THE EMILY DICKINSON INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY

Volume 32, Number 2 November/December 2020 “The Only News I know / Is Bulletins all Day / From Immortality.”

Puuseppä, itseoppinut Posant mes pas de Planche en Planche olin – jo aikani J’allais mon lent et prudent chemin höyläni kanssa puuhannut Ma Tête semblait environnee d’ Etoiles kun saapui mestari Et mes pieds baignés d’Océan –

mittaamaan työtä: oliko Je ne savais pas si le prochain ammattitaitonne Serait ou non mon dernier pas – riittävä - jos, hän palkkaisi Cela me donnait cette précaire Allure puoliksi kummankin Que d’aucuns nomment l’Expérience –

Työkalut kasvot ihmisen sai – höyläpenkkikin todisti toisin: rakentaa osamme temppelit! Me áta – canto mesmo assim Proíbe – meu bandolim – Jag aldrig sett en hed. Toca dentro, de mim – Jag aldrig sett havet – men vet ändå hur ljung ser ut Me mata – e a Alma flutua och vad en bölja är – Cantando ao Paraíso – Зашла купить улыбку – раз – Sou Tua – Всего-то лишь одну – Jag aldrig talat med Gud, Что на щеке, но вскользь у Вас - i himlen aldrig gjort visit – Да только мне к Лицу – men vet lika säkert var den är Ту, без которй нет потерь som om jag ägt biljett – Слаба она сиять – Молю, Сэр, подсчитать – её Смогли бы вы продать?

你知道我看不到你的人生 – Алмазы – на моих перстах! Вам ли не знать, о да! 我须猜测 – Рубины – словно Кровь, горят – 多少次这让我痛苦 – 今天承认 – Топазы – как звезда! Еврею торг такой в пример! 多少次为了我的远大前程 Что скажите мне – Сэр? 那勇敢的双眼悲痛迷蒙 – 但我估摸呀猜测令人伤心 – 我的眼啊 – 已模糊不清！

Officers

President: Elizabeth Petrino Vice-President: Eliza Richards Secretary: Adeline Chevrier-Bosseau Treasurer: James C. Fraser

Board Members

Renée Bergland Páraic Finnerty Elizabeth Petrino George Boziwick James C. Fraser Eliza Richards Antoine Cazé Li-hsin Hsu Brooke Steinhauser (Honorary Member) Adeline Chevrier-Bosseau Cristanne Miller Jane Wald (Honorary Member) Paul Crumbley Barbara Mossberg Baihua Wang

Legal Advisor: Louis N. Levine Membership Chair: Renée Bergland Nominations Chair: Páraic Finnerty Dickinson and the Arts Chair: Barbara Dana Website Director: Martha Nell Smith Emily Dickinson Journal Editor: Ryan Cull

Editor, EDIS Bulletin: Daniel Manheim

Sustaining Members Richard Brantley Judith Farr Cristanne Miller Diane K. Busker David H. Forsyth Marianne Noble Barbara Butler James C. Fraser Barbara Mossberg George DeTitta Jonnie G. Guerra Vivian R. Pollak Jane D. Eberwein Trisha Kannan Martha Nell Smith Robert Eberwein Gary Lee Stonum

Contributing Members

Carolyn L. Cooley Eleanor Heginbotham Karen Sanchez-Eppler Scott Donaldson Suzanne Juhasz Dean S. Skelley LeeAnn Gorthey Richard Kent Ethan Tarasov Linda Healy Daniel Manheim Robin Tarasov

EDIS gratefully acknowledges the generous financial contributions of these members, as well as the many members who make joint donations to the Emily Dickinson Museum

EDIS Bulletin (ISSN 1055-3932) is published twice yearly, May/June and November/December, by The Emily Dickinson International Society, Inc. Standard Mail non-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, contact Elizabeth Petrino, President, EDIS, Department of English, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Road, Fairfield, CT, 06824, or [email protected]. Annual dues are $60.00 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 the Bulletin and the Emily Dickinson Journal), or $20.00 for associate members (Bulletin only). Membership inquiries should be directed to James C. Fraser, 159 Prospect St., Apt 7, Acton, MA, 01720-3654, USA. Membership applications 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], 800-548-1784 (U.S. and Canada), or 410-516-6987; fax to 410-516-3866. Address submissions for the Bulletin to Daniel Manheim, Centre College, 600 West Walnut St., Danville, KY 40422, USA or [email protected]. Submis- sion deadlines are March 1 (Spring issue) and September 1 (Fall issue). All articles become the property of the Bulletin. Back issues are available for $5.00 each from the editor. Copyright © 2020 by The Emily Dickinson International Society, Inc. The Bulletin is indexed in EBSCO, Humanities International Complete, and the MLA Bibliography.

www.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.org

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Features 12 Teaching Dickinson Radical Unlearning: What Emily Dickinson Teaches 4 Welcome to Our Members: Opening Address from Us about Teaching President Elizabeth Petrino, 2020 Annual Meeting By Ivy Schweitzer Series Editor, Marianne Noble 19 Subversive Spirits: Common Threads in George MacDonald and Emily Dickinson 16 Poet to Poet By Anne Ramirez Out of Idaho By Kristen Tracy 26 Dickinson at a Distance: Reports from the EDIS Series Editor, Jonnie Guerra Annual Meeting 21 What’s Your Story? 35 Emily’s “Five Little Coppers” Far More than “Ten Pivotal Moments” in the By Krans Bloeimaand Making of Martha Ackmann By Eleanor Heginbotham Series 23 Studio Sessions 6 Voices Outside the US I Ask an Old Question of Emily Dickinson in her An Amazing, Enduring Encounter Bedroom By Dorothea Tung By Robert McDowell Series Editor, Barbara Dana Ambiente Dickinson / Dickinson’s Environment By Daniele Fargione Reviews Series Editor: Li-hsin Hsu 33 Emily Dickinson in Song: A Discobraphy, 1925 – Announcing a New Translation of the Poems into 2019, Compiled by Georgiana Strickland Portuguese, by Adalberto Müller By George Boziwick

This issue features the inauguration of a new series, Voices Outside the US. The Dickinson Society is International, but often its meetings and publications are more accessible to scholars and readers in the US. With this Fall’s issue of the Emily Dickinson Journal devoted to “Scholarship in English Translation,” edited by Eliza Richards and Adeline Chevrier-Bosseau, and the new Bulletin series profiling scholars, translators, performers, artists, and readers from greater Dickinsonia, EDIS continues its efforts to emphasize the international nature of the organization. In honor of the new series, and in honor of the strong international contributions to the Annual Meeting, the front cover shows, clockwise from top left, “I stepped from Plank to Plank” (Fr926), by Antoine Cazé; “Myself was formed – a Carpenter” (Fr475), by Sirkka Heiskanen-Mäkelä;“I came to buy a smile – today –” (Fr258), by Tatiana Polezhakat; “You see I cannot see – your lifetime –” (Fr313), by Cuihua Xu; “I never saw a Moor” (Fr800), by Anne-Marie Vinde; and in the middle, “Bind me – I still can sing –” (Fr1005), by Adalberto Müller.

The images from the Annual Meeting on the back cover include Suzanne Juhasz, Juan Carlos Calvillo, and Cuihua Xu, as well as several shots of the audience at the Zoom presentations, all clearly as engaged by the talks as they would have been in the meeting rooms at Amherst College.

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 Leete Hampson; 1960 by Mary L. Hampson.

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Dickinson at a Distance Annual Meeting 2020

The 2020 EDIS Annual Meeting, which took place on July 31 and August 1, was the first ever to be conducted exclu- sively online. Planners crossed their fingers hoping to avoid catastrophes, but few dared to imagine what a success it would turn out to be. There were unforeseeable glitches, to be sure – a presenter’s weak internet connection here, a snag with shared slide files there – but any interruptions were more than offset by the high quality of the presentations and the opportunity to see distant members who are normally not able to attend. We are all indebted to the planners, President Elizabeth Petrino, Páraic Finnerty, Eliza Richards, Jane Wald, and above all Adeline Chevrier-Bosseau, who among other wonders prepared the first EDIS YouTube Channel. Presentations are posted on the channel and links to each presentation appear on the reports, which appear on pages 26-32, near the end of the issue. The meeting, which closed with a fascinating multi-lingual reading of Dickinson’s poems and some beautiful musical settings by John Hin- shelwood, opened with an important statement by President Elizabeth Petrino, transcribed below.

Welcome Remarks from EDIS President, Elizabeth Petrino

elcome to all of our members, Board teaching through a pandemic already has im- of this transformative time or what shape or WDirectors and Friends and the Board, pacted many of us. size this change may eventually take in the and first-time participants to our first ever world, we have an opportunity to change our online EDIS Annual Meeting! Epochal change happens slowly and uneven- Society as we go forward. ly, and in its throes it may seem overwhelm- I am Elizabeth Petrino, your newly elected ing and perhaps even frightening. Dickinson In the current climate, EDIS has an important President of EDIS, and on behalf of the EDIS of course saw such change during her life- role to serve as we consider how we might Board and Friends, it’s my pleasure to wel- time as the nineteenth century brought new best contend with the hostile and difficult come you to this historic event. In this time of perspectives on many beliefs including those times in which we find ourselves. Our inter- COVID 19, we are faced as scholars, readers, pertaining to science, religion, industry, pol- national membership reaffirms our commit- and citizens with hard truths about our soci- itics, transportation, technology, and more. ment to other nations, at a time when nations ety. The virus has shone a light on socio-eco- The Civil War particularly brought to her have withdrawn their global commitments. nomic realities we cannot ignore: social and awareness the violence of war and pressures Our collaboration with institutions such economic disparities are being brought to of opposing political views about citizenship. as the Emily Dickinson Museum and the the fore in many communities, our health “Crumbling is not an instant’s Act,” Dickin- Houghton Library reaffirms our support for care system is under stress, food insecurity son tells us, and while this process of social the Humanities and the arts. For the next two continues to be a problem, as does afford- and institutional change may be slow, it also days, I want to invite you to connect with old able housing. At the same time that members creates a “fundamental pause” for us, perhaps friends and new acquaintances through Zoom of our community and nation are being hit a necessary one, allowing us to rethink our and YouTube over time and space. At the harder than others, we also have seen social most basic values and assumptions about our same time, I encourage you to ponder what movements that have raised awareness about world. In “Crisis is a Hair,” Dickinson attends it would mean for us to truly live our mission racial and social inequity. We are also deeply to the delicate balance we face in holding op- as a Society in response to the need to build affected by the Black Lives Matter- move posing “forces” at bay – and the stakes are community around racial equity and inclu- ment, which has called us to action. We are, high – and safeguard “the Hand / That adjusts sive practice. During these difficult times, we in short, living through a time that provides the Hair / That secures Eternity / From pre- are being challenged to reflect on how we as us with an opportunity to change ourselves senting – Here” (Fr889). In a similar way, members of EDIS can be part of this larger and EDIS as profoundly as the experience of though we may not know the ultimate effect change.

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In the months ahead, I will be solic- botham. A longtime Board member iting your input on how we can clari- and Friend of the Board, Ellie has gra- fy the mission and identify the major ciously agreed to share her knowledge goals of EDIS. With the Vice Presi- and experience with others in an infor- dent and other Board members, I will mal discussion. Tomorrow, Ellen Hart, initiate a five-year plan and bylaws re- another longtime friend of the Board, vision that will allow the structure of has agreed to chair the Research Cir- our society to serve our larger purpose. cle, one of our most enjoyable ses- As we increasingly internationalize as sions. If you have an idea for a new a Society, we are being called upon project, an ongoing one, or simply to use new, innovative ways to com- wish to join others talking about their municate and increase our outreach research, please consider going to the to members. We also must serve the working lunch tomorrow at noon. common good as global citizens who are committed to education, scholarship, and say, we cannot expect that everyone will be Finally, three additional presentations suggest civil discourse. I hope in the next few months present throughout all the sessions, so we plan the new directions that EDIS might take in you will take time to respond to a survey and to record the events and make them available the future. Two long-time EDIS members and queries about how you feel EDIS best serves shortly afterwards. If you wish access to these outstanding scholars, Jane Donahue Eberwein its members. Please also join us for the Mem- recordings, please send our Secretary Adeline and Suzanne Juhasz, will join in dialogue bers’ Business Meeting on Saturday morning, Chevrier-Bosseau an email. about Dickinson’s famous poem “After great when you can make your voice heard regard- pain” in “Dickinson Scholars in Conversa- ing what you most value about EDIS and en- Our two keynotes bring world-renowned tion.” For many of us, there have been books vision for our future. scholars to the screen: First, Cristanne Miller, we read by critics and scholars who seem like Edward H. Butler Professor of English and old friends through their writing. Our goal Now, to highlights of the conference: I would Chair of the Department at the University at as a Society is to create a living archive on like to provide a brief overview of the con- Buffalo in New York, and a newly returning YouTube of conversations by distinguished ference and highlight several aspects of how Board member will present a preview of the scholars in which they provide literary inter- we will proceed. Our conference committee new edition of Dickinson’s letters, edited by pretations of individual poems. “Away from – Adeline Chevrier-Bosseau, Paraic Finnerty, Cris and Domhnall Mitchell, which is cur- Home” will present a series of short presen- Jim Fraser, Dan Manheim, Eliza Richards, and rently underway. Second, Eliza Richards, our tations on objects or aspects of the Homestead Jane Wald and I – have worked to bring togeth- EDIS Vice President and Professor of English and Evergreens, allowing us to think more er a series of outstanding panels and events at and Comparative Literature at the University deeply about how these objects, often import- this year’s annual meeting around the idea of of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, will present ed or at a distance, brought the external world distance and connection. Please feel free to a talk, “Dickinson on Remote Suffering,” onto Dickinson’s doorstep. Marta Werner will come in and out of sessions, as you wish. Our drawn in part from her most recent book, also present “Dickinson’s Birds: A Public Lis- panels on “International Dickinson,” “Dickin- Battle-Lines: Poetry and Mass Media in the tening Project,” which promises to combine son, Disaster, Dimensions,” and “Dickinson@ U.S. Civil War (U of Pennsylvania, 2019). In both auditory and literary evidence using tech- ADistance 1 & 2” consist of short talks and addition, we are very fortunate to have Leslie nology to transport us to a new way of “hear- presentations about exciting new scholarship Morris, Gore Vidal Curator of Modern Books ing” and understanding Dickinson’s poems. from around the world. and Manuscripts at the Houghton Library, Developing a digital archive of criticism will Harvard University, who will present “Emily provide an opportunity for EDIS to serve its A note on protocol: Each panel will have both Dickinson’s Archive: A User’s Guide,” which members and broaden its influence to a larger a chair and a host, co-host, or video organiz- will provide participants with a demonstration audience. er whose responsibility will be to manage the of how the archive might be used to explore technical portion of the panel. As the guide- aspects of Dickinson’s poetry that far surpass- We conclude with a Musical Interlude with the lines you received indicated, we hope that au- es its function only as a concordance or man- folksinger, John Hinshelwood, and readings dience members will mute themselves upon uscript database. of Dickinson poems in translation by five of entry and then use the “raised hand” function our members. We invite you to join us for this or ask a question in the chat box after the talks If you wish to join a local chapter or are active social event, perhaps with your own favorite have concluded. We hope to have a lively dis- in one, consider joining us with your lunch drink, as the Emily Dickinson International cussion for each and every panel. Needless to today at noon for a session with Ellie Hegin- Society enters the Zoom and YouTube eras!

