The Emily Dickinson International Society

Volume 23, Number 1 May/June 2011

“The Only News I know / Is Bulletins all Day / From Immortality.” Emily Dickinson International Society

Officers

President: Martha Ackmann Vice President: Jed Deppman Secretary: Stephanie Tingley Treasurer: James C. Fraser Board Members Martha Ackmann Jonnie Guerra Nancy Pridgen Antoine Cazé Suzanne Juhasz Martha Nell Smith Paul Crumbley Barbara Mossberg Jed Deppman Marianne Noble Stephanie Tingley Cindy Dickinson Elizabeth Petrino HirokoAlexandra Uno Socarides (Honorary Board Member) Vivian Pollak Jane Wald Legal Advisor:BarbaraJames Leukart C. Fraser (Honorary Board Member) Nominations Chair:Ellen Louise Hart Membership Chair:Jonnie Legal Guerra Advisor: Barbara Leukart Chapter Development Chair: Nancy Pridgen Dickinson and the Nominations Arts Chair:Barbara Chair: DanaJonnie Guerra Book Review Editor: Barbara Kelly Chapter Development Membership Chair:Nancy Chair: Pridgen Elizabeth Petrino Bulletin Editor: Daniel Manheim Book Review Dickinson Editor:Barbara and the Arts Kelly Chair: Barbara Dana Journal Editor: Cristanne Miller Journal Editor:Cristanne Miller

2010 Sustaining Members

Martha Ackmann James C. Fraser Gary Lee Stonum Jane D. Eberwein Cristanne Miller Ethan Tarasov David H. Forsyth Carol Pippin Robin Tarasov Diana K. Fraser Martha Nell Smith

2010 Contributing Members Carolyn L. Cooley Jo Ann Orr Paul Beckley Barbara Dana Vivian R. Pollak EllenYoshiko Beinhorn Akamatsu Scott Donaldson MayumiNiels Kjaer Maeda Robert M. Russell Mary Elizabeth K. Bernhard Judith Farr DanielMary Loeffelholz Manheim Nobuko Shimomura Richard Brantley LeeAnn Gorthey Gregory Mattingly Richard Tryon Diane K. Busker Jonnie G. Guerra Murray Hiroko Uno Angela Conrad Suzanne Juhasz Burleigh Muten Kathy Welton Aífe

EDIS gratefully acknowledges the generous financial contributions of these members.

EDIS Bulletin (ISSN 1055-3932) is published twice yearly, May/June and November/December, by The Emily Dickinson International Society, Inc. Standard Mail non- contact Martha Ackmann, President, EDIS, Gender Studies, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA 01075 USA, or [email protected]. Annual dues are $50.00 profit postage is paid at Lexington, KY 40511. Membership in the Society is open to all persons with an interest in Emily Dickinson and her work. For further information, the Bulletin and the Emily Dickinson Journal Bulletin only). Membership inquiries should be directed to James C. Fraser, 159 Prospect for regular members, $30.00 for students, $200.00 for sustaining members, $113.00 for institutional members, $100.00 for contributing members (all of whom receive ), or $20.00 for associate members ( St., Apt 7, Acton, MA, 01720-3654, USA. Membership applicationsBulletin and changes of address should be sent to The Emily Dickinson International Society, c/o Johns Hopkins University Press, P.O. Box 19966, Baltimore, MD 21211-0966, USA. Direct changes of address to [email protected], 800-548-1784Bulletin (U.S. and Canada), or 410- 516-6987; fax to 410-516-3866. Address submissions for the to Daniel Manheim, Centre College,Bulletin 700 West Walnut St., Danville, KY 40422, USA or dan.manheim@ thecentre.edu. MLA Bibliography. Submission deadlines are March 1 (Spring issue) and September 1 (Fall issue). All articles become the property of the . Back issues are available for $5.00 each from the editor. Copyright © 2010 by The Emily Dickinson International Society, Inc. The is indexed in EBSCO, Humanities International Complete, and

www.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.org I n T h i s I s s u e

Features Reviews 4 Orra White Hitchcock: Life, Art, and 19 New Publications Science – Her Lasting Legacy By Barbara Kelly, Book Editor By Daria D'Arienzo 22 Review of Victoria Morgan, Emily Dickinson 17 New Scandinavian Adaptations of Emily and Hymn Culture: Tradition and Experience Dickinson Reviewed by Emily Seelbinder By Niels Kjaer 23 Review of Aífe Murray, Maid as Muse: How Servants Changed Emily Dickinson's Life and Series Language Reviewed by Connie Kirk 8 Poet to Poet More Room for Revery By Richard Robbins Members' News Series Editor, Jonnie Guerra 14 Benjamin Lease: 1917-2010 10 Dickinson Scholars By Jane Donohue Eberwein Inder Nath Kher: An Appreciation By Fred D. White 24 Great Debates: EDIS Annual Meeting Series Editor, Cindy MacKenzie 26 Meet the New Members 15 What's Your Story? Meet the New Editor: An Interview with 28 Chapter News Dan Manheim By Georgiana Strickland 30 Puzzle Series Editor, Georgiana Strickland

Cover Image: Orra White Hitchcock, Herbarium: Five Blossoms, c. 1817–1818 [H 35]. Watercolor in Herbarium parvum, pictum, unbound album, 1817–1821. Includes “Indian Pipes” or “Ghost Pipes,” Emily Dickinson’s “preferred flower of life.” Deerfield Academy Archives

Back Cover: Orra White Hitchcock, Fourteen Fungi, 1821. In Fungi selecti picti, July–October 1821.Watercolor, pencil, ink and ink wash in sewn album. Smith College Archives, Smith College, gift of Emily Hitchcock Terry

Readers of Dickinson's poetry know of the poet's connections to Edward Hitchcock, geologist, Congregationalist minister, and President of Amherst College from 1845 to 1854. As the pious successor to President Heman Humphrey, he maintained the religious character of the college. Yet he also sought to extend scientific education at Amherst and at his friend Mary Lyon's Mount Holyoke Seminary. His life's work was to reconcile theology with his careful observation of natural phenomena. The name of his wife, Orra White Hitchcock, is less well known. Her skill as an artist and a sharp scientific observer enabled her to make illustrations and teaching aids that supported her husband's lectures, making the study of her work an important chapter in the history of education. More important, however, are her exquisite care in draughting, and the luminosity of her use of color: evidence that the artist/scientist tried as hard as her husband, and perhaps as hard as the college treasurer's daughter, to discover in the lowliest creatures an indication of Providential design.

Dickinson poems are reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from the following volumes: The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Variorum Edition, Ralph W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition, Ralph W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998, 1999 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Copyright © 1929, 1935 by Mar- tha Dickinson Bianchi, Copyright © renewed 1957, 1963 by Mary L. Hampson: Little Brown and Co., Boston. Dickinson letters are reprinted by permission of the publishers from The Letters of Emily Dickinson, Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1958, 1986 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; 1914, 1924, 1932, 1942 by Martha Dickinson Bianchi; 1952 by Alfred Lette Hampson; 1960 by Mary L. Hampson. Orra White Hitchcock: Life, Art and Science – Her Lasting Legacy By Daria D'Arienzo

Orra White Hitchcock While Orra fulfilled the social ex- (1796-1863) is the lesser-known pectations of her time as wife and “Belle of Amherst.” But that is mother, she was also a botanist, a changing. She was a remarkable geologist, and a conchologist, as woman – a professor’s wife, a well as an artist. She pursued these mother, a good neighbor, a deeply interests independently as a young religious woman, an intellectually woman and later in support of Ed- gifted person, a sought-after teacher, ward’s work. He acknowledged her a well-respected scientist and a rec- essential contributions in the dedi- ognized artist – balancing all those cation of The Religion of Geology things with a grace that made her (1851): “while I have described sci- extraordinary and inspiring. She did entific facts with the pen only, how what was expected and she did much much more vividly have they been more. Orra was woman of talent and portrayed by your pencil! And it passion whose life is reflected in her is peculiarly appropriate that your drawings and paintings. name should be associated with mine in any literary effort where the Orra had vision. She saw beauty in theme is geology; since your artistic the natural world around her, and skill has done more than my voice to vividly depicted it in the unique render that science attractive to the drawings and watercolors she made. young men whom I have instructed.” Eugene Worman called her “the ear- liest and most often published wom- What makes Orra unusual is that she Orra White Hitchcock, c. 1860 Carte de visite by John L. Lovell. an artist” of the Connecticut River was both an artist and a scientist at a Courtesy of the Jones Library, Inc., Amherst, Mass. Valley.1 Though she did travel be- time when these disciplines did not yond western Massachusetts it was exist across a great divide. It is the drawing, painting and the decorative this valley that shaped her life and intersection of the visual arts and the arts at the schools she attended in her art – a life and art that were par- natural sciences that characterizes South Hadley and Roxbury, but she ticularly intertwined. Orra’s life and work. She exempli- never trained as a professional artist. fied this “union of the beautiful with For more than a century, William S. the useful,” as Tyler phrased it, in Orra was a prodigy, excelling in the Tyler’s emotional oration at her fu- both temperament and practice.3 natural sciences, and her artistic tal- neral served as the major account of ent blossomed early. From 1813 to her life.2 When Orra has been rec- Orra flourished in Amherst – the 1817, as Preceptress, Orra taught the ognized it has usually been through place she called her “loved native young women at Deerfield Acad- the work of her husband, geologist village”4 and the place that also pro- emy the sciences and the fine and Edward Hitchcock (1793-1864). duced Helen Hunt Jackson (1830– decorative arts, probably encourag- But she also created beautiful draw- 1885) and Emily Dickinson (1830– ing study from nature, as she did. ings of native flowers and grasses 1886). She was a local girl, born on While there, Orra was a founder of and delicate watercolors of small lo- March 8, 1796, to Ruth Sherman and the Young Ladies Literary Society cal mushrooms as well as large, bold Jarib White of South Amherst. She (1813-1817) bringing young ladies classroom illustrations. Her work is was the only daughter to survive in together “to enlighten, expand and astonishing for its range as well as this prosperous farming family, and embellish the mind” and to “culti- its scientific accuracy and beauty. was taught along with her two broth- vate and purify the heart,” cement- Orra’s art was known to contempo- ers. Her father, a supporter of the ing her life-long belief in science as rary scientists through her illustra- fledgling Amherst College, believed a means to morally pure happiness. tion of Edward’s scientific works, in education; her tutor boasted that but also because he regularly shared he “had fitted [Orra] for college.” It was in Deerfield that Orra met her drawings with his peers. Like other young ladies she learned the self-educated scientist Edward

4 | EDIS Bulletin Hitchcock, teacher and Preceptor, Orra was a scientist in her own right, liable to fits of despondency and or principal, at the Academy. They earning the reputation as one of the gloom. The least obstacle is apt were certainly acquainted by au- valley's “most distinguished natu- to discourage him, and make him tumn 1814 when Orra played Maria ralists” during these early botanical give up in despair. When he is Louisa, Empress of France, in Ed- excursions. Her first credited pub- seised [sic] with these, she goes ward’s verse play, “The Emancipa- lished work is a wood engraving into his study, and uses all the art tion of Europe, or the Downfall of of the Falls on Connecticut River, of females to make him forget his Bonaparte: A Tragedy.” at Gill, Mass., after a drawing she troubles, talks in a cheerful manner created for Edward’s article in Port to him, & in a short time restores Theirs was a long engagement. A Folio in December 1818. But her his mind to its proper degree of note from Edward to Orra suggests actual first may have been the oval temper. She fills out his sermons, that they found creative ways to vignette depicting a young woman and it is probable he would not meet: with scientific instruments personi- have been anything great, if she fying the arts and sciences, a simple had not assisted him by her draw- Sunday Evening May 21 country woodcut done for Edward’s ings of everything appertaining to Lovely is the evening. Fair is the 1815 Country Almanack, printed in his study of Geology. soft eyed queen of night. Sweet 1814. is the whippoorwill’s song in Following the traditional role for the woods. Mild is the zephyr of Orra White married Edward Hitch- women, Orra raised six surviving spring. ‘Tis the season of love. cock on May 31, 1821. Theirs was children, made the daily meals, kept Then let us meet my friend where a union of love and mutual respect the house and gardens, put food by, the eye of suspicion cannot per- that lasted almost 42 years as profes- made clothes, did laundry, raised ceive us – but no more of poetry sional and domestic partners. Their chickens and took in boarders (in- – What say you Orra, to professing honeymoon was spent creating a cluding Henry Ward Beecher). Or- to wish to make Charissa Dickin- catalogue and a small beautiful wa- ra’s college and community social son a visit this evening. Friend tercolor album of 119 native mush- responsibilities – entertainment, John understands the plot. He rooms and 3 lichens, “Fungi selecti prayer groups, charity fairs, and will speak of Charissa – you can picti,” now in the Smith College more – were burdensome and never say you have scarcely called upon Archives and recently published in ending. Yet Orra also taught her own her since you came to Dfd. He will facsimile.7 The “Herbarium” and children both art and science, and then invite you to go this evening. the “Fungi” gave visual permanence instructed young women who came I will meet you say at H. D’s. – to Edward’s native plant herbarium specifically to study with her. yours, E. and his mushroom catalogue. P.S. Do not be in fear of another She also travelled with Edward, in- all night interview.5 The couple moved first to Conway cluding a trip to Virginia in 1847 and where Edward served as pastor and five months in Europe in 1850, tak- From 1817 to 1821, Edward and Orra then in 1826 to Amherst, where they en to rejuvenate Edward’s health af- crisscrossed the local countryside in spent the rest of their lives serving ter restoring the foundering Amherst scientific collaboration. Edward col- Amherst College. Orra flourished. College as its third president (1845- lected flowers, sedges and grasses She was a woman “at home, and at 1854).8 All the while, she continued for a conventional herbarium and ease herself” and “she made every- to illustrate Edward’s work and pur- Orra created watercolor drawings of body at ease and at home around sue her own artwork. the local plants for her fine painted her,” traits of great importance, as album, “Herbarium parvum, pic- Edward’s erratic health and hypo- Orra was deeply religious, some- tum,” now in the Deerfield Academy chondria were central to the family times serious and often self-effacing, Archives. Orra’s depiction of Indian dynamics. They were of constant but she was not a shrinking violet. pipes captures the ghostly qual- concern and demanded Orra’s time She had a wit and spirit that kept her ity of Emily Dickinson’s “preferred and attention. As Martin Root, a calm and focused in the face of life’s flower of life.”6 The herbarium was classmate of their eldest son, wrote adventures. Her family knew her considered a family treasure, “worth in his undergraduate diary: playful side. Writing home to her its weight in gold” as her youngest children from Wells Beach, Maine, child, Emily Hitchcock Terry, also a Mrs. Hitchcock has been of great in 1848, Orra tells them “yesterday botanical illustrator, wrote. advantage to the Pres. The Dr. is I went to Plum Island with a party

