The Enormous Room

E. E. Cummings (1894–1962) was an American poet, painter, and essayist.  He is best known for his innovative verse, which led to his development of an entirely new form of modern poetry based on improvisation and inspired by jazz rhythms; he also worked as a painter and wrote several novels.  At the age of 23, after volunteering to drive ambulances in France during World War I, he was arrested on suspicion of espionage by the French military and imprisoned in a series of prisons that included the infamous "Hellhole" at Château-Thierry.  His wartime experiences formed the basis for his most famous work, The Enormous Room (1922), an autobiographical novel about his imprisonment.