The Enormous Room Cummings' novel The Enormous Room has been republished reminding us that its author may have been the most profoundly libertarian writer in American literature Beginning as a critic of authoritarian social situations he wrote here mostly about his imprisonment in a French military detention camp at La Ferté-Macé during World War I this classic is no less visceral a century later "The right-hand long wall contained something like ten large windows of which the first was commanded by the somewhat primitive cabinet," he wrote "There were no other windows in the remaining walls; or they had been carefully rendered useless the inhabitants had contrived a couple of peep-holes—one in the door-end and one in the left-hand long wall; the former commanding the gate by which I had entered the latter a portion of the street by which I had reached the gate The blocking of all windows on three sides had an obvious significance: les hommes were not supposed to see anything which went on in the world without; les hommes might on a corner of what seemed to be another wing of the building and on a bleak lifeless abject landscape of scrubby woods beyond—which constituted the view from the ten windows on the right." The Enormous Room became his single most popular book On the back of this new edition is an encomium from T.E The reading is as sharp as being in prison for all but that crazed drumming against the door which comes from solitary confinement." (When Lawrence reminds us that he too had been imprisoned that few contemporary writers had a similar nasty experience.) The best parts of The Enormous Room are Cummings' memories of other prisoners For example: "Celina Tek was an extraordinarily beautiful animal Her firm girl's body emanated a supreme vitality It came and went with a certain sexual velocity a velocity whose health and vigour made everyone in La Ferté seem puny and old Her deep sensual voice had a coarse richness annihilated easily the ancient and greyish walls The cult of Isis never worshipped a more deep luxurious smile seemed (as it moved at the window overlooking the cour des femmes) inexorably and colossally young The body was absolutely and fearlessly alive In the impeccable and altogether admirable desolation of La Ferté and the Normandy Autumn Celina He adds: "The French Government must have already recognized this; it called her incorrigible." He didn't sign petitions or march in the streets The only sign of his "activism" that I can find is a 1948 letter to his daughter where he mentions working with "Margaret Dasilva America's leading (murdered just a few years ago in NYC City by the USSR) anarchist." Yet the anti-authoritarians recognized Cummings as one of their own In his classic 1929 Anthology of Revolutionary Poetry the anarchist editor Marcus Graham reprinted Cummings' "Impressions," with these closing stanzas: in the mirror i see a frail man dreaming dreams dreams in the mirror the people are in their houses the frail man is in his bed the city sleeps with death upon her mouth having a song in her eyes the hours descend putting on stars… in the street of the sky night walks scattering poems Cummings celebrated a libertarian utopia in which no one invades anyone else's life more familiar Cummings poem known only by its opening line: "anyone lived in a pretty how town." Even during the 1930s This centennial reprint from New York Review Books is peculiar its text reproduces what has long been available initially from the legendary publishing firm Boni & Live-right It does not acknowledge the "typescript edition with illustrations by the author" that Liveright published in 1978 The 1978 edition is superior in several respects it includes the sketches prepared by Cummings himself as much a visual artist as an author who illustrates his text in complementary ways in a further departure that its author intended prints them without the customary italics for languages other than English Cummings' typescript also makes the stylistic choice of eliminating the spaces following commas The typescript edition has other additions including an introduction written by the young author's father who describes the efforts to get his son released from prison includes a 1932 preface by Cummings that is oddly not reprinted here even though it has this marvelous passage about the Soviet Union: "Russia was more deadly than war; when nationalists hate they hate by merely killing and maiming human beings; when Internationalists hate they hate by categorying and pigeonholing human beings." Cummings never again wrote a popular extended prose text For his later European adventure—his 1931 report on Soviet Russia exemplifying stylistic deviance in his critique of a society that cracked down on any and every sort of deviance But it resembles The Enormous Room in one important respect: EIMI is a dispatch from a prison that was an entire society Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Richard Kostelanetz is the author of many books about American arts and literature including Politics in the African-American Novel: James Weldon Johnson SoHo: The Rise and Fall of an Artists' Colony (Routledge) and Artists' SoHo (Fordham University Press) Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" Le drapeau tricolore will fly over south Shropshire later this month for a visit from people from Ludlow's twin town La Ferté-Macé and Ludlow celebrate 35 years of twinning in 2022 and a long-awaited visit from the Normandy town will start on May 26 Ludlow Town Council will fly the French flag during the visit which will start with a welcome at Ludlow Brewery More than 40 French visitors will spend the weekend in Ludlow with host families They are set to be welcomed by the Mayor of Ludlow Councillor Glenn Ginger and Deputy Mayor Councillor Beverley Waite the newly-elected chair of Ludlow French Twinning Association said: "Our fund raising activities throughout the past year have meant that we can provide free travel and meals for those under 18s who are visiting us with their families again "The chance to meet up with young people from another culture and try new experiences can be life-changing for our youngest members We look forward to visiting La Ferte Macé next year and to the continuing association with our French friends in the years to come." The French Twining Association plans to give their= guests a flavour of life at the heart of industrial Britain with a visit to the Black Country Outdoor Museum as well as the chance to visit the film set of “Peaky Blinders” The focus returns to Ludlow on the Saturday an open garden or a chance to try their hand at croquet singing and dancing at the Shropshire Discovery Centre rounds off what we all hope will be a happy and fun weekend.