May/June 2011 | 5 of ten & we went into the ocean & of local Valley towns, to the care- ously titled A Wreath for the Tomb spent half an hour & enjoyed it ex- ful rendering of prehistoric animals, (1839), a book meant to comfort the ceedingly … there were two gentle- like the Megatherium, to original il- afflicted and cheer the despondent. men with us & we ducked & spat- lustrations for Edward’s new ideas The Return shows the large and tered each other & had the greatest or discoveries, like “Ornithichnites, busy Hitchcock household greeting frolic you could imagine.”9 Hitch.” (his dinosaur fossil foot- the returning Edward outside their prints), to copies from contempo- home. In the time between Peck- Those who knew her intimately re- rary scientific works – Orra’s work ham’s painting and Orra’s drawing, marked that they “never knew such brought drama to the classroom. her last child, Emily, was born. So repose and quietness united with so Orra’s version moves young Charles much energy and efficiency.” Writ- Orra regarded these works as coarse to the ground and places infant Em- ing about herself to her friend Debo- and merely functional. She never ily in her own arms. rah Vinal Fiske, she says: signed them and did not want others to know she created them. But they In addition to her scientific and … I am one of those procrastinat- are one of her most important lega- botanical illustration, Orra created ing sort of people that never get cies. They helped students see what several symbolic compositions, in- any thing done in season unless they could not have experienced or cluding a preliminary design of a compelled by some urgency. I be- seen. Edward knew and acknowl- vignette for her former student and lieve unless I had been situated as edged their real value and “remark- founder of Mount Holyoke Female I am in a large family when there able truthfulness,” referring to them Seminary, Mary Lyon, which in- is always something pressing upon as “indispensable aids” without spired their eventual seal but was me to have done that I should ac- which “I never could have intelligi- never used as Orra drew it. Her complish very little – perhaps that bly explained … the subjects of my last documented work was of this is the very reason why I have had lectures.”11 sort, her illustrations for Edward’s so large a family to take care of, Religious Lectures on Peculiar that I need not have the odium of Robert Peckham’s 1838 oil painting, Phenomena in the Four Seasons laziness attached to my character.10 Professor Edward Hitchcock Re- (1850), which are the most striking turning from a Journey (now in the of her few symbolic works. They From 1825 through the 1840s, Or- Mead Art Museum), was the inspi- include “Emblems of the Resurrec- ra’s scientific mind and skilled hand ration for Orra’s only known image tion” and “The Triumphal Arch of provided illustrations for Edward’s of her family. The original drawing, Summer. As seen at Amherst June works: drawings for more than 200 now lost, survives as The Return, 23, 1848”; the drawing for the latter plates and 1,000 woodcut illustra- the frontispiece to Edward’s curi- survives. tions. Many appear in the 1833 Report on the Geology of Massa- chusetts and its successor, the 1841 Final Report. The custom-made illustrations that Orra created for Edward’s lectures are her most unusual and least known work. There were hundreds, but only about 60 survive in the Am- herst College Archives and Special Collections. These watercolor, ink and ink wash drawings on plain or glazed muslin are the nineteenth- century version of today’s slides and digital images.

These predominantly large illustra- Ornithichnites Giganteus. Hitch. and Ornithichnites Ingens. Hitch., c. 1836–1840 Classroom chart of fossil tracks of the Connecticut River valley, discovered by E. Hitchcock, in ink, ink wash, tions are remarkable for their range. pencil and watercolor on cloth. From bold geologic cross sections Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College

6 | EDIS Bulletin There are few known instances of Orra illustrating scientific works by others. But from 1825 to 1826, Orra made a series of watercolors for Chester Dewey’s articles on sedge grasses in The American Journal of Science. Dewey (1784–1867) was so pleased that he named one grass Carex hitchockiana for the Hitch- cocks, identifying Orra as the “lady, to whom I am so greatly indebted for the figures which accompany 12 this Caricography.” The Triumphal Arch of Summer as seen in Amherst in 1848., c. 1848 Pencil and ink wash study of Amherst College buildings and a rainbow, for a lithograph in E. Hitchcock’s Religious Lectures on Peculiar Phenomena in the Four Seasons, 1850. Though none of it survives, Orra en- Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College tered decorative and fine art works in the 1853 and 1854 Annual Ex- Orra White Hitchcock hibitions of the Hampshire County Agricultural Society. These are list- An Exhibition at the Mead Art Museum ed for 1853 as “several oil paintings … a picture frame, and a box in the “Orra White Hitchcock on cloth showcase the range of Orra’s new style of carving and ornamental (1796–1863): An Amherst Woman work. New discoveries including leaf work.” And, they are noted for of Art and Science,” at the Mead Art Orra’s only surviving botanical field 1854 as three “Grecian paintings” Museum of Amherst College (Janu- drawing with manuscript notes; wa- and a waiter (i.e., a tray). She won ary – May 2011) is part of the redis- tercolors of striking autumnal maple prizes both years.13 covery of the Connecticut River Val- leaves and a pencil sketch of the Am- ley’s first published artist who was herst College buildings under a rain- What was Orra’s connection, if any, quietly the principal female scientific bow are seen for the first time. to other local artists? She did know illustrator of the early and mid 19th For more information: https://www.amherst.edu/ the work of her younger contempo- century. museums/ mead/programs/2011exhib/owh rary Erastus Salisbury Field (1805– Orra White Hitchcock is most often Article continued on page 12. recognized for illustrating the sci- From a Botanical Family: Em- entific work of her husband, geolo- ily Hitchcock Terry (1838-1921), a This article is distilled from recent publications gist and Amherst College professor complementary exhibition curated including “The ‘Union of the Beautiful with Edward Hitchcock (1793–1864). by Daria D’Arienzo, at the Smith College Libraries (January–May the Useful’: Through the Eyes of Orra White But she was also a scientist in her 2011), is the initial display of the Hitchcock,” by Daria D’Arienzo in The Mas- own right, truly a partner in her hus- work of Orra’s youngest child, also sachusetts Review 51:2 (Summer 2010); and band’s scientific endeavors, as well a groundbreaking botanical illustra- "Orra White Hitchcock: An Amherst Woman of as a teacher of science and art and the tor, who created the first portrayal Art and Science," exhibition catalogue by Rob- mother of six children. from nature of Minnesota’s flora. ert L. Herbert and Daria D’Arienzo, Mead Art The exhibition features Emily’s Museum, 2011. Much more detail and fuller Exhibition curators Robert L. Her- own painted herbarium, American references can be found in them. These publi- bert and Daria D’Arienzo bring to- Flowers, of 142 watercolor flow- cations are an indication of a current revival of gether 100 works that illustrate the ers and grasses made between 1850 interest in Orra, marked by the Mead exhibition unique and striking achievement of and 1910, of plants in, among other of the same name, Robert L. Herbert and Daria this extraordinary self-taught artist places, Minnesota, Vermont, and D’Arienzo, curators, (January-May 2011) and a and place them in the context of her Massachusetts. The newly discov- ered small scroll and garland vi- smaller one at Smith College Library (January- rich life. Beautiful watercolors of na- gnette, a token of friendship made May 2011) of her daughter Emily’s work, From a tive flowers and grasses, delicate wa- by Emily’s mother, Orra White, Botanical Family: Emily Hitchcock Terry (1838- tercolors of small local mushrooms, when she taught at Deerfield Acad- 1921), Daria D’Arienzo, curator. With thanks to Connecticut River Valley landscapes, emy, c. 1814, is also featured. Robert L. Herbert for our work together on the and large, bold, almost Constructivist For more information: http://www.smith.edu/libraries/ Mead exhibition and catalogue. geologic and zoological illustrations info/news/728.htm

May/June 2011 | 7 Poet to Poet

Jonnie Guerra, Series Editor This issue’s featured poet, Richard Robbins, came to my attention as the 2009 winner of the Poetry Society of America’s The Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award “for a poem inspired by Dickinson though not necessarily in her style.” A prolific writer, Robbins has published five collections of poems, many works of fiction and creative non-fiction, and musical lyrics. From 1984 to 2004, he co-edited the Mankato Poetry Review. His poetry has been widely anthologized and has earned him numerous awards and prestigious fellowships, including those from The Loft and the McKnight Foundation (1997 and 2000), The Minnesota State Arts Board (1999), The Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers (1998), and The National Endowment for the Arts (1992). I know Bulletin readers will enjoy Robbins’ reflections on Dickinson, Whitman, and his own poetry in the essay that follows. More Room for Revery by Richard Robbins It’s hopeless trying to new world of bewilderment, of remember my first encounter numbness, of whatever follows with Emily Dickinson. Proba- letting go. bly as an elementary school stu- dent, I read one golden anthol- Even if it were part of their own ogy of great poems or another. experience, it would not occur to Later, we would have studied many poets to write a poem such her in high school, the more as this: To do so would place gothic material – what seemed the poet on a different plane gothic at the time, at least, what than the reader and thus turn the with the flies and carriages and poem, their instincts might tell the dark-garbed gentlemen. It them, into an unwanted teaching wouldn't be until my twenties, moment. One of contemporary trying to write poems myself, poetry’s many reactions to Mod- that I could begin to appreciate ernism has been, in some quar- the breadth of her material, the ters, to avoid the appearance of compressed and multi-layered sharing with a reader knowledge language, the control of tone. that was gained before the occa- sion of the poem. *** *** Many lyrical poems, mine in- cluded, strive to create the im- I don’t know of a single Ameri- pression that personal discovery can poet who does not find Whit- or change coincides with the man or Dickinson in his or her composition of the poem. Fun- Photo Credit: Candace Black personal family tree. From Whit- damental to the romantic tradition is man we learn, among other things, that the poet may enter the poem with other side of trouble. That is to say, the experience of excess, those long some deficiency or problem the poem the poem is not a dramatization of catalogues that fill us to overflow- itself – even when the experience is the problem or challenge that leads ing, that bring us into contact with recollected in tranquility – confronts to change – some present-tense the great variety of the 10,000 things. and moves through. The tradition has struggle the poet may or may not From Dickinson we learn, among trained us as readers to expect the win – but is rather a survivor's tale. other things, the experience of spare- poet's breakthrough to happen on the In “After great pain, a formal feel- ness, the world reduced to an hour, page, and our co-discovery to occur ing comes” [Fr372], for instance, a single slant of light, from which simultaneously with the poet's. the speaker is from the very begin- an entire life is conditioned before it ning beyond the violence of the moves forward. Many of the poems of Dickinson I'm painful experience and speaks in- drawn to over and over, however, are stead from inside the “hour of lead,” If Whitman teaches us about the those whose speaker stands on the the new world she has entered: the world by filling us with its rich-