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Series Editor, Li-hsin Hsu

This new Bulletin series “Voices Outside the US” intends to bring lovers of Emily Dickinson’s poetry around the world together by sharing personal reflections on their experiences of encountering Dickinson – whether through their reading, translating or working with Dickinson’s writings – in their own linguistic, institutional or national context. With the success of this year’s remote annual meeting of EDIS and Tell It Slant, the online poetry reading marathon, as well as the forthcoming Emily Dickinson Jour- nal special issue on “Scholarship in English Translation,” the editors of this new section, who will ultimately number scholars from all around the world, hope to provide more platforms to enhance global exchange and interconnectedness, to invite more people to explore how Dickinson’s poetry continues to offer solace, hope, and inspiration for various generations of readers, writers, translators, artists and scholars across the globe. In a time of global pandemic and social distancing, when individual need for emotional (as well as physical) intimacy and solidarity is deeply felt on a daily basis, the section attempts to offer new perspectives not only on how Dickinson’s works are transmitted, received or adapted across space and time in various social and cultural environments, but how individual lives in disparate parts of the world are touched and reshaped through encounters with Dickinson. By forging friendship through an international community of Dickinson readers, we hope an alternative paradise can be gathered. – Initial Series Editor, Li-hsin Hsu Taipei An Amazing, Enduring Encounter

By Dorothea Tung

Dorothea Tung received her MA in English Language and Literature from Fu Jen Catholic University. She translated Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson in Chinese Translation, Volume One and Volume Two, with George Lytle. She compiled and translated Selected Letters by Emily Dickinson in Chinese Translation and Selected Poems of English Romantic Poetry in Chinese Trans- lation. She is the translator of Shattering the Myths: Taiwanese identity and the legacy of KMT colonialism by Laurence Eyton. Her essays and articles have appeared in numerous Taiwanese publications, among them The Liberty Times, United Daily News, The News Lens, and Newtalk. She was an adjunct lecturer in the English Teaching Department of National Hsinchu University of Education from 2003-2014. Dorothea and I met during a 2014 Dickinson conference in Shanghai, organized by Baihua Wang. We ended up spending the whole evening discussing Dickinson and poetry in her hotel room, with a number of conference speakers, including Alfred Habegger, whose biography of Dickinson we both admired. This unexpected, lovely encounter remains a high- light in my stay in China. In 2017, the year she had three translations of Dickinson published in Taiwan, Dorothea also gave a talk in my Dickinson seminar. Her friendly and engaging approach towards translating Dickinson helps popularize Dickinson’s poetry among the younger generation of Taiwanese readers in ways that are subtle and yet profound.

y encounter with Emily Dickinson Chinese Literature at Yale University, id picture to me, a beginner in English Mbegan in 1984, in my Freshman with degrees in Chinese Literature and poetry at that time. English class at Chinese Culture Uni- Japanese Studies, explained the poem’s versity in Taiwan. The first poem taught meaning to us in English. Although I had I’ve always had a keen interest in litera- in the class was “A loss of something a better understanding of the poem after ture, especially poetry, and Mr. Lytle has ever felt I – ” (Fr1072). I was somewhat Mr. Lytle’s explanation, many questions been in love with her poems since he was lost in the poem’s maze-like structure, remained lingering in my head. But the a junior high school student. Hence in the odd word combinations, the punc- first two lines of the last stanza, “And 1989 I went to him with a proposal: The tuation, religious implications, and the a Suspicion, like a Finger / Touches my two of us should work together as a team arrangement of the phrases until our in- Forehead now and then,” really fasci- to translate a selection of Dickinson’s structor Mr. George Lytle, who studied nated me. The image of “a Suspicion” poems into Chinese, with an introduc- Anthropology at the University of Mary- as “a Finger” that occasionally touches tion to her life and notes on the individ- land, and graduated from the Institute of the speaker’s “Forehead” brought a viv- ual poems. At first Mr. Lytle resisted. He

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thought it would be too difficult to try to wise, since I am not a native speaker of gratified to see how well our book was translate her unique style of poetry into English, much less the American En- received by critics and the general public Chinese. Besides, he didn’t alike and very happy to have consider himself a Dickinson played a part in bringing Em- I would often try to translate Dickinson’s sometimes scholar and therefore didn’t ily Dickinson and her poetry rough, cryptic, puzzling, elliptical, fragmented English think he was qualified. But I to the people of Taiwan and into smooth, flowing, and beautiful Chinese. Mr. Lytle persisted. He finally agreed, the Chinese reading public felt this was a betrayal of Dickinson’s style and would and so a journey began. And around the world. I was es- argue with me. As for me, I felt his suggestions were often it has continued to this day. pecially honored to receive a just too crude and unpoetic. phone call from the poet 瘂弦 We worked together in the (Ya Hsuan), who is renowned old-fashioned way. It was in the late glish of Massachusetts in the mid- to in the Chinese-speaking world and 1980s and the early 1990s, before the In- late- 19th century, I might not be the whose poetry I have fondly read since ternet and email became ubiquitous. Mr. best judge of the literary characteristics my teenage years. He called me from Lytle and I would meet at a coffee shop, of the original English that Dickinson Canada, where he still lives, to tell me and we would go over one, two, or a few used. Only when I started to understand that he liked this translated collection of of Dickinson’s poems each time. Mr. just how odd, idiosyncratic, and jarring Dickinson’s poetry very much and con- Lytle would read the chosen poems first Dickinson’s poetry could be to the ears gratulated us for having done a good job. and then translate them line by line into and minds of native speakers of English He is a lover of Dickinson’s poetry and what he would describe as his has once thought about translat- crude Chinese, and point out ing her poems into Chinese him- the allusions, colloquialisms, self. cultural and religious back- grounds, grammatical diffi- An updated edition of the col- culties or uncertainties, etc., lection was published in 2006 while I would take notes and by the Ecus Publishing House ask questions. I then would in Taiwan. The latest edition, go home with my notes, work titled Selected Poems by Emily out a translation, and return Dickinson in Chinese Transla- with them for him to read and tion, Volume One, in English, comment on. was published in 2017 with a new Chinese title «我是個無 At first, we had some very 名小卒» (“I’m Nobody”) and a candid and sharp disagree- completely redesigned cover. In ments over the translations. the same year, Selected Poems Because I still didn’t fully by Emily Dickinson in Chinese understand that Dickinson’s Translation, Volume Two was Photo Credit: Nancy Lytle also published in Taiwan with style could be so idiosyn- Dorothea Tung at the Homestead in 1997. cratic, I would often try to the Chinese title «我居住在可 translate Dickinson’s sometimes rough, did I begin to write with more caution, 能裏» (“I Dwell in Possibility”). They cryptic, puzzling, elliptical, fragmented experimenting with a rougher, odder, were both the results of my collabora- English into smooth, flowing, and beau- and more jarring Chinese in my transla- tion with Mr. George Lytle. tiful Chinese. Mr. Lytle felt this was a tions of Dickinson. Finally, I somewhat betrayal of Dickinson’s style and would got the hang of it. Again in 2017, Selected Letters by Emi- argue with me. As for me, I felt his sug- ly Dickinson in Chinese Translation was gestions were often just too crude and Our first translated, annotated collec- published by the Azoth Books in Taiwan unpoetic. Mr. Lytle said since he was tion of Emily Dickinson’s poems was with the Chinese title «這是我寫給世界 not a native speaker of Chinese, he was published in Taiwan in 2000 by Owl 的信» (This is my Letter to the World). not the best judge of the literary mer- Publishing House, bringing Dickinson I was the sole compiler and translator its of a piece of Chinese writing. Like- to the general reading public. We were of this annotated collection of letters by

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Emily Dickinson. The letters I chose to translate are mainly had come true! It’s somewhat like homecoming emotions, about her emotional life, such as the famous three Master Let- along with awe and excitement. ters, one of her long passionate letters to Sue, her mysterious poem letter to Samuel Bowles, her love letters to Otis Philip During my visit, I met Mr. John Lancaster, then curator of the Lord, and other letters to her male friends when she was a Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College. He told young woman. me he had something very special to show me. So I held my breath and waited. With a mischievous smile he opened his In 2019, the 2006 updated edition of the poetry collection was hand. . . . What magic! I almost fell off the chair at the mo- published in China by Changjiang Literature and Art Publish- ment when I saw a lock of Dickinson’s hair before me! When ing House with the Chinese title «我用古典的方式愛過你» (I I took this journey from Taiwan to Amherst, I didn’t expect to Once Loved You in a Classical Way). see a precious ringlet from Dickinson herself. I had read her own description about her hair, but I had no idea that she left Back in 1997, I paid a visit to the Dickinson Homestead in behind such tangible evidence of her existence in the world! early autumn. When approaching her bedroom, I couldn’t The image of her lock of hair has lived in my mind ever since, bring myself to believe that my dream of visiting her home a companion on my enduring journey through her poetry.

I came across Daniela Fargione’s book on Dickinson this year while working on a special issue for the Emily Dickinson Journal. I was impressed with the creativity involved in her experimental project. Coincidentally, Fargione and I both spent a summer in Edinburgh as IASH fellows. Also, I just acquired a beautifully printed Italian edition of Dickinson’s Herbarium facsimiles recently, and have been curious about Dickinson’s presence in Italy. Fargione’s piece on the contemporary Italian reception of Dickinson – its thriving music, visual art and literary scene there, provides a refreshing and inspiring insight into the interdisciplinary nature (as well as global impact) of Dickinson’s work. Ambiente Dickinson / Dickinson’s Environment by Daniela Fargione

n a letter to his wife dated 16 August 1870, Thomas Higgin- Ison wrote of his encounter with Emily Dickinson and includ- ed her definition of poetry:

If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way? (L342a.)

Poetry, for Emily Dickinson, was a physical experience, a do- main where to make the abstract tangible. After all, this is the Poet: “It is That / Distills amazing sense / From Ordinary Mean- ings – ” (Fr446).

It is this “ordinary” trait of her poetics that I appreciated when, Fig. 1. Matilde Domestico, Il mondo in una tazza. (The world in a cup) as a graduate student at the University of Turin, I had the Palazzo Madama, Spazio Atelier (February 2015). chance to study American literature with Barbara Lanati, one Photo by Claudio Cravero. Courtesy of the artist.

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cup “serves as both substance and language to humorously communicate what lies beyond mere functionalism” (Mulatero 2008), but also – when combined with other china fragments, broken crockery, chipped spouts and saucers – as the reminder of our fragile and defective existence. Matilde Domestico and I started collaborating on the re-construction of Emily Dick- inson’s room, with the intention to evoke the same personal dilemmas and complexities that emerged from the reading of her poems and letters.

One artifact, in particular, seems to epitomize some of the most daunting issues that pervade Emily Dickinson’s existential quest: Domestico’s cup “Portami il tramonto in una tazza” (“Bring me the sunset in a cup” Fr140, Figs. 1 and 2).

In the poem, the speaker confirms an attraction to what is inac- Fig. 2. “Portami il tramonto in una tazza” (2008) by Matilde Domestico. cessible, and using a fanciful language demands that nature’s Photo by Tommaso Mattina. Courtesy of Ermanno Tedeschi Gallery. wonders be brought to her to be possessed through containment. The sunset metaphor, moreover, taps into the reader’s visual of the most renowned scholars and translators of Emily Dick- memory, summoning the nostalgic declining phase of the day inson’s poetry. Her constant encouragement led me to Amherst and possibly evoking somber thoughts on the stifling circum- in 1993, when I was accepted as a Fulbright PhD student at scription of the poet’s fatherly domestic space and of the poet’s the University of Massachusetts. Back then, seminars on Emily surrounding parochial geography. Deviating from her usual ma- Dickinson’s poetry were offered at The Homestead. Today, al- terial – white china – Matilde Domestico creates her cup with most thirty years later, the wooden smell of the house interiors handmade paper and writes Dickinson’s verses with metallic melancholically lingers in my nostrils, together with the sweet staples, so cold and cruel in their adamantine precision. Lastly, scent of summer flowers that I could enjoy in Emily’s garden the artist surrounds her cup with a glass ball to remind us that beaming in a “certain Slant of light.” Amherst light. the poet’s “Business is Circumference,” as she claimed in her fourth letter to Thomas W. Higginson. The interconnections of When, many years later, I became both a translator and a pro- all these different themes provide an engaging platform for the fessor of American literature myself, my first objective while exploration and assessment of multiple individual issues, which teaching Emily Dickinson’s poems was to alleviate my stu- may lead to a deeper understanding of the human experience, so dents’ discomfort when reading her lyrics: their disorientation that Domestico’s cup finally serves as both the exemplifier and – more today, I believe, than in the past – probably derived narrator of our “porcelain life.” from a lack of familiarity with a concise language that often- times intimidated them. Moreover, convinced that poetry has In 2013, Matilde Domestico and I decided to publish the results a transformative power that other genres cannot grant, I also of our collaboration. Ambiente Dickinson. Poesie, sculture, na- obstinately challenged the image of the “virgin of Amherst” as ture is thus an example of collaborative art (literary criticism, a shy, well-educated, pious, fragile woman as it emerged from poetry, sculpture, photography) aiming at exploring the differ- most textbooks that my students had studied in high school. In- ent environments in which “the myth of Amherst” lived and deed, this image collides with the portrait of an ironic, passion- wrote. This is also the first Italian critical work on Emily Dick- ate, unorthodox, transgressive woman that only a few intrepid inson that analyzes the poet’s enigmatic life and her desecrat- biographers and translators have had the skill to restore. ing poetry from an ecocritical perspective. Poetry is a powerful tool, and Emily Dickinson used it to subvert the dominating This was also the aim of an Italian artist, Matilde Domestico, ideology of domesticity, while proposing a counter-discourse whom I first met at an exhibition in Turin, where she lives and to the rhetoric of dominion that often equates women and na- works. The originality of her poetics consists in a unique plastic ture. Although she never showed full ecological awareness and language that revolves around one formal obsession, namely cannot be entirely considered a “nature poet,” Emily Dickinson the eclectic and multiform use of one single domestic object: offered “attention to [...] the more-than-human world around the cup. In her sculptures, installations, and performances, the us” (Bryson), to eventually come to the modern conclusion that

9 | EDIS Bulletin Voices Outside the US

neither the dominant patriarchy, nor the Church, and not even national book fairs in Torino (Fig. 3). Those wishing to explore science could solve her existential riddles. further may begin with the following web links:

In several studies illustrating the relations of Emily Dickinson http://621018634.ip.fastwebnet.it/pdf/2009/festivalpoesia/ with her surrounding environment, scholars have focused on her programma_parolespalancate.pdf passion for the woods, her garden, Pelham Hills and, of course, https://oblompoesia.wordpress.com/tag/daniela-fargione/ her beloved flowers (Angelo; Asahina; Farr and Carter to name a http://bookblog.salonelibro.it/lingua-madre-3/ https://www.palazzomadamatorino.it/it/eventi-e-mostre/ few). A few scholars have also revealed how these interests were il-mondo-una-tazza-storie-di-porcellana linked to the onset of a cultural debate on the environment that https://www.bfny.org would soon result in an “environmental imagination,” in the words of Lawrence Buell. Christine Gerhardt has called it “bioregional- Works Mentioned in the Essay ist.” The main ambition of ecological writing and criticism is to enhance a new ecological awareness, the first step towards - sig Angelo, Raymond. “Catalog of Plant Specimens” and “Index”, in Emily Dick- nificant social change (Slovic; Zapf), while their “revolutionary” inson’s Herbarium, a Facsimile Edition. Belknap 2006. assumption consists in the radical substitution of values within a sick society and a sick planet. The role of literary texts, when con- Asahina, Midori. “’Fascination’ is Absolute of Clime: Reading Dickinson’s scious of the ecosystems they belong to, is to solicit corrective Correspondence with Higginson as Naturalist”. EDJ, 14.2: 2005. responses and practices that could be both effective and long last- Bryson, J. Scott. Ecopoetry: A Critical Introduction. University of Utah, 2002. ing. Emily Dickinson’s hesitation on anthropocentric positions is often replaced by experiments in subtle biocentrism, a different Buell, Lawrence. The Environmental Imagination. Belknap 2005. way of living her space in harmony with the natural world. This “double dwelling” represents Emily Dickinson’s real challenge: to Fargione, Daniela. Ambiente Dickinson. Poesie, sculture, nature. Con un saggio subvert the granite patriarchal conventions of Victorian time and to di Barbara Lanati, opere di Matilde Domestico. Torino: Prinp Editore, 2013. https://prinp.com/?sez=negozio&sub=1&lid=473 reclaim “naturally feminine” roles and spaces. Farr, Judith and Louise Carter. The Gardens of Emily Dickinson. Harvard Uni- Over the years, Ambiente Dickinson has evolved into a theatri- versity, 2004 cal performance (Dickinsong with Malecorde), and an exhibi- tion that has travelled through Italy, from performances at the Gerhardt, Christine. “’Often seen – but seldom felt’: Emily Dickinson’s Reluc- Circolo dei Lettori in Torino and international poetry festivals tant Ecology of Place.” EDJ, 15.1, 2006. in Torino and Genoa, to presentations and discussions at the Lanati, Barbara. Vita di Emily Dickinson. L’alfabeto dell’estasi. Milano: Fel- Bogliasco Foundation as well as several presentations at inter- trinelli 1998

Mulatero, Ivana. “Un ragno cuciva la notte senza luce su un arco di bianco.” Introductory note to the catalogue of Matilde Domestico, Ermanno Tedeschi Gallery, 2008.

Slovic, Scott. “Editor’s Note”. ISLE 19.1, 2012.

Zapf, Hubert. “The State of Ecocriticism and the Function of Literature as Cul- tural Ecology” in S. Mayer and C. Gersdorf, Nature in Literary and Cultural Studies. Rodopi, 2006.

