Rating: 
Summary: Bad publication of a wonderful classic
Review: The electronic version of this book if jam packed with typo's. If you are seeking mistakes, this is the book for you.
The pagination of the original text is also missing, giving the impression that the heading for each poem is actually a signature. I realize this might save many pages from the book, but this is an ebook!
Nuvision Publications should hire a proof-reader.
Rating: 
Summary: Here in Spoon River
Review: The wondrous folksinger, Claudia Schmidt composed a song with that line in it and since I read this back in college, her song spoke to me. The recent Richard Buckner CD (The Hill) was loaned by a friend who didn't know who Masters was nor had heard of SRA, and it too is outstanding. The town of Spoon River is indeed fictive, though there is a Spoon River Community College near Peoria. The characters were real enough, however, to be very angry at ELM for generations following publication. A college roomate descended from one such family (he's from Pekin) and the mere mention of Mr. Masters name evoked strong responses similar to how parts of my family (from GA) don't allow the name Sherman in conversation. That obviously means Edgar got it right. It is a fine book, on par with another fav, To Kill A Mockingbird, and it will become one for your permanent collection.
Rating:
Summary: We Are Spoon River
Review: There is no Spoon River, IL. Check your map. Several towns argue that they stake their claim in being what Masters asserted to be this mythical town. Petersburg and Lewistown, two towns of otherwise minor repute seem closest... but it is so much better we haven't an actual town... Spoon River's residents are our next door neighbors, whether we live in Central Illinois or Central Florida, or southern Alaska.Masters has written not fables, but the essence of American life. He hasn't captured the life and times of 1915, but has instead recorded in 1915 the life and times of our present day America. The same reason the paintings of Norman Rockwell makes sense is why Edgar Lee Masters poetry makes sense. To read the quick messages on the gravestone of one man, learning a little bit him, and something about a neighbor or two, we can learn a little about how we live in communities today. Our lives, like Jimmy Stewart's character in "It's a Wonderful Life" found out, interact and impact everyone we meet. Who we love, who we should love and who we reject. And when we die, others feel the loss. Masters has aptly put this in a humorous, yet insightful way into short verses. The poems don't rhyme. The meter is not solid, and the poetics aren't intricate. They aren't poems like Poe's or Dickinson, not in the way they wrote American poems. Don't expect iambic pentameter-based sonnets or villanelles. Expect a conversation, and listen in. The poetry here is in the subtle use of social nuance. In the nuances are his insight and wit. Two readings will bring to light what you miss in the first. Buy this book, read it slow. It reads faster than most poetry book, but don't get caught in the temptation to zoom through each poem just because you can. After you read it, see the play if it happens to be performed in your town. I fully recommend it. Anthony Trendl
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: There is something fascinating about looking at life backwards, from end to beginning. That is what Masters offers us with his biting, poetic vision of the human experience. Many poems, all of which are delightfully concise, often conclude with proverbs that rival those of the Bible itself. "This is life's sorrow," he writes in "Herbert Marshal," "That one can be happy only where two are/And that our hearts are drawn to stars/which want us not." Masters, perhaps unknowingly, includes occasional glimpses of eastern philosophy as well, such as in "Griffy The Cooper," in which he writes, "You are submerged in the tub of yourself/Taboos and rules and appearances/Are the Staves of your tub/Break them and dispel the witchcraft/Of thinking your tub is life/And that you know life!" The essence of Taoism or Buddhism is hidden within the little tightly woven masterpieces of this poetry collection. On a more down-to-earth level, if you aren't confronted with reflections of yourself at some time while reading these poems, you're not really reading. This book is an obligation for every human being.
Rating:
Summary: A DELIGHTFUL CLASSIC
Review: This is one of those works I like to keep around and read bits and pieces now and then. A collection of short poems, written in the early 1900s (1917?), the people of a small town in mid-America speak to us from the grave. It does not take much of an imagination to be able to see us, each of us, those we know and ourselves personnally, in the words spoken by these long dead people. The poems are wonderfully related and well illustrate how one life can effect another life or many of the lives around him or her. I will be the first to admit that I am not an "expert" in the realm of poetry, but on the other hand, I know what I like and I do like this work. Granted, as one reviewer stated, this is not a happy work by any means and can be down right depressing at times. This is okay though, not all of life is a daily string of happy events. Not all lives are happy lives. We all share certain sorrows, we all know grief and we all have regrets. This works pretty well illustrates that we really have not come all that far, and our lives are not all that different from those of the past. People really do not change all that much from generation to generation. Masters' show true insight into the human condition of any age and in any era. I began reading this work some 45 years ago and still enjoy it. Recommend it highly.
Rating:
Summary: The affect of hearing
Review: This May at my high School we are presenting Spoon River Anthology. When I first heard we were doing a collection of epitaphs, I was nervous and stunned. Why would I, a very happy person, want to read about a bunch of dead people? How am I going to do it with out even cracking a smile? Today I figured out the affect my acting can have on people though. I was reading the epitaph of Mrs. Merritt aloud to drama club, when all the sudden my instrutor got up and left the room. I continued reading and sat down. It was then I realized that I had read it with so much emotion that he had started to cry. I was stunned that something I read with feeling had had that kind of reaction to some one. In my opinion these poems are inspirational.
Rating:
Summary: Poetry Like You've Never Seen It Before
Review: Welcome to Spoon River, stranger, I suppose you've heard all kinds of stories by now. Stories about the Pantiers
and their loveless marriage, about Thomas Rhodes, who
broke the bank, about lawless men and women, crimianls,
judges, doctors, murderers (captured or not), geniusses,
fools, and a few good souls. Well, here's your chance to
hear the whole stories, all of them, from the only people
who have nothing to lose by telling the truth: the dead.
The men and women on the hill each come to life in a series of gripping monologues about their life and death which expose the web of relationships in Spoon River. Edgar Lee Masters
has created a typical 19th century small town, where everyone
knows everything about everyone else, but the biggest
secret are carried to the grave. A must for any lover
of poetry.
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