8 | EDIS Bulletin ness, Dickinson teaches us about at a demanding sport. Of all the address this issue, but some also the world by magnifying its small- poems I read for this contest, “The create opportunities to establish her est moments, its barely realized im- Missing Man” seems the one most origins as an artist. Thus the poem pulses or thoughts. While Whitman in possession of this quality, as it about Emily Dickinson and Gerard achieves many of his effects by the manages – somehow – to give us Manley Hopkins meeting on a trans- accretion of material, Dickinson a thorough poetic tour of Plato’s atlantic cruise, and what ensues. achieves many of her effects by her cave and its surrounding area in brief, wild leaping – a kind of elec- only forty-six syllables. Its lovely In that spirit, perhaps, and because trical arcing inside to outside and second sentence, which points to I knew it wouldn't ruin the relation- back again, from one isolated im- both the opening of the cave and ship, I also wrote about a meeting age to another. “The mob within the a human orifice – the source, as between Dickinson and a contempo- heart” [Fr1763], for instance, weds some philosopher once said, of rary singer in “Emily Dickinson and an aggregate public phenomenon to both philosophy and spit – is both Van Morrison Meet at an Artists’ solitary internal experience, and thus light years away from and a per- Café.” One of the things about great travels miles in the briefest of steps. fect partner for its first. writers is that they give and give, Later in the poem, the welling emo- on every new reading, and often tion is wed to a still larger phenom- (http://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/awards/ enough lend themselves to creative enon, a hurricane finding “a conge- annual/winners/2009/award/) collaborations such as these. nial ground” inside the speaker. The amplitude and breadth that can be The judge’s comments are flatter- *** contained in one of her images is ing, and perhaps a paraphrase would stunning. In Whitman we have the have made the point, but I include On page A2 of my local newspaper first who would breathe in the entire the passage to honor Foust's insight every morning, there is a Celebrity North American continent, contain- about Dickinson. What he sees in Tweet of the Day, up to 140 charac- ing multitudes, then breathe it out the poet, that “athleticism,” that ters announcing the doings of some- in his poems. And in Dickinson we ability to “get from here to there so one hungry to stay on our radar. have a contrary method, more of a quickly,” is exactly what continues Next December 10, I wonder what distillation, no less ambitious: “The to amaze me about her work, and would happen if the passage ran, Soul that hath a Guest, / Doth sel- what encourages me in my own ef- “To make a prairie it takes a clo- dom go abroad – ” [Fr592]. forts. There’s no doubt my poem ver and one bee, / One clover, and a owes a debt to her for its belief that bee, / And revery. / The revery alone American poetry is blessed to have such leaps can happen in poetry. will do, / If bees are few” [Fr1779]. them both. Some would cry foul, no doubt. *** Some would welcome such a mes- *** sage at the early deepening of win- At some point with loved ones, one ter. The tweet would have characters As a poet, I want my language to be grows confident enough to tease, to spare. More room for revery. compressed, to be direct but full of knowing the relationship will not implication, and I want the poem it- be jeopardized. And so we sing self to make the kind of swift, con- some of Dickinson’s poems to the POEMS REFERRED TO IN ESSAY fident leaps I find in Dickinson. In “Gilligan's Island” theme or the talking about my poem “The Miss- tune of “Yellow Rose of Texas.” We The Missing Man ing Man” – which won the Poetry still love the poet, and the humanity Society of America's The Writer of her work is not diminished at all Chained in his cave, he knew to speak Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award – by the fun we have with it. In some to each hallucination, to judge Graham Foust wrote: cases, such teasing may even help a every father, flower, bell. student understand a bit more about I’m quite sure that Emily Dick- prosody. Even later, the angel found him inson’s athleticism is the main at his daylight address, asking reason I regularly return to her The poet Madeline DeFrees, who directions to the mouth. work. At poem after poem, I mar- taught in Amherst for a while, has a vel – “How did she do that? How series of “Imaginary Ancestors” po- Appeared in Radioactive City, Bellday did she get from here to there so ems. As an adopted child, she was Books, 2009 quickly?” – as if in the presence of never certain of who her birth par- someone who is particularly gifted ents were, and some of the poems continued on page 13

May/June 2011 | 9 D i c k i n s o n S c h o l a r s

Cindy MacKenzie, Series Editor Inder Nath Kher: An Appreciation by Fred D. White Inder Nath Kher’s The just waiting to be born of the creative Landscape of Absence: Emily Dick- womb of the poet, though they are as inson’s Poetry (Yale University yet hidden even from her own saga- Press, 1974) has had a significant cious view. The poem is to the poet as influence on Dickinson studies. the worm is to the cocoon. . . . poetry, Before I elaborate on that point, let like creation itself, cannot be rational- me say a few things about the man ized; no definite meaning can be de- – with emphasis, alas, on the word duced from it. The voice of the poet few. Despite my efforts to contact in the poem is that of both the creator Dr. Kher, now Professor Emeritus and the creation. In terms of the po- from the University of Calgary em’s symbolism, the poet is both the where he had taught from 1969 to mold and the bulb, the cocoon and the his retirement in 1998, I was not worm. (113) successful in reaching him. It is as if, through his silence, Dr. Kher Clearly, Kher is not only explicating were reminding me – and perhaps this poem, he is also unfolding the all of us Dickinsonians – that the conceptual processes that Dickin- details of his personal life are irrel- son has undergone in producing the evant to his scholarly work.1 I respect In his own statement for the Contem- poem. To paraphrase Emerson, it takes that, just as I respect the “First Law” of porary Authors entry, Dr. Kher notes a creative reader to capture the creative formalist scholarship, of which Land- that he “treat[s] literary criticism as a processes of the writer and Kher has scape of Absence is a stellar example: creative act” and “that a work of criti- demonstrated that power of creativity. that textual explication does not draw cism should be able to recreate the from sources, whether biographical, writer’s consciousness and enact the In another example from Landscape historical or otherwise, outside the imaginative perceptions contained in of Absence, Kher’s commentary on texts under interpretation. the language of the art work.” I find “When Bells stop ringing – Church this quotation illuminating. Kher is not – begins – ” (Fr601) reveals a similar However, it is only human nature to using the word “creative” in the sense creative style: be curious about the person behind of conjuring up imaginative fictions or the scholarship, so I will share the innovative modes of expression, but In Emily Dickinson’s poetic vo- information that is available, mostly in the sense of fleshing out the artist’s cabulary, church is interchange- via a 400-word biographical entry in consciousness as it is gleaned from the able with the human heart. It is the Contemporary Authors, 2004. Born in literary work under scrutiny, a precari- temple where bells ring eternally. 1933 in Gujrat, Punjab, India, Dr. Kher ous undertaking if one wishes to work It is the center and circumference is a Canadian citizen with degrees within formalist parameters. Kher’s of reality. It represents the wheel in from Punjab University (B.A., 1954); approach is most keenly evidenced in which the external cogs do not func- McMaster University (M.A., 1966); his commentary on Dickinson poems tion. It is the tree on which the bird- and the University of Alberta (Ph.D., that express her experience of writ- bard perches to sing. (52) 1969). In the 1970s, he served as As- ing poetry, such as the first stanza of sociate Editor of the Emily Dickinson Fr110, “So from the mould / Scarlet Notice how Kher draws from Dick- Bulletin, the Higginson Journal of Po- and Gold / Many a Bulb will rise – / inson’s own poetic lexicon to capture etry, and the Journal of South Asian Hidden away, cunningly, / From saga- her conscious moment. His use of Literature. In 1978-79, he served as cious eyes ” (Fr110). Kher makes the words like “center,” “circumference,” a Fellow of the Calgary Institute for following points of interpretation: “wheel” and perching birds helps to the Humanities. A Web search also re- recreate her manner of thinking about veals that Dr. Kher has been active in The act of creation has taken place. the essential church. the Hindu Society in Calgary and in The poet has given birth to a poetic 1991, he moderated a multi-faith con- form from the scarlet mold of her be- Kher’s literary criticism is creative ference organized by the Society. ing. Many a bulb or many a poem is in another sense; that is, in the way

10 | EDIS Bulletin he has virtually shifted the paradigm of expression as both a human and a poetic consciousness through what with which we perceive all of Dickin- national impulse. he calls “a fourfold structure of son’s poems as a whole: not as divis- imagination”: (1) poetic perception ible into neat thematic categories of Despite the fact that by 1974 for- as existential reality shaped by an Love, Nature, Death, and Immortal- malism was slipping out of fash- aesthetic consciousness; (2) the na- ity, as her first editors organized her ion, Kher’s book has nevertheless ture of her poetic genesis; (3) her work. Those categories, Kher sees influenced, directly or indirectly, poetic processes; and (4) the trans- as invariably overlapping and there- several Dickinson scholars such formation of her poetic self through fore, it is as “one long poem of mul- as Greg Johnson in Emily Dick- her poems. This theory of poetic tidimensional reality” upon which inson: Perception and the Poet’s consciousness alone has great po- “the perennial themes of life, love, Quest (1985), and E. Miller Budick tential for future Dickinson scholar- despair, ecstasy, death, immortality, in Emily Dickinson and the Life of ship. and self” are played out (2). Dickin- Language (1985). For example, son’s poems, in other words, are not building from Kher’s landscape Fred D.White, author of Approach- “about” a particular subject – not of absence metaphor, Greg John- ing Emily Dickinson: Critical Cur- about, for example, an experience son notes that “Dickinson found it rents and Crosscurrents since 1960 that causes pain, but the experience necessary to remake the universe (Camden House, 2008), which re- of the pain itself, or the psychic dis- through the medium of her own cently appeared in paperback, is ruption that follows a painful experi- seeing” (1); that “her poems are Professor of English at Santa Clara ence, as we see in “After great pain” tentative, delicately exploratory, University, Santa Clara, California. (Fr372). Robert Weisbuch, building the argument of a particular poem A member of EDIS, he has frequent- on Kher’s premise in his own highly to be inferred from the experience it ly presented papers on Dickinson at influential study, Emily Dickinson’s depicts. Understanding of the rela- the American Literature Association Poetry (University of Chicago Press, tionship often produces terror, and Conference. His essays on the poet 1975), referred to this technique as the argument to be inferred is usu- have appeared in College Litera- “analogical,” a crucial designation ally a dark one” (34). Similarly E. ture; The Cambridge Companion to that enabled scholars to pay closer Miller Budick writes that “the uni- Emily Dickinson, and Emily Dick- attention to Dickinson’s exploration verse Dickinson’s poems describe inson: Critical Insights. of cognitive complexity and of the is characterized by gaps and not by life of the mind in the process of liv- bridges, by disruption and not by 1 Editor's Note: Prior to submitting this arti- ing, for example, through pleasure, harmony” (36). cle, I reached Inder Nath Kher by phone from anguish, suffering, and loss. Such an Calgary. Having written his master’s thesis on existential poetics led David Porter Not only is our indebtedness to Walt Whitman, he decided to work on Dickin- to conclude, in his seminal study, Kher’s valuable insights into Dick- son because of “the intricacies of her language Dickinson: The Modern Idiom (Har- inson’s poetry evident, but we can and complex use of imagery” in her poetry. He vard University Press, 1981), that continue to derive insights from his taught both poets to senior undergraduate as Emily Dickinson was “a poet with- foundational work. To cite just one well as graduate classes for many years. Having out a project,” that is to say, without possibility: in his third chapter, “Per- retired in 1998, he continues to enjoy reading a conventional project such as Whit- ception: The Billows of Circumfer- Dickinson and other American writers, and oc- man’s poetic celebration of freedom ence,” Kher examines Dickinson’s casionally attends literary conferences.

Inder Nath Kher on Emily Dickinson “‘An Abyss’s Face’: The Structure of Emily Dickinson’s Poem.” Pluck (University of Alberta), 2 (Fall, 1968): 12-14. Reprinted in Emily Dickinson Bulletin, 9 (June, 1969): 52-55. “Emily Dickinson Scholarship: Some Fugitive References, 1969-1970.” Higginson Journal of Poetry, 8 (June, 1974): 11-12. The Landscape of Absence: Emily Dickinson’s Poetry. New Haven and London: Yale UniversityPress, 1974. “The Poet and Existential Reality.” Higginson Journal of Poetry, 8 (June, 1974): 5-10.

