Edward Estlin Cummings ’15 once remarked that his childhood home in the shadow of Harvard was “as lively as you please without ever becoming public.” Now, thanks to meticulous reconstruction by biographer and poet Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno, the details of Cummings’ multifaceted life are doing just that.

“I wanted to clue people in that he was more than just a lyrical poet of spring, flowers and love,” said Sawyer-Lauçanno, who will be discussing his new book E.E. Cummings: A Biography at the Harvard Coop on November 14 at 2 p.m.

The work is a “warts and all” biography of the esteemed poet. “My initial opinion was that Cummings was a happy-go-lucky, celebratory poet,” Sawyer-Lauçanno said, “but his private writing was far gloomier.”

Despite his enduring popularity as a poet, very few readers knew Cummings the man. Recently unsealed documents have revealed unsavory aspects of his character, such as his anti-Semitism and misogynism, as well as the cold treatment of his daughter.

“There were consistent bombshells. He was not a warm and fuzzy person,” Sawyer-Lauçanno said. “It doesn’t square with the work he produced. He was certainly struggling with himself.”

What sets the biography apart from other existing treatments of Cummings’ life is its even treatment of the poet’s many faces. It denies itself the easy route of simplification of the man to an image, positive or negative, in favor of an archival, archaeological construction of a character from its constituent facts.

“When you write the truth, you ruffle some feathers,” Sawyer-Lauçanno said. “Some people want to preserve their notion of Cummings. I was obligated to tell the truth and not gloss over his darker and less salient aspects.”

Sawyer-Lauçanno said that it was difficult to maintain an even hand. “He held many views antithetical to my own and to the mainstream. At times it was rather unnerving.”

At the outset, Sawyer-Lauçanno said he was not sure what he wanted to achieve with the biography, simply wanting to tell Cummings’ story. “Cummings has been a longtime passion for me,” he revealed. “I thought it would be interesting to put him in the context of his time and his peers.”

Also factoring in Sawyer-Lauçanno’s decision to create the biography was his feeling that Cummings “has been neglected as a major poet and writer.” The goal was not to reestablish his fame, for “if there is such thing as a popular poet, Cummings is it,” but rather to illustrate his true importance to the modern literary landscape.

In writing, Sawyer-Lauçanno said he fully realized the debt that contemporary poetry owes to Cummings. “He broke rules, the sanctity of the left margin, the splitting of words. In this way he was a pioneer.”

The synthesis in one book of Cummings the man and Cummings the poet provides a new appreciation for his body of work.

“He was an egocentrist, in single-minded pursuit of his art,” Sawyer-Lauçanno related. “He was a dedicated artist, dedicated to [Ezra Pound’s philosophy of] ‘making it new.’”

This fidelity to art led Cummings to forsake many aspects of the non-aesthetic sphere. “He never held a job in his life excepting six weeks. Work would have been a distraction: his art was paramount.”

Sawyer-Lauçanno also reported that Cummings’ time at Harvard was invaluable. “He drew off what he learned in his undergraduate years throughout his life and also depended on the associations and friends he made there,” he said.