Former Fulbright scholar at the University of Massachusetts, Daniele Fargione currently teaches Anglo-American Literatures at the Univer- sity of Turin. Her research interests include environmental humanities (climate change, food and migrations); the interconnections of contem- porary American literatures and the other arts (music and photogra- phy); theory and practice of literary translation. Among her latest pub- Fig. 3. International Book Fair, Turin, Italy, 9 May 2014. lications: ContaminAzioni ecologiche. Cibi, nature e culture, co-edited Ph. By Claudio Cravero. Courtesy of the artist (From the left: D. with Serenella Iovino (Led Edizioni, 2015) and Antroposcenari. Storie, Finocchi, M. Domestico, D. Fargione) paesaggi, ecologie (Il Mulino, 2018), co-edited with Carmen Concilio.

10 | EDIS Bulletin Voices Outside the US

The Belle in Brazil: A New Translation by Adalberto Müller

Emily Dickinson. Poesia Completa, v. 1. Os Cristanne Miller especially for this edition. al Society since 2015. Besides publishing Fascículos. Foreword by Cristanne Miller. The cover and illustrations are samples two collections of essays, he has translated Translation, notes and afterword by Adalberto from Dickinson’s Herbarium. works by e. e. cummings, Paul Celan, and Müller. Brasília; Campinas: Editora da UnB; Francis Ponge. His recent works are a col- Editora da Unicamp, 2020. 880p. Bilingual. This book will interest all scholars of Dick- lection of texts on plants – Transplantations inson, as well as people interested in un- (from my mother’s garden), 2019; a book of derstanding the reception short stories – O Traço dalberto Müller spent the last eight of her poetry abroad, and do calígrafo, 2020; and Ayears translating the complete poems most especially students Walter Benjamin: Teses of Emily Dickinson into Portuguese in and scholars from the sobre a História. Edição Brazil. The bilingual edition, published in fields of Latino studies Crítica (with Márcio Brazil, is split into two volumes. The En- and translation. Seligmann-Silva). The glish text follows Cristanne Miller’s edi- book will be sold in tion of Emily Dikcinson’s Poems as She Adalberto Müller is an Brasil by Editora da Preserve Them (Harvard 2016). The first Associate Professor for Unicamp and by major volume contains the complete text of the Literary Theory at the bookstores and interna- 40 fascicles and the translations, and was University Federal Flu- tional retailers. Editora published in November 2020. The second minense in Rio de Ja- da Unicamp also sells to volume, which contains all the poems out- neiro. He was a Visiting schools and universities side the fascicles, is currently being edited Scholar at The Univer- abroad, and can be con- to appear by July 2021. The publishers are sity at Buffalo in 2018 tacted via email: ven- the press of two of the top 10 universities and at Yale University [email protected]. in Brazil: Universidade de Brasília (UnB) in 2013, and he has been br, or by the website: and Universidade de Campinas (Unicamp). a member of the Emily https://www.editorauni- The foreword for volume 1 was written by Dickinson Internation- camp.com.br/

11 | EDIS Bulletin Teaching Dickinson

Series Editor, Marianne Noble

Ivy Schweitzer is Professor of English and teaches in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Program at Dartmouth College. She has for several years maintained a blog called White Heat, Emily Dickinson in 1862 (which can be found at https://journeys.dartmouth.edu/ whiteheat/ and to which you can subscribe). She is the author of Perfecting Friendship: Politics and Affiliation in Early American Liter- ature as well as many other works about colonial and 19th-century literature in the US. She was interviewed by Renée Bergland for the Spring 2018 issue of the Bulletin, and for the Spring 2017 issue she contributed a review essay of the Morgan Library Exhibition, “‘I’m Nobody! Who Are You?’ The Life and Poetry of Emily Dickinson” and the accompanying catalogue, The Networked Recluse: The Con- nected World of Emily Dickinson.” With the Spring 2021 issue, she will become the series editor of Poet to Poet, replacing Jonnie Guerra. Radical Unlearning: What Emily Dickinson Teaches Us about Teaching

By Ivy Schweitzer

For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, (especially at this moment when our presi- Engineering program (for more, see Edward individuals cannot be truly human. dent touts “patriotic education” based on the de Bono’s Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step – Paulo Freire ideological suppression of history) is com- by Step). Lateral thinking encourages us to plicated but exhilarating. And, as bell hooks relinquish the goal of covering material, of y title’s first arresting phrase comes demonstrates in her poignant essay on Freire moving vertically in a straight line from a Mfrom a seminar I co-directed in Spring from her indispensable collection, Teaching question towards a single answer, the an- 2017 for the Gender Research Institute at to Transgress: Education as the Practice of swer, in favor of discovering as many ap- Dartmouth College. The subtitle on that Freedom, this critical pedagogy is a nec- proaches and responses to questions or prob- occasion was “Feminist Reflections on essary foundation for the great reckoning lems as possible. In this way, lateral thinking Transgression, Humility and Chaos,” and it about race, class and gender we are facing fosters an attitude of openness, wonder and was a version of “Telling Stories for Social today as a nation. curiosity, not the instrumentalist need to find Change,” the course I developed and have the “right” answer, which demonizes failure, been offering with my collaborator Pati Her- The passage from Pedagogy of the Op- forestalls surprises, and ends investigation. nandez since 2007. It is based on the work of pressed I quote most often and contemplate Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire, whose most deeply is this: Resisting interpretation, defying logic and stirring manifesto Pedagogy of the Op- narrative, offering myriad poems with an pressed (1972) has challenged me to com- For apart from inquiry, apart from the “occluded center,” gleefully engaging pletely renovate my teaching methods. (For praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. in riddling, mysteries and “choosing not more information on Freire and free .pdfs of Knowledge emerges only through inven- choosing”: Few writers facilitate radical un- his texts, including Pedagogy of Freedom: tion and re-invention, through the restless, learning better than Emily Dickinson. I offer Ethics, Democracy and Civic Courage, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry hu- three examples from three different teaching which is directed specifically at teachers, man beings pursue in the world, with the situations of the various lessons Dickinson, visit https://www.freire.org/paulo-freire/.) world, and with each other. as filtered through Freire, has taught me about teaching. Broadly speaking, Freire advocates educa- There are several ways to apply this gnomic tion as the practice of freedom. He rejects articulation of epistemology, most of them I came to Dickinson studies late in my pro- what he calls the “banking method,” in requiring students and teachers to unlearn fessional career – as a kind of second field which lecturing teachers deposit information what we have absorbed from the educa- specialty. For years I had included Dickin- into passive students, for a “problem-solv- tional system about defining and measuring son’s poems and letters in various iterations ing” approach to authentic questions in success. One basic unlesson I have gleaned of courses on American Literature and Po- which we all become teachers and learners from Freire is to embrace what designers etry, and finally, in a recent, exuberant de- in an aspirationally democratic classroom. call “lateral thinking,” a practice we bor- parture inspired by Dickinson titled “Tell How we go about enacting such a practice rowed from our colleagues in Dartmouth’s it Slant: Female, Black, Queer Readings in

12 | EDIS Bulletin Teaching Dickinson

American Poetry.” It was in this course that on a Dickinson my intrepid students taught me to accept the poem played third person pronoun “they” as an existen- in The Ever- tially necessary, if not (yet) grammatically green’s front correct, usage. room, visit Am- herst College’s The course I focus on here is a junior level Special Collec- colloquium I created on what I excitingly tions to view called “New Dickinson: After the Digital Dickinson’s Turn.” In this seminar, we explore a reno- manuscripts, vated Dickinson emerging from the pletho- and end the ra of materialist, feminist, post-modernist, day by singing queer, and cultural studies approaches to her “This is my let- work. Most significantly, we consider the ef- ter to the world” fects of readers’ access to the digital scans of at the poet’s her handwritten manuscripts and other on- gravesite. I de- line materials related to Dickinson – that is, tail this unfor- the effects of experiencing Dickinson at her gettable trip as most intentional. well as outline Photo Credit: Julia Viazmenski Steve’s inven- Ivy Schweitzer (lower right) with Steve Glazer (lower left) and his class, singing “This is my letter to the World,” to the tune of “Amazing Grace” at the Dickin- In this course, I strive to satisfy Freire’s call tive syllabus son family plot. One student in front is holding her final project on ED with a for “invention and re-invention” by letting and give exam- poetic analysis on the cover; another girl in the back holds a portrait she drew. go of my need to “cover” a certain number ples of his stu- of texts and subjects. Rather, I encourage re- dents’ work in two posts on my digital proj- students may be digital natives and may cursive discussions in which we come back ect, White Heat: Emily Dickinson in 1862, a know about Dickinson’s “fascicles” and to the same texts or questions to reexamine weekly blog for December 3-9 and 17-23. “variants” from Steve’s terrific syllabus, but them patiently, restlessly, hopefully, and ever (URL in headnote: Please feel free to borrow they haven’t heard of a fair copy or an au- more deeply. I try to satisfy Freire’s call for and adapt from this syllabus whatever might thoritative edition. “pursuing [knowledge] . . . with each other” work for your classes.) by creating a community of inquiry through A memorable “click” moment around collaborative assignments. Because, as I tell To fulfill their inquiry in and with the world, Freire’s core notion of inquiry occurred in my ambitious students (who loathe group my Dartmouth students prepare short pre- the Crossroads classroom as we compared projects as potentially reducing their individ- sentations introducing the 7th graders to digital scans of Dickinson’s handwritten ualist GPAs), we must learn to work together digital Dickinson resources, such as EDA, texts to the versions in edited collections. We since in this world we all sink or swim to- Dickinson Electronic Archive, Dickinson’s asked the Crossroads students, “When is a gether. As for “pursuing [knowledge] in and Lexicon and the Emily Dickinson Museum poem finished? Who decides?” They talked with the world,” I translate this as making website, which hosts several helpful virtu- about their own poetry writing and how they our humanities knowledge and work public al tours. Pre-pandemic, I would ask: How decide if their poem is “done” and ready for and accessible. It was this imperative that many middle school or high school teachers the world. We followed up with, “How can lead me to the 7th grade class of Steve Glaz- in your area would appreciate a visit from this form of personal agency be applied to er at Crossroads Academy in Lyme, NH. college students studying Dickinson, who Dickinson? Why does a 20th century editor want to share what they have learned? Let’s get to decide for her?” Looking more closely Steve is a gifted teacher who has crafted hope the practice of sharing our knowledge at her manuscripts, we asked about Dickin- an extraordinary month-long unit on Emily and bridging between schools and colleges son’s inclusion of variant words and phrases, Dickinson that culminates with a bus trip to can become a possibility again in the near which students could clearly see on the com- Amherst, MA on December 10th – Dickin- future. Despite the pandemic, we know that puter screen, but which editors of her poetry son’s birthday. His students recite a surpris- concepts, ideas, techniques, even resources leave out or relegate to an appendix. These ing number of poems they have learned by become clearer when we have to explain questions piqued their imaginations, and heart in The Homestead’s parlor, listen to a them to others, especially to a group of in- they began questioning the whole concept of classmate’s original piano composition based quisitive middle schoolers. These young a poem ever being “finished.” How could it

13 | EDIS Bulletin Teaching Dickinson

be, they reasoned, if there are always differ- Dickinson’s work: her self-publication; her students by asking them to read and amplify ent words and combinations to factor in? engagement with gender issues in a 19th their written responses. Everyone contrib- century context; her queerness and gender utes and, best of all, takes responsibility for Then, I introduced Sharon Cameron’s critical play in terms of contemporary theories. The the shared learning and teaching. notion of “choosing not choosing.” Silence. White Heat blog offers several posts that in- After a long pause, a young boy piped up: troduce Dickinson and her poetry (see espe- Early in the term, I introduced students to “So, she didn’t choose.” A beat, then two. cially the post on Meter) and explore these what I consider a core concept for feminist “No,” I replied, “she made a choice, but what three aspects of her world and work. Most analysis, which I call “both/and.” I have she chose was not to choose, to leave the de- daringly, we dispensed with a hard copy of found that in the course of discussions, cision open, leave it up to us, her readers.” Dickinson’s poems altogether and, as a re- students often lock themselves into binary Another silence so thick and resonant that, sult, spent a good deal of fruitful time work- positions: in this course, it was a version of later, Steve and I agreed we could hear the ing with scans of her handwritten poems Dickinson was a _____ (fill in with recluse, wheels of their twelve-year old minds churn- and debating the value of different versions, lesbian, radical); no, Dickinson was ______ing furiously. These moments of group pro- inclusion of variants, and the imposition of (fill in the opposites). When I proposed that cessing are so important, it’s a shame to in- editors. The short comments on poems in we don’t have to choose, that it’s not a ze- terrupt them. And so, we let the silence grow. the Poems section of White Heat indicate ro-sum game of winners and losers or right Finally, another student exclaimed, “yes, I important features and summarize a range and wrong, they are stopped in their tracks. get it now,” and the whole class broke into of critical approaches and interpretations This is a way of thinking not offered to a flurry of excited chatter. Engaging in what that leave room for readers to fashion their them, one they had not considered. I explain Freire calls “dialogue,” a synthesis of action own readings of poems. this practice as a counter to Descartes’ cogi- and reflection that begins with love and ends to and the Western, masculinist opposition with critical thinking (see Pedagogy of the A more specific way I use White Heat posts of mind and body, which elevates rational Oppressed, Chapter 3), these young scholars allows me to tailor class sessions to stu- and logical thinking over the ability to em- began to comprehend Dickinson’s poems, dents’ needs, thereby allowing them to ba- brace paradox and contradiction. I recom- in Marta Werner’s words from Emily Dick- sically design the session’s contents. (For a mend Donna Haraway’s key essay “Situated inson’s Open Folios, “not as still points of more detailed explanation and description of Knowledges: The Science Question in Fem- meaning or as incorruptible texts but, rather, this method, see Thomas Luxon, “Appren- inism and the Privilege of a Partial Perspec- as events and phenomena of freedom.” ticeship in Learning Design for Literature tive” (Feminist Studies 1988). I invoke “in- Courses,” (2016) Dartmouth Faculty Open tersectionality” (occupying different, even In Spring 2020, I taught a version of “New Access Articles. http://digitalcommons.dart- contradictory identities simultaneously), an Dickinson” as a First Year Writing semi- mouth.edu/facoa/58). The night before each idea most of them have heard of. nar for the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality class in which a blog post and, thus, poems, Studies Program at Dartmouth. While the are assigned, I ask students to submit, on the The both/and is also a crucial tool in my course had to be offered online because of the class Canvas site, a short reading response. approach to Dickinson’s poems. What I lockdown, the transition was relatively easy, The prompt asks them to choose a passage have learned from Freire’s critical pedago- because so many of the texts assigned for the (from the poems, letters, or criticism) that gy, from lateral thinking, and from Dick- course were already digital, such as the White they find confusing, troubling or striking, inson herself, is the necessity of resisting Heat blog, which formed the foundation of quote it with the proper citation form (this our seemingly insatiable desire for logical the reading. Sadly, the rush to a remote plat- gives them lots of practice) and write a short narrative, for the either/or. Because if we form prevented our plan to have Steve’s 7th explanation of their choice, focusing on how don’t find it, we impose it onto texts, even graders visit what they called our “college” the biographical or historical contexts of- if, in the case of many of Dickinson’s po- classroom to introduce Dickinson to my first fered by the posts helps to illuminate the is- ems, they strenuously, even actively resist year students. This technique of learners be- sues. Then, I read and organize the respons- it. On this subject, consult Elizabeth Willis’ coming teachers, especially when one group es into groups for class discussion, which is cogent essay, “Dickinson’s Species of Nar- imparts knowledge to those structurally more focused on what students need and want to rative” (EDJ, v18, n1, 2009), which derives powerful, is another method of democratiz- know about texts and how to read them, not its insights from a contextual reading of ing a platform inspired by Freire’s work. what I want them to know. Without fail, stu- “This World is not conclusion.” (Fr373) as dents raise the crucial issues as well as some a Darwinian evolutionary challenge to the As an introduction to the field of WGSS, I had not thought of. This method has the stabilizing Judeo-Christian story of divine this course highlighted three aspects of added benefit of allowing me to “warm” call origins. Although Willis acknowledges that

