Edgar Lee Masters
1868-1950
Prepared by:
Natalie N. Jeckel, Millikin University
Chronology:
1868 Edgar Lee Masters is born August 23 in Garnett, Kansas, son of Hardin W. Masters and Emma Dexter Masters.
1869 Masters family returns to the Illinois farm of Harding’s parents in Menard County near Pertersburg.
1870-1880 Spends childhood in and around Petersburg, Illinois.
Younger brother Alexander dies of diphtheria, age five, in 1878.
Best friend Mitch Miller dies 1879.
1880-1890 Family moves to Lewistown, Illinois.
Masters attends Lewistown high school, graduating in 1886.
Publishes his first writing in Chicago Daily News.
Works in his father’s law office.
1891-1892 Admitted to the Illinois Bar.
Moves to Chicago.
Works as bill collector for Edison Company.
1893 Establishes first law office in Chicago with Kicksham Scanlon.
Writes play Benedict Arnold.
1898 A Book of Verses.
Marries Helen Jenkins on June 21.
1899 Son Hardin Masters born.
1900-1902 "The Constitution and Our Insular Possessions."
Maximillion, a play.
Articles in Chicago Chronicle.
1903-1908 Law partnership with Clarence Darrow.
Two daughters born, Madeline and Marcia.
New Star Chamber (1904).
Plays: The Blood of the Prophets (1905), Althea (1907), The Trifler (1908).
1909 Play, The Leaves of the Tree.
Affair with Tennessee Mitchell; wife refuses to divorce him.
1910 Plays, Eileen and The Locket.
Songs and Sonnets published under pseudonym Webster Ford.
1911 Sets up private law practice.
Ends affair with Tennessee Mitchell.
Play, The Bread of Idleness.
1912 Songs and Sonnets, Second Series.
1914 "Spoon River" epitaphs appear under pseudonym Webster Ford in Reedy’s
Mirror on May 29.
Masters reveals authorship in November.
1915 Spoon River Anthology in book form.
1916 The Great Valley and Songs and Satires, poems.
New edition of Spoon River Anthology with thirty-two new poems.
1917-1919 Leaves wife and family.
Toward the Gulf (1918), Starved Rock (1919), poems.
1920 Gives up law practice and moves to New York.
Domesday Book, long poetic narrative.
Mitch Miller, novel for boys.
1921 The Open Sea, poems.
Trip to Europe.
Wife begins divorce litigation.
1922 Children of the Marketplace, A Fictitious Autobiography, biography of Stephen
Douglas.
1923 The Nuptial Flight, novel.
Skeeters Kirby, sequel to Mitch Miller.
Divorce final.
1924 Mirage, sequel to Skeeters Kirby.
The New Spoon River, collecton of poems similar to those in Spoon River
Anthology.
1925 Selected Poems.
Extensive Lecture Tour.
1926 Lee, A Dramatic Poem.
Marries Ellen Coyne, thirty years his junior.
1927 Kit O’Brien, boys’ book.
Levy Mayer and the New Industrial Era, biography.
1928 Jack Kelso, A dramatic poem.
Son born to Ellen Coyne Masters, named Hilary Masters.
Father, Hardin Masters dies.
1929 Fate of the Jury, epilogue to Domesday Book.
1930 Lichee Nuts, poems, and Gettysburg, Manila, Acoma, dramatic poetry.
1931 Godbey, A Dramatic Poem, sequel to Jack Kelso.
Lincoln: The Man, biography.
1932-1934 The Tale of Chicago (1933), history.
The Serpent in the Wilderness (1933), peoms.
Moroni, Richmond, four Dramatic Duologues, plays.
1935 Vachel Lindsay: A Poet in America, biography.
Invisible Landscapes, poems.
1936 Autobiography, Across Spoon River.
The Golden Fleece of California, poetic narrative.
Poems of People.
Awarded Mark Twain silver medal.
1937 The New World, long narrative poem.
The Tide of Time, novel.
Whitman, biography.
1938 Mark Twain: A Portrait, biography.
1939 More People, poems.
1940 Edits The Living Thoughts of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
1941 Poetry Society of America Award.
Illinois Poems.
1942 Along Illinois, poetry.
The Sangamon, non-fiction.
Received grant from American Academy of Arts and Letters and National
Institute of Arts and Letters.
1943-1949 Health deteriorates.
Received Shelley Memorial Award (1944)
1950 Dies March 5 and is buried at Oakland Cemetery in Petersburg, Illinois.
Web Sources:
http://www.accd.edu/sac/english/bailey/masters.htm
http://www.bhs.edu/wmc/521f198/jbm/links.html
- a valuable resource to Edgar Lee Masters links on the World Wide Web.
http://www.outfitters.com/illinois/fulton/masters.html
http://www.outfitters.com/illinois/fulton/srd-tour1.html
- for a virtual tour of the Spoon River country in Fulton County, Illinois.
Book Sources:
Burgess, Charles E. "Ancestral Lore in Spoon River Anthology: Fact and Fancy." Papers on Language and Literature. 20 (1984): 185-204.
Chandran, K. Narayana. "Revolt from the Grave: Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters." The Midwest Quarterly. 29 (1988): 438-47.
Hallwas, John E. Introduction. Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1992. 1-79.
Wrenn, John H. and Margaret M. Wrenn. "Weaving the Garlands." Edgar Lee Masters. Boston: Twayne, 1983. 45-57.