(1953; 1975; 1977; 2001)
With the exception of the six nonlectures, this three-cassette
collection brings together all Caedmon recordings of Cummings reading his
own poetry and prose. The first cassette is the same as the first Caedmon
recording, E. E. Cummings Reading His Poetry. This recording was made
in the studio on May 28, 1953. Side one features selections from Him, EIMI, and Santa Claus, while the side two features poems
from XAIPE (1950), 1 X 1 (1944), and 50 Poems (1940).
This LP was re-released in 2007 in CD format under the name The
Essential E. E. Cummings, but it is no longer in print.
The other two cassettes in the three-cassette E. E. Cummings Reads collection were released in 1975 and '77 as E. E. Cummings Reads his Collected Poetry & Prose: 1920-1958. Here is George J. Firmage's original note to the second album of that collection:
This new Caedmon album—one of two devoted to the readings of E. E. Cummings (TC 2080/2081)—has been compiled from more than a dozen taped recordings of the poet’s public performances. Carefully preserved by his wife, the late Marion Morehouse, the readings date from 1953 to 1961 and include Cummings’ appearances at the YMHA Poetry Center, Harvard University, the University of Rochester, the University of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Columbia University, McGill University, Johns Hopkins University, Oberlin College, Eastern Michigan University and the Library of Congress.[Note: In 2005 another CD of Cummings reading his poetry was released: The Voice of the Poet: E. E. Cummings.]The works recorded were published between 1920 and 1958 with an emphasis, as might be expected, upon the later years. All told there are five prose works and 85 poems.
