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Available for the first time in many
years the full text of Edgar Lee
Masters' continuation of his famous
Spoon River Anthology. The New Spoon
River describes in 322
microbiographies the spiritual and
physical agony of a small American town.
As in the original Anthology, the
lives and relationships of the citizens
of Spoon River are interwoven; but here
the view that emerges is of a town's
response to the encroachments of
industry and urban life. Masters
describes the people who leave, the new
people who come in , those who adjust,
others who insulate themselves and cling
to the old Spoon River. The result is an
unforgettable portrayal of a small
American town in the 1920's-and of the
painful clash of conflicting values in
American life.
Introduction by Willis Barnstone. In
his introduction, Willis Barnstone
discusses the genesis of the entire
Spoon River sequence, compares The
New Spoon River with its
predecessor, and assesses Masters' place
in the canon of modern American poetry.
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