Spoon River Anthology

The Spoon River Anthology is a classic collection of poems by Edgar Lee Masters, with verses dedicated and named for members of a fictional small American town.

Edgar Masters intention when he composed these verses was to demystify the culture of small town America. Over the decades prior to this anthology's publication in 1915, rural and urban cultures in the USA had diverged considerably: to many city-dwellers, how life in the country actually proceeded was simply unknown. 

Originally serialized in a magazine named Reedy's Mirror, each of the poems give the reader insight into the lives, events, and culture of a typical small country town. Each is titled after a specific character, and contains their thoughts and concerns at a given time. This acts to build a narrative around the small town, which is proven to be colorful and emotionally distinct place, with several characters coping with grief and loss. 

Although the characters and setting are fictional, Masters took plentiful inspiration from people who lived near the real life Spoon River, which was also where he resided. As such, the Spoon River Anthology offers a reasonably authentic, if somewhat dramatized, account of how life went by in small town America during the early 20th century.