1. EDGAR LEE MASTERS 1868-1950 Grew up in Western Illinois farmlands Lawyer (1893) Next ten years expressed his Populist views (pro “little guy”) in a series of essays and plays 1903 joined Clarence Darrow’s law firm where he defended the poor Then went into practice on his own

2. SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY 1914 began a series of poems about his boyhood experiences in Western Illinois This was the beginning of the Spoon River Anthology “combinations of my imagination drawn from the lives of the faithful and tender-hearted souls whom I had known in my youth about Concord, and wherever on Spoon River they existed.”

3. What is the Spoon River Anthology? Series of sardonic graveside monologues that capture small town America, Midwestern values, and the harshness of modern life Masters is trying to show the plight of the people in general through his poems He writes about everyone from an important scientist to a town drunkard Masters thinks that the world needs change and REFORM (PROGRESSIVES)

4. MUCKRAKER Masters is a muckraker: a journalist or author who searches for and exposes scandals and abuses occurring in business and politics The rise of Muckraking corresponded with Progressivism

5. E.A. Robinson 1869-1935 Poetry focuses on inner struggles of an individual Essentially writes about unhappy, disillusioned people Favorite of Teddy Roosevelt