E. E. Cummings

It may be easy to dismiss Cummings as a precocious modernist who failed to develop much; but he was influential, and Copland (a friend), Cage and Berio all set his words to music. In his childhood, James was a family friend and neighbour, as he himself was later to the young Wolff. Dos Passos was a trusty friend through university and after. Crane, Pound, Stein, MacLeish, Aragon, Thomson and Evans were all met in Paris. Brik tried to indoctrinate him, Tailleferre shared a ride to the south of France and back, Powys was a New York neighbour, and Campos (his translator) was among his many correspondents.