14 | EDIS Bulletin Teaching Dickinson

“it’s tempting to treat the poem as a riddle we does not quote this line or cite other images from the Junior Colloquium of “I know that are meant to solve,” she proposes approach- and strangely positioned dashes that prevent He exists” (Fr365) and blossomed, by way ing it as offering “a variety of experience a linear reading of the poem and its imagery. of readings in Sharon Cameron and Alex- designed to push the reader’s consciousness Rather, she gets caught up in crafting a nar- andra Socarides on Dickinson’s fascicles, to the brink of concepts that the poem itself rative for the poem (which her thesis implies into a breathtaking exploration of the textual makes no claim to understand.” In the world is about circularity and paradox or anti-nar- landscape of the signifier “Bliss” across Fas- of lateral thinking, “understanding” means rative) and ignores how imagery and punc- cicle 18. And don’t just take my word for its to stand under, not to be liberated from. tuation produce effects of non-linearity and achievement. EDIS selected a chapter of this paradox. This is a classic mistake of young thesis as Best Undergraduate Student Essay This is why, from the beginning of the scholars doing close readings; they get so in 2018. course, I perplex my students by exhorting caught up in the details, they do not step them NOT to search for the meaning of back to see what their readings have actu- Having already endured a term of my radical poems, for their “message,” as they call it, ally discovered. In this case, this misstep is unlearning approach to poetry, this student which they have been taught to do. “Get- aggravated, I think, by the student’s need to was prepped. And though it took her months ting” that “message” has been their measure construct a productive “message,” to make to figure out how to work with Fascicle 18, of success, for which they have been re- sense of a scenario that is about failing to I can now recognize the marks of Freire’s warded all through their schooling. But once choose and the literally eternal debate about injunctions about “invention and re-inven- you “get it,” you can declare the process of the choice. But we don’t have a language for tion,” the dialectical movement between ac- searching, and, thus, learning, completed. A the productiveness of failure, for the rich- tion and reflection, the “restless, impatient, satisfied inertia sets in. Rather, I charge my ness of indeterminacy, or how to incorporate continuing, hopeful inquiry.” This student students to observe closely and analyze how these into a narrative of so-called success. contributed to the critical conversation on the poems make their meanings or actively Dickinson by identifying what she called refuse or confuse meaning and why. That This leaves me questioning: How to release “contextual word variants,” by which she is, before jumping to interpretation, explore students from the tyranny of logic, of nar- means not the usual variant for a word or what and how the poems induce them as rative, of “making sense” in conventional phrase that Cameron works with, but the readers to feel or see or wonder about. ways? The stakes are high, for as Dickinson same word itself changing its meaning given realized all those years ago, “Demur” from its use and position in the twenty or so po- And, yet, even the quickest fall back into the “Majority” and “you’re straightway ems in a fascicle. In tracing these multi-di- these old habits of mind. Take this example, dangerous – / And handled with a Chain” mensional networks, she demonstrated how by one of the brightest students in the class, (Fr620). That is why bell hooks describes these thematic word groups, while sharing from the first assignment I give asking stu- her feminist approach, derived from Freire, certain meanings, also appear to be telling dents to do a close reading of a poem of their as “teaching to transgress.” How can we diverging and often contradictory stories, choice. Since the course is also a writing sem- give our students permission to transgress endorsed by the poet. inar, I encourage good writing habits. And so, what they have been taught? To stand by and at the end of the first paragraph of her essay watch as poems articulate or perform their Reading the fascicles as aesthetic units lib- on “I died for Beauty” (Fr448), the student own form of il/logic? How can we persuade erates readers from the narrowness of inter- formulates the following thesis sentence: them that a proliferation of possible mean- preting a single poem. The kind of lateral ings, even ones that contradict each other, is thinking I want to encourage in students “Enhanced by the poem’s technical com- a richer, more imaginative, more liberated happens when they begin to read the poems ponents, the ultimate message seems to be means of measuring “success”? not as single closed fixed entities unrelat- that a cause’s success is not linear and hing- ed to other poems or texts. Lateral reading es on whether ‘Beauty’ and ‘Truth’ unite.” My last example proposes one rather simple reduces the pressure to produce or induce way out of the above dilemma, especially a logical narrative from a lyric expression. Examining the formal components of the when it comes to reading Dickinson’s partic- Rather, reading the poems and their struc- poem, the students apprehend that they im- ularly narrative-resistant poetry. One of my tures, diction, imagery and themes in the part a lesson about non-linearity and em- students, who had participated in the very order and relation in which their author set bracing opposites (the both/and). How else first iteration of “New Dickinson,” wrote an them, allows us to watch them converse to interpret that startling phrase at the very honors thesis titled “‘A dizzy music’: Tem- with the poems before and after them. It al- center of the poem: “Themselves are One”? poral Loops in Emily Dickinson’s Fascicle lows us to apprehend the dizzying music of Surprisingly, given this thesis, the student 18.” This study grew out of a close reading multiplicity and infinite possibilities.

15 | EDIS Bulletin Poet to Poet

Series Editor, Jonnie Guerra

I am pleased to introduce Bulletin readers to Kristen Tracy, whose wonderful essay is the final installment of the Poet to Poet series under my editorship. Tracy won the 2017 Emily Dickinson First Book Award from the Poetry Foundation for Half-Hazard, and its title poem is reprinted here along with the entertaining story of its origin. Tracy’s poems have been widely published including in the South- ern Review, Threepenny Review, Prairie Schooner, and Poetry Magazine. Also a prolific writer for young audiences, she has a board book series about a bear and a fox coming out with Chronicle Books this year. At various times in her life, Tracy has been a college professor, a high school teacher, and an aerobics instructor. She shares Dickinson’s interest in plants and gardening and spent several years volunteering as a gardener on Alcatraz helping to restore the historic gardens. Out of Idaho by Kristen Tracy grew up in a small Mormon town in Idaho, population 841, near life, death, God, love, nature, and art, I studied my most influential I Yellowstone Park, surrounded by cows, potato farms, and Libertar- mentor. ians. I didn’t know much about poetry until my senior year of high school, when I had a teacher determined to introduce us to poetic meter I learned quickly to trim the narrative impulses in my work, to take and form. I took to it immediately. While I enjoyed this crash course in Dickinson’s lead and allow the musicality of the line to sing and strike. prosody, I enjoyed even more reading the poets and their biographies. There was a precision to her expression that taught me to tighten my At this time, I read all biographies as a potential roadmap out of the own. I learned to wring my lines for the essential parts, and Dickin- conservative Snake River Valley. When I read Emily Dickinson, I felt son’s verse taught me quite a bit about what was essential. Midway an immediate connection with her. From what I gathered by reading through graduate school I worried that many of the poets I knew in real a short introduction of her life, she, like me, had been trapped some- life were unhappy people. Should this matter? Perhaps I should have where. Of course she wrote about death and flowers and her light-sen- tried to meet different poets. Instead, I shifted my career, and began sitive eyes. I also understood exactly how it felt to exist in a place writing for a younger audience. At first, I wrote middle-grade novels. where you didn’t neatly fit. Then I realized there were stories I wanted to write for teenagers. The world needed a funny losing-your-virginity story, I decided. So I wrote I looked to Dickinson as a mentor. I read her work very personally, Lost It, about a girl who loses her virginity underneath a canoe near as if she’d written her poems to liberate and light my own imagina- my hometown. I wrote and wrote and wrote. Over the next ten years, I tion. I loved her work, though at the time I didn’t understand it was published over a dozen books with Random House, Disney-Hyperion, possible actually to be a living poet. My high school English class and Simon & Schuster. ended with Frost and Millay. I wouldn’t discover the depth While writing these novels for a younger audience did take me away of the ambition and talent that from writing my own poetry, it did not take me away from Emily Dick- dwelt inside Emily Dickinson inson. I hunted for ways to include her in my books. In my second mid- until much later. It would be dle-grade novel, The Reinvention of Bessica Lefter, my main character another decade before I took struggles to adapt to middle school without close friends. A teacher an intensive Emily Dickinson tasks her with memorizing a poem; she chooses “I’m nobody! Who course in graduate school while are you?” (Fr260). I saw my chance to introduce young readers to my working on my PhD in Ka- mentor and hoped they would fall in love with her the way I had. I lamazoo, Michigan, far from imagined curious youngsters stirred by her magic, sincerity, and sense my Mormon starting grounds. of play. I hoped after reading my books, they would want to devour her While I took this course, I was entire oeuvre. She’d unlocked so much joy for me. Why not share her? working on writing my own collection of poems. They were Even as I embarked on this new career, I missed poetry. I continued bright lyrics, often braided with to read living poets and regularly attended conferences and retreats. I personal stories. Reading Dick- had a bucket list of poets I wanted to meet, and if possible, study with: inson, digging into her quick Claudia Rankine, Jack Gilbert, Joy Harjo, Robert Hass, Sharon Olds, Photo Credit: Jordan Roberts turns and bold assertions about Billy Collins, and Stephen Dunn among them. During these years of

16 | EDIS Bulletin Poet to Poet

seeking out poets, I was also lucky enough to meet Gwendolyn Brooks and Allen Ginsberg and also to become short-lived pen pals with Sea- The idea for the title poem, “Half-Hazard,” came to me in the mus Heaney. I cut a deal with myself that I had to do four things a year middle of a waitressing shift at an Italian restaurant in Mont- that made me feel like a poet. So I continued to seek out connections, pelier, Vermont. At this point, I had an MA and an MFA, but guidance, and even friends. And most importantly, I also continued to worked as a waitress so I could carve out more time to write. write poems. Because I’d been able to walk away from my conser- As I readied a check for a table I began to think about what vative upbringing, give up friends, endure strained relationships with I’d do after work and I realized: I’m never going into outer family, and hadn’t felt much regret, I realized poetry was anchored in space. I felt real grief over this. I lived in a way to keep my op- me in a different way, a way that I had not truly acknowledged. tions open, but looking at how things stood, it was clear that I would never leave Earth. I wondered where, precisely, had At some point, I realized that I felt like an imposter attending events for I closed the door? I turned it over in my mind until I landed poets. While I’d published many poems individually, I didn’t have a on the problem. Nobody had ever sent a woman to the moon. book of poems. The distinction between having a book and not having I lacked role models. So I wrote a poem to reckon with this a book in the world of poetry is immense. My contacts in the world of catastrophe, and decided it should be a villanelle. children’s publishing could not help me publish a book of poems. My imposter syndrome grew. I felt like a failure. Friends thought I was irrational. I’d been a finalist and semifinalist for many prizes, including Half-Hazard the Walt Whitman Award and the Yale Younger Poet Prize. I’d met and studied with every poet on my bucket list except Joy Harjo. But I’d They can put a girl on the moon right now, I suppose. been writing and publishing poems for twenty years and never won a The details wouldn’t be too hard to crack. book prize. An ex-boyfriend from graduate school had once offered me Dangers here. Perils there. It’ll go how it goes. sharp advice that tumbled through me every time I received a rejection: Frost was the last good poet. The world doesn’t need more poems. Earth faces venoms, disease, foes and woes. Free of that jeopardy she won’t rocket back. I continued to send out my manuscript. One day while dropping my son If you put the right girl on the moon, I suppose. off at preschool I saw I had a missed call from Chicago. My heart leapt. What if it was the Poetry Foundation? I knew that was based in Chica- Some might worry alone she’ll face lunar lows. go. I’d applied to the Emily Dickinson First Book Award but I hadn’t Does a girl who lacks parties turn blue in pitch black? expected to hear anything for weeks. I called the number back. I can’t Dangers here. Perils there. It’ll go how it goes. explain the pure joy that burst through me as Stephen Young told me my manuscript had been chosen as the winner. Twenty years of work was Like Buzz, Neil, and Gene, and above-average joes about to be turned into a book. My publisher would be Graywolf Press. she’ll travel in space boots and wield a screw jack. What else could I want? It turns out there would be a ceremony at the If we put our best girl on the moon, I suppose. Poetry Foundation in Chicago. I’d be there along with winners of other awards, including Joy Harjo, the Ruth Lily Poetry Prize winner. We’ll blast her above every bloom of dog rose. Let her farewell our bright spots along with our wrack. I bought a dress, my husband and young son and I flew to Chicago, Dangers here. Perils there. Who will own how this goes? and we attended the Pegasus Awards. Before I read from my book, I was drenched with praise and awarded a medal. After I read from Prepared for the darkness and cut off from schmoes. my poems, Joy approached and congratulated me. She would go on Whole girl. Half-hazard. On a zodiac track. to blurb my book. I didn’t know life could offer so many rewards. We’ll put that girl right on the moon, I suppose. After the reading we mingled at a nice reception. I was approached Endangered. Imperiled. And watch how it goes. by Poetry Foundation board member and best-selling author Scott Turow, who congratulated me and said, “You’re forever linked to (first published in theNew Yorker) Emily Dickinson. How does that feel?” Is there even a word? I can’t think of a better outcome in life than existing alongside my mentor in every biographical note that will ever be written about me. I have new Credit: Kristen Tracy, “Half-Hazard” from Half-Hazard: Po- momentum and feel packed with ideas. I started out life in a town that ems. Copyright © 2018 by Kristen Tracy. Reprinted with the per- valued beef cattle, potatoes, and the patriarchy. With Dickinson’s help, mission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Gray- I’ve ended up in a far better place. wolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, graywolfpress.org

17 | EDIS Bulletin The Spring 2020 issue of the Bulletin included a reprint of a 1991 essay from the Heath, Massachusetts, Herald about one-time local resident, Josiah Gilbert Holland. The essay, which presented Dr. Holland in somewhat unflattering terms (it was titled “The Prig from Dell”), included the putatively risible information that Holland’s “greatest enthusiasm was reserved for an English novelist named George MacDonald, who now resides in the same literary oblivion as Holland himself.” EDIS member Anne Ramirez offers this article about Macdonald as a corrective. Ramirez recently retired from leadership of the English program at Neumann University, where she still teaches part-time. She studied under the late Dr. Karen Dandurand, and has published three academic articles on Dickinson, as well as over forty other articles and reviews in academic and specialty publications. She has given five presentations at EDIS gatherings.

Subversive Spirits: Common Threads in George MacDonald and Emily Dickinson

By Anne Ramirez

Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet guides a young girl and boy toward have believed. maturity. John 20:29 If Dickinson in fact learned of Mac- Seeing is not believing – it is only seeing – Donald’s writings through their mu- George MacDonald, tual friends, she could have found The Princess and the Goblin, Ch. XXII precisely the kind of reassurance her poems repeatedly long for and I see thee better – in the Dark – sometimes manage to express, from I do not need a Light – someone else equally familiar with The Love of Thee – a Prism be – such doctrines as predestination, Excelling Violet – election, and the substitutionary the- Fr442 ory of salvation. Macdonald’s vision of an all-loving and androgynous God might well have appealed to t is an intriguing possibility that Emily Dickinson, who wrestled with her IDickinson knew and appreciated the writ- received image of the Divine Being ings of her unconventional contemporary as a stern Puritan father: “If God George MacDonald. A Scottish clergyman, would make a visit – / Or only take lecturer, and prolific writer of theological es- a Nap – / So not to see us – ” (Fr437). says, poetry, and fiction, Macdonald became In their very different genres, these an acknowledged influence on C. S. Lewis, two nineteenth-century writers re- J. R. R. Tolkien, L. Frank Baum, Madeleine fashioned the conclusions of their L’Engle, and Neil Gaiman. Recombining tra- similar interior struggles into threads ditional motifs to communicate his distinctive leading out of goblin-haunted cav- vision of the invisible, he harmonized Ro- erns into the light of day. manticism, Christianity, and feminism as few writers had yet done. Macdonald’s chief claim MacDonald was born in rural Ab- to fame now rests on three symbolic fantasies erdeenshire on December 10, 1824 – exactly mained strongly influenced by his Calvinist ostensibly for children, of which The Princess six years to the day before Dickinson – and childhood roots. Meanwhile he absorbed the and the Goblin is arguably the finest. In the in much the same religious tradition. Like popular lore of the Scottish countryside, and two Princess fantasies, MacDonald conveys Robert Burns and D. H. Lawrence, who also went on to study German Romanticism and remarkably subversive themes through his sprang from the laboring class, MacDonald folklore, as well as medicine and theology. He portrait of a supernatural female figure who contrived to get a good education, yet re- was also influenced by the English Romantic

18 | EDIS Bulletin poets, particularly Blake, and became close “Yarn of Pearl” in her upper room and en- to Thoreau’s reference to hearing a different friends with Lewis Carroll, author of the Alice closed the results in letters – a living echo of drummer – and Dickinson’s “Better than Mu- fantasies. his fictional lady of the tower. InThe Princess sic” in which she celebrates a “different . . . and the Goblin, the Princess Irene discovers melody” that she is dedicated to “Humming Although MacDonald was ordained in the En- an old staircase leading to the secret tower – until my faint Rehearsal – / Drop into tune – glish Congregational Church, he held a pas- rooms of her great-great-grandmother, who around the Throne – ” (Fr378). torate for only three years. His conservative becomes her guide and refuge. One evening parishioners respected him but were disturbed the princess and her nurse lose their way home Thus, one of MacDonald’s most striking con- by his unconventional views – ranging from and are assisted by the young miner Curdie, tributions to Victorian literature is his thor- the hope that animals might enter heaven to whose courage and quick wits help him drive oughly androgynous vision of heroism. In the belief that clothes given to the poor should away the troublesome goblins of the region by the sequel, The Princess and Curdie (1882), still be in decent condition. While suffering improvising and singing songs – something Irene regrettably plays a reduced role, but from chronic ill health, he thereafter support- the evil creatures cannot abide. How Dick- the grandmother is even more prominent, as ed his wife and eleven children through writ- inson would have enjoyed this tribute to the she sends Curdie (now several years older) ing, guest preaching, and lecturing. power of verse! One recalls her letter to Hig- on a challenging mission to save the king's ginson, “I sing, as the Boy does by the Bury- health, household, and capital city from in- The Princess and the Goblin was published in ing Ground – because I am afraid – ” (L261). ternal corruption and greed. The lady of the America as well as England in 1872, (when tower disguises herself as a housemaid, the Emily Dickinson’s niece Mattie would have Dickinson’s own references to goblins are only servant at court willing to assist Curdie. been of an age to enjoy it with a child's un- quite as sinister as MacDonald's, often with In the final apocalyptic struggle, her hosts of derstanding). That same year, MacDonald sexual overtones, as in “The Soul has Ban- white pigeons descend to hasten the defeat of came to the United States to lecture on Burns daged moments –,” in which and Shakespeare in several East Coast cit- the speaker “feels some ghast- ies – staying on three separate occasions in ly Fright come up / And stop the home of Dickinson's friends Josiah and to look at her – / Salute her Elizabeth Holland (Raeper). Dr. Holland, a with long fingers – / Caress her great admirer of MacDonald, was then edi- freezing hair – ” (Fr360). In the tor of Scribner's Monthly Magazine, where novel, Curdie is captured and the Scottish writer's Wilfrid Cumbermede had imprisoned by the goblins while recently been serialized (Shaberman). Even spying on their plans to kidnap though MacDonald’s name does not appear the princess as a bride for their in the extant correspondence, the Hollands prince. However, Irene’s grand- might well have mentioned their literary guest mother has spun a magic thread to Emily Dickinson. for the child, telling her to fol- low it whenever she feels it with During his American tour, Macdonald met her finger, until it leads her back Emerson, Whitman, Whittier, Holmes, and to the grandmother's tower. Ac- Stowe, and made friends with Samuel Clem- cordingly, the courageous prin- ens (Mark Twain), who also had a Calvinist cess finds her way into the cav- upbringing, and whose daughters delighted erns and rescues the astonished in MacDonald’s fantasies. Perhaps MacDon- Curdie, thereby enabling him to ald served to illustrate not only that the fears, warn her people and lead them doubts, and struggles for peace of mind that in defending the kingdom when often beset Twain (and Dickinson) are rela- the goblins do invade. Some of tively normal for a sensitive person of their Dickinson’s lines resonate un- cultural heritage, but also that they can be al- cannily with Irene’s confident leviated through thought and study. attitude: “I see thee better – in the Dark – I do not need a Light Conversely, MacDonald would surely have –.” Curdie eventually feels the been intrigued if the Hollands told him of the thread with his finger as well, Frontispiece to The Princess and the Goblin (1872), by reclusive yet affectionate friend who spun her a tactile metaphor analogous Charles Folkard.

19 | EDIS Bulletin the king’s enemies. Afterwards a great feast is women’s studies and found numerous schol- by George MacDonald’s works (or even vice held, at which she serves all the company with ars of Jewish and Catholic heritage deploring versa?) merits further historical investigation, her own hands. the total absence of feminine images of the but even if there were no direct influence, the divine in Western culture, it dawned upon me affinities between these two subversive spirits Feminist critics might see Macdonald’s lady they would not have grown up as I did, reread- are only the more remarkable. The echoes res- of the tower as a unique variant of the “mad- ing the Princess fantasies until the pages came onating between Dickinson and MacDonald woman in the attic”; Sandra Gilbert and Su- loose from the binding. Fortunately, by 1993, could be as coincidental as their shared birth- san Gubar discuss Emily Dickinson herself as the Jewish scholar Gerda Lerner published days, but they are nonetheless significant inas- the culmination of this tradition embodied in The Creation of Feminist Consciousness, in much as they support our image of Dickinson the characters of other women writers – and which she traces the subversive feminist tra- as a comparatively normal gifted individual choose the epigraph for their influential study dition running throughout Western culture within the literary and sociological context of from George MacDonald’s Lilith. Like Mac- from the third century to the late 1800’s. After her era, rather than as the morbidly depressed Donald, Dickinson uses the motif of spinning devoting a full ten pages to Emily Dickinson, wraith still circulating in popular stereotype. as an emblem of a woman’s power: “The Spi- Lerner eloquently concludes, Despite the dominance of Victorian patriar- der as an Artist / Has never been employed chy, MacDonald envisioned the grandmother – ” (Fr1373); and in another poem, the spider By choice, she had moved her life into meta- sitting in her hidden tower spinning threads unwinds its “Yarn of Pearl” from its “Silver phor. . . . Her feat was subversive, in the best for those who seek and find her, even as Emily Ball” (Fr513), much like the one Irene re- tradition of women’s resistance to patriarchy. Dickinson sat in her upper room spinning her ceives from her grandmother. Even though . . . She found a way out of the conditions “Yarn of Pearl” (Fr513) into her “Letter[s] to many of the particular poems mentioned her life presented to her, and in so doing she the World” (Fr519). Both contributed strands herein were written prior to Macdonald’s fan- dismantled the cage of restraints which pa- to the thread of feminist consciousness in cre- tasies, there are nonetheless striking affinities triarchal definitions had placed on women of ative literature. between these two writers in their imaginative talent. She transformed “the house of her fa- re-purposing of similar cultural imagery. ther,” which she never physically left and to whose rules she so ostentatiously submitted, The figure of the grandmother is clearly the into a free temple of ungendered humanity, Works Cited supreme being in her fictional universe. She is where the soul stood naked and unencum- both model and guide, never implying that she bered, open at last to all possibilities. Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. “A is answerable to any greater masculine entity. Woman White: Emily Dickinson's Yarn of A lengthy article could be devoted to the bib- Lerner repeatedly emphasizes that feminist Pearl.” The Madwoman in the Attic. New lical and theological allusions associated with consciousness and scholarship kept arising Haven, Yale, 1979. her. She can manifest herself in many forms, independently with limited impact until the but the ability to see her (or feel her thread) nineteenth century because so few women Lerner, Gerda. The Creation of Feminist depends on the character of the beholder. previously had the chance to discover the Consciousness. New York, Oxford, 1993. Apparently omnipotent and omniscient, she contributions of women before them. Extend- rarely intervenes directly in human events. ing this observation into more recent years, it MacDonald, George. The Princess and If a reader wonders why she does not simply appears that Virginia Woolf never read Emily Curdie. 1883; New York, Dutton, 1949. eradicate the goblins by magic, MacDonald Dickinson – and Lerner herself never cites offers no more answers than Job received to Gilbert and Gubar’s study, written fourteen ___. The Princess and the Goblin. 1872; similar questions. years earlier – yet somehow I had the good New York: Dutton, 1949. fortune to read all four. Long before reading What makes MacDonald’s fantasies so pro- Elizabeth Petrino’s superb analysis of literary Petrino, Elizabeth. “Allusions, Echo, and foundly subversive is that the grandmother's echoes in Dickinson’s art, not always attribut- Literary Influence on Emily Dickinson.” gender is never defended, explained, or pre- able to conscious intention, I had been tracing EDJ XIX.1, 2010, 80-102. sented as a hindrance to finding, seeing, or similar echoes or parallels between Dickinson believing in her. It is simply taken for granted, and other writers who “Sang / To keep the Raeper, William. George MacDonald. Ba- not needing justification. Thus, MacDonald's Dark away” within a subversive feminist tra- tavia: Lion, 1987. young readers would not know that such fe- dition. George MacDonald is one such writer. male images of the divine were particularly Shaberman, Raphael Bernard. George unusual if no adult were at pains to tell them The possibility that Emily Dickinson’s later MacDonald: A Bibliographical Study. De- so. When I first began the systematic pursuit of life and art may have been directly enriched troit: Omnigraphics, 1990.

20 | EDIS Bulletin What’s Your Story?

The Bulletin is grateful to Diana Wagner for her editorship of the What’s Your Story? series, which has long served to introduce readers to artists, musicians, and many other Dickinson readers with a unique story to tell about their exposure to the poet’s work. Please contact the editor, Dan Manheim ([email protected]) to suggest subjects for the series or to propose a new series editor. Far More Than “Ten Pivotal Moments” in the Making of Martha Ackmann By Eleanor Heginbotham

n this year of COVID terrors and fevered “I understood it.” One dramatic example of Ipolitics Martha Ackmann has produced a how “the poem has continued to follow me lively, sane picture of Dickinson’s life that throughout my life” involved a tragic drown- reviewers praise – “Radiant prose, palpable ing of a beloved professor while saving some descriptions, and deep empathy for the poet’s young kids at a river near Middlebury’s Bread sensibility make this biography extraordi- Loaf, where Martha worked on her MA. At nary” (Kirkus starred review); Ackmann of- the service, when the poem was read, the ex- fers “those small, insignificant moments that actness of the final line, “First – Chill – then suddenly blossom into wide, disturbing vis- Stupor – then the letting go” overwhelmed tas of significance” Washington( Post); “this her. vivid, affectionate chronicle” of “a complex and warm-blooded individual” (The New An almost literal “pivotal” moment happened Yorker); and more. She laughs at the timeli- one evening during her Ph.D. studies at the ness of her title, one chosen from nine pos- University of Massachusetts. How she nearly sibilities: These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal tripped over something on the day she met Moments in The Making of Emily Dickinson. Mary Hampson at the Evergreens (readers of What moments go into the making of a book the Bulletin know about Hampson’s tenancy distinguished for its scholarship and for its of Austin’s home) is quite a story: the “old page-turning-interest accessibility? woman came tottering out” and sensed the in- inspiring at least one future Pulitzer award terest of the intern / docent who was walking Here are a few in the life of Ackmann, whose winner; her current essay on “ghost inher- slowly past the house en-route home. “What thirty years as a professor at Mount Holy- itances” (about the influence of the grand- have you read and what do you know?” she oke; leadership of EDIS (past president and mother whom she did not know in life) and a asked Martha, who was canny enough in her organizer of two of its conferences); and new book on the horizon about Dolly Parton. answer to be invited in to see the house. “It co-founder (with Joanna Dobson and the late Focus for now on her Emily Dickinson mo- smelled old – still smelled of kerosene,” re- Karen Dandurand) of Legacy, have helped to ments, culminating in Fevered Days. members Martha. Between the disheveled shape the Dickinson community. The recipi- parlor (newspapers from 1890 mingled with ent of a Guggenheim and a Radcliffe Institute As a child, Martha reports, she hid in the for- those from 1965) and the kitchen Martha for Advanced Study fellowship, Ackmann’s sythia bushes of her Missouri home to read. tripped: Mary Hampson said, “That’s Ed- writing on Dickinson has appeared in The At- Her father, a cartographer, and her mother, a ward’s brief case.” And this will take your lantic, The Paris Review, and LitHub. nurse, did not encourage the luxury of time breath away: Martha says there was a train spent with books, but her surreptitious habit ticket still attached, perhaps from the last ride For this conversation we’ll leave out Ack- prepared her for the “pivotal moment” when of Edward Dickinson’s life. mann’s moments in her other worlds – books the 16-year-old met Emily Dickinson in Mrs. on women of achievement in space flight Brandon’s English class and “woke up.” At No wonder Mount Holyoke students in the and baseball (the latter transformed to a hit the time, she says, she “couldn’t explain a gender studies and literature classes she play); her early years as a high school teach- single line” of Mrs. Brandon’s choice for the taught for 30 years loved their professor. er and journalism advisor, which resulted in class, “After great pain.” but here’s the thing: She told great stories, as she does in her

21 | EDIS Bulletin What’s Your Story?

biographies, and she ended Dickinson se- ed to learn about the source of Dickinson’s rities already), coming down with generous mesters – semesters in which students were staggering imagination, where did it come sympathy for Higginson: “Not criticism but encouraged to research in primary, hitherto from? How could a recluse see so far?” That’s constancy; that is a mighty gift.” Ackmann is uninvestigated materials – by inviting them, what she told Madeleine Blaise (The Nation- most forceful in talking of Mary Lyon, whose two at a time, to climb up to the Homestead’s al Book Review); for this interview destined celebration of the intellectual possibilities of cupola. Invariably, she reports, they were si- for Bulletin readers who already know much women still hovers over Mount Holyoke, “as lent as they looked through the window as about Dickinson herself, Ackmann narrowed thick as can be,” says Ackmann. “She was a Dickinson had. Fevered Days is the culmina- the focus of the conversation from that broad formidable woman who said to her charges tion of those years and of her own particular goal to the interaction Dickinson had with that women have a right to think.” To take on interests. three characters whom Ackmann sees un- those who have decided that Dickinson left derrated or misunderstood by many previous Mount Holyoke after one year because she One such interest was the quixotic meteo- biographers. could not witness to salvation as required, rologist of Amherst, Ebenezer Snell, whose “to get away from the line that it was a sti- weather reports for most of the “ten pivotal First, Helen Hunt Jackson. “When I stepped fling environment,” Ackmann says that she moments,” which serve as entries to a thor- back and thought about” the depiction of the “did a math project.” How many completed ough, fact-driven account of most of Dick- relationship between the exact contemporar- the three-year program? The “math project,” inson’s life. She opens the book with Snell; ies, “I felt something was missing.” Often proving that the majority of Dickinson’s class even the footnote about him brings a smile. seen as a lopsided mutual admiration soci- left after one year, led her to the conclusion Snell’s daughter Sabra picks up the job after ety, in which Jackson recognized the greater that “Dickinson was not the exception; she Snell’s death, prompting a touching reflection genius of Emily to such an extent that after was the norm.” on the loss of fathers from Emily. The book pleading with her to publish, she took “Suc- ends with a lovely account of the weather on cess is counted sweetest” for her antholo- Along with shedding the light of her own the May day: “It was a beautiful day. But- gy A Masque of Poets. Ackmann provides kindness and good sense on these three fig- tercups and violets dotted the grass. At the community context for Helen, introducing ures, Ackmann answers other problems in backdoor of the Homestead . . . a half dozen us to her writer-mother and depicting her Dickinson biography with her knowledge workmen lifted Emily’s coffin. Then the quiet childhood personality as so forceful that she and her common sense. Of romantic attach- procession headed out past the barn, across could not remain in her first local school and ments, for example, about which recent the fields, and into the light.” The weather tracing the development of the woman who movies have seemed convinced, Ackmann reports are more than a device: they remind would go on to fight fiercely in documentary says, “To read metaphor as biography is the reader of the real woman, herself a con- writing and in the novel Ramona on behalf very tricky.” Of Sue, she says, “no one noisseur and reporter of winds and snows of exploited victims of injustice among Indi- knew her better or understood her better,” and rain, in an actual world, freed from the ans at the hands of the Spanish and American but in answer to the question of how much legends and literary jargon that have sprung governments. Ackmann speaks passionately farther the relationship went or, in answer up around her. about Jackson’s interest in publishing Emily to a related question, who is her candidate Dickinson. “She held her own,” says Ack- for the “Master Letters,” Ackmann points Ackmann’s familiarity with the Amherst mann. “She pushed – ‘it is wrong to the day out that, although she has a primary proba- terrain and her relish for research allow us you live in, that you will not sing aloud’: that ble candidate, she doesn’t name him in the to feel the sticky stuff that made taffy into is putting it to her.” Dickinson clearly recip- book. These are “examples of a handful of parties for young people, to see “the Chinese rocated the admiration – even awe – writing unanswerable questions,” she says with laundry and the oysters and the livery sta- to Jackson’s widower a letter elegy that rivals care. One question, we agreed, does ap- ble” Higginson walked by from his visit to those about Gilbert to Sue: “Helen of Troy pear answerable: toward the end of her life the Dickinsons, to hear the choir practicing will die, but Helen of Colorado, never.” and until his death, Emily Dickinson had as Dickinson lay dying. Such precision an- a sweet if unconsummated love affair with chors Dickinson in her time and place, but Just so, Ackmann extols the famous figure her father’s friend Judge Otis Lord. The let- Ackmann’s goal is transcendent: in digging who linked Jackson with Dickinson, Thom- ters, whether all were actually sent or not, into the life of Dickinson – as she did into as Wentworth Higginson, whom she rescues reflect the love (and some sizzle) Dickin- the Mercury 13 women and Toni Stone, the from the notion that he never understood son had for “My lovely Salem” and “My first woman to play professional baseball in Dickinson. Ackmann traces the braided lives Church” – and, though Martha doesn’t the Negro League – Ackmann wants to see and publications of the trio (Jackson / Hig- “What is America.” Her goal is high; “I want- ginson / Dickinson, the first two being celeb- Continued on page 25

22 | EDIS Bulletin Studio Sessions

Series Editor, Barbara Dana

Robert McDowell reports that he “walks and talks with Emily Dickinson every day.” His collection Sweet Wolf: New and Selected Po- ems, and his novel, Emily & Virginia, will appear in the Spring of 2021. In the latter, Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, and others return to this world to protect and assist a young woman artist.