May/June 2011 | 11 “Orra” Bowles & Company Printers, 1863). Also available online through Continued from page 7 Google Books and at http://clio.fivecolleges.edu/amherst/hitchcock/ death-owh/bio-sketch/. Unattributed quotations throughout this article 1900)14 because she served with Emily Dickinson’s are from Tyler. mother on the 1853 Exhibition committee that awarded Field the highest fine arts prize of $2.50, for his 26 oil 3 [William S. Tyler], “A Virtuous Woman,” The Congregationalist, paintings.15 Would he have known her work? June 12, 1863, p. 1, signed W. S. T.; clipping in EOWH (Box 25, Folder 3). Also available online at: http://clio.fivecolleges.edu/amherst/hitch- A serious fall at the American House Hotel in spring cock/death-owh/18630612-obit/. 1855 seems to have marked the end of Orra’s prolific artistic activity, perhaps already slowing because of 4 Orra White Hitchcock [OWH] to Deborah Vinal Fiske, May 9, 1834, failing eyesight. Orra died at age 67, surrounded by her Edward and Orra White Hitchcock Papers [EOWH] (Box 25, Folder family, on May 26th, 1863, after a three-month battle 12). with the dreaded consumption. 5 Edward Hitchcock [EH] to Orra White, May 21, [1815? or 1820?], Upon her death, Orra was deeply mourned by her fam- EOWH (Box 5, Folder 31). ily, her friends and the entire community. Her funeral strained the capacity of the church, which was crowded 6 Emily Dickinson to Mabel Loomis Todd, late September 1882, The with townsfolk. Emily Dickinson captured Orra’s ap- Letters of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson and Theo- peal to all creatures when she wrote to her Norcross dora Ward (Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard Univer- cousins: “Jennie Hitchcock’s mother was buried yester- sity Press, 1958) v. 3, p. 740. In 1882, Mabel Loomis Todd sent Emily day, so there is one orphan more, and her father is very Dickinson a panel of Indian Pipes she had painted. Dickinson thanked sick besides. My father and mother went to the service, her: “That without suspecting it you should send me the preferred flow- and mother said while the minister prayed, a hen with er of life, seems almost supernatural, and the sweet glee that I felt at her chickens came up, and tried to fly into the window. meeting it, I could confide to none.” I suppose the dead lady used to feed them, and they In early1877, Dickinson wrote to Thomas W. Higginson: “When wanted to bid her good-by.”16 Flowers annually died and I was a child, I used to read Dr Hitchcock’s Book on the Flowers of North America. This comforted their Ab- Orra saw the hand of God in the beauty of nature. Ed- sence—assuring me they lived.” (Letters, v. 2, p. 573.) The editors pos- ward paid tribute to it with his seminal scientific reports; tulate (p. 574) that Dickinson meant Edward Hitchcock’s Catalogue of Orra with her delicate and exquisite flowers and fungi, Plants Growing Without Cultivation in the Vicinity of Amherst College her detailed landscapes and her powerful geological (Amherst, Mass.: J.S. and C. Adams, 1829), “published by the junior and zoological illustrations, rendered with equal confi- class in [Amherst College].” It could also have been Catalogues of the dence. She was a gifted observer with a scientific intel- Animals and Plants of Massachusetts: with a Copious Index (Amherst, lect and the ability to visually transcribe key scientific Mass.: J.S. and C. Adams, 1835), a work specifically for children, principles with a decorative flair. Though not a trained which was “[c]opied from the second edition of ‘Report on the geology professional, Orra is an artist in her own realm, and her [etc.] of Massachusetts’ … greatly enlarged and corrected.” work shines. As Tyler said, “She made the most of her- self and hers, of all that God gave her … she was more 7 OWH. Fungi selecti picti, 1821: Watercolors. With an introduction precious than rubies.” by Robert L. Herbert. Northampton [Mass.]: Smith College Libraries, 2011. Orra White Hitchcock was a woman of her time, yet one who transcended her time. Art and science nourished 8 For a vivid and thorough account of the Hitchcocks’ 1847 trip see Orra and she in turn used her passion to inspire others A Woman of Amherst: The Travel Diaries of Orra White Hitchcock, and create a legacy that can be read in her illustrated life. 1847 and 1850, transcribed, edited, and annotated by Robert L. Herbert (Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, Inc., 2008

Footnotes 9 OWH and EH to “Dear Children,” August [18], 1848, EOWH (Box 25, Folder 16). 1 Eugene C. Worman Jr., “The Watercolors and Prints of Orra White Hitchcock,” AB Bookman’s Weekly 83:7 (February 13, 1989), p. 646. 10 OWH to Deborah Vinal Fiske, July 18, 1843. Helen Hunt Jackson Papers, Part 1, Ms 0020, Box 1, Folder 27, Letters to Deborah Water- 2 William S. Tyler, “A Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Orra White Hitch- man Vinal Fiske (HHJ's mother) from various people, 1828–1845 and cock, Given at Her Funeral, May 28, 1863” (Springfield: Samuel not dated. Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College. Tran-

12 | EDIS Bulletin Footnotes, Cont. 22, 1851 (Amherst: Press of J.S & C. Adams, 1851). Listed as life members for1853–1856. No account was published for 1852; Joseph scription: http://www.coloradocollege.edu/library/SpecialCollections/ Haven, “Report on Fine Arts,” Transactions of the Hampshire Co. Ag- Manuscript/HHJ1-1-27.html Accessed September 21, 2009. ricultural Society, During the Year 1853, p. 116; “Grecian Paintings” are imitation oil paintings in which specially prepared prints are fixed 11 Edward Hitchcock, Reminiscences of Amherst College (Northamp- to glass plates by multiple layers of varnish. ton, Mass.: Bridgman and Childs, 1863), p. 294. 14 For exploration of Field’s work see: Mary Black, Erastus Salisbury 12 Chester Dewey, “Caricography” American Journal of Science and Field: 1805–1900, exhibition catalogue (Springfield, Mass.: Museum Arts, vol. 10 (1826), p. 275. OWH provided the first 23 watercolors of Fine Arts, 1984). of sedge grasses (Figs. 1–23 in vols. 9 and 10) for the years 1825–26. 15 Haven, p. 115. 13 OWH and EH, p. 74 under “Life Members. Amherst,” bound with Marshall P. Wilder, “Address Delivered Before the Hampshire Agri- 16 Emily Dickinson to Louise and Frances Norcross, [May 29, 1863], cultural Society, at Its Second Annual Exhibition in Amherst,” October Letters, v. 2, p. 425.

More Room for Revery Continued from page 9

Emily Dickinson and Van Morrison Meet at an Artists’ Café Wild Nights—Wild Nights! – E.D. The wild night is calling. – V.M.

She never had a thing for eating out pull her to her feet, dance mad steps but comes here just the same for coffee throughout the quiet room. and the corner window’s view, two flights up, of ghosts and angels crossing dirty snow. She knows he’s watching her and feels the chair She writes quatrains on the coaster and table float, the oak floor suddenly and has room to spare. black water, the spirits growing their fins. He pulls her like tide, pushes with his eyes The cowboy sits behind her scatting Bach like wind until she turns around, and Lightning Hopkins at the same time. abandoning port, His body rocks, his eyes and fingers roll in opposite directions. Then he sees sashaying toward his arms and slow twirling her writing, bent into small word, moves made of grief and joy – skin and soul and hears the sacred one again in this impossible place among the outer islands, too distant hum of hymns coming his way, electric to care about who stares at them and slow as steam. Faint hairs on her neck or how they'll get home. sing only to him. She looks at the words, looks out at the angel dark. He wants to Appeared in Many Mountains Moving, #12, Boulder, CO, 2002

Richard Robbins was raised in California and Montana. His most recent poetry collections include Radioactive City (Bellday Books, 2009) and Other Americas (Blueroad Press, 2010). He currently directs the creative writing program and Good Thunder Reading Series at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Additional information is available at http://english2.mnsu.edu/robbins/

May/June 2011 | 13 O b it u a r y Benjamin Lease: 1917-2010 By Jane Donahue Eberwein

The community of Dickin- erotic aspects of that correspon- lection of Neal’s writings (Peter son lovers lost a gracious friend dence, however, Lease focused Lang, 1978). In addition to these with the death of Benjamin Lease on the poet’s concern about the ambitious projects, he published on September 6, 2010, at the age of crisis besetting her Master; he articles on Melville, Hawthorne, 93. He was a discerning scholar- took seriously Dickinson’s char- Cooper, Irving, Lanier, and other teacher whose wide interests fo- acterization of Wadsworth as her American authors – often intro- cused in his later decades increas- “Shepherd” and as a model of ducing letters or other documents ingly on Emily Dickinson. Lease’s Christian suffering. A remarkable he had unearthed through archi- wife, Mariam, reports that he had final chapter explores the possi- val research. If Emily Dickinson been working during his last two ble influences on the poet of Hig- seems like a late-life discovery for years on a study of Dickinson and ginson’s advocacy for Christian Lease, that impression is faulty. Edgar Allan Poe, both of whom Spiritualism, a widespread system Emily Dickinson’s Readings of sounded depths of consciousness of belief that found expression in Men and Books begins with re- while exploring the “delusive bor- some of her poems even though membrance of his 1956 visit to derlines between life and death.” Lease concluded that “she could the Homestead and his attempt not accept this new doctrine (or to guess the context for the poem We remember Benjamin Lease any doctrine).” The subtitle of his manuscript beginning “Immured especially for Emily Dickinson’s book, often omitted when the title in Heaven!” that Priscilla Parke Readings of Men and Books: Sa- gets reprinted, identifies Dickin- gave him to read in hopes he cred Soundings, an illuminating son’s troubled spiritual quest as could explain its meaning to her. study of the friendships and liter- Lease’s central theme. That inquiry led to many library ary interests that helped the poet visits, to consultation with major grapple with the question, “Is St. Martin’s Press published this Dickinson scholars, and to a long immortality true?” He explored book in 1990, six years after process of diligent research. her responses to the Bible, Eng- Lease retired from Northeastern lish devotional verse, Christian Illinois University, where he had Lease’s scholarly efforts found hymns, and publications of two taught since 1956. It had been additional stimulus from interac- special friends – particularly preceded by a distinguished body tions with students. His wife re- Charles Wadsworth’s sermons and of scholarly writing that reflect- calls that he especially loved of- Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s ed Lease’s diverse interests in fering seminars for high school nature essays. When studying Anglo-American literary connec- teachers. He used to schedule those friendships, Lease (always tions and in the American authors these classes for Saturdays and a believer in historical perspec- whose works he loved to teach. evenings for their convenience, tive as a key to literary interpre- He had already completed That and he featured a wide range of tation) placed both in the context Wild Fellow John Neal (Chicago, authors including Melville, Tho- of the Civil War and its disruptive 1972), a biographical and criti- reau, Hawthorne, Poe, and Dick- effects on Wadsworth’s ministry cal study of an American fiction inson – often in combination. and Higginson’s literary work. His writer whom Lease was able to Mariam Lease reports that Ben painstaking research into details confirm as an influence on Haw- fell in love with Dickinson in of Wadsworth’s gradual alienation thorne), and Anglo-American Lit- 1955, when the Thomas Johnson from the Arch Street Presbyterian erary Encounters: England and edition of her poems first awak- Church in Philadelphia and move the Rise of the American Literary ened him to her power. to Calvary Church in San Fran- Revolution (Cambridge, 1981). cisco resulted in fresh readings of Having discovered a mutual inter- Benjamin Lease took an active the three “Master” letters that had est in Neal while teaching in Ger- role in Emily Dickinson Interna- only lately been re-dated by R. W. many with Hans-Joachim Lang, tional Society programs. He and Franklin. Rather than stressing Lease co-edited with Lang a col- Mariam attended the Washington

14 | EDIS Bulletin W h a t ' s Y o u r S t o r y ? conference in 1991, and he wrote poet’s. Born in Brooklyn, he grew His wife recalls him still sociable, “Scholar” tributes for this Bul- up on Coney Island and always witty, and fascinated by literature letin on Charles Anderson and recalled with special affection im- to the end. Joseph Lease, a poet, Ralph Franklin. He was one of ages of that resort area in its winter has dedicated his upcoming third the first scholars I approached for emptiness and quiet. For college, book, Testify (Coffee House Press, contributions to An Emily Dickin- he headed to Indiana University, 2011), to his father. son Encyclopedia, writing entries where emerging literary pas- on Higginson and Wadsworth as sions deflected plans for medical well as on spiritualism and Dick- school. Both his M.A. and Ph.D. Jane Donahue Eberwein’s latest book, inson’s colloquial style. degrees were from the University Reading Emily Dickinson’s Letters (co- of Chicago, and he spent his ca- edited with Cindy MacKenzie), is being re- Lease’s personal background dif- reer in Illinois. Until his death, leased in a paperbound edition this spring fered sharply from his favorite he continued to live in Evanston. by the University of Massachusetts Press.

