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The Enormous Room
by E. E. Cummings
Contents
INTRODUCTION
“FOR THIS MY SON WAS DEAD, AND IS ALIVE AGAIN; HE WAS LOST; AND ISFOUND.”
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 tolife—with the help of powerful and willing friends on both sides of theAtlantic. 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 stronglyadvised that it would be more criminal to delay any longer calling to yourattention a crime against American citizenship in which the French Governmenthas persisted for many weeks—in spite of constant appeals made to theAmerican Minister at Paris; and in spite of subsequent action taken by theState Department at Washington, on the initiative of my friend, Hon.——.
The victims are two American ambulance drivers, Edward Estlin Cummings ofCambridge, Mass., and W—— S—— B——….
More than two months ago these young men were arrested, subjected to manyindignities, dragged across France like criminals, and closely confined in aConcentration Camp at La Ferté Macé; where, according to latest advices theystill remain—awaiting the final action of the Minister of the Interiorupon the findings of a Commission which passed upon their cases as long ago asOctober 17.
Against Cummings both private and official advices from Paris state that thereis no charge whatever. He has been subjected to this outrageous treatmentsolely because of his intimate friendship with young B——, whosesole crime is—so far as can be learned—that certain letters tofriends in America were misinterpreted by an over-zealous French censor.
It only adds to the indignity and irony of the situation to say that youngCummings is an enthusiastic lover of France and so loyal to the friends he hasmade among the French soldiers, that even while suffering in health from hisunjust confinement, he excuses the ing