It's E.E. Cummings
Just catching up with the Chicago Tribune op-ed piece on the trend to write in all-lowercase letters. The article included a sentence, “caplessness worked for e.e. cummings, right?” Once and for all, Edward Estlin Cummings indulged in many typographical effects in his poetry, but he capitalized his name conventionally.
Here is an article by Norman Friedman that includes a reproduction of his signature and a comment from Cummings’ widow that insisting on lowercasing his name was “stupid & childish.”
I think that it’s an annoying affectation* with people like k.d. Lang and bell hooks (K.D. Lang! Bell Hooks” There! Sue me!), but ascribing the practice to Cummings is doubly annoying.
* I’m irresistibly reminded of Sarah Jessica Parker’s character, SanDeE* in L.A. Story.
Comments
k.d. Laing
It's Lang (or lang), with no "i".
Posted by: Hal Laurent, VoR | May 15, 2008 11:53 AM
So it is. Fixed.
Posted by: John McIntyre | May 15, 2008 1:00 PM
However, is IS Shona Laing
http://www.shonalaing.com/
I enjoy the album of hers that I have.
I run into this lowercase problem with company names. How will you know it's a proper name, if you don't cap it?
And I have developed a huge urge (now that my pub has eliminated the "www.") to always capitalize URLs, just so that when you start to read the word, you know it's different somehow.
Posted by: Talley Sue Hohlfeld | May 15, 2008 3:00 PM
I've often wished I'd been the copy editor of Archy, the cockroach whose works appeared in the writing of Don Marquis.
How can you not admire an insect with the urge to write despite the inability to use the shift key and having to struggle with paper and carriage returns before the rise of computers?
Using lowercase seemingly inappropriately is not a gimmick when you weigh only a few grams.
http://www.donmarquis.com
Posted by: Wayne | May 15, 2008 4:10 PM
Very interesting. I believe I had heard Mr. Cummings had changed his name to lowercase letters before. And I believe it was during my college poetry classes!
Great post!
Posted by: Krisha | May 15, 2008 5:58 PM
OK. So, who's going to set Apple straight on iTunes?
Posted by: Jon | May 15, 2008 6:07 PM
Perhaps it was R. D. Laing whom you'd confused with the singer.
Posted by: gottacook | May 19, 2008 11:53 PM
Hallelujah for you, John McIntyre! Years ago, an editing colleague shared this little tidbit of information, which I have dutifully passed on, always to be greeted with exclamations of doubt and looks that say "aren't you a cute little word nerd to know such a piece of information."
Posted by: mighty red pen | May 29, 2008 1:04 PM