Georgiana Strickland, Series Editor

Meet the New Editor: An Interview with Dan Manheim By Georgiana Strickland tell people that until I was seven or more on what would probably have eight, I thought everybody grew up been a minor in religious studies.” to be an English professor.” Dan contemplated taking a Ph.D. in religious studies at Harvard Divin- That Dan would also end up as a ity School (“because I loved Emer- Dickinson scholar and editor of son”), but an odd twist of fate took the EDIS Bulletin was less cer- him instead to Texas for a year. He tain. As a boy growing up in To- and a college friend were hired as ledo, he was, he says, “an ordinary investigators in the Texas prison kid. I was interested in baseball system, which was under a decree and other sports. My first favorite to reform its outmoded methods. book was The Baseball Life of Wil- Among their duties was interview- lie Mays, which gave me a sense ing prisoners. “We heard a lot of of the shape of a hero’s life.” Dan interesting stories and thought we also studied music – several instru- should write about them sometime, ments, including the sousaphone, but neither of us did,” says Dan. which he played in the school band “My friend ended up as a lawyer From early in his life, it – but he “never got good at any of and I ended up as far from the law seemed fairly certain that Dan them.” as I could get.” Manheim would end up as an Eng- lish professor. “My parents were Even as an English major at Am- Where Dan did end up was winning both English professors – my fa- herst College, living two blocks a Mellon Fellowship in English at ther at the University of Toledo, my from the Homestead, Dan “never Columbia. Why Columbia? “My fa- mother at a small college in south- read a word of Dickinson.” He al- ther and grandfather went to Colum- ern Michigan – and my grandfather ways assumed he would, but during bia. But also I was reading a lot of was an English professor at various his junior and senior years he found Hart Crane and I wanted to see the schools, from City College to the himself drawn to other courses. “I Brooklyn Bridge” – and he did, often University of Hartford. I always kept my English major but I focused crossing it to visit friends in Brook-

May/June 2011 | 15 W h a t ' s Y o u r S t o r y ? lyn. Even at Columbia, Dan studied Massachusetts and his grandfather how the Whitmanian voice of the little Dickinson. “I’d read an article was descended from Daniel Bliss, 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass about her and get interested, and then who married Dickinson’s friend came out of various kinds of writ- I’d turn to the poems and feel as if I’d Abby Wood and founded the Amer- ing that he was experimenting with run into a telephone pole.” ican University of Beirut. “Ward as a journalist and political writer had been brought in to boost Cen- in the ‘40s,” Dan continues. “I After earning his doctorate at Co- tre’s academic standing and ask thought I’d like to do something lumbia with a dissertation on Hen- a little more of the professors. He like that with Dickinson – look ry Adams, Dan taught for a year at didn’t push me to write on Dick- at all of the different discourses Bard College, then in 1991 joined inson, though. He thought I might that were interesting and captivat- the English faculty at Centre Col- work on another kinsman of his, ing and influential for her, and see lege in Danville, Kentucky, where Vachel Lindsey.” what happens when she puts them he has been ever since. “I always all together. It’s potentially much knew I would like to teach in a The idea to write about Dickinson too big a topic for me, but I think small college,” he says. “Centre came the first time he taught a se- I can do pieces of it.” Dan has a was founded in 1819, right around nior seminar devoted to the poet. third article in the works, on Dick- the same time as Amherst College, “Around the year 2000 I designed a inson and gift culture. “All of my and with something of the same mo- course just on Dickinson and did a articles are on these early poems: tives: to furnish the wilderness with presentation for the faculty that ul- the first 350-400 in Franklin.” ministers. Kentucky also wanted timately became an article in ESQ a school for the young squires, in the 2005 issue. It was titled ‘The Dan joined EDIS in 2001. An im- but from the beginning there were Signifying Spinster’ – about what I portant influence on his increas- some Enlightenment visionaries thought Dickinson was doing tak- ing involvement with Dickin- who wanted a college with a strong ing antecedent voices and revising son has been Marianne Noble, a academic strain.” Centre today is a them and remaking them her own. friend from graduate school days highly regarded small private col- My real taking off point was the and now an EDIS Board mem- lege with a reputation for excellent discussion of ‘Dare you see a Soul ber. “When I’ve drifted off over teaching. at the White Heat?’ (Fr401). I real- the years, I’d have a conversation ized she must have Longfellow in with her and that would get me in- So when did Dickinson finally mind, and what was she doing with terested again.” Cris Miller asked come into the picture for Dan? Longfellow? And why that poem? Marianne to guest edit the Spring “Back at Bard I taught a course in 2010 issue of the Journal, a special Dickinson and Whitman. I had just “A few years after that, I had a issue on Dickinson’s reading, and read a very interesting article about sabbatical and wrote an article Marianne invited Dan to serve as them by Sandra Gilbert. I had nev- about Dickinson and revival- co-editor. She and Cris then urged er put those two together before in ism, focusing specifically on the Dan to come to the Oxford confer- my mind, but I thought they would hymns in Asahel Nettleton’s Vil- ence, where he presented a paper make a good seminar. I knew a fair lage Hymns. I thought, ‘She’s on “Dickinson and the Enigma of amount about Whitman but not drawing on the language of con- Gift and Sacrifice.” a lot about Dickinson, so I spent version,’ which was a huge topic the winter getting up on her. I read for her. And I realized that what When asked what he enjoys most Cynthia Griffin Wolff’s biography, I’m interested in is how Dickin- about EDIS and also about his Robert Weisbuch’s Emily Dickin- son became Dickinson, how she plans for the Bulletin, Dan re- son’s Poetry, and Cris Miller’s A forged that voice that became so sponds, “I find EDIS a very ac- Poet’s Grammar, and Dickinson recognizable, and where those el- tive single-author society, and ended up being the more interest- ements came from.” people are really interested in ing part of the course for me. I also and engaged with one another’s taught that course once at Centre.” The early interest in Whitman also work. Several people said to me, Dan’s dean at Centre was John influenced Dan’s interest in Dick- in the context of my having ed- Ward, another Amherst College inson. “Paul Zweig has a critical ited the Journal, ‘I read every is- graduate. Ward was from Hadley, biography of Whitman that shows sue of the Journal and I read the

16 | EDIS Bulletin Bulletin every time it comes out.’ series is just great. Poetry Maga- contemporary composers increas- The Bulletin in particular seems zine has a series called ‘The View ingly have liked. It’s still lyrical to be a very good thing for keep- from Here,’ in which poetry readers in ways you don’t expect it to be.” ing the Society together, but I was who are not poets themselves talk surprised at how small the reader- about their experience with poetry, Dan’s wife, Marie-France, is a ship is. There are plenty of people and I’d like to get some feature in French teacher at Centre and a out there who would be interested the Bulletin like that – different nurse. Their son, Marc, seventeen, in it if they knew about it. One ways in which she’s read.” is now a junior in high school, in- thing that keeps amazing me is terested in engineering, design, how Dickinson finds ways of es- Dan is also interested in the many and drawing – “all the things I tablishing a kind of intimate con- artistic spinoffs of Dickinson. “So was never good at” says his father. tact with readers who don’t know much happens with Dickinson and The family often travels to Europe her. We feel close to her without the arts, so many strange experi- in the summer to visit relatives in knowing the first thing about her. ments, performance art pieces. France and to hike in the Alps. I would love to find ways of in- I’d like to find out why it is that creasing the readership and bring- people find her available for that Given his broad interests and his ing in other kinds of contributors. kind of work. Why she is so par- enthusiasm for Dickinson’s many ticularly stimulating.” He contin- facets, Dan Manheim seems set to “The Bulletin is always going to ues, “I’m especially curious about move the Bulletin forward in ex- belong primarily to the academic all the ballets. She said she can’t citing and unexpected ways. EDIS part of the Society,” notes Dan, dance upon her toes, so why does extends to him a warm welcome. “but occasionally there’s been a someone think that a ballet can story such as one from a lawyer express Dickinson poems? And in Georgiana Strickland is a former editor of the who talked about what Dickinson music, there’s such an odd anti- Bulletin. To submit your story for this column, means to him, and the Poet-to-Poet lyrical lyricism in her poetry that please contact me at [email protected].

New Scandinavian Adaptations of Emily Dickinson By Niels Kjaer During the last three de- son’s poetry. The song cycle was internationally celebrated con- cades there have been several ad- performed for the first time in temporary composers, says this aptations of Emily Dickinson’s March 2009 in Copenhagen, Den- about his Orchestral Songs: life and poetry in the theatre and mark, by the Malmö Symphony the visual arts in Scandinavia. Orchestra conducted by Vassili Emily Dickinson’s short, sub- Some of the Danish adaptations Sinaisky, with tle and precise are mentioned by Jonnie Guerra Anne Sofie von descriptions of in her article about Dickinson ad- Otter as soloist. brief moments aptations, published in The Emily Later the same fascinate me; Dickinson Handbook (1998, pp. month, Orches- the dawn that 385-407). tral Songs was gradually cov- also performed ers the lawn Here I will mention three new in Malmö, Swe- with darkness, Scandinavian Dickinson adap- den and in Man- the carefree tations in music, theater and the chester, U.K. flight of the visual arts. The first is a song bumble bee cycle by Swedish composer Rolf Rolf Martins- in the sum- Martinsson (born 1956), titled Or- son, one of The Copland Quartet performing their theatre version mer breeze, the chestral Songs, based on Dickin- Sweden’s most of "12 Poems by Emily Dickinson" imperceptible

May/June 2011 | 17 change from summer to late In 2009 three Danish classi- decided to use the fragile, hard, summer or an intense meet- cal singers (Sine Algren Moller, and transparent porcelain as her ing symbolized by the sparks mezzo soprano, Marie Keller So- material. of a cloven flint. The fact that rensen, mezzo soprano, and He- the short poems often focus on lene Poulsen, soprano) and one From College Archivist Peter Nel- one specific feeling or mood classical pianist (Sara Cristoffa- son (Amherst College Archives & has inspired me to compose nini) formed The Copland Quar- Special Collections) Karin Sauer Orchestral Songs as a suite of tet and decided to create a per- received copies of some of Dick- short movements, one for each formance of 12 Poems of Emily inson’s manuscripts, whereupon character. The movements are Dickinson as a theatrical concert. she by means of seri­graphy trans- divided into three larger parts: The concert premiered in Aalborg, ferred them to lengths of white, Songs of Love, Songs of Na- Denmark in September 2009. transparent cloth. These large, ture and Songs of Life. In spite of the large number of instru- Jorgen W. Larsen from Aalborg ments I’ve used a transparent Theater produced the performance, instrumentation, focusing on which was framed by electronic details rather than tutti sec- music composed by Ivan Olsen. tions. Vibraphone, celesta and With Ulrik Staerk as their musi- glockenspiel have got promi- cal coach, The Copland Quartet nent roles and I have used a succeeded in expressing Dickin- broad instrumental palette of son’s different moods through the colours in order to reflect all three characters who all performed A section of Karin Sauer's installation, "Fragile Emily" the poetical tints and shades and sang in every song. They per- of the lyrics. The aphoristic formed in black clothes (with red mobile texts divided the gallery poems have clearly set their as a contrasting colour), and except into smaller sections and estab- marks on musical form and in- for a few properties the scenogra- lished room for the exhibits. strumentation. I have tried to phy was very simple and pure. The Karin Sauer then recreated Em- reflect the “music” of the po- achievement was a new, dynamic, ily Dickinson’s manuscripts, one ems, as I perceive it. My aim and convincing interpretation of by one, in white porcelain, not as has been to uncover their inher- Copland’s music and Dickinson’s close copies, but rather as her own ent music rather than forcing on poetry. constructions of the sheets. Sauer them a specific musical style. also made bindings for the fasci- This intuitive approach to cre- The Copland Quartet plans to re- cles, and thus presented her own ating music has characterized vive 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson interpretation of the sensitive and my works for some years now. at the Operafestival in Aalborg in strong poet. Orchestral Songs celebrates the spring of 2011. the lyric and intimate musi- In the future Karin Sauer plans cal expression, and Anne Sofie Finally I will mention an installa- to create more porcelain fascicles von Otter’s wonderful singing tion, “Fragile Emily,” created and and gradually extend her installa- art has inspired me immensely displayed this summer (2010) in tion “Fragile Emily.” during my work. Holbaek, Denmark, by the Danish ceramist artist Karin Sauer as part The second work is a new Danish of her exhibition, Lines for Poems performance of Aaron Copland’s II. Karin Sauer sees Emily Dick- Niels Kjaer serves as a minister in the famous song cycle, 12 Poems of inson as a kindred spirit. In her Danish Lutheran Church. He is also a Emily Dickinson. Copland’s work, ceramics Sauer tries to create a poet. Since 1976 he has published eight composed for voice and piano in dialogue between the raw materi- collections of his own poetry plus Danish 1950, includes twelve Dickinson al and the delicate expression, and translations of selections of Emily Dickin- poems which in some respects she feels that Dickinson’s poetry son’s and Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poems. are very different. Nevertheless, in a similar way is sensitive and He has been a member of EDIS since the thanks to Dickinson’s outstanding discreet, but also dark and brutal. start in 1988, and has contributed articles language and Copland’s brilliant Most often Sauer works with raku and reviews to Dickinson Studies in the music, the poems form a synthesis. clay, but for “Fragile Emily” she 1980s and later to the EDIS Bulletin.

