WRITER

Edgar Lee Masters

1868 - 1950

Photo of Edgar Lee Masters

Icon of person Edgar Lee Masters

Edgar Lee Masters (August 23, 1868 – March 5, 1950) was an American attorney, poet, biographer, and dramatist. He is the author of Spoon River Anthology, The New Star Chamber and Other Essays, Songs and Satires, The Great Valley, The Serpent in the Wilderness, An Obscure Tale, The Spleen, Mark Twain: A Portrait, Lincoln: The Man, and Illinois Poems. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Edgar Lee Masters has received more than 245,321 page views. His biography is available in 28 different languages on Wikipedia. Edgar Lee Masters is the 2,582nd most popular writer (down from 2,498th in 2019), the 3,282nd most popular biography from United States (down from 3,247th in 2019) and the 284th most popular American Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 250k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 54.22

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 28

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 3.85

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.02

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Toward the Gulf
Accessible book
1918
1915
Children of the Market Place
Accessible book, Fiction, History
1922
Spoon River anthology
Poetry, Dead, City and town life
In Spoon River Anthology, the American poet Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950) created a series of compelling free-verse monologues in which former citizens of a mythical Midwestern town speak touchingly from the grave of the thwarted hopes and dream of their lives. First published in book form in 1915, the Anthology was the crowning achievement of Masters' career as a poet, and a work that would become a landmark of 20th-century American literature. In these pages, no less than 214 individual voices are heard — some in no more than a dozen moving lines. Alternately plaintive, anguished, enigmatic, angry, and contemptuous, 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.
1915
The open sea
Accessible book
1921
Maximilian
Accessible book
1902

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Edgar Lee Masters ranks 2,582 out of 7,302. Before him are Friedrich Spee, Cleitarchus, Ignacy Krasicki, Parvin E'tesami, Johann Froben, and Elmore Leonard. After him are Arthur Young, Constantin von Wurzbach, Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Karl Gutzkow, Isaac Deutscher, and Jim Thompson.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1868, Edgar Lee Masters ranks 98. Before him are Giovanni Giacometti, Jaan Tõnisson, Ivan Regen, Cai Yuanpei, Max Slevogt, and Lauri Ingman. After him are Dawid Janowski, Hovhannes Kajaznuni, Carl Brockelmann, Georgy Voronoy, Prince Frederick of Schaumburg-Lippe, and Mihailo Petrović. Among people deceased in 1950, Edgar Lee Masters ranks 79. Before him are Karl Guthe Jansky, Harold Laski, Lev Berg, Ulrich Graf, Walton Walker, and Kazys Grinius. After him are Kurt Schmitt, Yi Kwang-su, Nikolai Luzin, Juan Botasso, Arthur Jeffrey Dempster, and Al Jolson.

Others Born in 1868

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Others Deceased in 1950

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Edgar Lee Masters ranks 3,282 out of 20,380. Before him are Elmore Leonard (1925), Ted Nelson (1937), Thomas A. Hendricks (1819), Cherry Jones (1956), Josh Holloway (1969), and Cynthia Rothrock (1957). After him are Mel Blanc (1908), Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857), Bill Cobbs (1934), Lizzo (1988), David Lee Roth (1954), and Jim Thompson (1906).

Others born in United States

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Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, Edgar Lee Masters ranks 284. Before him are Alexandra Ripley (1934), Lois McMaster Bujold (1949), Andrea Dworkin (1946), John Barth (1930), L. Sprague de Camp (1907), and Elmore Leonard (1925). After him are Jim Thompson (1906), Terry Goodkind (1948), Neil Simon (1927), Orson Scott Card (1951), Eric Carle (1929), and Richard Bandler (1950).

American born Writers

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