I Ask an Old Question of Emily Dickinson in Her Bedroom

By Robert McDowell

hen I was young, I felt rather details of that night, but the next day I I don’t remember now what we ate Wcontrary around other devotees boarded a train to return to New York or even talked about during the meal, of Emily Dickinson. She was, after all, and my walk-up fourth floor studio on though I’m sure we must have covered my poet. Hadn’t she gifted me with so 105th Street between West End Avenue my background, the writing program and many fever dreams I was convinced and Riverside Drive. I returned to anoth- our workshop. I don’t remember the de- we’d known each other in her lifetime, er term at Columbia University’s MFA tails, but I vividly recall the conversation and wasn’t she keeping company with Program where I was especially looking we had afterwards. Dick waved me to sit me always, here, now? Hadn’t she elec- forward, on three separate occasions, to next to him on a couch while Betty set- trified me to my core when, all alone at sitting at table with James Baldwin, Ste- tled into a wingback chair facing us. Dick her grave in deep winter, snow sudden- phen Spender and the daughter of Ezra said he’d heard from others that I loved ly opened up and I plunged down to my Pound. Emily Dickinson and her poetry. Was it waist as her excited laughter echoed off true? I said yes and told them about my the tombstones? They did not disappoint, though some- experience at Emily’s grave just a few one else, for me, shone brighter that year. weeks before. Dick’s eyes really did It’s a cliché, I know, yet I felt my heart I had also looked forward to working twinkle when he smiled (so did Betty’s) in my throat. I felt panic and astonish- for a term with the Pulitzer Prize-win- and they were smiling. ment as I waited, waited, stuck there. As ning poet, Richard Eberhart. Eberhart’s my mind settled, I thrilled to the power- warm, empathetic Presence was a tonic “Take my hand,” he said, extending his ful awakening sensation that Emily had for students made weary by other young- right hand. Nervously, I glanced at Betty, somehow reached up through the snow, er teachers whose egos frequently over- who encouraged me with a nod. I took his grabbed me by my boots and yanked me whelmed whatever teaching skills they hand in mine. He gripped my hand tight down to her. But only half-way; why did brought to our graduate school party. and held it, holding it for such a long she stop? My soul streaked from doom to Eberhart’s calm demeanor and passionate time I grew even more anxious. What desire, an arc that has never flattened out, love of poetry made coming to workshop was this about? Finally, he released me but has rather pulsed brighter with deep- a joy. It was a peak mentor-apprentice re- saying, “there, now you can always say er, brighter colors as 40-plus years have lationship for me. that you held the hand that held the hand piled up on both of us. that held the hand of Emily Dickinson.” We hit it off so well that one day after A jolt raced up and down my spine and I “Why did you stop!” I cried on that late class Dick surprised me by asking me to knew that what he said was true. Before I winter graveyard eve. dinner in his rooms at the Chelsea Hotel. could ask, Dick explained. I was nervous and thrilled when I arrived Finally, reluctantly, I extricated myself and met Betty, his wife who was the fem- “When I was a young man teaching at a from my snow trap, crawling out of the inine double of her husband. Both were prep school in New England,” he said, “I snow on hands and knees. Standing on gracious, affectionate and lively. They visited Amherst and met an old woman rubbery legs, unwilling, I walked from were so gracious and lively they almost who in her youth had known Emily. She the grave back to the town, not feeling glowed. Thy rather resembled Aos Sí – was one of the MacGregor children who at all in my body. I do not remember the Irish and Scottish pixies. played around the Homestead with Emi-

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ly’s niece and nephew. She doorway. Unmoving, I was also one of the children breathed in and savored the who received the famous air, recognizing instantly the baskets full of baked good- Poet’s presence there, too; ies, especially gingerbread, Emily announced herself. lowered by rope from Emi- ly’s second-story window. Slowly, skillfully, I looked On occasion, she walked around the room, admiring hand-in-hand with Emi- the reconstructed wallpa- ly as the poet pointed out per and paint, noting each botanical wonders in her object, yes, with reverence. garden. ‘So,’ she told me, To my left the bed, her bed, ‘now you’ve held the hand the bed she slept in and that held the hand of Emily died in, and on it, one of Dickinson!’ I’m passing the her favorite shawls. I want- transmission on to you.” ed to reach down and touch it; I got close, but I resist- I gulped air. I thought I ed. Instead, I held my open might cry as I thanked palm over it and felt much Dick over and over. I as I do when I hold my hugged him; I hugged hands out to a tree. I felt Betty. I might have even pulsating energy emanat- danced around the room. ing up from the shawl, her I’m not sure how I left or energy. I don’t know how got back to my apartment, long I stood there before but it’s likely my feet never moving, yet when I did I touched the ground. I felt was conscious of moving giddy for days and I think it slowly, carefully. was a week before I washed my right hand again. Final- I imagined her writing, yet ly, I did so, reluctantly, yet she would not be writing if I felt it was ok because the she were there and I were molecules and atoms from Photo Credit:: Arielle Verway there. She would want to Emily’s hand had by then play. She would want to been absorbed and mixed with my own. ant Street, which overlooked the grave- laugh, the writing saved for later. This yard and is now a gas station (impres- Hour is Communion, she said. So, I Forty-four years later I was back in sively, even the teenage boy who filled shared the fact (she already knew it) that Amherst for a week of immersion in all my rental car’s tank knew that the poet on July 26th, 1745, twenty-two women things Emily. It was July, it was hot and had lived there). We prowled the book- played in the first recorded women’s green and buzzing, and Emily’s Presence stores, sat in coffee shops and restaurants cricket match in England. They were accompanied me everywhere. More than and spent many hours in and around the dressed all in white. Emily recited these once a nearby stranger paused to gaze Homestead, taking tours, chatting up the lines: quizzically at me; I had been caught guides and docents and enjoying cof- speaking out loud to the Poet. I felt her fee with Jane Wald, the Museum’s gen- My white dress beside me as we wandered around both erous and gracious director. Finally, as Becomes me of the town cemeteries, retraced her girl- had been prearranged, I spent an hour – As I become hood steps to and from the site of Am- Alone – in Emily’s bedroom. Worthy – wearing it herst Academy, now represented only by a plaque, and lingered at the site of the I arrived at 5:30 on July 26th, standing There’s never been anything standoff- long-gone family home on North Pleas- stock-still just a few feet inside the ish about Emily, not in my experience.

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I moved with reverence, absorbing the standing behind me, felt her hand on my ter again. I knew. Every day since that buttery light and gazing out the four win- shoulder, heard her laugh and her voice. first day, Emily answered my “why did dows. It was no trouble imagining sheep you stop” by never stopping. grazing on the Dickinson meadow across “Those lines are growing, Bearded,” she Main Street, though clusters of buildings said, meaning, I supposed, too long and “I am always pulling you down to me!” have replaced grass and sheep. I won- shaggy. She was right, of course, and I she said. “I never stopped. I’ve been with dered if she’d ever perched on the win- laughed, too. The pressure of her palm you all your life, and here you are.” dowsills and there she was, like witch- on my shoulder lingered then lifted. As craft, hooting with pleasure like a bird. it did, I wanted to follow, tracking her She was right. As she said the words, spirit-scent just as Carlo had often done. I felt Truth. I was alive in that magical I felt fluid seeing what Emily saw and sees; I realized I felt peaceful, at ease in her realm of Emily’s “Internal difference – / we were communing across the absence room, as if I’d been there “centuries be- Where the Meanings, are – .” That is the of time. I gazed at the images of George fore.” Wait! Could I have been Carlo, ultimate destination of her poetry odys- Eliot and Elizabeth Barrett Browning on her giant, shaggy Newfoundland? That sey, of her life, and mine. So, for as long one wall, at her mother’s primitive paint- really set her off and she laughed like a as I am able, I take my fences and imag- ing above the stove, at photographs of waterfall. ine the deliciousness to come, the har- Gib, her nephew and Judge Lord, at the vest of new Bulletins and the discovery exact replicas of her bureau and tiny writ- It was Emily herself who marked our of unread fascicles in the world next to ing desk. Two chairs were original, one time. “You’re going in five minutes,” she this one. at her writing desk, and I saw her sitting said. “Is there anything you want to ask there later, writing, or gazing out the win- me?” Time to go. I lingered behind her chair dow deep into the eternity and immortali- and thought to peer out a south win- ty of worlds in her mind. “Yes,” I said aloud. I had been saving it dow to the lawn below, and there, star- for the end of this encounter. We both ing up at me – a plump rabbit standing I don’t know when I sat down at the card knew the answer before I spoke again; on its haunches. I smiled, for that, too, table set up for me, but I settled down yet, I persisted. “44 years ago, why did was Emily’s playfulness. Together, we somehow and began to write. Once I be- you stop? Why didn’t you pull me down walked downstairs, out of the house, into gan, I wrote without pause until I felt her all the way to you?” Her thrilling laugh- the balmy twilight.

Ackmann, continued from page 22 of her own, is also a gifted speaker – with a ful looking face and hair described by Mabel wonderful sense of humor. She has spoken Loomis Todd, who first saw Dickinson after mention this as we talk, for the language in colleges and universities, NASA installa- her death. What conclusions Martha drew in which she writes him. In her book, itself tions and Major League Baseball events as from the exercise I don’t recall, but I drew a model of prose that “breathes,” she says well as on NPR, CNN, and ESPN, but the from it that a Dickinson scholar with that of the puzzle of the “Master”: “As searing one this interviewer remembers best is for much imagination and wit and organiza- as her words were, they may have provided her (EEH), a “pivotal” moment in a life as tional abilities was someone to get to know. release. Emily always turned to language to full of Dickinson as that of Martha’s. At the Talking to her about her terrific book and her soothe or lessen her distress. . . . She nev- 2001 EDIS conference in Trondheim, Nor- multi-faceted career has been a fine way to er shied away from looking anguish in the way – she produced a presentation that no begin that process. eye or contemplating its aftermath. To do one there will forget. At the time no pictures so was an act of dominion over misery and had surfaced purporting to be an aging Dick- Eleanor Heginbotham, Professor Emerita at resistance to inertia.” inson, so practical Martha Ackmann took Concordia University in St. Paul, and Lecturer the one we all know from her 16th or 17th in English at the University of Maryland, She never shied away from celebrating de- year to detectives who search for children is the author of Reading the Fascicles of light, either, and Martha Ackmann, who re- who have been missing for years. What the Emily Dickinson: Dwelling in Possibilities. counts the sadness of Dickinson in careful, detectives did to age Dickinson was pretty She leapt at the opportunity to the interview contained, but sometimes soaring language horrifying, a decided contrast to the youth- former EDIS President and a long-time friend.

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International Dickinson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLqfi4HxHvY&t=3078s

he opening session of the 2020 meet- article will be a translation of the Chinese Cuihua Xu’s “The World Holds a Pre- Ting established an appropriate theme version, published in 2019 in China. dominant Place in my Affections: Emily for the whole conference, as many inter- Dickinson’s Letters to Abiah Root” was national members who had never attend- Next, Juan Carlos Calvillo and Min-Hua an abstract of a book consisting of two ed an Annual Meeting in Amherst were Wu offered their thoughts on translating interpretive essays and a transcription of able to join the online sessions. “Interna- Dickinson. Calvillo, from the College the letters. One essay is about nature and tional Dickinson” was a preview of the of Mexico, presented an excerpt of his culture, and the other is about how Dick- Fall 2020 issue of the Emily Dickinson forthcoming book, “Emily Dickinson: A inson represented herself in this early Journal: contributors presented brief Study of Poetry in Spanish Translation.” correspondence. versions of their articles. The remind- He discussed the supposed untranslat- er of the truly international character of ability of poetry. While acknowledging Finally, Enikö Bollobás offered a sum- this international society was one of the Robert Frost’s famous statement that mary of her monograph. Her presenta- points of greatest value of the meeting. “poetry is what is lost in translation,” he tion, “Our Visitor from Infinitude – On said that translation has been achieved on a Dickinson Monograph in Hungarian,” The first presenter was recently-elected countless occasions: “a sublime, unique, presented the poet as a subversive think- Board member Baihua Wang. Her pa- irreparable event.” Wu’s paper was about er and innovator. The book’s four chap- per, “’Will You Ignore My Sex/Gender?’ “Translating Yu Kwang-chung’s Chinese ters address “Formal-Linguistic Innova- Emily Dickinson’s 1862 Letters to T.W. Article ‘Emily Dickinson: A Bee Burst- tions” on language and form; “Modes Higginson Revisited,” was organized as a ing into Eternity’ into English.” Yu, Wu of Thematic Treatment,” on forms of play in five acts: Act I, A Young Contrib- said, explained the peculiar difficulties knowing; Modes of Thinking and Trop- utor; Act II: “I enclose my name”; Act III, of translating certain Dickinson poems, ing,” on connecting forms of knowing “If my Verse is alive”; Act IV: “I am in based on Ezra Pound’s theory of the with figurative tropes; and “Dickinson’s danger – Sir – ”; Act V: “Myself the only three dimensions of poetry, sound, im- Concept of Gender” on metaphor and Kangaroo among the Beauty.” The EDJ age, and usage. catachresis. Dickinson @ a Distance I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDoUeFuCjRk

wo panels addressed directly the topic of marriage, and the always looming possibility Englanders could experience an exotic way of Tthe meeting, “Dickinson at a Distance.” In of early death. Dickinson’s friendship with life that revealed their connection to transna- the first, six speakers, speaking for five min- Hattie Merrill was disrupted by all three. tional capitalism. References to Tunis, Trip- utes each, presented a range of reflections on oli, cochineal, rum, gems – all are embedded the topic. The first, Cheryl Weaver-Amenta, Next, Adalberto Müller, from the Universi- in an emerging cosmopolitanism. The poems from SUNY-Buffalo, presented a piece of dade Federal Fluminense, in Brazil, present- are consequently shaped by these associations her research about “Disruptions and Futurity ed a new view of Dickinson’s geographical even as they help to shape a reader’s under- in 19c Women’s Friendship Networks.” Her references in “Dickinson Latina: Imaginary standing of them. specific topic was one of Emily Dickinson’s Geography.” He connected her frequent use least known friendships from her time at Am- of geographical references in her poetry to Maria-Milagros Rivera Garretas, professor herst Academy. Harriet Merrill was one of “the her use of foreign commodities in her life. For emerita of the University of Barcelona, spoke five,” along with Abby Wood, Abiah Root, example, Dickinson mentions Brazil in four about Dickinson and ancient traditions of mo- Sarah Tracy, and Dickinson. Their friendship poems. In 19th-century US households, Bra- nasticism, in “’Immured in Heaven!’ The Dis- models of the disruptions to friendship seen zil would have been associated with Brazil tance of Love in European Beguine Mysticism more generally in antebellum women’s friend- threads and brazilwood – two commodities and in the Poetry of ED.” Rivera suggested ship: anxiety about the distance confronted by that were familiar because of the expansion that Dickinson wrote at least three poems in- epistolary communication, separation due to of trade fueled by imperialism. Remote New spired by the beguines – lay women living in

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monastic communities. Dickinson could have down to the wallpaper, the Elizabeth Barrett adaptations. Saucedo examined Castellanos’s read about the tradition in The Princess, or the Browning portrait, and the painting of “The translation of one poem, “If I should’nt be Beguine, A Tale of the 12th Century, an 1835 Fishing Party” by the poet’s mother. What alive” (Fr210), finding that the second stanza novel by Lady Sydney Morgan. The beguines Uhr has created, she says, is nothing less than of the translated version is more bitter, more were defined by their symbolic independence an immersive Emily Dickinson research en- urgent. Translation of the words of someone from men: their chastity meant sexual free- vironment. Poems on the bookshelf can be distant gives the translator an opportunity to dom, the freedom to love whom you wanted to opened and placed around the room, complete say, in Castellanos’ words, “that which we love. They lived in small communities – two to with images of the original manuscript (from wish to have found, formulated, invented”; or ten people – and by the 19th century were part the Emily Dickinson Archive). There are white as Saucedo put it herself, “we sometimes find of an international fashion related to women’s boards, on which visitors can take notes, write in distance what is closest to us.” sexual pleasure. Rivera hears echoes of their poems, or draw pictures. These too can be tak- concerns not only in poems that connect mo- en off the wall and placed around the room. In the final short presentation, Joby Thomas nastic and sexual imagery, like “Immured in The curious may contact Uhr at Julia.uhr@ Chirayath spoke from Madhya Pradesh about Heaven!” (Fr1628), but also in Dickinson’s colorado.edu. how the current experience of quarantine pro- famous “Man of Noon” letter to Sue, in which vides a perspective from which to reconsider she referred to “these unions by which two The fifth presenter, Rocio Saucedo Dimas, dis- Dickinson’s self-imposed confinement as nei- lives are one / this sweet and strange adoption” cussed Rosario Castellanos’s translation/revi- ther madness nor aberrant. She could travel (L93). sions of Dickinson in her presentation, “Trans- to far away places while sitting in her home, lating Distance: Rosario Castellanos’s ‘If I just as EDIS members were doing in the very EDIS members learned about an entirely dif- shouldn’t be alive.’” A novelist, playwright, moment. She kept in contact with loved ones ferent way of thinking about Dickinson and and journalist, Castellanos saw distance as es- – and with future generations – through notes Distance in Julia Uhr’s presentation, “The sential to translation and to creation: “to be, for and messages. Confinement became for her Stillness in the Room: An Escape Room a brief moment, the incarnation of the other, the condition of connection with the world Game and Immersive Emily Dickinson Read- admired in the distance.” She translated only through space and time. He discussed two late ing Room in Virtual Reality.” The final scene three poets: Saint-John Perse, Paul Claudel, poems about distance and expansion, “The in Uhr’s escape room game is set in a virtual and Emily Dickinson – “the only kangaroo Stem of a departed Flower” (Fr1543), and reality replica of Dickinson’s bedroom, right among the diplomats.” Her translations were “Obtaining but our own extent” (Fr1573). Dickinson’s Letters, a Preview - By Cristanne Miller https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-Ugml2tkmw&t=1113s n the first keynote address, Cristanne thought to be missing but in fact held by ple, a letter to Abigail Cooper, dated “about IMiller presented information about the Sister Mary Jane Powers in Milwaukee. 1876” in the 1958 edition, can now be dated much-awaited new edition of Dickinson’s as mid-March. letters, which she has been preparing with Moreover, the new edition will include all Domhnall Mitchell. The edition, forth- correspondence written by Dickinson that is But of course the 1858 edition did not indicate coming in 2022, will replace the 1958 in any sense addressed as a letter. The in- that there were any letters to Abigail Cooper three-volume set edited by Thomas H. clusion of 198 letter-poems presents a sub- – only to “Mrs. James S. Cooper.” Abigail Johnson and Theodora Ward, which, while stantially different impression of Dickinson received 27 letters; James S. received none. recognizably out of date in a number of as a correspondent, as well as including cor- Mid-century conventions about gender and respects, continues to have a strong influ- respondents who did not appear in the 1958 class led Johnson and Ward to identify mar- ence on any scholarly projects that engage collection, such as Gertrude Vanderbilt. ried women by their husband’s name. Even Dickinson’s letters (which is to say, any so intimate a friend as Elizabeth Holland is scholarly project). Miller and Mitchell have redated many let- indexed only under the name of Holland, Jo- ters, some of them quite substantially. Re- siah Gilbert. The new edition also reveals the So, what’s new? Since the 1958 edition, 28 search in Ebenezer Snell’s weather records, extent to which Dickinson circulated among new letters have been discovered or recon- newspaper archives, and Lavinia Dickin- merchants, shopkeepers, and servants. structed. Some have been published else- son’s diary has enabled Miller and Mitchell where, but some will appear in print for the to date weather and topical references in let- Some of the changes in the new edition are first time, including two letters that were ters with much greater accuracy. For exam- due to simple misreading or misrepresen-

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tation of a word in a manuscript, as when enumerating them along with unsent pieces Dickinson as a writer. Treating such pieces as Johnson and Ward fail to decipher the name of letters to Susan Dickinson or to other cor- complete suggests that she “primarily does of a homeopathic medication; and some are respondents. Some of these fragments are on not draft letters.” She may retain verbal ges- due to Miller and Mitchell’s different way stationary, and are in no sense fragmentary. tures for later use, but otherwise, Miller said, of construing letters. Johnson and Ward re- Miller and Mitchell read these pieces of prose the speed with which she writes suggests that constituted some manuscripts as individual as a repository of words and ideas that she her drafts that have survived were exceptions, letters, when evidence suggest they should wanted to preserve, to use either in letters or not the rule. not have been, and the new edition clarifies poems, not as drafts or fragments of some- the sequence and context of letters Dickinson thing longer. Johnson and Ward dispersed The keynote ended with Miller citing a recent received from correspondents, significantly statements that lay together on the same page, MLA paper on editorial practice presented the series that Helen Hunt Jackson sent in the and in other ways make these statements by Jerome McGann: one can make a “deter- 1870s. more fragmentary than they actually are. minative, not a definitive edition.” The 2022 Letters will be determinative for a time: it Of especial interest for anyone reading deep- As with other changes, the new edition’s will help shape a generation of scholarship. ly in the letters is the inclusion of what John- different conception and presentation of “re- But new discoveries will continue to call for son and Ward labeled as “Prose Fragments,” tained prose” gives a different impression of a future revision of the text.

Away from Home: A Virtual Trip to the Museum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JmT6LKoN4A

highlight of the virtual meeting was demanding. The process took several days. imply somewhat incompatible emotional A“‘Away from Home,’ A Virtual Trip After water was heated in kettles, the dress registers, it serves to show why Dickinson to the Museum.” Five guides at the Emily would be washed, rinsed, hanged, ironed, may have been drawn to the image. Dickinson Museum presented objects from and mended. The Dickinsons hired workers the collection and built essays around the ob- to help, but many servants (not the Kellys) At least one member of the audience had no ject – all of which were presented as narrated would refuse the work as too arduous. idea that a music case was called a “Canter- slide presentations, and all of which proved bury.” Greg Mattingly, whose presentation startlingly illuminating about sides of the po- Next, Melba Jensen presented “Fire Within: about the object consisted largely of music et’s life that one does not regularly consider. Emily Dickinson’s Stove.” Combustion, she recordings, said that Dickinson’s sheet music noted, was for Dickinson a frequent image for case, basket, and drawer included a collec- After an introduction from Director Jane poetic invention. The Pleasant Street house tion of marches, dances, and minstrel songs. Wald, during which she revealed that work used to have a central chimney – she quoted The most fascinating part of his presentation has just begun on a project to catalog the Melville on how tiers of hearths would center included recordings of the Hutchinson Fam- whole collection for the first time, Becky all household activity. In the Homestead, cast ily Singers, a Massachusetts-based group of Lockwood presented the first object – “Emily iron stoves fit into extant fireplaces, to heat performers who were popular throughout the Dickinson’s White Dress.” This was an object individual rooms: the more castiron was ex- 1840s and 50s, and who at one point toured with which everyone was familiar. But Lock- posed, the more space would be warmed. The England with Frederick Douglass. wood presented it in such a way as to show iron foundry just east of Amherst, in Worces- Dickinson’s connections to family, town, ter – Wheeler Iron Foundry – made iron for Polly Peterson told the audience that the pic- country, and world. Dressmaking, Lock- all sorts of industries, including the railroads ture over the mantelpiece in the bedchamber, wood reminded the audience, occupied much so closely tied to the Dickinson family. As “The Fishing Party,” was painted by the poet’s of the poet’s time. Seamstresses would cut Dickinson’s poem “To my small Hearth” mother in 1827. The picture, which shows an the fabric, but the actual needlework done by (Fr703) illustrates, the stove was in the 19th apparently enslaved black man serving a par- families. Seamstresses would work for sev- century a figure rich with associations:- dis ty of white people, raises the question, what eral days just preparing the fabric; the work cussion, gossip, jest, intimacy. When the poet led Emily Norcross Dickinson to paint such a was so badly paid that some actually had to used language of forges, she alluded to joy, scene, and what does it mean that it hung in resort to prostitution to make ends meet. Once safety, and satisfaction; also Christian purifi- the house years later? Peterson discovered that a dress was made, care for clothing was still cation, sin and redemption – refining. If these a version of the scene painted by Lydia Hos-

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mer in 1812 hangs in the Concord Museum, Finally Melissa Cybulski dis- but the original was “Angler’s Repast,” paint- cussed Dickinson’s trip to Mount ed by George Moreland in 1789. All versions Vernon in 1855. Her object was include the same five figures. It was widely a band box with blue decora- available as a mezzotint, and it served as a pat- tions and a picture of the Capitol tern for needlework: Emily Norcross had also Building, acquired during the created a needlework piece based on same five-week period when Emily drawing. To decode the image, Peterson noted and Lavinia accompanied their that slavery was an emblem of prosperity and father to Washington. Little is prestige, like a house and a carriage, long after known about the trip, except the institution was abolished in Massachusetts. that the Dickinsons had a copy She quoted Dickinson’s poem “Color – Caste of Morrison’s Stranger’s Guide – Denomination” and noted that while the poet to the City of Washington, and did largely surmounted her biases regarding that they did visit Mount Ver- caste and denomination, she never quite lost non. Dickinson’s letter to Eliz- her discomfort about color, and perhaps never abeth Holland about the trip describes how themselves speechless; her impressions even registered the painting’s message about they glided down the Potomac in painted were accredited in many other travelers’ vis- privilege. boat, mounted a tangled pathway, and found its to the shrine.

Dickinson Scholars in Conversation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUEeIbF9554

ome of the most satisfying and illuminat- generic person dissected, when the poem is mentioned comes from another Connecticut Sing sessions at annual meetings over the about internal feelings, not physical ones. River author, Jonathan Edwards, who wrote years have come when a roomful of Dickin- Metaphors meld into one another; figure in an early reflection about the impossibili- son lovers have had the opportunity to work piles on figure; and it all leads – where? Does ty of thinking about nothingness: “we must through a poem with the guidance of people the person thus lost in figuration live or die? think of the same that the sleeping rocks who have spent their lives thinking about the Maybe the confusion is the point. dream of.” poet. Dickinson Scholars in Conversation brought together two of the scholars who Eberwein, who was introduced to contextual Fascicles, letters – the possible contexts helped make Dickinson the most important studies as a graduate student at Brown, asked multiply as frantically as Dickinson’s own US poet, Jane Donahue Eberwein and Su- what kinds of context the poem engages. A figures. In the Q&A more readings were sug- zanne Juhasz. Each scholar recounted a brief body unable to report what it is experiencing gested, and audience members blew up the story of her history teaching Dickinson, then could recall testaments of extreme anguish chat with further possibilities. We learned, offered ways in which the much discussed from Civil War battlefields. Dickinson could for instance, that there is no word meaning poem “After Great Pain” continues to fasci- likewise be in dialog with the Puritans on the “grown” in Spanish, and that the Scottish nate them as readers. topic of “circumference”: the extreme end of Common Sense philosophers, brooding consciousness. The image of “Quartz con- about how to name emotions or internal sen- Juhasz confessed that, as a poet (who has tentment” made Eberwein think, proleptical- sations, insisted that metaphor is the ground written a great deal of prose) she was “still a ly, of Emerson’s gravestone (not to mention of thought. formalist at heart.” She said that for her there that of Austin Dickinson, reflected an audi- are two problems with the poem. First is the ence member). In more distant anticipation, Overall, this session became an exemplary figurative language: there is no part of the Eberwein found it hard to read the poem illustration of what can happen when many poem that is not figurative. Why? To what ef- without thinking of people in intensive care people focus all their attention on a highly fect? Second is the body imagery: “Nerves,” from Coronavirus, unconscious, between life suggestive but fundamentally ambiguous “Heart,” “Feet,” – why, she asked, is the and death. But the most potent context she poem that they all love.

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Dickinson, Disaster, Dimensions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JlVt_Wffe

he papers for this panel had been accepted Jamie Fenton addressed Civil War imag- horizontally. Similarly, in “I think To Live Tfor presentation at the canceled American ery in “’Dread, but the Whizzing’: Emily – may be a Bliss” (Fr757), the gap between Literature Association meeting in San Diego; Dickinson’s Catastrophic Micro-Histories.” Bliss and the mind’s capacity to think about panelists were invited to present a highly con- Taking her point of departure from the minié it reveals how the mind distorts the seen and densed version for this shorter session. ball that killed Frazer Stearns, Dickinson known. Theorists say the flâneur experienc- used what she had learned about this new es the street in “stages”; but there is no such In the first paper, “’Nerve in Marble’: Emo- technology to take up the point of view of stasis here, no stable way to ponder some- tion, Disaster and Geology in Dickinson,” the soldier who hears the “Whizzing” before thing dynamic. For Dickinson, O’Malley Amanda Lowe described Dickinson’s images the obliterating impact: she “assumed the said, the experience of space in the poem is of metamorphic rock. The woman who had new information seamlessly into her style.” not simply an exercise in perception but a studied Edward Hitchcock’s geology text- Poems like “If any sink, assure that this, means of engaging with the other. book at Amherst Academy found in these now standing –” (Fr616) show her reaching slowly transforming rocks an emblem for out in her poetry to imagine the experience Lastly, Jan Leonard Maramot Rodil, in “The slow change in the aftermath of destructive of distant soldiers. Possibility of a Queer Lyric: Reading Dif- events. The slow conversion of elements in ficulty in Dickinson’s Poetics,” used “Her rocks like granite and marble stretched the In “Emily Dickinson and the Politics of breast is fit for Pearls” (Fr121) to interrogate human capacity to conceive of time. Hitch- Time,” Maria O’Malley explored the rela- what we speak of when we speak of a queer cock had observed that solid rocks represent tion of the flâneur, a figure one might more lyric, an inherently unstable construct. The not permanence but constant flux. Dickin- obviously associate with Whitman, to Dick- poem presents an “I” and a “Her” and an son found the same unimaginably protracted inson’s interest in “the ephemeral, the fleet- erotic context, and thus invites a queer read- plasticity in persons that Hitchcock found in ing, the contingent.” “They shut me up in ing. But reading the poem that way involves rocks. In “I’ve dropped my Brain” (Fr1088), Prose” (Fr445) presents the radical instabili- a contextualization that makes any such the analogy to metamorphosis reveals the ty of the figuring mind, the mind in perpetual reading provisional. To read Dickinson’s such slow change in the context of a human flux. The poem hinges on “still” as it moves queer lyrics means keeping all possibilities disaster. vertically and longitudinally, rather than open.

30 | EDIS Bulletin Annual Meeting

Dickinson at a Distance II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fknP6O_TNNQ

he reflections of this session involved honor. “Time avails not,” as Whitman wrote. self-reliance, in which, as she put it, he “re- Treading Dickinson during a pandemic, For those who love the poetry and appreciate gards non-service as an essential part of a per- when isolation and loss are constant. the woman who wrote it, “Distance ‘tis,” till fect service.” Discussing the poems “It came her phosphorescent presence. his turn to beg” (Fr1519), she spoke about Martha Nell Smith began the session with a re- how distance could reanimate affection, when flection on “Distance and Beloveds.” She pre- In contrast to Smith’s evocation of Dickinson’s contact might, in a reference to Aesop’s fable, sented a small page of Susan Gilbert Dickin- ravishing presence, Amy Nestor presented “revive the snake” of enmity. son’s notes notes on her intimate memories of “Sliverings – Variations upon ‘Each that we her beloved Emily: “Emily’s love of flowers”; lose takes part of. . . .” Nestor spoke about In the next paper, Cynthia Kreuz-Uhr offered a “Affection was her strength”; “Loved to play Dickinson’s sense, articulated in “Each that ludic reading of “This is my letter to the world” music piece ‘The Devil.’” Such notes, she sug- we lose takes part of us” (Fr1634) (from a let- (Fr519). Her paper, titled “Reading the Letter gested, reflect what Emily and Susan would ter to Frances and Louisa Norcross after death Never Written,” presented the poem as a frac- have considered “phosphorescence of knowl- of Lord), that “Anguish finds out” (L891). tal on the concept of a letter. “Letter” means edge,” as opposed to simple facts. On the other Deaths, Nestor said, can “strand us outside the alphabetic unit, epistle, agent (“one who lets side of the list is a quotation from Walter Pa- reach of futurity.” With each death, we lose a – blood letter”), and even God – who can be ter, “A Spring-Tide of Intellectuality,” from portion of what constituted us. Nevertheless, represented as a single letter, Hei, I, X. Dick- his writings about Heraclitus. Then below it, “A crescent still abides.” From these reflec- inson’s “Letter to the world” compacts the the note reads, “Distance ‘tis till thyself, Be- tions on a poem about personal loss, Nestor maximum power into the smallest verbal unit. loved. E.” Smith noted that Susan wrote the turned to the mass losses that take their portion Christ is the alpha and omega. In Dickinson’s first biographical sketch of Emily Dickinson, by transforming what we’ve taken for granted. time, the ampersand was a letter of the alpha- her obituary. In it she emphasized her way Only memory can make restoration. bet – the final letter, according to Dickinson’s with words, her talk, her kindness, her unself- own New England Primer. So if the last shall ishness. Susan’s own kindness showed when In “’I gave him Leave to Life’: Dickinson’s be first, then the final letter of the poem moves she thanked Thomas Wentworth Higginson Non-service and Emerson,” Yanbin Kang – to the beginning to make “Ethis,” or more co- for bringing Dickinson’s works to the public presenting at a distance – discussed Dickin- herently, “Et his” – “Et” meaning “and,” or – when arguably she ought to have had that son’s “creative conversation” with Emerson’s ampersand: the last shall be first.

