This complete and unabridged Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classic(tm) of Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology features an extensive glossary and reader's notes to help readers better understand and fully appreciate Masters' work. IN THE TOWN OF SPOON RIVER, ILLINOIS, the dead have been given one final opportunity to speak to the living in the form of epitaphs. Take a stroll through the graveyard; the words on each tombstone create an image of the way the person's life was lived. Together, these tombstones tell of a community that strove for perfection and goodness and relied heavily on faith-but, things don't always turn out as planned... Discover their secrets, heartaches, and regrets; sympathize with their guilt, anger, and sorrow; mourn with those the dead left behind; wander through the history these individuals made through their actions. Ultimately, this cemetery tells of lives that were far from perfect- sometimes, they were even far from good. Through their epitaphs, it becomes clear that these townspeople-neighbors, friends, lovers, family members, and even murderers-saw each other very differently, but now, they all are at rest, as equals, sleeping on the hill.