This American classic Written 100 years ago introduces the characters speaking in free verse from "The Hill", a cemetery in Spoon river Village , a mythical town in the Midwest but known to all as Lewistown ,Illinois. They tell of their hopes, dreams,d failures and regrets. It is a microcosm of society and is ageless. The poet's mother Emma Masters was librarian in Lewistown when the book was published and it was banned there for 60years.