Tulips and Chimneys is a collection of poetry by E. E. Cummings

E. E. Cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings , popularly known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as e.e. cummings , was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright...

, published in 1923 (see 1923 in poetry

1923 in poetry

-- From Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", first published this year in his collection New HampshireNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:...

). This collection is the first dedicated exclusively to Cummings' poetry; his work had been published previously alongside others' in Eight Harvard Poets.

Though most now know the title to be Tulip

Tulip

The tulip is a perennial, bulbous plant with showy flowers in the genus Tulipa, which comprises 109 species and belongs to the family Liliaceae. The genus's native range extends from as far west as Southern Europe, North Africa, Anatolia, and Iran to the Northwest of China. The tulip's centre of...

s & Chimney

Chimney

A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the...

s (with an ampersand

Ampersand

An ampersand is a logogram representing the conjunction word "and". The symbol is a ligature of the letters in et, Latin for "and".-Etymology:...

), Cummings's original title request was disregarded by the publisher Thomas Seltzer

Thomas Seltzer

Thomas Seltzer may refer to:* Thomas Seltzer , translator and editor of Russian stories* Happy-Tom, bassist and main songwriter in the band Turbonegro...

, who changed the ampersand to the word "and." Eventually, the book would come to be published together with the collection &, under Cummings's original title.

Tulips and Chimneys features, among others, the poems "All in green went my love riding", "Thy fingers make early flowers of", and "Buffalo Bill's". The original manuscript contained 152 poems of which only 86 appeared in this volume. 41 of the other poems later appeared in XLI Poems, and the balance (along with 34 new poems) were privately printed by the author in the simply named "&" in 1925.