News, Notes, & Correspondence Restoring the Hildegarde Lasell Watson Collection of Artworks by E.E. Cummings The State University of New York College at Brockport has an extensive collection of Cummings‘ artworks. (See Jonathan Senchyne‘s article on pages 233-246 in this issue.) On 2-16-2007 we received the following e- mail from Frank Short about a current project to restore the collection: I am writing to you from SUNY, College at Brockport where I currently serve as the dean of the School of Arts & Performance. Since 1978 Brockport has been in possession of a 72-piece collec- tion of original artwork by E. E. Cummings. The collection was do- nated to us by James Sibley Watson, Jr. and his second wife, Nancy. Milton Cohen reviewed the collection in 1983 and subsequently wrote that the Brockport collection ―...is the most valuable single collection of Cummings' paintings.‖ Unfortunately the condition of the works is poor and the collection has not been exhibited in many years. Several of us at Brockport have initiated a project aimed at restoring as many of the pieces as possible through private contributions. Essentially we are asking patrons to ―adopt‖ Cummings by financing the restoration of a piece of their choosing (and receiving some kind of credit for so doing). We are planning a reception in Rochester, NY early next fall in sup- port of the project and several speakers have tentatively agreed to be on the program . At this point we are trying to get the word out on the collection and our hopes to restore it and exhibit it. I am writ- ing to you in your capacity as coordinator of the E. E. Cummings Society to see if the membership might be interested in this project and might help us spread the word. If so, I certainly could discuss the project in more detail, but in the meantime, you could visit http:// www.brockport.edu/cummings/ to see images of the works, descrip- tions of necessary restorations, and estimated costs for the restora- tion of each piece. One piece already has been restored and a second is at the conservators (just 70 more to go!). I am interested in hearing your thoughts on this, but under any circumstance, thank you for the time and consideration. Best wishes, –Frank Short Fall 2006 269 The reception or gala evening that Frank mentions in his e-mail was held on Friday October 12, 2007 (two days before Cummings‘ birthday on the 14th) at 7 p.m. at SUNY Brockport‘s MetroCenter, 55 St. Paul Street, Rochester, NY. Speakers at the gala included Spring contributing and consulting editor Milton Cohen and Cummings biographer Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno. Packets of six note cards, each with a reproduction of a different Cummings artwork, are available for sale at the SUNY Brockport College bookstore. Please call (585) 395-2554 to place your order. The cards cost $9.00 per pack plus sales tax. Shipping is free. All proceeds from the sale of the cards will go to restoring paintings in the college's collection of Cummings' artworks. The New Edition of EIMI Michael Webster Among the many reasons why this double issue of Spring is late, chief is the arrival in my mailbox in the summer of 2007 of an advance reading copy (uncorrected proof) of a new edition of EIMI. This proof copy featured a short Preface by Madison Smartt Bell (a prolific novelist—see his homepage at http://faculty.goucher.edu/mbell/), an Afterword by Nor- man Friedman, as well as the ―Sketch for a Preface‖ that Cummings wrote for the 1958 Grove Press edition. I immediately noticed, however, that unlike the 1958 Preface, this one lacked Cummings‘ glossary of ―R words (their pronunciation imitated, & their meaning).‖ In addition, many of the page references in Cummings‘ Preface were incorrect. The text itself had a few errors as well, especially where Cummings would use Arabic numerals and fractions instead of words. Also, though the prefaces and the afterword gave some help to the reader, this new edition had no notes. I soon e-mailed the publisher Liveright with a preliminary list of corrections and suggestions. I also asked what happened to the notes to the text that the late George James Firmage had painstakingly prepared. In re- sponse, the editor of EIMI asked me to proofread the entire book but said nothing about any notes. I decided take up the offer to proofread and to begin creating notes myself, with the idea of posting them on the Spring web site. (The EIMI notes may be seen at: http://www.gvsu.edu/english/ cummings/Eimi.htm.) It took a month of sustained work to finish the proof- reading—the bulk of the notes were finished in the next month, but I fear that these annotations will always be a work in progress. (Google has been 270 Spring 14-15 a great help in compiling the notes; nevertheless, many refer- ences remain obscure.) The new edition of EIMI appeared on December 3, 2007. The publisher has added Cum- mings‘ glossary of ―R words,‖ and errors in the text have been re- duced somewhat. (William Blake is supposed to have said, ―Truth has bounds; Error none.