Murray sought admission to the University of Maryland School of Law on January 24, 1935, but his application was rejected on account of his race and his appeal to the Board of Regents of the university was unsuccessful. The case Murray v. Pearson was initiated by Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity as part of its widening social program; however, Murray was not a member of the fraternity.[4] The fraternity hired Belford Lawson, but by the time the case reached court, Murray was represented by Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall of the Baltimore National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Marshall argued the organization's policy of racial segregation was unconstitutional and argued in principle that "since the State of Maryland had not provided a comparable law school for blacks that Murray should be allowed to attend the white university."[5] and stated
What's at stake here is more than the rights of my client. It's the moral commitment stated in our country's creed.[6]
The Judge issued a writ of mandamus ordering Raymond A. Pearson, president of the university, to admit Murray to the University of Maryland Law School.[5] The ruling was appealed to Maryland's highest court, the Court of Appeals, which affirmed the lower courts' rulings on January 15, 1936.[1][a]
Murray was admitted to the University of Maryland School of Law; however, he was not in a position to pay for tuition and books. Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity paid Murray's tuition and books from the time of his admittance to his graduation from law school.[4]
Murray went on to practice law in Baltimore with the firm of Douglass, Perkins and Murray. He was involved in a number of cases which led to the removal of the color barrier from the University of Maryland graduate schools.
Donald Gaines Murray, Sr. played an instrumental role in the desegregation of the graduate and professional schools at the University of Maryland and was himself the first African-American to enter the University of Maryland School of Law since 1890.1 Moreover, Donald Gaines Murray became the first African-American graduate of the publicly funded University of Maryland School of Law in 1938.2 Prior to his entrance as a first-year student to the University in 1935, Murray was barred admission because of his race.3 Murray subsequently became the plaintiff in the widely publicized case, Pearson v. Murray,4 which was funded by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.) and argued by Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall.5 The case forced the University to admit Murray to the law school.6
Prior to his death in April of 1986, Donald G. Murray was highly regarded in and around the Baltimore, Maryland community. Throughout his career, Murray was recognized as the “lawyer’s lawyer” because of the skill and competence he exercised in preparation of legal briefs.7 Murray will long be remembered for his many contributions to the organizations he participated in and his tireless support of the African-American community of Baltimore. The following piece will examine the life and career of Donald Gaines Murray and more specifically
will reveal his early years, the case of Murray v. Pearson,8 which ordered the University to admit Murray to the Law School, reveal his law practice, organizational affiliations, leadership roles and allies in the community.
II. THE EARLY YEARS
Donald Gaines Murray, son of George and Cecilia Gaines, was born on May 24, 1913 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.9 Following the death of his mother, Donald, at the age of two, along with his sister Margery and father moved to Baltimore, Maryland.10 Donald’s father became employed as a waiter.11 Donald and his sister resided with and were raised by their maternal grandparents, the late Abraham L. Gaines, bishop of an African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Minnie Gaines.12 As a child, Donald attended Henry Highland Garnett School No. 10313 and then went onto to attend and graduate from Frederick Douglas High School in 1929.14
Following graduation, Donald briefly attended Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania.15 Interestingly, during Murray’s freshman year, Thurgood Marshall, who would later become a United States Solicitor General and Supreme Court Justice, was a senior at Lincoln.16 This coincidence would later turn out to be important to Murray because Marshall would play an instrumental role in his efforts to attend the University of Maryland.17 Following his brief attendance at Lincoln, Murray matriculated to Amherst University, in Northampton,
Massachusetts.18 While attending Amherst, Murray worked his way through the university as a waiter and he also received a religious scholarship.19 In May of 1929, Murray successfully completed his course and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History.20
Following graduation, Murray applied as a first year student to the University of Maryland Law School. Rosa Murray, his wife, stated that she did not believe that her husband originally wanted to practice law.21 Instead, Rosa believed that Thurgood Marshall convinced him.22 Rosa believed that since the doors had been shut to Marshall years before, Marshall wanted to open the doors of the law school to students of color and felt that Murray was a qualified candidate to enter the University.23 On the other hand, H.L. Mencken described Murray’s reason for applying, as “having a mind to consecrate his life to the fearsome mysteries of the law.”24 Whatever the reason may have been, Donald Murray’s admission to the University marked the beginning of the desegregation of public universities in the state of Maryland.
On December 8, 1934, Murray sent a handwritten registered letter to Dean of the Law School seeking admission as a first-year student.25 The letter described his qualifications and requested a formal application and school brochure.26 R.A. Pearson, President of the University, responded on December 14 explaining that he was in receipt of the request, however, under the laws of the state, the University maintained the Princess Anne Academy27 as a separate
institution for the education of blacks.28 Furthermore, Pearson explained that the Legislature provided partial scholarships for out-of-state institutions to black students desiring to study courses not provided at Princess Anne and should Murray desire such a scholarship to contact him.29 Later, Murray mailed a formal application to the University and $2.00 on January 24, 1935 along with a letter again explaining his qualifications and intent to enter the school.30 On March 8, Pearson returned the application, the $2.00, and a letter advising Murray of the exceptional facilities available to him at Howard University, in Washington D.C. and explaining that the tuition was considerably less than that of Maryland.31
Thurgood Marshall, Charles H. Houston and William Gosnell represented Murray in his case against the University.32 The case was argued in Baltimore City Court before Judge Eugene O’Dunne. 33 Murray’s counsel petitioned the court for a writ of mandamus to compel the University to admit Murray.34 Judge O’Dunne ordered the University on June 18, 1935 to admit Murray as a first-year student in the day division for the academic year beginning September 25, 1935, provided however, Murray tendered the necessary fees.35 To everyone’s surprise, on September 17, 1939, only eight days before Murray was to enroll in the University, an unforeseen problem arose; Murray did not have the funds to enroll.36 Marshall sent the following telegram to Houston:
MURRAY CANNOT RAISE MONEY[.] BAD SUMMER FOR WORK[.] FAMILY CANNOT RAISE[.] HAVE BEEN TRYING TO RAISE MONEY IN CITY BUT
WITHOUT SUCCESS[.] COULD NOT GET A LOAN[.] EVERYTHING LOOKS BAD[.] SISTER IS TEACHING AND COULD PAY BACK THE LOAN[.] THURGOOD37
In response, Houston, on September 19 sent a memorandum to Walter White explaining that they would have to advance Murray a $160 loan to enroll in the University or otherwise render the case moot and seriously affect their agenda.38 Neither, Houston, White, Marshall or the N.A.A.C.P. had the necessary money to assist Murray. 39
White sent a telegram that same day to Morris Ernst, an attorney and the trustee of the Garland Fund, a fund that previously financed, modestly however, several N.A.A.C.P. efforts.40 Nevertheless, White did not want the University of Maryland to know that the Garland Fund was financing Murray’s admission to the institution.41 Therefore, White instructed Marshall to deliver the Garland Fund check to Carl Murphy, then publisher of the Afro-American newspaper and interested in breaking the color barrier at the University.42 Murphy would then “loan” the $160 to Murray and deliver, along with the check, legal papers regarding how and when the money was to be repaid.43
On September 24, Murray registered, paid the admission fees, and began attending classes shortly thereafter.44 Rosa Murray explained that once in the school the faculty treated Murray fairly, however, Murray received a “cool” reception from the student body.45 Interestingly enough, it is reported that Houston and Marshall constantly reminded Murray of the importance of successfully completing law school, not failing, and putting his academics before
personal appearances and the like.46 In fact, to make it somewhat easier for Murray, Marshall and Houston provided him with a dollar or two of spending money from time to time.47
While Murray entered the fall of 1935, the University brought an appeal to the Maryland Court of Appeals.48 Murray argued that his exclusion from the law school because of race was a denial of his rights to equal protection of the laws and contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.49 On appeal, the University argued that because of the character and organization of the law school it was not a government agency and was not required to give equal rights to students under the Fourteenth Amendment.50 Alternatively, the University argued that if it was deemed a state agency, the admission of black students was not required because the Fourteenth Amendment permitted segregation of the races for education.51 As such, the University maintained that equal treatment had been afforded black students through scholarships to attend law schools outside the state.52
The court unanimously rejected the University’s arguments and affirmed the writ of mandamus.53 The court stated there “there was no escape that the school is a branch or agency of the state government. The state now provides education in the law for its citizens. And in doing so it comes under the constitutional mandates applicable to the actions of the states.”54 As a result, under the Fourteenth Amendment, the state was required to provide substantially equal
treatment.55 Addressing the University’s argument that a scholarship could be available to Murray to attend Howard University, in Washington D.C., the court noted that the expenses to Murray would have been considerably greater than that of Maryland.56 In addition, the court noted the advantages of studying law in Maryland, namely attending state court proceedings where he intended to practice, which could not be attained at Howard.57 The court concluded by stating that “the state has undertaken the function of education in the law, but has omitted students of one race from the only adequate provision made for it. If these students are to be offered equal treatment in the performance of the function, at present, be admitted to the one school provided.”58
In June of 1938 Murray graduated with honors from the University of Maryland and received a Doctor of Jurisprudence.59 On June 6, 1938, Murray, reflecting on his experience at Maryland and the importance of his admission, wrote Walter White and explained:
I have been aware during my three years in Law School of the responsibility which rested upon me – as you succinctly put it in your letter of encouragement early in my course – of developing with the minds of the students and faculty ‘a new concept of the Negro.’ As I told Thurgood, I feel that in some small way I have.60
III. LIFE AFTER LAW SCHOOL
Following graduation and passage of the bar examination, Murray engaged in private practice located at 721 George Street in Baltimore.61 In November of 1939 Murray eloped with Ms. Rosa Langley Walker, a Coppin University graduate and Baltimore schoolteacher.62 Murray met Rosa four years earlier while working as a clothes checker at the Druid Hill Park
during the summer of 1935.63 Rosa and Murray decided to elope because their parents were poor and it was less expensive than having a larger wedding.64 Also, both were afraid that Rosa’s father, a Presbyterian minister, would forbid them to marry because they were too young.65 As such, young Rosa and Murray took a cab to the minister’s house and were married with the minister’s wife and the cab driver as witnesses to the union.66 They later sent a telegram to their parents at the train station, prior to spending their honeymoon weekend in Washington D.C., informing them of their marriage.67 When they were first married, due to financial constraints, Murray and his new bride lived briefly with his grandmother Minnie.68
Murray continued his law practice until drafted into the United States Army during W.W.II.69 Murray left in 1945 while his wife was pregnant with their first child Donald Murray, Jr.70 Murray felt that it was his duty to enter the war, however, he resented the fact that the army was segregated among whites and blacks.71 During W.W.II, Murray served in the Europe Theatre of War and earned the rank of sergeant before being honorably discharged in 1946.72 By the time Murray returned to Maryland, his first child was already two years old.73 Following the
war, Murray resumed private practice with his firm Murray, Douglass & Perkins, Attorney’s at Law.74
IV. MURRAY’S LAW PRACTICE
