The Enormous Room

The Enormous Room

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Title: The Enormous Room
Author: Edward Estlin Cummings
Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8446] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on July 11, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
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THE ENORMOUS ROOM
by
E. E. CUMMINGS
* * * * *
CONTENTS

CHAPTER
INTRODUCTION
I. I BEGIN A PILGRIMAGE
II. EN ROUTE
III. A PILGRIM'S PROGRESS
IV. LE NOUVEAU
V. A GROUP OF PORTRAITS
VI. APOLLYON
VII. AN APPROACH TO THE DELECTABLE MOUNTAINS
VIII. THE WANDERER
IX. ZOO-LOO
X. SURPLICE
XI. JEAN LE N��GRE
XII. THREE WISE MEN
XIII. I SAY GOOD-BYE TO LA MIS��RE
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION
"FOR THIS MY SON WAS DEAD, AND IS ALIVE AGAIN; HE WAS LOST; AND IS FOUND."
He was lost by the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps.
He was officially dead as a result of official misinformation.
He was entombed by the French Government.
It took the better part of three months to find him and bring him back to life--with the help of powerful and willing friends on both sides of the Atlantic. The following documents tell the story:
104 Irving Street, Cambridge, December 8, 1917.
President Woodrow Wilson, White House, Washington, D. C.
Mr. President:
It seems criminal to ask for a single moment of your time. But I am strongly advised that it would be more criminal to delay any longer calling to your attention a crime against American citizenship in which the French Government has persisted for many weeks--in spite of constant appeals made to the American Minister at Paris; and in spite of subsequent action taken by the State Department at Washington, on the initiative of my friend, Hon. ----.
The victims are two American ambulance drivers, Edward Estlin Cummings of Cambridge, Mass., and W---- S---- B----....
More than two months ago these young men were arrested, subjected to many indignities, dragged across France like criminals, and closely confined in a Concentration Camp at La Fert�� Mac��; where, according to latest advices they still remain--awaiting the final action of the Minister of the Interior upon the findings of a Commission which passed upon their cases as long ago as October 17.
Against Cummings both private and official advices from Paris state that there is no charge whatever. He has been subjected to this outrageous treatment solely because of his intimate friendship with young B----, whose sole crime is--so far as can be learned--that certain letters to friends in America were misinterpreted by an over-zealous French censor.
It only adds to the indignity and irony of the situation to say that young Cummings is an enthusiastic lover of France and so loyal to the friends he has made among the French soldiers, that even while suffering in health from his unjust confinement, he excuses the ingratitude of the country he has risked his life to serve by calling attention to the atmosphere of intense suspicion and distrust that has naturally resulted from the painful experience which France has had with foreign emissaries.
Be assured, Mr. President, that I have waited long--it seems like ages--and have exhausted all other available help before venturing to trouble you.
1. After many weeks of vain effort to secure effective action by the American Ambassador at Paris, Richard Norton of the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps to which the boys belonged, was completely discouraged, and advised me to seek help here.
2. The efforts of the State Department at Washington resulted as follows:
i. A cable from Paris saying that there was no charge against Cummings and intimating that he would speedily be released.
ii. A little later a second cable advising that Edward Estlin Cummings had sailed on the Antilles and was reported lost.
iii. A week later a third cable correcting this cruel error and saying the Embassy was renewing efforts to locate Cummings--apparently still ignorant even of the place of his confinement.
After such painful and baffling experiences, I turn to you--burdened though I know you to be, in this world crisis, with the weightiest