Spoon River Anthology

Masters wasn’t shy about exposing small-town hypocrisy, sexuality, and moral quandaries, and while the book was a hit, and he made enough money to quit the law and write full time, he also made enemies in Spoon River and could never live there again. He was glad to quit the law, saying, “Law and poetry go together like oil and water.”

Poet Ezra Pound loved the book. He said, “At last. At last, America has discovered a poet.” But other critics and writers were not pleased with the book. Poet Amy Lowell said, “One wonders, if life in our little Western cities is as bad as this, why everyone does not commit suicide.”