When asked what type of cases her husband liked to accept, Rosa Murray expressed that Murray would accept “every kind.”75 Mrs. Murray explained that in the days that her husband practiced it was extremely difficult for African-American attorneys to obtain clients and as a consequence, to make money.76 In fact, Mrs. Murray was herself a member of the Lawyers’ Wives Convention Committee,77 a group of African-American women, organized to promote the law practices of their husbands and encouraged individuals to receive African-American counsel and representation.78 As a result, Murray represented a wide range of clients from criminal and civil cases involving rape, bastardy proceedings, and lottery violators to cases involving the constitutionality of statutes, restrictive covenants and the segregation of a public university. In addition, because Murray was well recognized for his skill and competence exercised in preparation of legal briefs,79 attorneys frequently obtained his assistance in preparing briefs for a variety of cases. Robert B. Watts, a retired judge, who had occasion to work with Murray, agreed that Murray was an attorney more likely to do legal research and prepare legal briefs than to appear in court. 80 Furthermore, Watts described Murray’s work as “scholarly.”81
The following paragraphs provide a brief summary of the cases in which Murray was involved. In Brislin v. United States,82 Murray helped prepare a brief that Duke Avnet argued for the appellant in an admiralty suit seeking to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by him as a radio operator on a steamship.83 Murray and Avnet successfully demonstrated to the court that evidence existed regarding the assessment of damages and the liability of the United States under the Jones Act, such that required the reversal and remand of the case to the District Court.84 Similarly, Murray and Albert Avnet assisted with the preparation of a brief, for Duke Avnet in Vlavianos v. The Cypress,85 another admiralty suit. 86
In 1948, Murray helped Calvin A. Douglass prepare an appellate brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals in the unsuccessful attempt to prove that the defendant, who had been convicted of rape, assault with intent to rape and common assault, was wrongfully convicted in Smith v. State.87 Later, Murray and Charles H. Houston represented several plaintiffs in the case of Goetz v. Smith, a suit involving the attempted enforcement of a restrictive covenant that forbid the sale or lease of a piece of property to or by any African-American or Asian or any person of African-American or Asian descent.88
Charles H. Houston, representing residents on Druid Hill Avenue and McCulloh Street, obtained Murray’s assistance in the preparation of an appellate brief for the case of Chissell v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore.89 In Chissell, the Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s decision to dismiss the complaint that requested an injunction on the city ordinance making Druid Hill Avenue and McCulloh Street one-way streets and an injunction against the enforcement of the collection of taxes based on increased assessments on properties located on those streets.90
Duke Avnet and Linwood G. Koger obtained Murray’s assistance in the preparation of the appellate brief, along with Mitchell A. Dubow, Robert P. McGuinn and Bernard Rosen, in Hammond v. Lancaster.91 Avnet and Koger represented Lancaster and various other Maryland citizens and taxpayers against Attorney General Hammond challenging the constitutionality of the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act92 and enjoining the defendant from enforcing any provisions of such act. Although successful in the Circuit Court of Baltimore City, the Court of Appeals held that the complainants had no standing to maintain the suit.93
Later in 1949, Murray, with the assistance of Thurgood Marshall, Charles Houston and Robert L. Carter, represented Esther McCready in the case of McCready v. Byrd,94 who was denied admission to the University of Maryland School of Nursing because of her race but offered training at an
Later in 1949, Murray, with the assistance of Thurgood Marshall, Charles Houston and Robert L. Carter, represented Esther McCready in the case of McCready v. Byrd,94 who was denied admission to the University of Maryland School of Nursing because of her race but offered training at an institution in Nashville, Tennessee. Murray successfully appealed the lower court decision, which dismissed the petition for a writ of mandamus, and required the University admit McCready on the grounds that the University was required to provide equal educational opportunities inside the state. 95 Murray also represented six other African-American applicants to the University of Maryland denied admission to their school of choice and offered admission to other schools.96 Murray later dismissed the suits in years following the McCready decision.
Murray also helped Ernest L. Perkins prepare several appellate briefs involving violations of lottery and gaming laws. In Robinson v. State, Murray along with LeRoy A. Cooper on the brief, assisted Ernest Perkins, although unsuccessfully, appeal the conviction of the defendant for violating Maryland gaming and lottery laws.97 Similarly, in Burrell v. State, Murray along with William H. Murphy on the brief, assisted Perkins unsuccessfully appeal Burrell’s prosecution and conviction for violation of lottery laws.98 In Brown v. State, Murray on brief, again assisting Perkins, unsuccessfully appealed the defendant’s conviction for possession of lottery materials.99 Murray also had the occasion to assist Perkins on the brief in White v. State, an appeal of a rape conviction.100 The Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s conviction of Perkins’ client for rape because no evidence existed proving that the confession of the defendant was improperly admitted.101
Murray, personally represented the plaintiff-admininstratix in Burrell v. Veanie,102 with Perkins and their firm on brief. The Court of Appeals affirmed the circuit court’s decision because the plaintiff was unable to establish that she was entitled to a greater amount of her sister’s estate.103 Murray also personally represented a defendant in Bush v. State,104 appealing defendant’s conviction for the armed robbery of a grocery store. Again the Court of Appeals affirmed the defendant’s conviction because the credibility of witnesses who identified the defendant in the robbery and the sufficiency of the identification were matters properly addressed by the trial court.105
Late in his career, Murray helped Calvin A. Douglass prepare several appellate briefs in bastardy proceedings. In both Cooper v. State106 and Smith v. Jackson,107 the Court of Appeals sustained the lower court’s decision finding the defendants to be the fathers of the children at issue.
V. EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCES BEYOND THE LAW
Due to financial constraints, in addition to his law practice, Murray held a number of positions unrelated to the law during his career. In the late 1930’s, Murray served as a part-time inspector for the Board of Liquor License Commissioners for Baltimore City.108 Similarly, in 1938 Murray worked shortly for the City of Baltimore Housing Authority as an investigator performing survey work in East Baltimore City.109
Following his return from W.W.II, Murray served as an inspector for the State Board of Motion Picture Censors in the early 1950’s.110 As an inspector for the Censor Board, Murray was responsible for attending motion pictures to ensure that they were shown in the form in which the Board had approved them and to ensure that the picture bore the seal of the Board.111 In 1955, however, at the age of 43, Murray was terminated from this position after being convicted in traffic court for drinking and driving.112 Murray was arrested after the state car he was driving struck a parked car and continued driving in a zigzag course before being stopped by
police.113 Although, Murray denied that he was drinking and driving, the magistrate, S. Robert Levinson, suspended his license for fifteen days and fined him $375.114
VI. PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS & ACHIEVEMENTS
Donald G. Murray was a member of and involved in a number of professional organizations and social groups. Murray was a member of the Baltimore N.A.A.C.P. Legal Redress Committee, along with other members including Juanita J. Mitchell, Lillie M. Jackson, W.A.C. Hughes, Jr., Calvin A. Douglass, Furman L. Templeton, and others.115 He was an active member of Monumental Bar Association116 and served at one time on the Amendment to the Laws Committee of the Monumental Bar.117 In 1950, Murray was elected Chairperson of the Charles Hamilton Houston Memorial Fund Committee to raise funds for Houston’s surviving six-year-old son.118 Murray was also a member of the Baltimore Urban League, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Guardsman, a social club, and the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.119
In addition, the Afro-American newspaper, the National N.A.A.C.P., the Black American Law Students Association (BALSA) and the University of Maryland School of Law honored Donald Murray before his death.120 In 1939, Murray was named to the Afro-American Honor Roll.121 He was also given national recognition as a pioneer in the African-American legal community by the N.A.A.C.P. in 1972.122 In 1981, the Black American Law Students Association at the University of Maryland School of Law saluted Murray as an outstanding legal
pioneer in Maryland.123 Similarly, in 1985, Murray was honored by the School of Law in ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the opening of the law school without racial restrictions.124
VII. CONCLUSION
Following a very impressive career, Murray retired in 1971 due to illness.125 Even after retirement, Murray worked part-time at the Legal Aid Bureau from 1979 until 1983.126 Rosa Murray explained that her husband suffered a series of strokes and had been declining in health for approximately seventeen years prior to his death.127 On April 7, 1986, Murray passed away at the age of seventy-two at Lutheran Hospital.128 His wife, and three sons, Donald Jr., Alfred Walker and John Gaines Murray survived him.129 Subsequently, funeral services were held at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, with Reverend Reginald Daniels serving as presiding pastor.130 Murray was buried in the Maryland National Memorial Park in Laurel, Maryland.131
Donald Gaines Murray and the Integration of the University Of Maryland School of Law
Donald Gaines Murray, Sr. (1914 - 1986) was the first African-American to enter the University of Maryland School of Law following the 1890 effort to prevent African-Americans from attending the school (see: "Colored Students Ruled Out"). Murray first sought admission to the University of Maryland School of Law on January 24, 1935, but his application was rejected based on race and his subsequent appeal to the Board of Regents of the university was unsuccessful. Upon this second rejection Murray began to work with lawyers at Washington D.C.'s Howard University to consider possible legal action. According to Juan Williams writing in his 1998 work Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary when Thurgood Marshall learned that some other lawyers were considering filing a suit against the State of Maryland and the University:
he [Marshall] got upset and wrote to [Charles Hamilton] Houston that he wanted to be first to file suit. He could not bear to allow any other lawyer to take the lead on this case.
By the time the case reached court, Murray was represented by Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall, with help from Baltimore based attorney Nicholas Gosnell. Marshall argued the organization's policy of racial segregation was unconstitutional and argued in principle that "since the State of Maryland had not provided a comparable law school for blacks that Murray should be allowed to attend the white university." and stated " What's at stake here is more than the rights of my client. It's the moral commitment stated in our country's creed."
Judge Eugene O'Dunne ordered Raymond A. Pearson, president of the university, to admit Murray to the University of Maryland Law School. The ruling was appealed to Maryland's highest court, the Court of Appeals, which affirmed the lower courts' rulings on January 15, 1936.
Murray, who eventually graduated in 1938, [1939 catalog listing Murray's graduation] went on to practice law in Baltimore with the firm of Douglass, Perkins and Murray. He was involved in several subsequent cases which would lead to integration of other professional schools at the Univ
ersity of Maryland. Murray was a member of the Baltimore Urban League, American Civil Liberties Union and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. He retired in the early 1970s and died at the age of 72. [Murray Obituary]
The Murray case was an involved, far-reaching effort and has been extensively studied by both historians and lawyers. It played an important role in the breaking down of barriers to education at other University of Maryland Schools and helped Thurgood Marshall to develop the arguments that would come to the fore in the Brown v. Board of Education.
Emily Dickinson (born December 10, 1830, Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.—died May 15, 1886, Amherst) was an American lyric poet who lived in seclusion and commanded a singular brilliance of style and integrity of vision. With Walt Whitman, Dickinson is widely considered to be one of the two leading 19th-century American poets.
Only 10 of Emily Dickinson’s nearly 1,800 poems are known to have been published in her lifetime. Devoted to private pursuits, she sent hundreds of poems to friends and correspondents while apparently keeping the greater number to herself. She habitually worked in verse forms suggestive of hymns and ballads, with lines of three or four stresses. Her unusual off-rhymes have been seen as both experimental and influenced by the 18th-century hymnist Isaac Watts. She freely ignored the usual rules of versification and even of grammar, and in the intellectual content of her work she likewise proved exceptionally bold and original. Her verse is distinguished by its epigrammatic compression, haunting personal voice, enigmatic brilliance, and lack of high polish.
