxley--Rebecca Otowa Alfonso Churchill--Sarah Greaves Gustav Richter--Joan Lambert Bailey William and Emily--Timothy and Linda Gould Published to the Kaidankai on April 19, 2022.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |