Fairy Tales (1965, 2004)

This posthumous publication contains four tales by Cummings, written for his daughter Nancy. Included in the collection are the stories "The Elephant & the Butterfly," "The Old Man Who Said 'Why?,'" "The House That Ate Mosquito Pie," and "The Little Girl Named I." Only "The Old Man Who Said 'Why?' " was published in the poet's lifetime, in the special Cummings issue of the Harvard Wake. Illustrated by Canadian artist John Eaton, this book is still in print, delighting both children and adults. 

A new edition of Fairy Tales with drawings by Meilo So was published on 2004 by Liveright. 

Order Fairy Tales (John Eaton, 1965) from Amazon.com.

Order Fairy Tales (Meilo So, 2004) from Amazon.com.

Further Reading:

Moe, Aaron. "An Ontological Crisis: Rethinking E. E. Cummings' Fairy Tales."  Spring: The Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society 19 (2012): 50-65.

Popova, Maria. " Vintage Illustrations for  the Fairy Tales E. E. Cummings Wrote for His Only Daughter, Whom He Almost Abandoned. What elephants and butterflies have to do with the failures and redemptions of fatherhood." Brain Pickings 23 Oct. 2013. Web. 

Winter, Ariel S. "E. E. Cummings: Fairy Tales." We Too Were Children, Mr. Barrie. [blogpost] 27 Sept. 2011. Web.


Fairy Tales, 1965

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