Early years
The second of three children, Dickinson grew up in moderate privilege and with strong local and religious attachments. For her first nine years she resided in a mansion built by her paternal grandfather, Samuel Fowler Dickinson, who had helped found Amherst College but then went bankrupt shortly before her birth. Her father, Edward Dickinson, was a forceful and prosperous Whig lawyer who served as treasurer of the college and was elected to one term in Congress. Her mother, Emily Norcross Dickinson, from the leading family in nearby Monson, was an introverted wife and hardworking housekeeper; her letters seem equally inexpressive and quirky. Both parents were loving but austere, and Emily became closely attached to her brother, Austin, and sister, Lavinia. Never marrying, the two sisters remained at home, and when their brother married, he and his wife established their own household next door. The highly distinct and even eccentric personalities developed by the three siblings seem to have mandated strict limits to their intimacy. “If we had come up for the first time from two wells,” Emily once said of Lavinia, “her astonishment would not be greater at some things I say.” Only after the poet’s death did Lavinia and Austin realize how dedicated she was to her art.
As a girl, Emily was seen as frail by her parents and others and was often kept home from school. She attended the coeducational Amherst Academy, where she was recognized by teachers and students alike for her prodigious abilities in composition. She also excelled in other subjects emphasized by the school, most notably Latin and the sciences. A class in botany inspired her to assemble an herbarium containing a large number of pressed plants identified by their Latin names. She was fond of her teachers, but when she left home to attend Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College) in nearby South Hadley, she found the school’s institutional tone uncongenial. Mount Holyoke’s strict rules and invasive religious practices, along with her own homesickness and growing rebelliousness, help explain why she did not return for a second year.
At home as well as at school and church, the religious faith that ruled the poet’s early years was evangelical Calvinism, a faith centered on the belief that humans are born totally depraved and can be saved only if they undergo a life-altering conversion in which they accept the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Questioning this tradition soon after leaving Mount Holyoke, Dickinson was to be the only member of her family who did not experience conversion or join Amherst’s First Congregational Church. Yet she seems to have retained a belief in the soul’s immortality or at least to have transmuted it into a Romantic quest for the transcendent and absolute. One reason her mature religious views elude specification is that she took no interest in creedal or doctrinal definition. In this she was influenced by both the Transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson and the mid-century tendencies of liberal Protestant orthodoxy. These influences pushed her toward a more symbolic understanding of religious truth and helped shape her vocation as poet.
Development as a poet
Although Dickinson had begun composing verse by her late teens, few of her early poems areextant. Among them are two of the burlesque “Valentines”—the exuberantly inventive expressions of affection and esteem she sent to friends of her youth. Two other poems dating from the first half of the 1850s draw a contrast between the world as it is and a more peacefulalternative, variously eternity or a serene imaginative order. All her known juvenilia were sent to friends and engage in a striking play of visionary fancies, a direction in which she was encouraged by the popular, sentimental book of essaysReveries of a Bachelor: Or a Book of the Heartby Ik. Marvel (the pseudonym ofDonald Grant Mitchell). Dickinson’s acts of fancy and reverie, however, were more intricately social than those of Marvel’s bachelor, uniting the pleasures of solitary mental play, performance for an audience, andintimatecommunion with another. It may be because her writing began with a strong socialimpetusthat her later solitude did not lead to a meaningless hermeticism.
Until Dickinson was in her mid-20s, her writing mostly took the form of letters, and a surprising number of those that she wrote from age 11 onward have been preserved. Sent to her brother, Austin, or to friends of her own sex, especially Abiah Root, Jane Humphrey, and Susan Gilbert (who would marry Austin), these generous communications overflow with humor,anecdote, invention, and somber reflection. In general, Dickinson seems to have given and demanded more from her correspondents than she received. On occasion she interpreted her correspondents’ laxity in replying as evidence of neglect or even betrayal. Indeed, the loss of friends, whether through death or cooling interest, became a basic pattern for Dickinson. Much of her writing, both poetic and epistolary, seemspremisedon a feeling of abandonment and a matching effort to deny, overcome, or reflect on a sense of solitude.
Dickinson’s closest friendships usually had a literary flavor. She was introduced to thepoetryofRalph Waldo Emersonby one of her father’s law students, Benjamin F. Newton, and to that ofElizabeth Barrett Browningby Susan Gilbert and Henry Vaughan Emmons, a gifted college student. Two of Barrett Browning’s works, “A Vision of Poets,” describing the pantheon of poets, andAurora Leigh, on the development of a female poet, seem to have played a formative role for Dickinson, validating the idea of female greatness andstimulatingher ambition. Though she also corresponded withJosiah G. Holland, a popular writer of the time, he counted for less with her than his appealing wife, Elizabeth, a lifelong friend and the recipient of many affectionate letters.
In 1855 Dickinson traveled to Washington,D.C., with her sister and father, who was then ending his term as U.S. representative. On the return trip the sisters made an extended stay inPhiladelphia, where it is thought the poet heard the preaching ofCharles Wadsworth, a fascinating Presbyterian minister whose pulpit oratory suggested (as a colleague put it) “years of conflict and agony.” Seventy years later, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, the poet’s niece, claimed that Emily had fallen in love with Wadsworth, who was married, and then grandly renounced him. The story is too highly colored for its details to be credited; certainly, there is no evidence the minister returned the poet’s love. Yet it is true that a correspondence arose between the two and that Wadsworth visited her in Amherst about 1860 and again in 1880. After his death in 1882, Dickinson remembered him as “my Philadelphia,” “my dearest earthly friend,” and “my Shepherd from ‘Little Girl’hood.”
Alwaysfastidious, Dickinson began to restrict her social activity in her early 20s, staying home from communal functions andcultivatingintense epistolary relationships with a reduced number of correspondents. In 1855, leaving the large and much-loved house (since razed) in which she had lived for 15 years, the 25-year-old woman and her family moved back to the dwelling associated with her first decade: the Dickinson mansion on Main Street in Amherst. Her home for the rest of her life, this large brick house, still standing, has become a favorite destination for her admirers. She found the return profoundly disturbing, and when her mother became incapacitated by a mysterious illness that lasted from 1855 to 1859, both daughters werecompelledto give more of themselves to domestic pursuits. Various events outside the home—a bitter Norcross family lawsuit, the financial collapse of the local railroad that had been promoted by the poet’s father, and a powerful religious revival that renewed the pressure to “convert”—made the years 1857 and 1858 deeply troubling for Dickinson and promoted her further withdrawal.
Mature career of Emily Dickinson
In the summer of 1858, at the height of this period of obscure tension, Dickinson began assembling her manuscript-books. She made clean copies of her poems on fine quality stationery and then sewed small bundles of these sheets together at the fold. Over the next seven years she created 40 such booklets and several unsewn sheaves, and altogether they contained about 800 poems. No doubt she intended to arrange her work in a convenient form, perhaps for her own use in sending poems to friends. Perhaps the assemblage was meant to remain private, like her earlierherbarium. Or perhaps, as implied in a poem of 1863, “This is my letter to the world,” she anticipatedposthumouspublication. Because she left no instructions regarding thedispositionof her manuscript-books, her ultimate purpose in assembling them can only be conjectured.
Dickinson sent more poems to her sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert Dickinson, acultivatedreader, than to any other known correspondent. Repeatedly professing eternalallegiance, these poems often imply that there was a certain distance between the two—that the sister-in-law was felt to be haughty, remote, or even incomprehensible. Yet Susan admired thepoetry’swit and verve and offered the kind of personally attentive audience Dickinson craved. On one occasion, Susan’s dissatisfaction with a poem, “Safe in their alabaster chambers,” resulted in the drafting ofalternativestanzas. Susan was an active hostess, and her home was thevenueat which Dickinson met a few friends, most importantlySamuel Bowles, publisher and editor of the influentialSpringfield Republican.Gregarious,captivating, and unusually liberal on the question of women’s careers, Bowles had a high regard for Dickinson’s poems, publishing (without her consent) seven of them during her lifetime—more than appeared in any other outlet. From 1859 to 1862 she sent him some of her most intense andconfidentialcommunications, including the daring poem “Title divine is mine,” whose speaker proclaims that she is now a “Wife,” but of a highly unconventional type.
In those years Dickinson experienced a painful and obscure personal crisis, partly of aromanticnature. Theabjectand pleading drafts of her second and third letters to the unidentified person she called “Master” are probably related to her many poems about a loved but distant person, usually male. There has been much speculation about the identity of this individual. One of the first candidates was George Henry Gould, the recipient in 1850 of a prose Valentine from Dickinson. Some have contended that Master was a woman, possibly Kate Scott Anthon or Susan Dickinson. Richard Sewall’s 1974 biography makes the case for Samuel Bowles. All such claims have rested on a partial examination of surviving documents andcollateralevidence. Since it is now believed that the earliest draft to Master predates her friendship with Bowles, he cannot have been the person. On balance, Charles Wadsworth and possibly Gould remain the most likely candidates. Whoever the person was, Master’s failure to return Dickinson’s affection—together with Susan’s absorption in her first childbirth and Bowles’s growing invalidism—contributed to a piercing and ultimate sense of distress. In a letter, Dickinson described her lonely suffering as a “terror—since September—[that] I could tell to none.” Instead ofsuccumbingto anguish, however, she came to view it as the sign of a special vocation, and it became the basis of an unprecedented creativity. A poem that seems to register this life-restoring act of resistance begins “The zeroes taught us phosphorus,” meaning that it is in absolute cold and nothingness that true brilliance originates.
Though Dickinson wrote little about the American Civil War, which was then raging, her awareness of its multiplied tragedies seems to have empowered her poetic drive. As she confided to her cousins in Boston, apropos of wartime bereavements, “Every day life feels mightier, and what we have the power to be, more stupendous.” In the hundreds of poems Dickinson composed during the war, a movement can be discerned from the expression of immediate pain or exultation to the celebration of achievement and self-command. Building on her earlier quest for human intimacy and obsession with heaven, she explored the tragic ironies of human desire, such as fulfillment denied, the frustrated search for the absolute within the mundane, and the terrors of internal dissolution. She also articulated a profound sense of female subjectivity, expressing what it means to be subordinate, secondary, or not in control. Yet as the war proceeded, she also wrote with growing frequency about self-reliance, imperviousness, personal triumph, and hard-won liberty. The perfect transcendence she had formerly associated with heaven was now attached to a vision of supreme artistry.
In April 1862, about the time Wadsworth left the East Coast for a pastorate in San Francisco, Dickinson sought the critical advice of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, whose witty article of advice to writers, “A Letter to a Young Contributor,” had just appeared in The Atlantic Monthly. Higginson was known as a writer of delicate nature essays and a crusader for women’s rights. Enclosing four poems, Dickinson asked for his opinion of her verse—whether or not it was “alive.” The ensuing correspondence lasted for years, with the poet sending her “preceptor,” as she called him, many more samples of her work. In addition to seeking an informed critique from a professional but not unsympathetic man of letters, she was reaching out at a time of accentuated loneliness. “You were not aware that you saved my Life,” she confided years later.