18 | EDIS Bulletin N e w P u b l i c ati o n s

By Barbara Kelly, Book Review Editor Agodon, Kelli Russell. linguistic notes and references to Letters from the Emily Dickinson companion poems) in a clear, intel- Room. Buffalo, NY: White Pine ligent, conversational, and persua- Press, 2010. 99 pp. Paper, ISBN sive voice, accessible to anyone in- 1-935210-15-3, $16.00. terested in this singular approach to Dickinson. Johnson numbers, a bib- Agodon's title poem “Letters from liography, and indexes are included. the Emily Dickinson Room” refers Readers can find reviews of Allen’s to the Sylvia Beach Hotel, an Oregon earlier works (Solitary Prowess and coastal inn, where various authors Accidental Buddhist) in the fall 2005 inspire the name and decor of each and spring 2008 EDIS Bulletins. room. She organizes her 48 medi- tative and playful poems into three sections: “Until You Have A Let- Bayley, Sally. ter,” “How Shall I Pull Through?” Home on the Horizon: America’s and “The Fog Is Rising,” the latter Search for Space, from Emily Dick- quoted from Dickinson. In “The inson to Bob Dylan. Oxford, Eng- Vanishing Poems of Emily Dickin- land: Peter Lang, 2010. xii + 226 pp. son” Agodon imagines Dickinson Cloth, ISBN 1-906165-15-4, $51.95. drunk on dew, falling into a rabbit hole, singing “I'm nobody. Who are Bayley’s exploration of public and you?” Other poems echo Dickin- private spaces from the nineteenth- son in lines and phrases like “Deep century to the present encompasses down hope perches in my ribcage,” outdoor and indoor spaces and the “I'm not ready to be called back,” ways that they are portrayed in a and “Years ago / or yesterday.” broad sampling of poetry, novels, Agodon says, “I celebrate small short stories, journals, plays, art, and things / apples, beetles, faith.” Her films. Thematically and chronologi- “cluttered cosmos” contains “stale cally arranged, this well researched crumb cake / and bitter tea,” bacon and accessible book contains pas- grease popping in a skillet – “a cel- sages on how architecture nourish- ebration of heat,” and “the white es the imagination; the meaning of picket fence / I like to call my rib- home (its thresholds, hearths, doors, cage.” She meditates on poetry, windows, bathrooms, basements, love, loss, doubt, depression, and porches, lawns, and backyards), ho- death. A master of clever anagrams tels, motels, modern suburban and (italicized), she says, “depression retirement communities; and the belongs / to someone else. I mix up significance of American frontiers / the letters and say, / I’m just tak- and horizons. Beginning and end- ing care of Red’s ponies, / instead ing with Emily Dickinson, referenc- of having to say / I’m falling apart”; ing her life and work throughout the “depression / – I read it inside out: book, and occasionally juxtaposing persons die / a ripened SOS”; and her with unexpected others, Bayley “when I write about death and po- draws from the works of Bradstreet, etry, / it's donated therapy / where Thoreau, Hawthorne, Frederick Law I converse with / Emily Dickinson, Olmstead, Twain, James, Wharton, my inky misled icon.” Agodon’s po- Cather, Frank Lloyd Wright, Ed-

The Bulletin welcomes notices of all Dickinson-related books, including those published outside the U.S. Send information to Barbara Kelly, 444 Washington Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94301, U.S.A. Email: [email protected]

May/June 2011 | 19 N e w P u b l i c ati o n s ward Hopper, Zora Neale Hurston, zenship and the national cuisine. In “Sic transit gloria mundi” (Fr2; Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, “‘This Foreshadowed Food’: Rep- J3) provides the title phrase “Hill Vladimer Nobokov, W. H. Auden, resentations of Food and Hunger in of Science,” a well-known phrase Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Emily Dickinson's American Goth- used earlier by Abigail May Alcott Carson McCullers, Andrew Wy- ic” (205-20), Elizabeth Andrews de- and Anna Laetitia Barbauld, pos- eth, J. D. Salinger, Ray Bradbury, fines American Gothic as “a writing sibly derived from John Bunyan’s William Gass, Sylvia Plath, John of excess where cultural limits and “hill of difficulty” in The Pilgrim’s Updike, Cormac McCarthy, Bob boundaries are transgressed.” She Progress. Discussing or referenc- Dylan, Marilyn Robinson, Joni says, “Dickinson's poetics of food – ing more than 250 Dickinson po- Mitchell, Annie Dillard, and Jona- her descriptions of wild ingredients ems, Peel organizes his book into than Franzen among others. Yale or abstinence – only emphasizes her eight chapters: “Poetry, Paleontol- professor, Langdon Hammer, says, transgressive and Gothic relation- ogy, and Geology”; “Climbing the “this richly suggestive lyric medita- ship to food.” Discussing J 439, 510, Hill of Science”; “Women, Books, tion on American space” is “not only 546, 579, 773, 1036, 1292, 1377, Schooling, and Science”; “Emily about architecture and landscape, and 1430, she suggests that Dick- Dickinson and Geography”; “See- but about daydream and desire.” inson “engages with the cultural ing Differently: Astronomy, Optics, Produced with high quality paper, limits and boundaries of appetite be- and the Slanted Lens”; “Dickinson the book includes 19 color plates il- cause, rather than satisfaction, what and Darwin”; “Psychology and lustrating art, architecture, and film. Dickinson's poetic persona craves is Pseudoscience”; and “Disruptive Included are Johnson poem and let- hunger itself.” Contributor informa- Science and Disruptive Poetry.” He ter numbers, notes, a bibliography, tion, works cited, and an index are concludes, “The sciences saturated and an index. included. Emily Dickinson's world, and her writing absorbs and uses them to astonishing effect.” As Dickinson Elbert, Monica, and Marie Drews, Peel, Robin. says, “Not ‘Revelation’ – ‘tis – that eds. and introd. Emily Dickinson and the Hill of waits / But our unfinished eyes” Culinary Aesthetics and Practices Science. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh (Fr500). Included are notes, works in Nineteenth-Century Ameri- Dickinson UP, 2010. 435 pp. Cloth, cited, and an index. can Literature. New York: Pal- ISBN 0-8386-4221-4, $92.50. grave Macmillan, 2009. viii + 267 pp. Cloth, ISBN 0-230-61628-8, In this well written substantive VanZanten, Susan. $80.00. study, Peel argues, “Dickinson sed- Mending a Tattered Faith: Devo- ulously appropriated methodology tions with Dickinson. Eugene, OR: Fourteen contributors explore cu- and imagery from a range of scien- Wipf and Stock Publishers: Cascade linary aesthetics and practices pre- tific disciplines as part of a lifelong Books, 2011. xxxi + 85 pp. Paper, sented in nineteenth-century Ameri- epistemological campaign. . . .” ISBN 1-60899-510-3, $15.00. can novels, short stories, poetry, Science, whether from textbooks or advice manuals, letters, and journal the popular press, offered the poet Part of a series entitled Art for writings, investigating how these ideas, metaphors, and a model of Faith’s Sake, this handsome collec- culinary aesthetics and practices fit study (incorporating observation, tion of 29 Dickinson poems, each into a developing national identity. logic, reason, analysis, and ex- accompanied by a meditative re- In an era of excess and abundance, perimentation) that she “absorbed, sponse, is intended not only to help cautionary voices urged frugality, assimilated, and adapted” to her readers enjoy the poems but also to moderation, vegetarianism, even “ceaseless questioning process so encourage reflection on spiritual is- fasting. Authors and topics dis- important and fundamental to her sues and facilitate “spiritual mend- cussed include Louisa May Alcott, work.” Peel says, the fascicles are ing.” The book's title is adapted Catherine Beecher, Kate Chopin, “condensed, concentrated note- from Dickinson’s “To mend each Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Haw- books of observation structured tattered Faith.” In her preface, Van- thorne, William Dean Howells, like a series of developing axi- Zanten discusses Dickinson’s writ- Henry James, Herman Melville, oms” where the poet combines “the ing techniques, her biography, the Catherine Owens, Gilded Age res- prosody of hymns with the strate- nature of her “intense, but often taurants, food in nineteenth-century gies she had encountered in her troubled, relationship with God” in periodicals for children, and citi- science text books.” Dickinson's the context of nineteenth-century

20 | EDIS Bulletin New Publications religious thought, and the publica- and the economy. In “Emily Dickin- Critical Essays. University of Mas- tion history of her poems. Writing son and American Identity” (15-30), sachusetts Press, $26.95. from a Christian point of view, Van- Wolosky says, “Dickinson’s work re- Zanten is an intelligent and engag- flects and enacts the cultural concerns Gordon, Lyndall. ing guide, often explaining a poem's and challenges of the world in which Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily literary devices and its historical, she lived.” Her “texts are scenes of Dickinson and Her Family’s Feuds. biographical, and biblical influenc- cultural crossroad, situated within Penguin, $18.00. es. She encourages readers “to sit and acting as an arena for the many with a Dickinson poem for a while profound transitions taking place Loving, Jerome. in silence, reflecting on the images around her.” She defines Dickinson’s Emily Dickinson: The Poet on the and issues it raises, the memories central engagements as gender iden- Second Story. Cambridge University or experiences it prompts, and the tity; religious concerns; her identity Press, $31.99. glimpses of truth that it unveils.” as a poet; and “an American identity Each meditation begins with a consisting of economic, political, and White, Fred. D. question the poem elicits; for ex- cultural references and images.” Dis- Approaching Emily Dickinson: ample, “Have you ever prayed and cussing Dickinson poems on gender, Critical Currents and Crosscur- not received an answer? How did love, self, and the Civil War, Wo- rents since 1960. Camden House, you feel?”; “Have you ever lost losky says, “Dickinson's peculiar ge- $24.95 your faith? Did you find it again?”; nius” is “to assemble but then open “What do you think a ‘Scientist of fissures and inconsistencies between Faith’ is? Are you one? Was Dick- elements, rather than reveal sudden Journal Articles inson?”; “How do you think about or harmonious links between them.” God now as opposed to how you She writes “a poetry of disputa- Articles published in the Emily Dick- thought about God when you were tion.” Concluding her book, Wolosky inson Journal are available online at young?” VanZanten advises reflect- states, “Whitman's thus remains the Project Muse. ing upon only one poem at each sit- grandest and most daring attempt to ting. Franklin and Johnson numbers at once negotiate and encompass, yet Cody, David. are included. respect and retain the possibilities of “‘When one’s soul’s at a white diverse commitments and identities heat’: Dickinson and the ‘Azarian within a liberal and pluralist Ameri- School.’” Emily Dickinson Journal Wolosky, Shira. ca.” Johnson and Franklin numbers, 19.1 (2010): 30-59. Poetry and Public Discourse in notes, sources, and an index are pro- Nineteenth-Century America. New vided. Kirkby, Joan. York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. “‘[W]e thought Darwin had thrown xii + 254 pp. Cloth, ISBN 0-230- “the Redeemer" away’: Darwiniz- 10431-0, $80.00. Book Notes ing with Emily Dickinson.” Em- ily Dickinson Journal 19.1 (2010): Wolosky explores nineteenth-centu- Now available in paperback editions: 1-29. ry American poetry’s interplay with both traditional values and the chal- Adams, Maureen B. Kohler, Michelle. lenging, often radical changes occur- Shaggy Muses: The Dogs Who In- “Dickinson and the Poetics of Revolu- ring within religion, culture, and the spired Virginia Woolf, Emily Dick- tion.” Emily Dickinson Journal 19.2 American economy during a dynam- inson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, (2010): 20-46. ic century. She focuses on Emerson, Edith Wharton, and Emily Brontë. Poe, Longfellow, Whitman, Mel- University of Chicago Press, Kreider, Kristen. ville, Dickinson, Lazarus, Santayana, $16.00. “‘Scrap,’ ‘Flap,’ ‘Strip,’ ‘Stain,’ Crane, and Dunbar among others, ‘Cut’: The Material Poetics of Em- discussing also the American Revo- Charyn, Jerome. ily Dickinson's Later Manuscript lution, the Bible, Puritanism, hymns, The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson. Pages.” Emily Dickinson Journal gender identity, rhetoric, modesty, W. W. Norton, $14.95. 19.2 (2010): 67-103. sentimentalism, slavery, the Civil War, education, individualism, plu- Eberwein, Jane, ed. Petrino, Elizabeth. ralism, Liberalism, Republicanism, Reading Emily Dickinson’s Letters: “Allusion, Echo, and Literary Influence

