“There were fifty-three poems with names drawn from the Petersburg, New Salem, Concord, Sandridge country, and sixty-six from the Spoon River country.”

Provides Masters's own account of how extensively the anthology drew on the geography of his youth · The Genesis of Spoon River

• Memory
• Place
• Writing

“I loved the people there then and I love their memory.”

Shows the lasting affection with which Masters remembered the people of his youth · The Sangamon

• Home
• Love
• Memory

“Southern Illinois holds a magical appeal to me quite beyond my power to describe.”

Conveys the enduring emotional and imaginative hold of his Midwestern home · The Sangamon

• Home
• Memory
• Place

“Yet you know that it was you who pressed upon my attention in June, 1909, the Greek Anthology.”

Acknowledging the classical work that helped inspire his distinctive poetic form · Dedication and prefatory note (1918)

• Art
• Memory
• Poetry

“The names I drew from both the Spoon River and the Sangamon River neighborhoods, combining first names here with surnames there.”

Revealing how remembered communities were reshaped through artistic invention · Essay, The Genesis of Spoon River (1933)

• Art
• Memory
• Poetry