Dickinson’s last trips from Amherst were in 1864 and 1865, when she shared her cousins Louisa and Frances Norcross’s boardinghouse in Cambridge and underwent a course of treatment with the leading Boston ophthalmologist. She described her symptoms as an aching in her eyes and a painful sensitivity to light. Of the two posthumous diagnoses, exotropia (a kind of strabismus, the inability of one eye to align with the other) and anterior uveitis (inflammation of the uvea, a part of the iris), the latter seems more likely. In 1869 Higginson invited the poet to Boston to attend a literary salon. The terms she used in declining his invitation—“I do not cross my Father’s ground to any House or town”—make clear her refusal by that time to leave home and also reveal her sense of paternal order. When Higginson visited her the next year, he recorded his vivid first impression of her “plain” features, “exquisitely” neat attire, “childlike” manner, and loquacious and exhausting brilliance. He was “glad not to live near her.”
In her last 15 years Dickinson averaged 35 poems a year and conducted her social life mainly through her chiseled and often sibylline written messages. Her father’s sudden death in 1874 caused a profound and persisting emotional upheaval yet eventually led to a greater openness, self-possession, and serenity. She repaired an 11-year breach with Samuel Bowles and made friends with Maria Whitney, a teacher of modern languages at Smith College, and Helen Hunt Jackson, poet and author of the novel Ramona (1884). Dickinson resumed contact with Wadsworth, and from about age 50 she conducted a passionate romance with Otis Phillips Lord, an elderly judge on the supreme court of Massachusetts. The letters she apparently sent Lord reveal her at her most playful, alternately teasing and confiding. In declining an erotic advance or his proposal of marriage, she asked, “Dont you know you are happiest while I withhold and not confer—dont you know that ‘No’ is the wildest word we consign to Language?”
After Dickinson’s aging mother was incapacitated by a stroke and a broken hip, caring for her at home made large demands on the poet’s time and patience. After her mother died in 1882, Dickinson summed up the relationship in a confidential letter to her Norcross cousins: “We were never intimate Mother and Children while she was our Mother—but…when she became our Child, the Affection came.” The deaths of Dickinson’s friends in her last years—Bowles in 1878, Wadsworth in 1882, Lord in 1884, and Jackson in 1885—left her feeling terminally alone. But the single most shattering death, occurring in 1883, was that of her eight-year-old nephew next door, the gifted and charming Gilbert Dickinson. Her health broken by this culminating tragedy, she ceased seeing almost everyone, apparently including her sister-in-law. The poet died in 1886, when she was 55 years old. The immediate cause of death was a stroke. The attending physician attributed this to Bright’s disease, but a modern posthumous diagnosis points to severe primary hypertension as the underlying condition.
Legacy of Emily Dickinson
Dickinson’s exact wishes regarding the publication of her poetry are in dispute. When Lavinia found the manuscript-books, she decided the poems should be made public and asked Susan to prepare an edition. Susan failed to move the project forward, however, and after two years Lavinia turned the manuscript-books over to Mabel Loomis Todd, a local family friend, who energetically transcribed and selected the poems and also enlisted the aid of Thomas Wentworth Higginson in editing. A complicating circumstance was that Todd was conducting an affair with Susan’s husband, Austin. When Poems by Emily Dickinson appeared in 1890, it drew widespread interest and a warm welcome from the eminent American novelist and critic William Dean Howells, who saw the verse as a signal expression of a distinctively American sensibility. But Susan, who was well aware of her husband’s ongoing affair with Todd, was outraged at what she perceived as Lavinia’s betrayal and Todd’s effrontery. The enmity between Susan and Todd, and later between their daughters, Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Millicent Todd Bingham (each of whom edited selections of Dickinson’s work), had a pernicious effect on the presentation of Emily Dickinson’s work. Her poetic manuscripts are divided between two primary collections: the poems in Bingham’s possession went to Amherst College Library, and those in Bianchi’s hands to Harvard University’s Houghton Library. The acrimonious relationship between the two families has affected scholarly interpretation of Dickinson’s work into the 21st century.
In editing Dickinson’s poems in the 1890s, Todd and Higginson invented titles and regularized diction, grammar, meter, and rhyme. The first scholarly editions of Dickinson’s poems and letters, by Thomas H. Johnson, did not appear until the 1950s. A much improved edition of the complete poems was brought out in 1998 by R.W. Franklin.
In spite of her “modernism,” Dickinson’s verse drew little interest from the first generation of “High Modernists.” Hart Crane and Allen Tate were among the first leading writers to register her greatness, followed in the 1950s by Elizabeth Bishop and others. The New Critics also played an important role in establishing her place in the modern canon. From the beginning, however, Dickinson has strongly appealed to many ordinary or unschooled readers. Her unmistakable voice, private yet forthright—“I’m Nobody! Who are you? / Are you—Nobody—too?”—establishes an immediate connection. Readers respond, too, to the impression her poems convey of a haunting private life, one marked by extremes of deprivation and refined ecstasies. At the same time, her rich abundance—her great range of feeling, her supple expressiveness—testifies to an intrinsic poetic genius. Widely translated into Japanese, Italian, French, German, and many other languages, Dickinson has begun to strike readers as the one American lyric poet who belongs in the pantheon with Sappho, Catullus, Saʿdī, the Shakespeare of the sonnets, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Arthur Rimbaud.
Editions
The standard edition of the poems is the three-volume variorum edition, The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Variorum Edition (1998), edited by R.W. Franklin. He also edited a two-volume work, The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson (1981), which provides facsimiles of the poems in their original groupings. The Gorgeous Nothings (2013), edited by Marta L. Werner and Jen Bervin, presents facsimiles of Dickinson’s so-called envelope poems, written on irregularly shaped scraps of paper. The Letters of Emily Dickinson, in three volumes edited by Thomas H. Johnson and Theodora Ward (1958), was reissued in one volume in 1986, and it is still the standard source for the poet’s letters. Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson’s Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson (1998), edited by Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith, is a selection of the poet’s correspondence with her sister-in-law. Facsimiles of the letters to “Master” and Otis Phillips Lord are presented in The Master Letters of Emily Dickinson (1986), edited by R.W. Franklin, and Emily Dickinson’s Open Folios: Scenes of Reading, Surfaces of Writing (1995), edited by Marta L. Werner. Emily Dickinson’s Reception in the 1890s: A Documentary History (1989), edited by Willis J. Buckingham, reprints all known reviews from the first decade of publication. Amherst College and Harvard University make their Dickinson manuscripts available online.
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry.[2] Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, into a prominent family with strong ties to its community. After studying at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she briefly attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's home in Amherst. Evidence suggests that Dickinson lived much of her life in isolation. Considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a penchant for white clothing and was known for her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even to leave her bedroom. Dickinson never married, and most of her friendships were based entirely upon correspondence.[3]
Although Dickinson was a prolific writer, her only publications during her lifetime were 10 of her nearly 1,800 poems and one letter.[4] The poems published then were usually edited significantly to fit conventional poetic rules. Her poems were unique for her era; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.[5] Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality (two recurring topics in letters to her friends), aesthetics, society, nature, and spirituality.[6]
Although Dickinson's acquaintances were most likely aware of her writing, it was not until after she died in 1886—when Lavinia, Dickinson's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that her work became public. Her first published collection of poetry was made in 1890 by her personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, though they heavily edited the content. A complete collection of her poetry first became available in 1955 when scholar Thomas H. Johnson published The Poems of Emily Dickinson.[7] In 1998, The New York Times reported on a study in which infrared technology revealed that certain poems of Dickinson's had been deliberately censored to exclude the name "Susan".[8] At least eleven of Dickinson's poems were dedicated to her sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson, and all the dedications were later obliterated, presumably by Todd.[8] This censorship serves to obscure the nature of Emily and Susan's relationship, which many scholars have interpreted as romantic.[9][10][11]
Two hundred years earlier, her patrilineal ancestors had arrived in the New World—in the PuritanGreat Migration—where they prospered.[14] Emily Dickinson's paternal grandfather, Samuel Dickinson, was one of the founders of Amherst College.[15] In 1813, he built the Homestead, a large mansion on the town's main street, that became the focus of Dickinson family life for the better part of a century.[16]
By all accounts, young Dickinson was a well-behaved girl. On an extended visit to Monson when she was two, Dickinson's Aunt Lavinia described her as "perfectly well and contented—She is a very good child and but little trouble."[20] Dickinson's aunt also noted the girl's affinity for music and her particular talent for the piano, which she called "the moosic".[21]
Dickinson attended primary school in a two-story building on Pleasant Street.[22] Her education was "ambitiously classical for a Victorian girl".[23] Wanting his children to be well-educated, her father followed their progress even while away on business. When Dickinson was seven, he wrote home, reminding his children to "keep school, and learn, so as to tell me, when I come home, how many new things you have learned".[24]
While Dickinson consistently described her father warmly, her correspondence suggests that her mother was regularly cold and aloof. In a letter to a confidante, Dickinson wrote she "always ran Home to Awe [Austin] when a child, if anything befell me. She was an awful Mother, but I liked her better than none."[25]
On September 7, 1840, Dickinson and her sister Lavinia started together at Amherst Academy, a former boys' school that had opened to female students just two years earlier.[22] At about the same time, her father purchased a house on North Pleasant Street.[26] Dickinson's brother Austin later described this large new home as the "mansion" over which he and Dickinson presided as "lord and lady" while their parents were absent.[27] The house overlooked Amherst's burial ground, described by one local minister as treeless and "forbidding".[26]
Dickinson spent seven years at the academy, taking classes in English and classical literature, Latin, botany, geology, history, "mental philosophy," and arithmetic.[29][30] Daniel Taggart Fiske, the school's principal at the time, would later recall that Dickinson was "very bright" and "an excellent scholar, of exemplary deportment, faithful in all school duties".[31] Although she took a few terms off due to illness—the longest of which was in 1845–1846, when she was enrolled for only eleven weeks[32]—she enjoyed her strenuous studies, writing to a friend that the academy was "a very fine school".[33]
Dickinson was troubled from a young age by the "deepening menace" of death, especially the deaths of those who were close to her. When Sophia Holland, her second cousin and a close friend, grew ill from typhus and died in April 1844, Dickinson was traumatized.[34] Recalling the incident two years later, she wrote that "it seemed to me I should die too if I could not be permitted to watch over her or even look at her face."[35] She became so melancholic that her parents sent her to stay with family in Boston to recover.[33] With her health and spirits restored, she soon returned to Amherst Academy to continue her studies.[36] During this period, she met people who were to become lifelong friends and correspondents, such as Abiah Root, Abby Wood, Jane Humphrey, and Susan Huntington Gilbert (who later married Dickinson's brother Austin).