‖) The machine sprockets and flower on the cover of the new edition (reproduced at left) refer a passage in which Cummings says to a Rus- sian writer who has just bought some flowers: ―there is an I Feel;an actual universe or alive of which our merely real world or thinking existence is at best a bad,at worst a murderous,mistranslation; flowers give me this actual uni- verse" (107 new edition; 104-105 old edition). It‘s good to have this new edition of EIMI widely available. Perhaps this neglected masterpiece will now receive the attention it deserves. New Books, Articles, and CDs A writer named Catherine Reef has published a new biography for young adult readers, E. E. Cummings: A Poet's Life (New York: Clarion Books, 2006). Though a slim 149 pages, the large-format (8‖ x 10‖) vol- ume nevertheless provides a good introduction to Cummings‘ life. Reef does a nice job of placing Cummings in the context of his time, and makes good use of archival photos. For example, the book contains photos of two of Cummings‘ teachers, George Lyman Kittredge and Dean Le Baron Briggs, as well as a photo of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana, the ―Virgil‖ of EIMI.) The American Library Association‘s starred review in Booklist says that the book is ―a compelling, thoroughly researched survey of Cummings's fascinating life...that will speak directly to teens.‖ Gerald Locklin sent us his new book of poems, New Orleans, Chi- cago, and Points Elsewhere: Poems (Long Beach, California: R)v Press, Fall 2006 271 2006). This book and other Locklin information may be found at http:// geraldlocklin.com/. Locklin will also be the featured poet in the Winter 2007 Issue of the well-established literary web magazine, Disquieting Muses Quarterly or DMQ Review (www.dmqreview.com). Etienne Terblanche and Michael Webster recently published ―Eco-Iconicity in the Poetry and Poem-groups of E. E. Cummings.‖ Insistent Images: Iconicity in Language and Literature 5. Eds. Elzbieta Tabakowska, Chris- tina Ljungberg, and Olga Fischer. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2007. 155-172. Translations The French translators and publishers of Cummings have been very busy. We neglected to mention in the last issue that Jacques Demarcq published a translation of No Thanks, which is also called No Thanks in French (Sauve: Clémence Hiver, 2003). Unfortunately, this translation was out of print as we went to press. More recently, Demarcq‘s 1983 translation of 95 Poems (1958) has been reissued as 95 Poèmes (Paris: Points, 2006). The translation in- cludes a Preface by Demarcq in which he thanks D. Jon Grossman, ―who was the first [translator] to make Cummings known in France, for his ad- vice, as heated as it was pertinent‖ (22). Appropriately, the publisher Christian Bourgois has reissued Grossman‘s translation of The Enormous Room in the collection called ―Titres.‖ The bibliographic details are: E. E. Cummings, L'énorme cham- brée (Paris: Christian Bourgois, 2006). Not content with the rigors of rendering Cummings into French, M. Demarcq has also published a translation of Gertrude Stein‘s Tender Buttons (1914), sections of which Cummings quoted in his Harvard ―commencement part‖ in 1915 (see ―The New Art‖ in A Miscellany Re- vised 5-11). Titled Tendres boutons (Paris: Nous, 2005), the book features an afterword by Spring contributor Isabelle Alfandary. Thierry Gillyboeuf sent us a copy of his translation of Cummings‘ XLI Poèmes (Paris: La Nerthe, 2006). The book contains a preface by the translator showing how XLI Poems emerged from the original 1922 manu- script of Tulips & Chimneys. Robert Davreu has translated 100 Selected Poems (1958) as Poèmes choisis (Paris: José Corti, 2004). To Cummings‘ selection, Davreu 272 Spring 14-15 has added translations of ―that famous fatheads find that each‖ (CP 411) and the series of poems called ―La Guerre‖ (CP 53-58). New CD Releases In October of 2006 composer Ellen Mandel sent us a new CD ti- tled a wind has blown the rain away. The CD contains settings of 15 Cum- mings poems, sung by Todd Almond. In addition, composer Logan Skelton has released a CD on Centaur Records titled E.E. Cummings, an American Circus: 24 Songs Settings (2006). A Boston folkie named Kris Delmhorst has released a new CD called Strange Conversation in which she adapts a number of literary works to popular idioms. Among settings of poems like Byron‘s ―We‘ll Go No More A-Roving‖ and Edna St.