Norman Friedman is Professor of English at Queens College. He previously taught at the New School of Research and at the Universities of Nantes and Nice in France, where he held Fulbright lectureships. He has won a Northwest Review poetry prize, and two Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards. His published works include Poetry: An Introduction to Its Form and Art and Logic, Rhetoric and Style (both with C. A. McLaughlin).
“I admire the efficiency and thoroughness of this book. Almost all of the factual conclusions and informative observations are indisputable… Cummings’s vision emerges significantly in his middle and later volumes, as Mr. Friedman points out.”—R. E. Wegner, American Literature
“The poems are discussed with expertness and with critical joy, by Mr. Friedman, who treats cummings’s books in this full and notable study. It deals not only with the poet’s lyric and comic aspects, but very importantly examines the ‘basic mystical insight which is the real foundation of his work.’ Twentieth-century readers owe e. e. cummings a great debt for being the grand and joyful poet that he was; they also owe a debt to Mr. Friedman for interpreting his writings.”—Harry T. Moore