E. E. Cummings Books

This is the first book I've purchased in the Bison Frontiers of Imagination series. The entire line aims to bring early science fiction stories, from the very beginning of the genre, to a mass audience. It is a worthy series and I plan on buying more in the future.

This book is actually two stories in one, both of which were originally published as serials in the pulp magazine All Story Weekly. The Girl in the Golden Atom was written in 1919 and its sequel, The People in the Golden Atom, in 1920.

Needless to say, the science is extremely dated. Luckily, like most pulp stories at the time, the science fiction element is kept to a minimum.

The plot is relatively simple. A man, identified only as the Chemist, discovers a microscopic world inside a golden ring. Soon, he becomes transfixed with a girl he observes there and determines to shrink himself down and find her. He does this by inventing two drugs, one pill to make him smaller and one pill to make him bigger. He then tells this plan to a group of friends, and asks them to safeguard the ring while he is away. Once he returns, he tells them all the story of his adventures inside the world of the ring. After his tale is over, he shrinks himself down again and returns to his love's side.

It is similar in structure to H.G. Well's The Time Machine. Indeed, this is purposefully done by Cummings, who is attempting to bridge the gap between the science romances of Wells and fantastic voyages of Verne.

The tale is very basic, but it has its charms. The descriptions of shrinking and growing, with the world falling away or rushing up, is very well done. The culture that lives inside the ring is only briefly touched upon. Some might see that as an unimaginative copout, but I think it gives it just the right touch of otherworldliness. Unfortunately, in a story like this, characterization is practically non-existent; it's really the adventure that keeps you reading.

The second story, The People in the Golden Atom, picks up right where the last one left off. The Chemist's friends from the previous novel gather together to read a letter he left behind. It tells them to come find him if has not returned within five years. To aid them, he leaves instructions on how to make his shrinking and growing pills.

The rest of the story follows their own adventures in the world of the ring and what happens when they find their wayward friend. All is not well, for a civil war is brewing and the Chemist is right in the middle of it.

I didn't like the second installment as much as the first. The story lagged in the middle. I think the problem is that it has too many protagonists. Also, it gets bogged down in descriptions of the world of the ring instead of moving the action forward. I also didn't like the resolution of the conflict. It didn't seem inevitable enough. Of course, being a serial, the story isn't supposed to be sophisticated.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, the pulp stories of the 20s and 30s, or who is interested in learning more about the Golden Age of science fiction.

In this welcome, rational appraisal, the author sheds light upon influences, goals and themes of Cummings' verse by explicating in detail 25 of the poet's finest works (many of which have never been closely examined). Lane objectively assesses Cummings' strengths and weaknesses. Though an overview of Cummings' work and philsophy emerges, a complete reading of the book is attained only through great concentration due to its stiff organization (one explication after another--25 times). The book's primary value, therefore, would seem to lie in its use as a reference tool for the close examination of a few particular poems. Although scholars should be rewarded by Lane's insight, general readers (even those with a genuine interest in Cummings) may not have the patience to wait for enlightenment to intensify their intrigue.

The Cummings text is less readable than the Bailey version. Cummings has more detail of the results of studies and Bailey has broader brush strokes. I think this comes down to preference.

I am very disappointed, however, in the poor functionality of the electronic version of the Cummings book. About half of the time that I log on, the eBook doesn't work. I have contacted customer service multiple times and each time they say they're working on it. Eventually I got fed up and asked them if it would be reasonable to have either a refund for the eBook or to have a credit, they gave me the following response. (Buyer beware!)

Dear Chris,

We cannot offer a discount or credit because of technical issues. Per our Terms and Conditions,

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Although the back cover and the online advertising information claim that all chapters have fully explained answers, nearly 50% of questions have multiple-choice answers with no explanations. One chapter actually says "no answers provided". The questions and answers are poorly edited. There are some board-relevant questions in this book, but overall I would not recommend it.

I am an ENT man from Taiwan. This book is an important guide for the board examination. I like this book.

I am one of the few people in my dept that buy each and every edition of this book, but it seems that I can't throw away the older ones, in may subjects it seems to be getting better, specially when you are talking about genes or dealing with cancer, but in other areas it is getting worse, like dealing with vocal fold paralysis or sleep apnoea.

I was disappoited on buying the CD-ROM version of this text. I found it incomplete (ie NO mention on Otoplasty despite being advertised by the authers as the MOST comprehensive text in this field !, and I found it innacurate with plenty of mistakes.
It is otherwise a versatile instrument for reference and revision

There is no access to the authors for feedback comments etc.

As a thrifty college student, I'm inclined to finding my books for the lowest price online and while I don't expect them to be new or anywhere close to perfect, a decent enough condition is expected especially when the book's status is "good". However, I found it a little disappointing when I opened my package to find my "good" book missing parts of the binding and that is was being held together with tape. While still functional for class and homework, an extra $5 might have been worth the peace of mind that it won't fall apart at any second.

I have bought this item because the book does not have all the answers of the question. Everybody who studied physics know that a physics`s student needs to do a lot of exercises to understand and know what he did. I bought this solution manual thinking that it will have all or the majority of answers and explanation to those practice exercises, but first, the book was very expensive and then does not have the majority of answers, specially the even or even numbers of the exercises. I will like that the next time people who buy this product could know the real content and a good or significant rebate to the price of it.

This student solutions manual do not have the complete answers for all the problems in the text book. I bought it because I thought it had all the solutions to the problems that the text book did not had (even ones). It really just explain how to do five or seven problems in each chapter; some of the ones that have the solution in the text book.

I bought the book thinking it would provide answers to most of the problems in the back of the book. I was dissapointed that it only picks roughly 10 to 15 questions per chapter. The textbook usually has about 60 t0 70 problems of homework problems. This makes the book extremley useless except for the few problems it contains. I was only able to use one answer from this book for my homework.

For its credit the example was well explained and worked out. The others seemed to be of the same quality.

I ordered the 6th edition and received the 5th edition. However, delivery was fast, but i still have to return the book. WOuld recommand everyone to ask a question to the seller before ordering the book just to make sure that the book YOU need is the one Seller is selling! ! It sucks when you receive a wrong book and have a quiz next day in the class ! !

This book is dull and boring....in fact, I would never have purchased it if it wasn't required for my college class. Everything in here is common sense or if you watch the news, you all ready know everything presented. I started reading the first chapter and it completely put me to sleep, now when preping for a test, I mearly browse through the book and read the required definitions that will be on the test.

The reason that I purchased the book was because of the health class I was taking at college. As I read through the chapters, they really interest me, and remind me of little things that I have always tend to forget. There are no big theories in the book, just simple "life little reminders". When I purchased this book, it also comes with a workbook, which contains review and practice tests to help you to reinforce the ideas. The book helps me to correct some of my daily bad habbits. And even the class is over now, I still read the book sometime to learn more. I think this is a great book for readers who would like to live a healthy life and to take control of themselves, just like me.

the poems were great but the pictures are rather distracting
and have nothing to do with love what-so-ever