One of the greatest meditations on what art is and isn’t, on the pleasures and perils of the creative life, comes from E.E. Cummings, whose lesser-known prose enchants very differently and yet by the same mechanism that his celebrated poetry does — by inviting the reader to “pick his way toward comprehension, which comes, when it does, in a burst of delight and recognition.”

E. E. Cummings: A Miscellany Revised is, sadly, out of print — but it’s well worth the hunt. Complement it with Susan Cheever’s biography of Cummings and the unusual story of the fairy tales he wrote for his only daughter,

Thanks to Maria Popova and her amazing weekly newsletter: Brain Pickings. If you love books, you must read her pages.