Dickinson on Remote Suffering - By Eliza Richards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys6oz8Tu7nU&t=7s

n the second keynote, Eliza Richards that is distant, yet brought close by mass livering news of suffering and the feelings Idrew on her work on media coverage media? A number of Civil War poems invite aroused in the audience. of the Civil War (Battle Lines: Poetry and us to consider the relation between personal Mass Media in the US Civil War [2018]) and public experiences of suffering. What At times, the poet seems to take take a clin- to address “Dickinson and the Problem of connects the poet’s experience to the experi- ical approach to suffering. With no clearly Remote Suffering.” Noting that the topic ence of others in the world? embodied speaker and no sense of who’s of Dickinson and the Civil War may seem suffering in the poem, news itself becomes “done with” by this point, she suggested that During the Civil War, Richards reminded us, the active agent. “Sorrow,” she famously we may in fact just be ready to start to look the news itself was news: newspapers and wrote, “seems more general” than it did; at her work more closely. magazines depicted images of suffering (of “it’s dangerous to value, for only the pre- white soldiers, less so of slaves and black cious can alarm” (L298). If so, Richards With a nod to the pandemic, Richards asked, soldiers) with a kind of immediacy never asked, then how is one to care for those how are we to respond, not to immediate seen before. Dickinson repeatedly meditat- who are not precious? If sorrow is for the suffering but to mass suffering – suffering ed on the difference between the agent de- precious, then what develops at a distance

31 | EDIS Bulletin Annual Meeting

is pity: pity is what converts suffering into Richards focused on two poems. In “The – and certainly there is no “wind with fin- literature. Name of it is ‘Autumn’” (Fr465), images gers.” of bloody mayhem take a purely aesthetic Yet pity is somehow too vicarious, too dis- turn, as if the speaker is giving up on trying As a coda, Richards mentioned “The Black engaged. Richards argued that this was the to make herself feel something. Likewise, Berry – wears a Thorn in his side” (Fr548), issue for Dickinson, and it’s what accounts in “They dropped like Flakes” (Fr545), which she called a “repulsive poem.” Here, for the voicelessness of the speaker – the mass death is rendered in an aesthetic way. distancing the representation of suffering lack of a determinative individual express- Some have felt the poem is sentimental, seem positively unethical, even complicit. ing pity; the abstraction of the place of ac- with its neatly conclusive final lines, “But Dehumanizing strategies that may be intrigu- tion in the poems; and the “telescoped” per- God can summon every face / On his Re- ingly problematic in representations of dis- spective, which conveys the enormity of the pealless – List.” But the conclusion does tant battle fields are intolerable in represen- subject without simultaneously giving any not adequately dispel the instability of the tations of enslavement. Nowhere is it clearer guidance about what to think of it. images: “Stars” don’t drop, nor do petals that pity does not necessarily humanize.

Emily Dickinson Archive: A User’s Guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdnKztEmXPE&t=1511s and Dickinson’s Birds: A Public Listening Project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIFiW5J5xOo

aturday afternoon highlights included only a relatively small number of the 500 scholarly edition.” Her archive combines Stwo sessions, the recordings of which species that nest in the valley. Birdsong manuscript references with audio files and every lover of Dickinson will want to save is “the most constant, evanescent sound sonograms of bird calls, “in relation to the in their file of favorite websites. In the she recorded through writing in an age unfolding hours of the day, the revolution first, Leslie Morris, Gore Vidal Curator before the technologies of recording had of the seasons, and the calendar of her of Modern Books & Manuscripts at the been invented.” Birds’ sound-making is writing life.” The archive includes maps Houghton Library, presented “A User’s place-making. It “orients humans to our that detail the arrivals and departures of Guide” to the Emily Dickinson Archive. own ecological emplacement in nature, birds as well as the geography of the po- Many who regularly use the Archive cer- locale, and time.” For Dickinson, birds et’s own calls, marking the changing con- tainly learned that they had not been using told the season and the hours of the day. figurations of her correspondence over the it as optimally as they could. While we can’t get “clairaudient access” years. to Dickinson’s avian soundscape, we can Immediately after Morris’ lecture about capture the songs she would have heard. Werner concluded her presentation with the Emily Dickinson Archive, of which she In what years are her bird allusions most an invitation: she hopes that all who come is General Editor, Marta Werner described numerous, and in what years do their num- to her site, which will go live in January her own latest venture into the world of bers diminish? And what can her reactions 2021, to contribute to it. She welcomes archives, “Dickinson’s Birds: A Public to birds tell us about the “changed meters” field recordings; field notes; reflections Listening Project.” Werner’s presentation between her sound-world and our own? on the significance of birdsong to our own was as lyrical as any bird call, and more sense of emplacement; close readings of than any of the other presentations here To answer these and other questions, Wer- Dickinson’s bird writings; creative re- recounted deserves to be heard in its en- ner had prepared what she calls “a digi- sponses to Dickinson’s birds in poetry, art, tirety. Birds crowd Dickinson’s work, tal humanities work of the ‘third wave,’ and music; and meditations on the place of Werner said, even though the poet names combining elements of the archive and the the lyric in the Anthropocene.

32 | EDIS Bulletin Reviews of Publications

Emily Dickinson in Song: A Discography, 1925-2019 Compiled by Georgiana Strickland By George Boziwick

EDIS members know Georgiana Strickland as the legendary long-time editor of the EDIS Bulletin. She also spent many years as the managing editor at the University Press of Kentucky. Her discography of settings of Dickinson’s poems is available as a .pdf file through the Humanities Commons website: https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:28401/. It will prove valuable to anyone with an interest in music, poetry, ekphrasis, or digital humanities generally.

arlier this year, my library colleague Pau- response to Lowenberg’s bibliography. She including recordings of the eight songs from Ela Hickner, Music Librarian and Head of notes that since the publication of Lowen- his cycle which Copland orchestrated between the Fine Arts Library at the University of Ken- berg’s 1992 inventory of musical settings, 1958 and 1970. tucky, Lexington, posted to the Music Library “one problem for Dickinson’s readers wanting Association listserv (the other MLA) an an- to learn from these settings has been locating It is abundantly clear from Lowenberg’s book nouncement of the online publication of Geor- performances that could be heard.” and Strickland’s discography that the musical- giana Strickland’s Emily Dickinson in Song: A ity of Dickinson’s words finds a vibrant com- Discography, 1925-2019. I was thrilled to see With the publication of Emily Dickinson in panionship with many composers. Strickland that the discography had been published and Song, a vision for achieving that goal has been notes that “a frequent explanation heard from gratified to know that Strickland’s discography realized. Strickland states in her preface that many composers attributes her appeal to the was just a click away from being added to hun- her discography contains nearly 450 record- music that permeates the poems, that leaps off dreds if not thousands of academic and public ings dating back to 1925. “More than half of the page,” or that the music seems to compose libraries research pages around the world. them [were] released in the present century itself (which has been my experience). Dick- at a rate sometimes exceeding 20 recordings inson scholar Emily Seelbinder observes that Our fellow Dickinson scholar, Georgiana per year. They include well over 2,000 perfor- “[Dickinson] had music in her blood.” Strickland has amassed an enormous amount mances of settings of more than 500 Dickin- of information vital not only to music librar- son poems. Nearly 300 composers are repre- The first and most robust section of - Strick ians, but to audiophiles, Dickinson fans and sented, the majority new to the canon since land’s discography is a listing of “Recordings Dickinson scholars worldwide. Not since Car- Lowenberg's inventory.” 200 YouTube videos with Vocal Works by a Single Composer.” Just leton Lowenberg’s Musicians Wrestle Every- are represented, covering the genres of classi- a glance through this section tells the informed where (1992) have we seen anything compa- cal, jazz, pop, rock, and others. reader that every mainstream and middle rable regarding a compendium of the musical stream concert music composer is represent- settings and adaptations of Dickinson’s work. As expected, the largest category of settings is ed. The many recognizable names here are The main focus of Lowenberg’s book was to still that of the traditional “art song.” Choral too numerous to cite, but a short curated list document as many composers’ published and settings by concert composers are also well of composers may give any curious reader of unpublished scores of settings of Dickinson’s represented. The earliest listing in the discog- this review a number of names worth explor- poems and letters as were available to him at raphy is a 1925 recording from the RCA Vic- ing: Ernst Bacon, John Duke, Daron Hagen, the time. tor archives. This acoustic recording features Juliana Hall, Lori Laitman, Alice Parker, Leo Richard Crooks singing James G. MacDer- Smit, Gwyneth Walker, and Eric Whitacre. In a paper delivered at the EDIS Conference in mid’s 1908 setting of “If I Can Stop One Heart Paris, in 2016, Georgiana Strickland discussed from Breaking,” a poem which (according to Aside from the hundreds of concert composers the impetus for her discography, which was Lowenberg’s book) saw four settings in the whose names and music are a joy to recall, or then fully underway. She quoted from a review decades after Dickinson’s poems were first in- perhaps hear for the first time, so too is the list of Lowenberg’s work: “As Jonnie Guerra says troduced to the public. The most well-known of performers. Many are associated with the in The Emily Dickinson Handbook, ‘these composer’s setting of Dickinson’s poems is of last century, and many were, or still are, cham- works [listed in Lowenberg] constitute signif- course the 1949-50 song cycle for voice and pions of new music. These include baritone icant interpretive acts from which Dickinson’s piano by Aaron Copland. Sixty recordings are Sherrill Milnes, pianist (organist) Harry Huff, readers have much to learn.’” Strickland’s represented in Strickland’s discography, fea- and conductor Robert Shaw; Jan DeGaetani, discography then is clearly an interpretive turing all or some of Copland’s twelve songs, with pianist Leo Smit, or pianist Gilbert Ka-

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lish; singer Helen Boatwright with pianist/ The most intriguing section of Strickland’s from Lowenberg’s book is a listing of more composer Ernst Bacon; and singers Phyllis discography contains a selection of non-vocal than fifty non-commercial sound recordings Curtin, Renée Fleming, Thomas Hampson, musical works inspired by Dickinson's poetry (cassettes) that he received from composers Barbara Hendricks, Heidi Grant Murphy, but not actually using her words. They include while he was assembling his bibliography. For Lucy Shelton, Paul Sperry, Eleanor Steber, and Mary Howe’s Three Emily Dickinson Pieces the first time, these recordings (housed in the Dawn Upshaw. for string quartet; Leon Kirchner’s Five Pieces Lowenberg Papers at the University of Ne- for Piano [originally “The Twilight Stood,” six braska, Lincoln) are cited in Georgiana Strick- The second section of Strickland’s discogra- Emily Dickinson songs for soprano and pia- land’s discography. Some of the composers phy concerns compilations, listed alphabet- no]; a reading of Dickinson’s “Ample make represented on these non-commercial record- ically by record title. As in the first section, this bed” over music by Marvin Hamlisch ings include Samuel Barber, Robert Convery, the emphasis here is on concert music and the for the movie Sophie’s Choice; and Hunter Lee Hoiby, (from Paul Sperry’s “Joy in Sing- art song. While musical genres outside of the Johnson’s Letter to the World: Concert Suite ing” series, New York City, 1991); David Leis- classical concert world, specifically folk, rock, for Orchestra from the Ballet for Martha Gra- ner, Max Morath, and Marilyn J. Ziffrin. and pop, have been slower to draw on the well ham. Also in this section are pieces that may of standard poets for lyrical inspiration, Strick- seem like representative novelties but in fact Both Lowenberg and now Strickland have land’s discography contains quite a few entries fill a void for instruments whose repertoire is mined and assembled an aggregate of mate- of interest in these areas, many, as Strickland more limited. A case in point is selections from rials featuring Dickinson’s work that will re- notes, “arising from the worldwide fascination Copland’s Twelve Poems arranged for tuba main available as a valuable and permanent with American culture.” and piano and recorded at the International compendium. In Strickland’s case, one would Tuba Euphonium Conference! Unfortunately hope that her discography, particularly in its Of note is the American folk artist Josephine no arranger of the tuba version is credited in compelling YouTube content, will be given Foster’s compilation of Dickinson settings, this YouTube video, which begs for a discus- periodic updates by those who have the re- “Graphic as a Star”; the Viennese Gerhard sion on the dearth of metadata associated with sources and interest to do so. Pilz’s setting of “The Brain Is Wider than the twenty-first century online formats,. Sky”; and “What Does it Mean to Love?” Strickland herself may have articulated the by the American folk singer Rosalie Sorrels The final section, Recordings with Works added value that her discography carries with (1933-2017), which includes a reading from in Miscellaneous Formats, includes radio it. In discussing the many settings of the Cop- Dickinson’s correspondence, “When much in broadcasts, works for stage, film, and -bal land songs included in her discography, Strick- the woods as a little girl” (L271). let, interviews, and readings with music. My land notes that “These are excellent songs, de- personal favorite is Emily Dickinson Poems: serving of wide performance and appreciation, As in the world of classical music, the geo- A Sequence of 42 Dickinson Poems with Mu- but their dominance of the list probably means graphical reach of Dickinson’s poetry is clear- sic from Her Time. This was a 1998 recording that dozens of equally fine settings by other ly established in the jazz world, and dozens produced and sold for the benefit of the Emily composers are largely passed over by musi- of citations in this discography attest to that. Dickinson Museum. The recording features cians seeking performance material. ” Certain- They include Kobert, a jazz trio from Norway, selections from Henri Bertini’s Progressive ly the dissemination of this discography will featuring settings by ensemble members Dan- and Complete Method for the Pianoforte, a go a long way to addressing that issue. iel Buner Formo and Ingrid Lode; the Swiss/ method book which Dickinson owned and Dutch singer and composer Susanne Abbuehl; mentions in her correspondence (L7). Other Dickinson scholar Jonnie Guerra reminds us and the German pianist and composer Julia highlights from this section include a work for that the pages of the EDIS Bulletin have long Hülsmann. Of interest to Dickinson scholars is vocal soloists, chorus, and narrator billed as a been a “vehicle for disseminating information the citation for Jane Ira Bloom’s Wild Lines: “Theatrical/Musical Experience”; a selection about artistic adaptations of the poet’s life and Improvising Emily Dickinson; which was of Thomas Hampson’s streamed audio pro- work,” certainly under the editorship of Geor- heard at the EDIS annual meeting in 2017. grams Song of America; and three operas, two giana Strickland, and continuing today (Emily Searching under the words “jazz,” “folk,” or of which are online performances. Dickinson Handbook). Georgiana Strickland’s “rock” may not bring up everything in the dis- Emily Dickinson in Song: A Discography, cography, as not every entry contains a genre Georgiana Strickland has given us more than 1925-2019 continues that trajectory of artistic term designation. Assigning appropriate genre a discography. Emily Dickinson in Song is a exploration and dissemination of Dickinson terms can be understandably difficult; howev- resource on Dickinson and recorded music and the performing arts, as she sets before us a er, this is a good reason to explore and enjoy that continues where Carleton Lowenberg left permanent and most welcome musical feast at the breadth of the whole document. off. Beyond the scope and therefore missing the Dickinson table.

34 | EDIS Bulletin Reviews of Publications

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Emily’s “Five Little Coppers” By Krans Bloeimaand nly think! We can send a letter before “Olong for five little coppers only, filled with the thoughts and advice of dear friends.”

The February 1845 letter addressed to Abiah and the large cents are from my collection. As you can see at a glance, the pennies are far from “lit- tle” in size and are about the same diameter as a Kennedy half dollar. The cents in the photo are ones that were in circulation at the time Emily wrote the letter, so my assumption is that she was referring only to the monetary value of the coins.

This brings to the surface, at least in my mind, the subject of Emily's relationship with money. It might make a good topic for a future article!

35 | EDIS Bulletin Dickinson at a Distance

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