Damn Everything But the Circus! Damn Everything That Is Grim, Dull, Motionless, Unrisking, Inward Turning

E. E. Cummings? Corita Kent? Helen Kelley? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: To enjoy a full life one must be willing to embrace excitement, change, beauty, and risk. Metaphorically, one must enter the center ring of life’s circus and perform. The prominent U.S. poet E. E. Cummings (often styled e e cummings) has been credited with a pertinent passage:

Damn everything but the circus! . . . damn everything that is grim, dull, motionless, unrisking, inward turning, damn everything that won’t get into the circle, that won’t enjoy. That won’t throw it’s heart into the tension, surprise, fear and delight of the circus, the round world, the full existence.

I think this attribution is inaccurate because I have never been able to find a solid citation. Would you please help me to find the true author?

Quote Investigator: QI believes the passage under examination is a composite. The first line was extracted from a dialog written by E. E. Cummings, and the remainder was created by Sister Helen Kelley who was President of Immaculate Heart College of Los Angeles, California from 1963 to 1977.

In 1927 E. E. Cummings published a play titled “Him” in the literary journal “Dial”. The work included the following exchange between characters named “Him” and “Me”. Cumming’s text combined some words, e.g., “circus tent” appeared as “circustent”. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:^[1]1927 August, Dial: A Semi-monthly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information, Him by E. E. Cummings, Act 1, Scene 2, Start Page 101, Quote Page 105 and 106, Chicago, Illinois. … Continue reading

HIM: (Vehemently) Damn everything but the circus! (To himself ) And here am I, patiently squeezing fourdimensional ideas into a twodimensional stage, when all of me that’s any one or anything is in the top of a circustent . . . ( A pause.)

ME: I didn’t imagine you were leading a double life—and right under my nose, too.

HIM: ( Unhearing, proceeds contemptuously ) : The average “painter” “sculptor” “poet” “composer” “playwright” is a person who cannot leap through a hoop from the back of a galloping horse, make people laugh with a clown’s mouth, orchestrate twenty lions.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

During the autumn of 1952 Cummings began delivering a series of lectures at Harvard University which were published in 1953 under the title “i: Six Nonlectures”. The work reprinted the exchange between “Him” and “Me”. Thus, the line about the circus achieved further circulation.^[2]1954 (Copyright 1953), i: Six Nonlectures by E. E. Cummings, Nonlecture Five: i & now & him, Start Page 78, Quote Page 79, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Verified with … Continue reading

In 1969 “The Boston Globe” reviewed an exhibition of the artist Corita Kent who specialized in serigraphs. The artworks were inspired by items such as old Victorian broadsides, Circus posters, and patent medicine ads:^[3]1969 April 4, The Boston Globe, Former Sister Corita’s exhibit of prints brightens Boston gallery by Edgar J. Driscoll Jr. (Staff Writer), Quote Page 15, Column 2 and 3, Boston, Massachusetts. … Continue reading

Then she laces them with all sorts of calligraphy and pertinent quotes from the likes of John Dewey, Camus, J.F.K., A. A. Milne, or e e cummings.

The last appears a particular favorite this time around. For example: “Damn everything but the circus . . . damn everything that is grim, dull, ridiculous, inward turning.”

The reviewer garbled the quotation and the attribution as indicated by the following citation.

In 1970 Corita Kent published a collection of her artworks in a book titled “Damn Every Thing But the Circus: A Lot of Things Put Together”. Page 53 contained an illustration of a woman holding a fan. The image was overlayed with bright orange and pink together with the following handwritten text:^[4] 1970 Copyright, Damn Every Thing But the Circus: A Lot of Things Put Together by Corita Kent, Quote Page 10, 52, and 53, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York. (Verified with scans)

damn everything but the circus – e. e. cummings
. . . damn everything that is grim, dull, motionless, unrisking, inward turning, damn everything that won’t get into the circle, that won’t enjoy, that won’t throw its heart into the tension, surprise, fear and delight of the circus, the round world, the full existence . . . S. Helen Kelley

Corita Kent attended and taught at Immaculate Heart College and Helen Kelley was the president of the school. Hence, Kent probably heard the quotation directly from Kelley, and she found the words memorable enough to incorporate in her artwork.

In 1988 “Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations” contained the following item:^[5] 1988, Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, Compiled by James B. Simpson, Section: Corita Kent, Quote Page 231, Column 1, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. (Verified on paper)

CORITA KENT
Damn everything but the circus.
Quotation used on serigraph, Newsweek 17 Dec 84

In 2021 the website of “Commonweal” magazine posted a review of a film about the sisters of the Los Angeles congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The piece began with the following quotation:^[6]Website: Commonweal Magazine, Article title: Conscience & Confidence ‘Rebel Hearts’, Article author: Anna Harrison, Date on website: August 18, 2021, Website description: Commonweal magazine … Continue reading

“Damn everything that is grim, dull, motionless, unrisking, inward turning, damn everything that won’t get in the circle, that won’t enjoy, that won’t throw its heart into the tension, surprise, fear and delight of the circus, the round world, full of existence….”

-Sr. Helen Kelley, President of Immaculate Heart Community (1993–1996)

In conclusion, the quotation under analysis appeared in an artwork by Corita Kent. E. E. Cummings penned the first line for a play he published in 1927. The remainder of the quotation was created by Sister Helen Kelley. Both authors were named and credited in Kent’s artwork which was exhibited in 1969 and placed into a book in 1970.

Image Notes: Illustration of a circus tent from Clker-Free-Vector-Images at Pixabay. Image has been retouched and resized.

(Great thanks to Kate Magram whose email led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Magram located the key citations. She found the first line of the quotation in the play “Him” and the full quotation in Corita Kent’s artwork. She also found the “Commonweal” citation and other helpful information.)