In 1845, a religious revival took place in Amherst, resulting in 46 confessions of faith among Dickinson's peers.[37] Dickinson wrote to a friend the following year: "I never enjoyed such perfect peace and happiness as the short time in which I felt I had found my Savior."[38] She went on to say it was her "greatest pleasure to commune alone with the great God & to feel that he would listen to my prayers."[38] The experience did not last: Dickinson never made a formal declaration of faith and attended services regularly for only a few years.[39] After her church-going ended, about 1852, she wrote a poem opening: "Some keep the Sabbath going to Church – I keep it, staying at Home".[40]
During the last year of her stay at the academy, Dickinson became friendly with Leonard Humphrey, its popular new young principal. After finishing her final term at the Academy on August 10, 1847, Dickinson began attending Mary Lyon's Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (which later became Mount Holyoke College) in South Hadley, about ten miles (16 km) from Amherst.[41] She stayed at the seminary for only ten months. Although she liked the girls at Mount Holyoke, Dickinson made no lasting friendships there.[42] The explanations for her brief stay at Mount Holyoke differ considerably: either she was in poor health, her father wanted to have her at home, she rebelled against the evangelical fervor present at the school, she disliked the discipline-minded teachers, or she was simply homesick.[43] Whatever the reasons for leaving Mount Holyoke, her brother Austin appeared on March 25, 1848, to "bring [her] home at all events".[44] Back in Amherst, Dickinson occupied her time with household activities.[45] She took up baking for the family and enjoyed attending local events and activities in the budding college town.[46]
When she was eighteen, Dickinson's family befriended a young attorney by the name of Benjamin Franklin Newton. According to a letter written by Dickinson after Newton's death, he had been "with my Father two years, before going to Worcester – in pursuing his studies, and was much in our family".[47] Although their relationship was probably not romantic, Newton was a formative influence and would become the second in a series of older men (after Humphrey) that Dickinson referred to, variously, as her tutor, preceptor, or master.[48]
Newton likely introduced her to the writings of William Wordsworth, and his gift to her of Ralph Waldo Emerson's first book of collected poems had a liberating effect. She wrote later that he, "whose name my Father's Law Student taught me, has touched the secret Spring".[49] Newton held her in high regard, believing in and recognizing her as a poet. When he was dying of tuberculosis, he wrote to her, saying he would like to live until she achieved the greatness he foresaw.[49] Biographers believe that Dickinson's statement of 1862—"When a little Girl, I had a friend, who taught me Immortality – but venturing too near, himself – he never returned"—refers to Newton.[50]
Dickinson was familiar with not only the Bible but also contemporary popular literature.[51] She was probably influenced by Lydia Maria Child's Letters from New York, another gift from Newton[34] (after reading it, she gushed "This then is a book! And there are more of them!"[34]). Her brother smuggled a copy of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Kavanagh into the house for her (because her father might disapprove)[52] and a friend lent her Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre in late 1849.[53]Jane Eyre's influence cannot be measured, but when Dickinson acquired her first and only dog, a Newfoundland, she named him "Carlo" after the character St. John Rivers' dog.[53]William Shakespeare was also a potent influence in her life. Referring to his plays, she wrote to one friend, "Why clasp any hand but this?" and to another, "Why is any other book needed?"[54]
In early 1850, Dickinson wrote, "Amherst is alive with fun this winter ... Oh, a very great town this is!"[45] Her high spirits soon turned to melancholy after another death. The Amherst Academy principal, Leonard Humphrey, died suddenly of "brain congestion" at age 25.[55] Two years after his death, she revealed to her friend Abiah Root the extent of her sadness:
... some of my friends are gone, and some of my friends are sleeping – sleeping the churchyard sleep – the hour of evening is sad – it was once my study hour – my master has gone to rest, and the open leaf of the book, and the scholar at school alone, make the tears come, and I cannot brush them away; I would not if I could, for they are the only tribute I can pay the departed Humphrey.[56]
The Evergreens, built by Edward Dickinson, was the home of Austin and Susan's family.
During the 1850s, Dickinson's strongest and most affectionate relationship was with her sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert. Dickinson eventually sent her over three hundred letters, more than to any other correspondent, over the course of their relationship. Susan was supportive of the poet, playing the role of "most beloved friend, influence, muse, and adviser" whose editorial suggestions Dickinson sometimes followed.[57] In an 1882 letter to Susan, Dickinson said, "With the exception of Shakespeare, you have told me of more knowledge than any one living."[58]
The importance of Dickinson's relationship with Susan Gilbert has widely been overlooked due to a point of view first promoted by Mabel Loomis Todd, who was involved for many years in a relationship with Austin Dickinson and who diminished Gilbert's role in Dickinson's life due to her own poor relationship with her lover's wife.[59] However, the notion of a "cruel" Susan—as promoted by her romantic rival—has been questioned, most especially by Dickinson's nieces and nephews (Susan and Austin's surviving children), with whom Dickinson was close.[60] Many scholars interpret the relationship between Emily and Susan as a romantic one. In The Emily Dickinson Journal Lena Koski wrote, "Dickinson's letters to Gilbert express strong homoerotic feelings."[10] She quotes from many of their letters, including one from 1852 in which Dickinson proclaims,
Susie, will you indeed come home next Saturday, and be my own again, and kiss me as you used to? (...) I hope for you so much and feel so eager for you, feel that I cannot wait, feel that now I must have you—that the expectation once more to see your face again, makes me feel hot and feverish, and my heart beats so fast ( ... ) my darling, so near I seem to you, that I disdain this pen, and wait for a warmer language. [61]
The relationship between Emily and Susan is portrayed in the film Wild Nights with Emily and explored in the TV series Dickinson.
Susan Gilbert married Austin in 1856 after a four-year courtship, though their marriage was not a happy one. Edward Dickinson built a house for Austin which Gilbert named the Evergreens, a stand of which was located on the west side of the Homestead.[62]
Until 1855, Dickinson had not strayed far from Amherst. That spring, accompanied by her mother and sister, she took one of her longest and farthest trips away from home.[63] First, they spent three weeks in Washington, where her father was representing Massachusetts in Congress, after which they would travel to Philadelphia for two weeks to visit family. While in Philadelphia, she met Charles Wadsworth, a famous minister of the Arch Street Presbyterian Church, with whom she forged a strong friendship that lasted until he died in 1882.[64] Despite seeing him only twice after 1855 (he moved to San Francisco in 1862), she variously referred to him as "my Philadelphia", "my Clergyman", "my dearest earthly friend" and "my Shepherd from 'Little Girl'hood".[65]
In September 2012, the Amherst College Archives and Special Collections unveiled this daguerreotype, proposing it to be Dickinson (left) and her friend Kate Scott Turner (c. 1859); it has not been authenticated.[66]
From the mid-1850s, Dickinson's mother became effectively bedridden with various chronic illnesses until she died in 1882.[67] Writing to a friend in the summer of 1858, Dickinson said she would visit if she could leave "home, or mother. I do not go out at all, lest father will come and miss me, or miss some little act, which I might forget, should I run away – Mother is much as usual. I Know not what to hope of her".[68] As her mother continued to decline, Dickinson's domestic responsibilities weighed more heavily upon her and she confined herself within the Homestead. Forty years later, Lavinia said that because their mother was chronically ill, one of the daughters had to remain always with her.[68] Dickinson took this role as her own, and "finding the life with her books and nature so congenial, continued to live it".[68]
Withdrawing more and more from the outside world, Dickinson began in the summer of 1858 what would be her lasting legacy. Reviewing poems she had written previously, she began making clean copies of her work, assembling carefully pieced-together manuscript books.[69] The forty fascicles she created from 1858 through 1865 eventually held nearly eight hundred poems.[69] No one was aware of the existence of these books until after her death.
In the late 1850s, the Dickinsons befriended Samuel Bowles, the owner and editor-in-chief of the Springfield Republican, and his wife Mary.[70] They visited the Dickinsons regularly for years to come. During this time Dickinson sent him over three dozen letters and nearly fifty poems.[71] Their friendship brought out some of her most intense writing and Bowles published a few of her poems in his journal.[72] It was from 1858 to 1861 that Dickinson is believed to have written a trio of letters that have been called "The Master Letters". These three letters, drafted to an unknown man simply referred to as "Master", continue to be the subject of speculation and contention amongst scholars.[73]
"Hope" is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard – And sore must be the storm – That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm –
I've heard it in the chillest land – And on the strangest Sea – Yet – never – in Extremity, It asked a crumb – of me.
Dickinson also became friends with Springfield Republican Assistant Editor J. G. Holland and his wife and frequently corresponded with them.[75] She was a guest at their Springfield home on numerous occasions. Dickinson sent more than ninety letters to the Hollands between 1853 and 1886 in which she shares "the details of life that one would impart to a close family member: the status of the garden, the health and activities of members of the household, references to recently-read books."[76]
Dickinson was a poet "influenced by transcendentalism and dark romanticism," and her work bridged "the gap to Realism."[77] Of the ten poems published in her lifetime, the Springfield Republican published five (all unsigned), with Sam Bowles and Josiah Holland as editors, between 1852 and 1866.[78][79] Some scholars believe that Bowles promoted her the most; Dickinson wrote letters and sent her poems to both men.[2] Later, as editor of Scribner's Monthly beginning in 1870, Holland told Dickinson's childhood friend Emily Fowler Ford that he had "some poems of [Dickinson's] under consideration for publication [in Scribner's Monthly]—but they really are not suitable—they are too ethereal."[80]
The first half of the 1860s, after she had largely withdrawn from social life,[81] proved to be Dickinson's most productive writing period.[82] Modern scholars and researchers are divided as to the cause for Dickinson's withdrawal and extreme seclusion. While she was diagnosed as having "nervous prostration" by a physician during her lifetime,[83] some today believe she may have suffered from illnesses as various as agoraphobia[84] and epilepsy.[85] Julie Brown, writing in Writers on the Spectrum (2010), argues that Dickinson had Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but this is generally regarded as being more speculation than a retrospective diagnosis, and although the theory has been echoed on the internet especially, it has not been advanced by Dickinson scholars.[86]
In April 1862, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a literary critic, radical abolitionist, and ex-minister, wrote a lead piece for The Atlantic Monthly titled, "Letter to a Young Contributor". Higginson's essay, in which he urged aspiring writers to "charge your style with life", contained practical advice for those wishing to break into print.[87] Dickinson's decision to contact Higginson suggests that by 1862 she was contemplating publication and that it may have become increasingly difficult to write poetry without an audience.[88] Seeking literary guidance that no one close to her could provide, Dickinson sent him a letter, which read in full:[89]
Mr Higginson, Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive? The Mind is so near itself – it cannot see, distinctly – and I have none to ask – Should you think it breathed – and had you the leisure to tell me, I should feel quick gratitude – If I make the mistake – that you dared to tell me – would give me sincerer honor – toward you – I enclose my name – asking you, if you please – Sir – to tell me what is true? That you will not betray me – it is needless to ask – since Honor is it's own pawn –
