Excerpt from Toward the Gulf This response to the Anthology While it was ap pearing in the Mirror and afterwards when put in the book was to nothing SO much, as to the substance. It was accepted as a picture Of our life in America. It was interpreted as a transcript of the state of mind of men and women here and elsewhere. You called it a Comedy Humaine in your announcement of my identity as the author in the Mirror of November 20, 1914. If the epitaphic form gave added novelty I must confess that the idea was suggested to me by the Greek Ah thology. But it was rather because of the Greek An thology than from it that I evolved the less harmonious epitaphs with which Spoon River Anthology was com menced. AS to metrical epitaphs it is needless to say that I drew upon the legitimate materials of authentic English versification. Up to the Spring Of 1914, I had never allowed a Spring to pass without reading Homer; and I feel that this familiarity had its infliience both as to form and spirit; but I shall not take the space now to pursue this line of confessional. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.