Masters vs. Lee Masters: The legacy of the Spoon River author between Illinois and Italy

Abstract

Edgar Lee Masters’ 1915 Spoon River Anthology has been one of the most popular books of foreign poetry in Italy since it was first translated and published there by Fernanda Pivano and Cesare Pavese in 1943. Yet, in the US, Masters is virtually unknown to the public; American scholars find him a problematic figure and his Spoon River only viable in piecemeal form. This article considers the translation and reception history of Spoon River in Italy as well as Masters’ publication and reception history in the US until his death in 1950, to bring to light the reasons for the poet’s differing legacies. It goes on to examine recent scholarly translations of Spoon River, as they at once engage with and neutralize critical American scholarship in order to secure Masters’ status in Italy. Finally, the article suggests a way forward for Italian scholarly work on Masters, which does not attempt to engage American criticism, but, rather, roots itself in the fraught Italian relationship with “agrarian” literature after the ventennio fascista and Mussolini’s rural rhetoric.