Editing Edgar Lee Masters (section)

==Poetry==
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Masters first published his early poems and essays under the pseudonym '''Dexter Wallace''' (after his mother's maiden name and his father's middle name) until the year 1903, when he joined the law firm of [[Clarence Darrow]]. Masters began developing as a notable American poet in 1914, when he began a series of poems (this time under the pseudonym Webster Ford) about his childhood experiences in western Illinois, which appeared in ''[[Reedy's Mirror]]'', a St. Louis publication.

In 1915 the series was bound into a volume and re-titled ''[[Spoon River Anthology]]''. Years later, he wrote a memorable and invaluable account of the book's background and genesis, his working methods and influences, as well as its reception by the critics, favorable and hostile, in an autobiographical article notable for its human warmth and general interest.<ref>Edgar Lee Masters, "The Genesis of Spoon River", ''American Mercury'', v. 28, no. 109 (January 1933), pp. 38–55.</ref>

Although he never matched the success of ''Spoon River Anthology'', he published several other volumes of poems including ''Book of Verses'' in 1898, ''Songs and Sonnets'' in 1910, ''The Great Valley'' in 1916, ''Song and Satires'' in 1916, ''The Open Sea'' in 1921, ''The New Spoon River'' in 1924, ''Lee'' in 1926, ''Jack Kelso'' in 1928, ''Lichee Nuts'' in 1930, ''Gettysburg, Manila, Acoma'' in 1930, ''Godbey,'' sequel to ''Jack Kelso'' in 1931, ''The Serpent in the Wilderness'' in 1933, ''Richmond'' in 1934, ''Invisible Landscapes'' in 1935, ''The Golden Fleece of California'' in 1936, ''Poems of People'' in 1936, ''The New World'' in 1937, and ''More People'' in 1939.{{citation needed|date=December 2015}} Two of his later volumes were published by the [[Decker Press]] after its founder, James Decker, asked Masters for permission to print his work; Masters agreed and ''Illinois Poems'' was published in 1941 and ''Along the Illinois'' was released in 1942.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hallwas|first=John|title=Western Illinois Heritage|publisher=Illinois Heritage Press|year=1983|isbn=978-9994715442|pages=187–189|chapter=Poetry and Murder: Prairie City's Decker Press}}</ref>