William Slater Brown

William Slater Brown (1897 – 22 June 1997) was a friend of the poet E. E. Cummings. He is best-known as the character "B." in Cumming's memoir/novel The Enormous Room.

The Enormous Room is Cummings' account of his time at the La Ferté-Macé detention camp, Orne, Normandy during World War I. Cummings and Brown had been imprisoned there after being arrested on suspicion of espionage while working as volunteers for the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps in 1917.

Cummings and Brown met aboard the Touraine, the ship that brought the two to France in early 1917. Due to an organisational mix-up, the two spent five weeks together in Paris before assigned to an ambulance unit, during which time they became close friends.

Cummings was released from La Ferté-Macé in December 1917 after intervention from his father; however, Brown was not released at the same time, and in fact was transferred at that time to a prison in Précigné. Brown was not able to secure his release for three additional months, after which he sailed for New York, where he reunited Cummings.

External links

• "B (William Slater Brown)" from Spring: The Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society