This highly nuanced and largely theatrical letter was unsigned, but she had included her name on a card and enclosed it in an envelope, along with four of her poems.[90] He praised her work but suggested that she delay publishing until she had written longer, being unaware she had already appeared in print. She assured him that publishing was as foreign to her "as Firmament to Fin", but also proposed that "If fame belonged to me, I could not escape her".[91] Dickinson delighted in dramatic self-characterization and mystery in her letters to Higginson.[92] She said of herself, "I am small, like the wren, and my hair is bold, like the chestnut bur, and my eyes like the sherry in the glass that the guest leaves."[93] She stressed her solitary nature, saying her only real companions were the hills, the sundown, and her dog, Carlo. She also mentioned that whereas her mother did not "care for Thought", her father bought her books, but begged her "not to read them – because he fears they joggle the Mind".[94]
Dickinson valued his advice, going from calling him "Mr. Higginson" to "Dear friend" as well as signing her letters, "Your Gnome" and "Your Scholar".[95] His interest in her work certainly provided great moral support; many years later, Dickinson told Higginson that he had saved her life in 1862.[96] They corresponded until her death, but her difficulty in expressing her literary needs and a reluctance to enter into a cooperative exchange left Higginson nonplussed; he did not press her to publish in subsequent correspondence.[97] Dickinson's own ambivalence on the matter militated against the likelihood of publication.[98] Literary critic Edmund Wilson, in his review of Civil War literature, surmised that "with encouragement, she would certainly have published".[99]
In direct opposition to the immense productivity that she displayed in the early 1860s, Dickinson wrote fewer poems in 1866.[100] Beset with personal loss as well as loss of domestic help, Dickinson may have been too overcome to keep up her previous level of writing.[101] Carlo died during this time after having provided sixteen years of companionship; Dickinson never owned another dog. Although the household servant of nine years, Margaret O'Brien, had married and left the Homestead that same year, it was not until 1869 that the Dickinsons brought in another permanent household servant, Margaret Maher, to replace their former maid-of-all-work.[102] Emily once again was responsible for the kitchen, including cooking and cleaning up, as well as the baking at which she excelled.[103]
A solemn thing – it was – I said – A Woman – White – to be – And wear – if God should count me fit – Her blameless mystery –
Around this time, Dickinson's behavior began to change. She did not leave the Homestead unless it was absolutely necessary, and as early as 1867, she began to talk to visitors from the other side of a door rather than speaking to them face to face.[105] She acquired local notoriety; she was rarely seen, and when she was, she was usually clothed in white. Dickinson's one surviving article of clothing is a white cotton dress, possibly sewn circa 1878–1882.[106] Few of the locals who exchanged messages with Dickinson during her last fifteen years ever saw her in person.[107] Austin and his family began to protect Dickinson's privacy, deciding that she was not to be a subject of discussion with outsiders.[108]
Despite her physical seclusion, Dickinson was socially active and expressive through what makes up two-thirds of her surviving notes and letters. When visitors came to either the Homestead or the Evergreens, she would often leave or send over small gifts of poems or flowers.[109] Dickinson also had a good rapport with the children in her life. Mattie Dickinson, the second child of Austin and Susan, later said that "Aunt Emily stood for indulgence."[110] MacGregor (Mac) Jenkins, the son of family friends who later wrote a short article in 1891 called "A Child's Recollection of Emily Dickinson", thought of her as always offering support[clarification needed] to the neighborhood children.[110]
When Higginson urged her to come to Boston in 1868 so they could formally meet for the first time, she declined, writing: "Could it please your convenience to come so far as Amherst I should be very glad, but I do not cross my Father's ground to any House or town".[111] It was not until he came to Amherst in 1870 that they met. Later he referred to her, in the most detailed and vivid physical account of her on record, as "a little plain woman with two smooth bands of reddish hair ... in a very plain & exquisitely clean white piqué & a blue net worsted shawl."[112] He also felt that he never was "with any one who drained my nerve power so much. Without touching her, she drew from me. I am glad not to live near her."[113]
Scholar Judith Farr notes that Dickinson, during her lifetime, "was known more widely as a gardener, perhaps, than as a poet".[114] Dickinson studied botany from the age of nine and, along with her sister, tended the garden at Homestead.[114] During her lifetime, she assembled a collection of pressed plants in a sixty-six-page leather-bound herbarium. It contained 424 pressed flower specimens that she collected, classified, and labeled using the Linnaean system.[115] The Homestead garden was well known and admired locally in its time. It has not survived, but efforts to revive it have begun.[116] Dickinson kept no garden notebooks or plant lists, but a clear impression can be formed from the letters and recollections of friends and family. Her niece, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, remembered "carpets of lily-of-the-valley and pansies, platoons of sweetpeas, hyacinths, enough in May to give all the bees of summer dyspepsia. There were ribbons of peony hedges and drifts of daffodils in season, marigolds to distraction—a butterfly utopia".[117] In particular, Dickinson cultivated scented exotic flowers, writing that she "could inhabit the Spice Isles merely by crossing the dining room to the conservatory, where the plants hang in baskets". Dickinson would often send her friends bunches of flowers with verses attached, but "they valued the posy more than the poetry".[117]
On June 16, 1874, while in Boston, Edward Dickinson suffered a stroke and died. When the simple funeral was held in the Homestead's entrance hall, Dickinson stayed in her room with the door cracked open. Neither did she attend the memorial service on June 28.[118] She wrote to Higginson that her father's "Heart was pure and terrible and I think no other like it exists."[119] A year later, on June 15, 1875, Dickinson's mother also suffered a stroke, which produced a partial lateral paralysis and impaired memory. Lamenting her mother's increasing physical as well as mental demands, Dickinson wrote that "Home is so far from Home".[120]
Though the great Waters sleep, That they are still the Deep, We cannot doubt – No vacillating God Ignited this Abode To put it out –
Otis Phillips Lord, an elderly judge on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from Salem, in 1872 or 1873 became an acquaintance of Dickinson's. After the death of Lord's wife in 1877, his friendship with Dickinson probably became a late-life romance, though as their letters were destroyed, this is surmised.[122] Dickinson found a kindred soul in Lord, especially in terms of shared literary interests; the few letters that survived contain multiple quotations of Shakespeare's work, including the plays Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet and King Lear. In 1880 he gave her Mary Cowden Clarke's Complete Concordance to Shakespeare (1877).[123] Dickinson wrote, "While others go to Church, I go to mine, for are you not my Church, and have we not a Hymn that no one knows but us?"[124] She referred to him as "My lovely Salem"[125] and they wrote to each other religiously every Sunday. Dickinson looked forward to this day greatly; a surviving fragment of a letter written by her states that "Tuesday is a deeply depressed Day".[126]
After being critically ill for several years, Judge Lord died in March 1884. Dickinson referred to him as "our latest Lost".[127] Two years before this, on April 1, 1882, Dickinson's "Shepherd from 'Little Girl'hood", Charles Wadsworth, also had died after a long illness.
Although she continued to write in her last years, Dickinson stopped editing and organizing her poems. She also exacted a promise from her sister Lavinia to burn her papers.[128] Lavinia, who never married, remained at the Homestead until her own death in 1899.
Emily Dickinson's tombstone in the family plot
The 1880s were a difficult time for the remaining Dickinsons. Irreconcilably alienated from his wife, Austin fell in love in 1882 with Mabel Loomis Todd, an Amherst College faculty wife who had recently moved to the area. Todd never met Dickinson but was intrigued by her, referring to her as "a lady whom the people call the Myth".[129] Austin distanced himself from his family as his affair continued and his wife became sick with grief.[130] Dickinson's mother died on November 14, 1882. Five weeks later, Dickinson wrote, "We were never intimate ... while she was our Mother – but Mines in the same Ground meet by tunneling and when she became our Child, the Affection came."[131] The next year, Austin and Susan's third and youngest child, Gilbert—Emily's favorite—died of typhoid fever.[132]
As death succeeded death, Dickinson found her world upended. In the fall of 1884, she wrote, "The Dyings have been too deep for me, and before I could raise my Heart from one, another has come."[133] That summer she had seen "a great darkness coming" and fainted while baking in the kitchen. She remained unconscious late into the night and weeks of ill health followed. On November 30, 1885, her feebleness and other symptoms were so worrying that Austin canceled a trip to Boston.[134] She was confined to her bed for a few months, but managed to send a final burst of letters in the spring. What is thought to be her last letter was sent to her cousins, Louise and Frances Norcross, and simply read: "Little Cousins, Called Back. Emily".[135] On May 15, 1886, after several days of worsening symptoms, Emily Dickinson died at the age of 55. Austin wrote in his diary that "the day was awful ... she ceased to breathe that terrible breathing just before the [afternoon] whistle sounded for six."[136] Dickinson's chief physician gave the cause of death as Bright's disease and its duration as two and a half years.[137]
Lavinia and Austin asked Susan to wash Dickinson's body upon her death. Susan also wrote Dickinson's obituary for the Springfield Republican, ending it with four lines from one of Dickinson's poems: "Morns like these, we parted; Noons like these, she rose; Fluttering first, then firmer, To her fair repose." Lavinia was perfectly satisfied that Susan should arrange everything, knowing it would be done lovingly.[138] Dickinson was buried, laid in a white coffin with vanilla-scented heliotrope, a lady's slipperorchid, and a "knot of blue field violets" placed about it.[117][139] The funeral service, held in the Homestead's library, was simple and short; Higginson, who had met her only twice, read "No Coward Soul Is Mine", a poem by Emily Brontë that had been a favorite of Dickinson's.[136] At Dickinson's request, her "coffin [was] not driven but carried through fields of buttercups" for burial in the family plot at West Cemetery on Triangle Street.[114]
Despite Dickinson's prolific writing, only ten poems and a letter were published during her lifetime. After her younger sister Lavinia discovered the collection of nearly 1,800 poems, Dickinson's first volume was published four years after her death. Until Thomas H. Johnson published Dickinson's Complete Poems in 1955,[140] Dickinson's poems were considerably edited and altered from their manuscript versions. Since 1890 Dickinson has remained continuously in print.
"Safe in their Alabaster Chambers –," titled "The Sleeping", as it was published in the Springfield Republican in 1862.
A few of Dickinson's poems appeared in Samuel Bowles'Springfield Republican between 1858 and 1868. They were published anonymously and heavily edited, with conventionalized punctuation and formal titles.[141] The first poem, "Nobody knows this little rose", may have been published without Dickinson's permission.[142] The Republican also published "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass" as "The Snake", "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers –" as "The Sleeping", and "Blazing in the Gold and quenching in Purple" as "Sunset".[143][144] The poem "I taste a liquor never brewed –" is an example of the edited versions; the last two lines in the first stanza were completely rewritten.[143]
Original wording I taste a liquor never brewed – From Tankards scooped in Pearl – Not all the Frankfort Berries Yield such an Alcohol!
Republican version I taste a liquor never brewed – From Tankards scooped in Pearl – Not Frankfort Berries yield the sense Such a delirious whirl!
In 1864, several poems were altered and published in Drum Beat, to raise funds for medical care for Union soldiers in the war.[145] Another appeared in April 1864 in the Brooklyn Daily Union.[146]
In the 1870s, Higginson showed Dickinson's poems to Helen Hunt Jackson, who had coincidentally been at the academy with Dickinson when they were girls.[147] Jackson was deeply involved in the publishing world, and managed to convince Dickinson to publish her poem "Success is counted sweetest" anonymously in a volume called A Masque of Poets.[147] The poem, however, was altered to agree with contemporary taste. It was the last poem published during Dickinson's lifetime.
