Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters was an immediate commercial success when it was published in 1915. Unconventional in both style and content, it shattered the myths of small town American life. This collection of epitaphs of residents of a small town requires the reader to piece together narratives from fragments contained in individual poems.

In these pages, no less than 214 individual voices are heard — each voice distinct, yet universal in its resonance. The voices of Spoon River, although distinctively small-town Americans, evoke themes of love and hope, disappointment and despair that are universal in their resonance.