SOURCE: Mullen, Patrick B. “E. E. Cummings and Popular Culture.” In Critical Essays on E. E. Cummings, edited by Guy Rotella, pp. 202-14. Boston: G. K. Hall and Company, 1984.

In the following essay, originally published in 1971, Mullen examines Cummings’s interest in and writings on American popular culture, particularly the art of burlesque.

It is generally overlooked that E. E. Cummings had an avid interest in various forms of American popular culture, especially burlesque, circuses, amusement parks, comic strips, animated cartoons, and movies. During the 1920's and 1930's, Cummings wrote many essays on mass culture which appeared in popular magazines such as Vanity Fair and journals of the arts such as Stage and Cinema. In these articles and in some of his other prose, Cummings reveals a great deal about his own concepts of art and poetry, and also provides some penetrating insights into American culture as manifested...