After Dickinson's death, Lavinia Dickinson kept her promise and burned most of the poet's correspondence. Significantly though, Dickinson had left no instructions about the 40 notebooks and loose sheets gathered in a locked chest.[148] Lavinia recognized the poems' worth and became obsessed with seeing them published.[149] She turned first to her brother's wife and then to Mabel Loomis Todd, his lover, for assistance.[139] A feud ensued, with the manuscripts divided between the Todd and Dickinson houses, preventing the complete publication of Dickinson's poetry for more than half a century.[150]
Cover of the first edition of Poems, published in 1890
The first volume of Dickinson's Poems, edited jointly by Mabel Loomis Todd and T. W. Higginson, appeared in November 1890.[151] Although Todd claimed that only essential changes were made, the poems were extensively edited to match punctuation and capitalization to late 19th-century standards, with occasional rewordings to reduce Dickinson's obliquity.[152] The first 115-poem volume was a critical and financial success, going through eleven printings in two years.[151]Poems: Second Series followed in 1891, running to five editions by 1893; a third series appeared in 1896. One reviewer, in 1892, wrote: "The world will not rest satisfied till every scrap of her writings, letters as well as literature, has been published".[153]
Nearly a dozen new editions of Dickinson's poetry, whether containing previously unpublished or newly edited poems, were published between 1914 and 1945.[154]Martha Dickinson Bianchi, the daughter of Susan and Austin Dickinson, published collections of her aunt's poetry based on the manuscripts held by her family, whereas Mabel Loomis Todd's daughter, Millicent Todd Bingham, published collections based on the manuscripts held by her mother. These competing editions of Dickinson's poetry, often differing in order and structure, ensured that the poet's work was in the public's eye.[155]
The first scholarly publication came in 1955 with a completely new three-volume set edited by Thomas H. Johnson. Forming the basis of later Dickinson scholarship, Johnson's variorum brought all of Dickinson's known poems together for the first time.[156] Johnson's goal was to present the poems very nearly as Dickinson had left them in her manuscripts.[157] They were untitled, only numbered in an approximate chronological sequence, strewn with dashes and irregularly capitalized, and often extremely elliptical in their language.[158] Three years later, Johnson edited and published, along with Theodora Ward, a complete collection of Dickinson's letters, also presented in three volumes.
In 1981, The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson was published. Using the physical evidence of the original papers, the poems were intended to be published in their original order for the first time. Editor Ralph W. Franklin relied on smudge marks, needle punctures and other clues to reassemble the poet's packets.[157] Since then, many critics have argued for thematic unity in these small collections, believing the ordering of the poems to be more than chronological or convenient.
Dickinson biographer Alfred Habegger wrote in My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson (2001) that "The consequences of the poet's failure to disseminate her work in a faithful and orderly manner are still very much with us".[159]
Dickinson's poems generally fall into three distinct periods, the works in each period having certain general characters in common.
Pre-1861: In the period before 1858, the poems are most often conventional and sentimental in nature.[160] Thomas H. Johnson, who later published The Poems of Emily Dickinson, was able to date only five of Dickinson's poems as written before 1858.[161] Two of these are mock valentines done in an ornate and humorous style, two others are conventional lyrics, one of which is about missing her brother Austin, and the fifth poem, which begins "I have a Bird in spring", conveys her grief over the feared loss of friendship and was sent to her friend Susan Gilbert.[161] In 1858, Dickinson began to collect her poems in the small hand-sewn books she called fascicles.
1861–1865: This was her most creative period, and these poems represent her most vigorous and creative work. Her poetic production also increased dramatically during this period. Johnson estimated that she composed 35 poems in 1860, 86 poems in 1861, 366 in 1862, 141 in 1863, and 174 in 1864. It was during this period that Dickinson fully developed her themes concerning nature, life, and mortality.[162]
Post-1866: Only a third of Dickinson's poems were written in the last twenty years of her life, when her poetic production slowed considerably. During this period, she no longer collected her poems in fascicles.[162]
The extensive use of dashes and unconventional capitalization in Dickinson's manuscripts, and the idiosyncratic vocabulary and imagery, combine to create a body of work that is "far more various in its styles and forms than is commonly supposed".[5][163] Dickinson avoids pentameter, opting more generally for trimeter, tetrameter and, less often, dimeter. Sometimes her use of these meters is regular, but oftentimes it is irregular. The regular form that she most often employs is the ballad stanza, a traditional form that is divided into quatrains, using tetrameter for the first and third lines and trimeter for the second and fourth, while rhyming the second and fourth lines (ABCB). Though Dickinson often uses perfect rhymes for lines two and four, she also makes frequent use of slant rhyme.[164] In some of her poems, she varies the meter from the traditional ballad stanza by using trimeter for lines one, two and four; while using tetrameter for only line three.
Since many of her poems were written in traditional ballad stanzas with ABCB rhyme schemes, some of these poems can be sung to fit the melodies of popular folk songs and hymns that also use the common meter, employing alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter.[165]
Dickinson scholar and poet Anthony Hecht finds resonances in Dickinson's poetry not only with hymns and song forms but also with psalms and riddles, citing the following example: "Who is the East? / The Yellow Man / Who may be Purple if he can / That carries in the Sun. / Who is the West? / The Purple Man / Who may be Yellow if He can / That lets Him out again."[163]
Late 20th-century scholars are "deeply interested" in Dickinson's highly individual use of punctuation and lineation (line lengths and line breaks).[148] Following the publication of one of the few poems that appeared in her lifetime—"A Narrow Fellow in the Grass", published as "The Snake" in The Republican—Dickinson complained that the edited punctuation (an added comma and a full stop substitution for the original dash) altered the meaning of the entire poem.[143]
Original wording A narrow Fellow in the Grass Occasionally rides – You may have met Him – did you not His notice sudden is –
Republican version[143] A narrow Fellow in the Grass Occasionally rides – You may have met Him – did you not, His notice sudden is.
As Farr points out, "snakes instantly notice you"; Dickinson's version captures the "breathless immediacy" of the encounter; and The Republican's punctuation renders "her lines more commonplace".[148] With the increasingly close focus on Dickinson's structures and syntax has come a growing appreciation that they are "aesthetically based".[148] Although Johnson's landmark 1955 edition of poems was relatively unaltered from the original, later scholars critiqued it for deviating from the style and layout of Dickinson's manuscripts. Meaningful distinctions, these scholars assert, can be drawn from varying lengths and angles of dash, and differing arrangements of text on the page.[166] Several volumes have attempted to render Dickinson's handwritten dashes using many typographic symbols of varying length and angle. R. W. Franklin's 1998 variorum edition of the poems provided alternate wordings to those chosen by Johnson, in a more limited editorial intervention. Franklin also used typeset dashes of varying length to approximate the manuscripts' dashes more closely.[157]
Dickinson left no formal statement of her aesthetic intentions and, because of the variety of her themes, her work does not fit conveniently into any genre. She has been regarded, alongside Emerson (whose poems Dickinson admired), as a Transcendentalist.[167] However, Farr disagrees with this analysis, saying that Dickinson's "relentlessly measuring mind ... deflates the airy elevation of the Transcendental".[168] Apart from the major themes discussed below, Dickinson's poetry frequently uses humor, puns, irony and satire.[169]
Flowers and gardens: Farr notes that Dickinson's "poems and letters almost wholly concern flowers" and that allusions to gardens often refer to an "imaginative realm ... wherein flowers [are] often emblems for actions and emotions".[170] She associates some flowers, like gentians and anemones, with youth and humility; others with prudence and insight.[170] Her poems were often sent to friends with accompanying letters and nosegays.[170] Farr notes that one of Dickinson's earlier poems, written about 1859, appears to "conflate her poetry itself with the posies": "My nosegays are for Captives – / Dim – long expectant eyes – / Fingers denied the plucking, / Patient till Paradise – / To such, if they sh'd whisper / Of morning and the moor – / They bear no other errand, / And I, no other prayer".[170]
The Master poems: Dickinson left a large number of poems addressed to "Signor", "Sir" and "Master", who is characterized as Dickinson's "lover for all eternity".[171] These confessional poems are often "searing in their self-inquiry" and "harrowing to the reader" and typically take their metaphors from texts and paintings of Dickinson's day.[171] The Dickinson family themselves believed these poems were addressed to actual individuals; scholars frequently reject this view. Farr, for example, contends that the Master is an unattainable composite figure, "human, with specific characteristics, but godlike" and speculates that Master may be a "kind of Christian muse".[171]
Morbidity: Dickinson's poems reflect her "early and lifelong fascination" with illness, dying and death.[172] Perhaps surprisingly for a New England spinster, her poems allude to death by many methods: "crucifixion, drowning, hanging, suffocation, freezing, premature burial, shooting, stabbing and guillotinage".[172] She reserved her sharpest insights into the "death blow aimed by God" and the "funeral in the brain", often reinforced by images of thirst and starvation. Dickinson scholar Vivian R. Pollak[Wikidata] considers these references an autobiographical reflection of Dickinson's "thirsting-starving persona", an outward expression of her needy self-image as small, thin and frail.[172] Dickinson's most psychologically complex poems explore the theme that the loss of hunger for life causes the death of self and place this at "the interface of murder and suicide".[172] Death and morbidity in Dickinson's poetry is also heavily connected to winter themes. Critic Edwin Folsom analyzes how "winter for Dickinson is the season that forces reality, that strips all hope of transcendence. It is a season of death and a metaphor for death".[173]
Gospel poems: Throughout her life, Dickinson wrote poems reflecting a preoccupation with the teachings of Jesus Christ and, indeed, many are addressed to him.[174] She stresses the Gospels' contemporary pertinence and recreates them, often with "wit and American colloquial language".[174] Scholar Dorothy Oberhaus finds that the "salient feature uniting Christian poets ... is their reverential attention to the life of Jesus Christ" and contends that Dickinson's deep structures place her in the "poetic tradition of Christian devotion" alongside Hopkins, Eliot and Auden.[174] In a Nativity poem, Dickinson combines lightness and wit to revisit an ancient theme: "The Savior must have been / A docile Gentleman – / To come so far so cold a Day / For little Fellowmen / The Road to Bethlehem / Since He and I were Boys / Was leveled, but for that twould be / A rugged billion Miles –".[174]
The Undiscovered Continent: Academic Suzanne Juhasz[Wikidata] considers that Dickinson saw the mind and spirit as tangible visitable places and that for much of her life she lived within them.[175] Often, this intensely private place is referred to as the "undiscovered continent" and the "landscape of the spirit" and embellished with nature imagery. At other times, the imagery is darker and forbidding—castles or prisons, complete with corridors and rooms—to create a dwelling place of "oneself" where one resides with one's other selves.[175] An example that brings together many of these ideas is: "Me from Myself – to banish – / Had I Art – / Impregnable my Fortress / Unto All Heart – / But since myself—assault Me – / How have I peace / Except by subjugating / Consciousness. / And since We're mutual Monarch / How this be / Except by Abdication – / Me – of Me?".[175]
Dickinson wrote and sent this poem ("A Route of Evanescence") to Thomas Higginson in 1880.
The surge of posthumous publication gave Dickinson's poetry its first public exposure. Backed by Higginson and with a favorable notice from William Dean Howells, an editor of Harper's Magazine, the poetry received mixed reviews after it was first published in 1890. Higginson himself stated in his preface to the first edition of Dickinson's published work that the poetry's quality "is that of extraordinary grasp and insight",[176] albeit "without the proper control and chastening" that the experience of publishing during her lifetime might have conferred.[177] His judgment that her opus was "incomplete and unsatisfactory" would be echoed in the essays of the New Critics in the 1930s.