May/June 2011 | 21 New Publications in Emily Dickinson.” Emily Dickinson den that Dickinson “learned from considered in the final chapters, how- Journal 19.1 (2010): 80-102. the Father of English hymnody how ever, are not demonstrably “hymn- she would never write” (120). ic,” including “Fame is a bee – ” and Shackelford, Aaron. “These are the days when Birds come “Dickinson's Animals and Anthro- “There is much in Watts that Dickin- back – ,” and they resist connection pomorphism.” Emily Dickinson son could have taken seriously” (94), to the contexts Morgan has so care- Journal 19.2 (2010): 47-66. Morgan insists, including a number fully provided. of hymns that express “the speak- Thomas, Shannon L. er’s frustration at not being able to Had Morgan devoted more atten- “‘What News must think when view God completely” or convey tion to the work of other Dickin- pondering’: Emily Dickinson, the “the general feeling of resentment son scholars, she might have made Springfield Daily Republican, and by Puritan Dissenters toward the a more convincing argument. Her the Poetics of Mass Communica- Anglican Church and rituals that in- research clearly included extensive tion.” Emily Dickinson Journal 19.1 tervene between God and man and use of both An Emily Dickinson En- (2010): 60-79. interrupt direct communication” cyclopedia, edited by Jane Donahue (95). Morgan also posits a connec- Eberwein, and The Emily Dickinson Shoptaw, John. tion between Dickinson’s lyrics Handbook, edited by Gudrun Grab- “Dickinson's Civil War Poetics: and the hymns of Phoebe Hinsdale her, Roland Hagenbüchle and Cris- From the Enrollment Act to the Lin- Brown and Eliza Lee Follen, “two tanne Miller. These excellent refer- coln Assassination.” Emily Dickin- women who represent the antebel- ence texts ought to have led Morgan son Journal 19.2 (2010): 1-19. lum era of Dickinson’s childhood, to works that might have helped her and whose publications were widely frame her study more clearly. Yet known during Dickinson’s lifetime” Eberwein’s Strategies of Limitation Book Reviews (120). These hymnists, Morgan ar- is never mentioned, even though Eb- gues, “present an alternative to the erwein is quoted several times in the Morgan, Victoria. dominant discourses that obfuscate book – in one case wrongly, when Emily Dickinson and Hymn Cul- female subjectivity and position a she is given credit for part of an en- ture: Tradition and Experience. woman’s relation to the divine in an try in the Encyclopedia that she cer- Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010. x + inextricably hierarchical way” and tainly edited, but did not write (192). 236 pp. Cloth, ISBN 978-0-7546- thus “provide context for the mys- Elizabeth A. Petrino also shows up 6942-5, $99.95. tical and the heterologous, non-lin- several times, mostly in citations ear and anti-hierarchical writing on from short articles. Her book, Emily Reviewed by Emily Seelbinder spirituality evident in Dickinson’s Dickinson and Her Contemporaries: exaggeratedly hymnic poems from Women’s Verse in America, 1820- That Emily Dickinson’s work was the Civil War era” (121). 1885, which might have provided in some way informed by her rela- a model for considering the hymns tion to hymn culture has been an ax- Morgan’s approach combines hymn of Brown and Follen, is mentioned iom of Dickinson studies since the theory, new historicism, dialogic only once in a note (119) and does 1930s. Just how her work was so in- analysis, feminist criticism, theol- not appear in the bibliography. formed and to what extent, however, ogy, and aspects of feminist spiritu- has been a matter of considerable ality. It is a heady mix that results at It is especially unfortunate that disagreement. Much of the debate times in unnecessarily dense prose Morgan did not come across Judy to date has focused on the influence, (such as the example above) and an Jo Small’s Positive as Sound: Em- if any, of the work of Isaac Watts, unbalanced argument. One hundred ily Dickinson’s Rhyme and Beth whose hymns the Dickinson fam- fifty pages of the 218-page discus- Maclay Doriani’s Emily Dickinson, ily certainly knew (three collections sion are devoted to providing context Daughter of Prophecy. These might of Watts’ hymns reside in the fam- for what the author promises will be have provided a broader understand- ily library) and to whom Dickinson a “detailed analysis of a selection of ing of Dickinson’s use of meter and herself refers on several occasions. Dickinson’s hymnic poems, focusing sound (essential in a consideration Victoria Morgan joins the discussion on her use of bee imagery, the im- of hymns) and methods for apply- with a strong refutation of Martha age which most closely aligns itself ing feminist criticism and histori- Winburn England’s declaration in with hymn culture in Dickinson’s cal context in considering the poet’s the final chapter of Hymns Unbid- poetics” (vi-vii). Many of the poems spirituality. Finally, by relying on R.

22 | EDIS Bulletin New Publications

W. Franklin’s Reading Edition, be- into being and play on the page. Em- find some assumptions distracting cause “Franklin used the final fair ily Dickinson knew this, too. to the important scholarly informa- copy of Dickinson’s manuscript and tion the volume offers. For example, also retains all original spelling and Aífe Murray’s long-awaited book Murray describes the physical state punctuation” (13n), and apparently addresses an important aspect of of Dickinson’s room when maid-of- not consulting either of the vari- Emily Dickinson’s home life and all-work, Margaret Maher, cleaned it orum editions of the poems, Morgan place of work. It asserts that the each morning – books, papers, pens misses numerous opportunities to domestic workers taking care of strewn about in disarray. Unless that explore more deeply how Dickinson the Homestead, the Evergreens, and is documented by an eyewitness ac- redefined and inhabited “hymnic the Dickinson property not only count, while not too far-fetched to space.” contributed to the poet’s ability to imagine, it ought not be accepted as write as much and as comfortably fact. Did Maher actually clean the Emily Seelbinder is professor of English as she did, but they also affected room every day, and if so, was it in and chair of the Department of English, her worldview, the content of her the morning? Might Dickinson have Drama, and Creative Writing at Queens poems, and the language she used hidden away her writing materials University of Charlotte. Among the courses in those poems. Murray also ar- when she finished using them, or she teaches is one entitled, "Dickinson and gues that Irish domestic workers might she have had them organized her Descendants," which includes a study influenced her funeral more than by in a distinct way all her own that did of Dickinson song settings. serving as pall bearers of her coffin not require tidying? Might she have – as many know – but also that the had an agreement with Maher that service itself in its details actually the maid was not to touch her writing Murray, Aífe. bore much in common in its details supplies at all? Maid as Muse: How Servants with an Irish wake. Changed Emily Dickinson’s Life This is a small matter, however, and Language. Hanover and Lon- Seven chapters in the volume are compared to the amount of schol- don: University Press of New Eng- bookended by an introduction and arship the book contains. Years of land, 2010. 236 pp. Cloth, ISBN afterword titled “Walking Back- careful research have gone into un- 978-158465-674-6. $35.00. ward to Something You Know Is covering more about not only Irish There” and “The Broadest Words workers such as Margaret Maher Reviewed by Connie Kirk Are So Narrow,” respectively. Chap- and Thomas Kelley but also Afri- ters include, “Warm and Wild and can Americans, Native Americans, Most writers work at home. The se- Mighty”; “The 1850 Housework and others employed in and around cret to working at home is the knowl- Compromise”; “Turning with Fe- the Homestead and living and work- edge that it is not only a comfortable rocity to a Place She Loved”; “Of ing in Amherst. Family trees, jour- place to work, but it is also not as Pictures, the Discloser – ”; “Emily nals, and public documents bring solitary or lonely a place as many Dickinson’s Irish Wake”; “She Kept those people previously unwritten people think. There is a rhythm, a Them in my Trunk”; and “There are about, or barely written about, alive pulse, and a swing to each home and Things / We Live Among ‘and to see in these pages. This is an impor- its occupants. The comings and go- them / Is to know ourselves.’” Back tant book, not just for Dickinson ings of people; the building’s own matter includes acknowledgments; studies but also for understanding sounds, sights, and smells; the ac- two appendices – “Emily Dickin- nineteenth-century American life tion in the neighborhood; even the son Loaf Giver” by Josephine Pollitt and culture as well as the dynamic birds in nearby trees run in familiar Pohl and “Family Charts”; a chro- and multifaceted stories of a nation’s and comforting cycles day to night, nology; notes; bibliography; illus- immigrants and native peoples. The season to season. Writers who spend tration credits; and index. book is also valuable in the way it hours working quietly in the domes- examines some of the less obvious tic sphere know this intimate world Murray is a poet and a scholar, and or tangible factors that shape a writ- and depend on it to serve them and sometimes scholarly assertions in this er’s creative process. their work well. Writers know they book are flavored with the imagina- are not so much alone as they are tion of a poet. Some readers may en- Connie Ann Kirk is the author of Em- buoyed by the warmth and familiari- joy this about the book since it makes ily Dickinson: A Biography (Greenwood, ty of home that help the words come it an enjoyable read, but others may 2004).

May/June 2011 | 23 M e m b e r s ' N e w s EDIS Annual Meeting GREAT DEBATES The Annual Meeting offers EDIS the Dickinson Museum gather for July 29-31, 2011 members, Friends of the Dickin- conversation and community. son Museum and Dickinson read- Great Debates is the theme for ers from around the world three SATURDAY: the Emily Dickinson Interna- days in the poet’s home town to tional Society Annual Meeting to immerse themselves in conversa- • “Master Classes”: Provocative be held July 28-31, 2011 on the tion about the poet. In addition and celebrated teachers of Dick- campus of Amherst College. The to the four panel discussions, the inson’s work take Annual Meet- meeting will feature panel discus- Annual Meeting features the fol- ing participants back to class for sions on some of the most intrigu- lowing highlights: engaging discussions of selected ing questions about Dickinson’s Dickinson poems. life and work. The Emily Dick- FRIDAY: inson Museum is teaming up with • EDIS Members Meeting: The EDIS to organize and co-sponsor • View From the Statehouse: EDIS Board announces details of the Annual Meeting. Massachusetts State Senator Stan- the Society’s upcoming gather- ley Rosenberg calls the meeting to ings in Cleveland and Washing- Four panels of Dickinson schol- order and reflects on debate and ton, D.C. and solicits ideas from ars, readers and critics will debate politics in Emily Dickinson’s Am- the membership. “What Makes a herst. Rosen- Dickinson Poem berg holds the • Film & Talk-back: Screenwrit- Dickinsonian,” legislative seat er Susan Snively presents and dis- “What Do Dick- once occupied cusses the new documentary See- inson’s Dashes by the poet’s ing New Englandly – a film about Signify,” “Who father, Edward Dickinson’s unique New England is ‘The Master’ Dickinson. perspective. in Dickinson’s letters or is that • Emily Dick- SUNDAY: the Best Ques- inson and tion?” and “Why Controversy: • Research Circle: EDIS mem- Didn’t Dickinson EDIS Vice- bers gather in an informal ex- Publish?” The President Jed change of works-in-progress and debates promise Deppman future Dickinson projects. EDIS members (Oberlin Col- and Dickinson lege) opens the • What Did We Learn?: Daniel enthusiasts a meeting with Manheim, editor of the EDIS Bul- lively exchange his talk, “Her letin, talks with a panel of EDIS on timeless ques- Character a members about what new ideas tions. Tonic, Her Fu- emerged from the Annual Meet- ture a Dispute: ing. Holland Cotter, Emily Dickin- winner of the New York Times Art Critic, Holland Cotter, will son and Con- All Weekend: 2009 Pulitzer Prize present the keynote address. troversy.” for criticism and art • Tours of the Emily Dickinson critic for The New York Times, will • Affinity Sessions: K-12 teach- Museum present the meeting’s keynote ad- ers, graduate students, young dress on Friday evening. A long- scholars, artists & musicians, and • Displays at the Jones Library time reader of the poet’s work, EDIS members interested in start- Cotter recently wrote that Emily ing local chapters share ideas in • Exhibits at Amherst College Ar- Dickinson is enjoying “a star turn special interest sessions chives and Special Collections in culture.” Cotter’s address will be entitled, “Taking Emily Dick- • Cocktail Party & Banquet: • Bookstore special events and au- inson Personally.” EDIS members and Friends of thor signings

24 | EDIS Bulletin M e m b e r s ' N e w s

Registration: Registration for the person, on a first come-first served est airport. Amtrak has stops in Annual Meeting is $110 for current basis. Linens provided. Not air-con- Amherst and Springfield, Massa- EDIS members and Friends of the ditioned. E-mail info@emilydickin- chusetts. Buses from any direction Emily Dickinson Museum, $150 for sonmuseum.org for reservations. that stop in Springfield provide non-members, and $60 for students connections to Amherst. Shuttle (proof current of college or univer- For a list of other area accommoda- service to Amherst from the air- sity status is required). Deadline for tions, including bed and breakfasts, port, train and bus station is avail- registration is July 15, 2011. consult the Amherst Chamber of able through Valley Transporter at Commerce website at http://www. (800) 872-8752. Meals: The conference fee covers amherstarea.com/index.cfm or call morning coffee, afternoon refresh- the chamber at (413) 253-0700. Information & Updates ments, one box lunch and a cocktail reception. The Friday evening ban- Upon Arrival at the Annual Meet- For updates on the EDIS 2011 An- quet is an additional $30 per person. ing nual Meeting including the meet- ing schedule, speakers and special Lodging: Participants may choose EDIS Annual Meeting participants events and changes to the program, from among three hotels located may pick up registration materi- please include your email on the two-miles from Amherst College: als at the Amherst College Alumni registration form. the Marriott Hotel [(413) 256- House 99 Churchill Street, Am- 5454]; Holiday Inn Express [(413) herst, Massachusetts. Early Bird For questions about the conference, 582-0002]; and Howard Johnson registration will begin Thursday, contact EDIS President Martha [(413) 586-0114]. A shuttle bus will July 28 from 4-6 p.m. Registra- Ackmann, conference co-director transport participants to and from tion will re-open Friday, July 29 at at (413) 538-2564 or mackmann@ the meeting. Rates are $109-$124 8:00 a.m. The meeting will begin mtholyoke.edu per night for the Howard Johnson, at 9:30. Free parking is available at $119-$154 for the Marriott Court- the Alumni House parking lot. Join EDIS yard and $170 for the Holiday Inn. A block of rooms at the Howard Directions and Transportation to For information about joining the Johnson and Marriott Courtyard will Amherst Emily Dickinson International Soci- be held until June 28, 2011. Please ety, contact the Johns Hopkins Uni- note, rooms at the Holiday Inn are Directions to Amherst College are versity Press at (800) 548-1784 or available on a first come-first served available at https://www.amherst. check out the EDIS website at http:// basis. A limited number of single edu/aboutamherst/visiting. www.emilydickinsoninternational- and double rooms are available in society.org Garman House, an Amherst College Bradley International (BDL) in dormitory, for a daily rate of $30 per Hartford, Connecticut is the near- Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

A registration form for the Annual Meeting, as well as a membership form for the Emily Dickinson International Society, can be found on page 29 of the Bulletin.

More information about membership in the Emily Dickinson International Society, including an on-line membership form, can be found on the Johns Hopkins University Press website, at https://associations.press.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/edis/edis_membership.cgi

May/June 2011 | 25 M e m b e r s ’ N e w s

Meet the New Members of the EDIS Board The Nominations Committee is pleased to announce that Barbara Mossberg was elected as Member- at-Large for the term 2010-2013. Mossberg joins three other new members chosen by the Board of Directors in elections conducted last fall: Antoine Cazé, Alexandra Socarides, and Hiroko Uno.

