'It's local. It's here.' Springfield-area group fundraising for Edgar Lee Masters museum

Several years ago, Springfield High School English teacher Lydia Negele dusted off Edgar Lee Masters' "Spoon River Anthology." Literally.

"I was back in the bookroom and there was a very dusty, old, yellow stack of (the books which) had been taught in the 1940s, 50s, 60s," Negele said. "I wasn't familiar with it, but I'm a huge fan of teaching the classics.

"Currently, in our department, in our district, there's more of a push for kids to read modern stuff that is more relevant to them, that (kids) can see themselves in. I think the classics can do that, especially if the teacher works hard to make those connections."

Did she ever.

Negele soon found her sophomores and junior jostling over some very contemporary issues within the pages of Masters' 1915 masterpiece, a compilation of some 200 or so short, free-verse epitaphs spoken from the cemetery of the fictional town of Spoon River, some based on real people he knew growing up in Petersburg and Lewistown.

"It was by far better than I had anticipated," said Negele of the students' reception to the poems. "They were so into it. I had only planned on teaching like 20 of them, but they asked to keep going."

In his poetry, Masters called Petersburg his "heart's home."

Fundraiser will contribute to boyhood home of Edgar Lee Masters

The board of directors that operates the Masters museum that was once his boyhood home is having a dinner and auction fundraiser at Indian Creek Farmstead on April 6.

Edgar Lee Masters' granddaughter, Catherine Masters, a visual artist who lives in Maine, will be the guest speaker.

President Kathy Olesen said the board doesn't receive any funding except through donations. It has to pay the monthly bills and upkeep on the home, which is owned by the city. Money raised through "Party with a Poet" will most likely go towards replacing the home's wood shingle roof.

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This summer, the board is starting a Chautauqua series with speakers and music at First and Third Wine Bar and Boutique in Petersburg on the third Sunday from May through September.

The July 21 speaker is Western Illinois University professor John Hallwas, who edited and wrote an introduction to annotated edition of "Spoon River Anthology."

In 2016, the home and museum donated about 300 manuscripts and letters, unpublished poetry, photographs and other works to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. One of the largest collections of Masters' work for scholars is at the University of Texas at Austin.

Catherine Masters is making her first trip back to central Illinois since the coronavirus pandemic.

Although her grandfather died before she was born, Masters said she is gratified there are those who is still celebrate the poet's work, though readers grapple with some weighty issues, like murder, alcoholism, rejection and isolation, in "Spoon River Anthology."

"There's something in me that gets great joy," Masters said, "that this poetry, that is about people's lives and what lies beneath the surface, is still so interesting to people and it's because that is all of us. It's not just those people he wrote about. It's everybody.

"(There are serious issues but) there are a few who talk about enjoying life and grabbing onto it. It's still relevant today."

Phil Funkenbusch has directed "Spoon River Anthology" several times. With the Masters' family's permission, Funkenbusch adapted a musical based on poems Masters wrote later in life, works that were more pastoral and nostalgic about his one-time home.

"I always wanted to do 'Spoon River' because it's our roots. It's local. It's here," he said. "These people were real people."

Finding meaning in 'Spoon River Anthology'

With her students, Negele said she didn't shy away "from the darker, controversial stories that hit you in the gut." Pointedly frank conversations came up in the class, she said, around adoption and bullying, for instance.

Also appealing to students, she said, was that Masters wasn't preachy and they had to play a bit of detective to understand what the characters were saying.

"It's magic what happens with this book, and I think it's because the kids have to find it," Negele said. "There's no answer key to it."

The Edgar Lee Masters Home and Museum is located at Eighth and Jackson streets in Petersburg. Its hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday and Saturday or by appointment.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Supporters of Edgar Lee Masters holding Petersburg fundraiser