Maurice Thompson, who was literary editor of The Independent for twelve years, noted in 1891 that her poetry had "a strange mixture of rare individuality and originality".[178] Some critics hailed Dickinson's effort but disapproved of her unusual non-traditional style. Andrew Lang, a British writer, dismissed Dickinson's work, stating that "if poetry is to exist at all, it really must have form and grammar, and must rhyme when it professes to rhyme. The wisdom of the ages and the nature of man insist on so much".[179]Thomas Bailey Aldrich, a poet and novelist, equally dismissed Dickinson's poetic technique in The Atlantic Monthly in January 1892: "It is plain that Miss Dickinson possessed an extremely unconventional and grotesque fancy. She was deeply tinged by the mysticism of Blake, and strongly influenced by the mannerism of Emerson ... But the incoherence and formlessness of her—versicles are fatal ... an eccentric, dreamy, half-educated recluse in an out-of-the-way New England village (or anywhere else) cannot with impunity set at defiance the laws of gravitation and grammar".[180]
Critical attention to Dickinson's poetry was meager from 1897 to the early 1920s.[181] By the start of the 20th century, interest in her poetry became broader in scope and some critics began to consider Dickinson as essentially modern. Rather than seeing Dickinson's poetic styling as a result of a lack of knowledge or skill, modern critics believed the irregularities were consciously artistic.[182] In a 1915 essay, Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant called the poet's inspiration "daring" and named her "one of the rarest flowers the sterner New England land ever bore".[183] With the growing popularity of modernist poetry in the 1920s, Dickinson's failure to conform to 19th-century poetic form was no longer surprising nor distasteful to new generations of readers. Dickinson was suddenly referred to by various critics as a great woman poet, and a cult following began to form.[184]
In the 1930s, a number of the New Critics—among them R. P. Blackmur, Allen Tate, Cleanth Brooks and Yvor Winters—appraised the significance of Dickinson's poetry. As critic Roland Hagenbüchle pointed out, their "affirmative and prohibitive tenets turned out to be of special relevance to Dickinson scholarship".[185] Blackmur, in an attempt to focus and clarify the major claims for and against the poet's greatness, wrote in a landmark 1937 critical essay: "... she was a private poet who wrote as indefatigably as some women cook or knit. Her gift for words and the cultural predicament of her time drove her to poetry instead of antimacassars ... She came ... at the right time for one kind of poetry: the poetry of sophisticated, eccentric vision."[186]
The second wave of feminism created greater cultural sympathy for her as a female poet. In the first collection of critical essays on Dickinson from a feminist perspective, she is heralded as the greatest woman poet in the English language.[187] Biographers and theorists of the past tended to separate Dickinson's roles as a woman and a poet. For example, George Whicher wrote in his 1952 book This Was a Poet: A Critical Biography of Emily Dickinson, "Perhaps as a poet [Dickinson] could find the fulfillment she had missed as a woman." Feminist criticism, on the other hand, declares that there is a necessary and powerful conjunction between Dickinson being a woman and a poet.[188]Adrienne Rich theorized in Vesuvius at Home: The Power of Emily Dickinson (1976) that Dickinson's identity as a woman poet brought her power: "[she] chose her seclusion, knowing she was exceptional and knowing what she needed ... She carefully selected her society and controlled the disposal of her time ... neither eccentric nor quaint; she was determined to survive, to use her powers, to practice necessary economics."[189]
Some scholars question the poet's sexuality, theorizing that the numerous letters and poems that were dedicated to Susan Gilbert Dickinson indicate a lesbian romance, and speculating about how this may have influenced her poetry.[190] Critics such as John Cody, Lillian Faderman, Vivian R. Pollak, Paula Bennett, Judith Farr, Ellen Louise Hart, and Martha Nell Smith have argued that Susan was the central erotic relationship in Dickinson's life.[9]
In the early 20th century, Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Millicent Todd Bingham kept the achievement of Emily Dickinson alive. Bianchi promoted Dickinson's poetic achievement. Bianchi inherited The Evergreens as well as the copyright for her aunt's poetry from her parents, publishing works such as Emily Dickinson Face to Face and Letters of Emily Dickinson, which stoked public curiosity about her aunt. Bianchi's books perpetrated legends about her aunt in the context of family tradition, personal recollection and correspondence. In contrast, Millicent Todd Bingham's took a more objective and realistic approach to the poet.[191]
Emily Dickinson is now considered a powerful and persistent figure in American culture.[192] Although much of the early reception concentrated on Dickinson's eccentric and secluded nature, she has become widely acknowledged as an innovative, proto-modernist poet.[193] As early as 1891, William Dean Howells wrote that "If nothing else had come out of our life but this strange poetry, we should feel that in the work of Emily Dickinson, America, or New England rather, had made a distinctive addition to the literature of the world, and could not be left out of any record of it."[194] Critic Harold Bloom has placed her alongside Walt Whitman, Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, T. S. Eliot, and Hart Crane as a major American poet,[195] and in 1994 listed her among the 26 central writers of Western civilization.[196]
Dickinson's herbarium, which is now held in the Houghton Library at Harvard University, was published in 2006 as Emily Dickinson's Herbarium by Harvard University Press.[207] The original work was compiled by Dickinson during her years at Amherst Academy, and consists of 424 pressed specimens of plants arranged on 66 pages of a bound album. A digital facsimile of the herbarium is available online.[208] The town of Amherst Jones Library's Special Collections department has an Emily Dickinson Collection consisting of approximately seven thousand items, including original manuscript poems and letters, family correspondence, scholarly articles and books, newspaper clippings, theses, plays, photographs and contemporary artwork and prints.[209] The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College has substantial holdings of Dickinson's manuscripts and letters as well as a lock of Dickinson's hair and the original of the only positively identified image of the poet. In 1965, in recognition of Dickinson's growing stature as a poet, the Homestead was purchased by Amherst College. It opened to the public for tours, and also served as a faculty residence for many years. The Emily Dickinson Museum was created in 2003 when ownership of the Evergreens, which had been occupied by Dickinson family heirs until 1988, was transferred to the college.[210]
"Yesterday is History" as a wall poem in The Hague (2016)
Emily Dickinson's life and works have been the source of inspiration to artists, particularly to feminist-oriented artists, of a variety of mediums. A few notable examples are:
In William Styron's 1979 novel Sophie's Choice, and later in the film of the same name directed by Alan J. Pakula, the poems of Emily Dickinson hold an important place. The final line of the book, as well as in the movie, is borrowed from Emily's poem "Ample Make This Bed".
A character who is a literary scholar at a fictional New England college in the comic campus novel by Pamela Hansford JohnsonNight and Silence Who Is Here?[214] is intent on proving that Emily Dickinson was a secret dipsomaniac. His obsession costs him his job.
The 2012 book The Emily Dickinson Reader by Paul Legault is an English-to-English translation of her complete poems published by McSweeney's.[215]
Wild Nights with Emily, a 2018 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Madeleine Olnek. The film is based on actual events from Dickinson's life.
Dickinson is a TV series starring Hailee Steinfeld as Emily Dickinson and premiered in 2019 on Apple TV+. The series focused on Dickinson's life.
American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, who is a distant cousin of Dickinson,[223] described a category of her lyrics and songwriting, affectionally titled "quill pen songs", that are in part inspired by the likes of Dickinson. She stated, "if my lyrics sound like a letter written by Emily Dickinson's great-grandmother while sewing a lace curtain, that's me writing in the Quill genre. I will give you an example from one of my songs ['Ivy'] I'd categorize as Quill."[224] The aforementioned song, "Ivy", was used in an episode of the Apple TV+ series, Dickinson (see above).[225]
^ Jump up to:abKoski, Lena. “Sexual Metaphors in Emily Dickinson's Letters to Susan Gilbert.”The Emily Dickinson Journal 5.2 (1996): 26–31.
^Dickinson, Emily (1998). Ellen Louise Hart; Martha Nell Smith (eds.). Open me carefully: Emily Dickinson's intimate letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson. Ashfield, MA: Paris Press. ISBN0-9638183-6-8. OCLC39746998.
^Novy, Marianne (1990). Women's Re-visions of Shakespeare: On the Responses of Dickinson, Woolf, Rich, H.D., George Eliot, and Others. University of Illinois Press. p. 117.
^Folsom, Edwin (1975). ""The Souls That Snow": Winter in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson". American Literature. 47 (3): 361–376. doi:10.2307/2925338. JSTOR2925338.
^"Mission Statement". Emily Dickinson School website, Bozeman, Montana. Archived from the original on October 2, 2007. Retrieved January 16, 2008.
^"The Real Emily Dickinson". Emily Dickinson Elementary School website, Redmond, Washington. Archived from the original on December 20, 2008. Retrieved July 24, 2008.
^Mitchell, Domhnall; Stuart, Maria (2009). "Introduction: Emily Dickinson abroad". The International Reception of Emily Dickinson. Continuum Reception Studies. Continuum. p. 4. ISBN9780826497154. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
^"History of the Museum". Emily Dickinson Museum website, Amherst, Massachusetts. Archived from the original on October 23, 2007. Retrieved December 13, 2007.
Miller, Cristanne; Mitchell, Domhnall, eds. (2024). The Letters of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN978-0-674-98297-0.
Miller, Cristanne, ed. (2016). Emily Dickinson's Poems: As She Preserved Them. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN978-0-674-73796-9.
Franklin, R. W., ed. (1998). The Poems of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN978-0-674-67622-0.
Hart, Ellen Louise; Smith, Martha Nell, eds. (1998). Open me carefully: Emily Dickinson's intimate letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson. Middletown, CT: Paris Press. ISBN978-0-96381836-2.
Johnson, Thomas H.; Ward, Theodora, eds. (1958). The Letters of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Johnson, Thomas H., ed. (1955). The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (three-volume set). Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
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Blake, Caesar R. (ed). 1964. The Recognition of Emily Dickinson: Selected Criticism Since 1890. Ed. Caesar R. Blake. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
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Comment, Kristin M. 2001. "Dickinson's Bawdy: Shakespeare and Sexual Symbolism in Emily Dickinson's Writing to Susan Dickinson". Legacy. 18(2). pp. 167–181.
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Farr, Judith. 2005. The Gardens of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England: Harvard University Press. ISBN978-0-674-01829-7.
Ford, Thomas W. 1966. Heaven Beguiles the Tired: Death in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson. University of Alabama Press.
Mitchell, Domhnall Mitchell and Maria Stuart. 2009. The International Reception of Emily Dickinson. New York: Continuum. ISBN0-8264-9715-2.
Murray, Aífe. 2010. Maid as Muse: How Domestic Servants Changed Emily Dickinson's Life and Language. University Press of New England. ISBN978-1-58465-674-6.
Murray, Aífe. 1996. "Kitchen Table Poetics: Maid Margaret Maher and Her Poet Emily Dickinson," The Emily Dickinson Journal. 5(2). pp. 285–296.
Paglia, Camille. 1990. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. Yale University Press. ISBN978-0-300-04396-9.
Oberhaus, Dorothy Huff. 1996. " 'Tender pioneer': Emily Dickinson's Poems on the Life of Christ" in Farr (1996) 105–119.
Miller, Cristanne; Mitchell, Domhnall, eds. (2024). The Letters of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN978-0-674-98297-0. OCLC1393248736.
Tammaro, Thomas; Coghill, Sheila, eds. (2001). Visiting Emily: Poems Inspired by the Life and Works of Emily Dickinson. Illustrator: Barry Moser. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN978-0-87745-734-3. OCLC44467681. 2001 Minnesota Book Awards winner.
Murray, who eventually graduated in 1938, [1939 catalog listing Murray's graduation] went on to practice law in Baltimore with the firm of Douglass, Perkins and Murray. He was involved in several subsequent cases which would lead to integration of other professional schools at the Univ
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