BARBARA MOSSBERG: A longtime Dickinson scholar and founding member of the EDIS board, Mossberg is pleased to rejoin the board in the role of Member-at-Large. She is well- known to the international Dickinson community as the author of Emily Dickinson: When a Writer is a Daughter (1982) and a Senior Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer. Currently, Mossberg is Director and Professor of Integrated Studies at California State University, Monterey Bay as well as Poet in Residence for the city of Pacific Grove, CA, and the host of a commercial radio program promoting poetry in civic culture (www.krxa540.com). Mossberg has brought Dickinson to the public through lectures, dramatic readings, and produc- tions of her own scholarly plays on Dickinson and has done so around the world. She is at work on a new book on the power of “nobody” to change the world in civil and human rights, war and peace, and the environment. Mossberg looks forward to represent- ing the diverse community of EDIS members and to using the momentum of the public arts movement not only to increase EDIS membership, but also to promote appreciation of Dickinson’s literary achievement and relevance to major contemporary issues.

ANTOINE CAZÉ: An American poetry specialist, Cazé is Professor of American Literature in the Department of Eng- lish and American Studies at the Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7, after fifteen years of teaching at the Université d’Orléans. In addition to his Ph.D. dissertation on Dickinson – entitled Passages of the Divine in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry – Cazé has published eight articles on her poetry in various journals. In 1996, he edited a monographic volume on Dickinson for the annual magazine Profils Américains: the first collection of critical articles on Dickinson published in France. Currently, he is editing a second volume of articles in French, Tombeau pour Emily Dickinson. To promote the study of Dickinson in France, Cazé also has set up a French chapter of EDIS, which he hopes will encourage Ph.D. candidates and younger scholars to write on Dickinson and her poetry.

26 | EDIS Bulletin M e m b e r s ’ N e w s

New Board Members, cont.

ALEXANDRA SOCARIDES: Socarides is As- sistant Professor of English at the University of Missouri. Her book manuscript, entitled Dickinson Un- bound: Poetic Practice and Material Culture and currently under review, follows Dickinson through the five main stages of her career, immersing its reader in the details of the poet’s specific com- positional practices and the literal material con- text of each practice: copying poems onto folded sheets of stationery; inserting and embedding po- ems into correspondence; sewing sheets together to make fascicles; scattering loose sheets; and copying lines on often torn and discarded pieces of household paper. Socarides has been EDIS’s liaison to the MLA for the last two years. As a member of the board, she hopes to represent the critical interests of new and emerging Dickinson scholars and to contribute to the Society’s work to forge connections between literary and other scholars and between academic and nonacademic readers of and writers on the poet.

HIROKO UNO: The author of Emily Dickinson Visits Bos- ton (1990) and Emily Dickinson’s Marble Disc: A Poetics of Renunciation and Science (2002) as well as many articles, Uno is Professor of American Literature at Kobe College in Japan. Her translating work includes Thomas H. Johnson’s Emily Dickinson: An Interpretive Biography (with Toshikazu Nii- kura), Emily Dickinson: Profile of the Poet and Cook (with Masako Takeda), and Jane D. Eberwein’s edited volume, An Emily Dickinson Encyclopedia. Uno has been active in both EDIS and the Emily Dickinson Society of Japan for 25 years. She completed a five-year term as President of Japan’s Dickinson Society in March. EDIS members will especially remember Uno’s excellent organiza- tion of the Society’s Sixth International Conference, “Emily Dickinson in Japan: Like Fabrics of the East,” held in Kyoto in 2007. Since the fall of 2007 she has served on the EDIS Membership Committee. As an EDIS board member, Uno will continue to work to encourage other Asian scholars to join the Society.

May/June 2011 | 27 M e m b e r s ’ N e w s

Nancy L. Pridgen, Series Editor Chapter News

Interest in beginning local Emily I am most encouraged by the shaped her thought processes. Dickinson International Society fact that there are consistent We will consider what part chapter groups continues to grow. strong numbers in attendance: her knowledge of philosophy I have been in touch with EDIS between seven and twelve. played in her writing. Finally, members in France, China, and Since we meet bi-monthly to we will look at how her vast New Delhi who have expressed accommodate daytime and reading – from periodicals to an interest in starting local chap- evening schedules, I consider Shakespeare – influenced her ter groups. Fans of Dickinson’s this a positive turnout. I am poems. poetry literally cover the globe, grateful to Martha Nell Smith and they are hungry for a venue for including Poetry Conver- Saturday afternoon will be in which to pursue their interest in sations in the EDIS Facebook devoted to a series of activi- this intriguing poet. events listings. ties, which I call “Do Your Own Emily.” Participants can I have received reports from Also, we are honored that choose to write poems, illus- two highly active EDIS chapter EDIS President Martha Ack- trate poems – either Dickin- groups. Ellen Beinhorn reports mann has requested EDIS in son’s or their own – decorate from Beaufort County, South Car- Amherst play a significant and collect autographs of other olina, part in the hospitality activi- participants on tee shirts, paint ties for the Annual Meeting a rock to put in the center of the The Beaufort County Chapter in the poet's hometown, July U Bar U labyrinth, or browse is thriving. At the February 29-31. As a matter of ongoing books and articles about Dick- meeting the theme was “Em- self-improvement as facilita- inson. The weekend will close ily and Music.” We each chose tor, I am currently develop- with walking the labyrinth and a poem by Dickinson, read it, ing a stated "guidelines" for reading some of Dickinson’s and then created a tune for it. roundtable-discussion leader- spiritual poems. We were amazed at the mu- ship. If anyone would like to sicality of the poems and our meet with me for an hour or so If you are thinking of starting a ability to transfer them to our during the Annual Meeting to chapter group in your area, I have own simple melodies. In April polish this off, please contact prepared a list of steps to follow we plan to meet with garden me. in beginning a group and a list of club members and local nurs- activities for chapter group meet- ery experts to discuss “Em- Finally, I (Nancy Pridgen) am ings. These will soon be avail- ily’s Flowers.” reporting on my upcoming an- able on the EDIS website. nual “Emily Dickinson in the Hill Lois Kackley sends the following Country” weekend. Meanwhile, I will be glad to send report about her Amherst, Massa- the documents to you and/or an- chusetts, group: I am preparing for the “Third swer any questions you may have. Annual Emily Dickinson in Email Nancy Pridgen possibility@ The Amherst chapter of EDIS is the Hill Country: ‘A Small satx.rr.com. Remember, too, that growing. The new regular dues- Italic Seed: A Blossom in the the EDIS Board has voted to pro- paying members for 2011 that I Brain’: Thinking with Emily vide the opportunity to apply for a know about (in Amherst) – as- Dickinson,” which will take stipend of up to $250 to defray ex- suming some people have not place April 15-17 at U Bar U penses for putting on a local Dick- quietly joined or renewed with- Ranch outside of Kerrville, inson event. They will also donate out my knowing about it – are Texas. We will examine the to local chapter groups a copy of four. Renewing members are thinking behind her “defini- the Emily Dickinson Journal and five. As EDIS Amherst Poetry tion poems.” We will also the EDIS Bulletin. Let this be the Conversations approaches our explore her biography, focus- year you start your own Emily two-year anniversary in May, ing on her education, which Dickinson chapter or annual event!

28 | EDIS Bulletin Great Debates: Emily Dickinson International Society Annual Meeting, July 29-31, 2011, Registration Form

Name, title & affliation______Mailing Address______Telephone (home)______(office)______(fax)______E-mail______

Registration Fee (Deadline June 15) Current EDIS Member or Friend of the Emily Dickinson Museum $110 Non-Member Registration Fee $150 Student (Proof of college ID required) $60 Friday Banquet $30 per person ______Number of Banquet Tickets

Payment: Registration Fee______Total for Banquet Tickets______Total Enclosed______

Checks (payable to EDIS) must be made in U.S. dollars and drawn in a U.S. bank. Do not send cash. Please indicate credit card information below.

Credit Card: Master Card VISA Account Number______Expiration Month______Expiration Year______

Mail to: EDIS, c/o Johns Hopkins University Press, P.O. Box 19966, Baltimore, MD 21211-0966. Payment must be made by July 15, 2011. No refunds will be made after July 15, 2011.

EDIS Membership Form Membership in the Emily Dickinson International Society (EDIS) enables you to participate in the Society’s meetings and conferences, to receive both of the Society’s publications (the Bulletin and the Emily Dickinson Journal), and to help foster the goals of the Society.

Name, title & affiliation ______Mailing address ______Telephone (home)______(office) ______(fax) ______Email ______Please check if this is: ❒ new address membership renewal ❒ Annual Membership Category: Sustaining Member ❒ $200.00 Institutional Member ❒ $115.00 Contributing Member ❒ $100.00 NEW: Joint EDIS/Dickinson Museum ❒ $100.00 Regular Member ❒ $50.00 Student Member ❒ $30.00 (All of the above Members receive both the Emily Dickinson Journal and the Bulletin) Associate Member ❒ $20.00 (Bulletin only) I have included an additional tax-deductible contribution of $______to support the Society’s programs. Gift Memberships Name, title & affiliation ______Mailing address ______Telephone (home)______(office) ______(fax) ______Email ______Use additional page for further gift memberships. Please make check or money order payable, in U.S. dollars, to EDIS, Inc., and send to: EDIS; c/o Johns Hopkins University Press; P.O. Box 19966; Baltimore, MD 21211-0966 www.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.org

May/June 2011 | 29 Puzzle "The Riddle we can guess / We speedily despise" by George Mamunes

1 X2 I3 S4 D 5 N 6 T7 K8 N9 H10 L11 V 12 R13 S14 C15 X 16 U 17 P18 W19 S

20 P 21 X22 N23 S24 Y25 A26 R 27 D28 W29 A 30 Q31 J32 T33 A34 H35 D 36 P37 B

38 L39 K40 F41 C42 W43 B44 R45 J46 E47 I48 G 49 D50 F51 E 52 E53 V54 K55 F56 G57 T58 W59 U

60 A 61 S62 Y63 D 64 K65 J66 C67 R 68 G69 S70 I71 K72 U73 C74 Q 75 A76 S 77 R78 P

79 S80 D81 M 82 R83 E84 G85 T86 J87 B88 X89 M 90 A91 F92 G93 D 94 X95 M96 U97 D98 I

99 L100 V 101 A102 G103 S104 E105 Q 106 H107 A108 R109 U 110 H111 A112 X 113 X114 Q115 O 116 Y117 O

118 U119 L120 P121 I122 S 123 T124 H125 O126 N127 Q 128 O129 L 130 E131 R132 B133 U134 C135 G136 S 137 A

138 K139 B 140 N141 O 142 K143 T144 Y145 N 146 G147 M148 O149 J150 I151 D152 A153 B154 F

Enter your answers on the dashes. Transfer the letters to the grid's correspondingly numbered squares. The completed pattern will show a passage from one of Emily Dickinson's letters. (NOTE: This isn't an acrostic – the first letters of answers DO NOT spell out author & title.)

A. Recipient of a letter containing the above quote. (3 wds.) ______101 137 75 107 33 60 152 111 90 29 25 B. "Our little ______sings." ______139 37 132 43 153 87 C. ED's "best friend," perhaps. ______134 66 14 73 41 D. A person featured in the quote above. (2 wds.) ______49 97 4 151 80 27 35 63 93 E. "She doth Her Purple Work." ______52 46 104 130 83 51 F. ______Holyoke. ______40 91 50 154 55 G. "Is it too late to ______, Dear?" (2 wds.) ______84 92 56 146 68 48 135 102 H. ED's "supple Suitor." ______106 124 110 9 34 I. ED's niece. ______70 121 98 47 2 150

30 | EDIS Bulletin J. "One ______to me - so signal." ______149 65 31 86 45 K. "His ______in the Pool." ______39 138 64 71 7 142 54 L. Branwell's sister. ______119 99 38 10 129 M. Emily Fowler ditched Francis March for this fellow. ______95 147 81 89 N. "The ______Poets did not tell." ______140 5 22 8 145 126 O. ED seemed to hide from the ______of the outside world. ______141 125 148 128 117 115 P. Margaret ______. ______36 20 17 78 120 Q. ED's "blonde Assassin." ______74 105 114 127 30 R. Emily Dickinson, poet and ______. ______12 44 82 26 108 77 131 67 S. ED claimed this in a letter to Samuel Bowles. (2 wds.) ______61 13 103 122 3 19 69 79 23 136 76 T. Higginson found ED's poems to be quite ______. ______85 143 57 32 6 123 U. Winter is "_____ with asperity but welcome when it goes." ______133 59 118 16 96 72 109 V. ED's ______treatment in Boston. ______11 100 53 W. At age fourteen ED boasted of her "golden" ______. ______28 18 58 42 X. Under ongoing urging to profess Christ, ED almost ______. ______1 94 21 113 15 88 112 Y. ED: "To be worthy of what we _____ is the supreme Aim." ______144 62 116 24

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