NON-PROFITNON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION ORGANIZATION U.S.U.S. POSTAGE POSTAGE paipaiD D TheThe e emilymily Dickinson Dickinson i ninTTernaernaTTionalional s socieocieTTyy CHICAGO,CHICAGO, IL IL PERMITPERMIT NO. NO. 2422 2422 The Emily Dickinson International Society
EDISEDIS Bulletin Bulletin c/oc/oc/o akaaka aka associates,associates, associates, inc.inc. inc. 645645 N. N.Michigan Michigan Avenue Avenue SuiteSuite 800 800 Chicago,Chicago, IL IL 60611 60611 eeeeeDDDDDisisisisis 20092009 200920092009 aa aaannualnnualnnualnnualnnual mm mmmeeeeeeeeeeTTTTTinginginginging eeDDisiseee ee2010D DD2010DDisisisisis 2010 2010 20102010i 2010ninTTernaerna aa aaannualnnualnnualnnualnnualTTionalional mm mm mcee eeeeceeeeonferenceonferenceTTTTTinginginginging VolumeVolume 21, 21, Number Number 2 2 November/DecemberNovember/December 2009 2009 Volume 22, Number 1 May/June 2010 “The“The“The Only Only Only News News News I knowI knowI know / Is/ / Is BulletinsIs BulletinsBulletins all allall Day DayDay / / From /From From Immortality.” Immortality.”
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CoverCover Photo Photo Courtesy Courtesy of ofEmily Emily Seelbinder Seelbinder CoverCoverCover PhotoPhoto Photo CourtesyCourtesy Courtesy ofof of EmilyEmily Emily SeelbinderSeelbinder Seelbinder PhotosPhotos Courtesy Courtesy of ofEllie Ellie Heginbotham Heginbotham and and Georgie Georgie Strickland Strickland www.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.orgwww.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.orgwww.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.orgwww.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.orgwww.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.orgwww.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.org PhotosPhotosPhotos CourtesyCourtesy Courtesy ofof of EllieEllie Ellie HeginbothamHeginbotham Heginbotham andand and GeorgieGeorgie Georgie StricklandStrickland Strickland www.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.orgwww.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.org BodleianBodleian Library Library OxfordOxford All All Souls Souls College College BodleianBodleian Library Library Emily Dickinson International Society Officers President: Paul Crumbley Vice President: Martha Ackmann Secretary: Stephanie Tingley Treasurer: James C. Fraser Board Members Barbara Dana Suzanne Juhasz Nancy Pridgen Jed Deppman Cristanne Miller Martha Nell Smith Cindy Dickinson Marianne Noble Jane Wald Jonnie Guerra Elizabeth Petrino Kathleen Welton Ellen Louise Hart Vivian Pollak
Legal Advisor:Barbara Leukart Nominations Chair:Ellen Louise Hart Membership Chair:Jonnie LegalGuerra Advisor: Barbara Leukart Bulletin Editor 1989-1990: Cristanne Miller Dickinson and the Arts Nominations Chair:Barbara Chair: Dana Ellen Louise Hart Bulletin Editor 1990-1991: Margaret Freeman Chapter Development Membership Chair:Nancy Chair: Pridgen Jonnie Guerra Bulletin Editor 1991-2002: Georgiana Strickland Book Review Dickinson Editor:Barbara and the KellyArts Chair: Barbara Dana Bulletin Editor 2002-2009: Michael Kearns Chapter Development Chair: Nancy Pridgen Journal Editor:Cristanne Book MillerReview Editor: Barbara Kelly Bulletin Editor:Kathleen Welton 2010 Bulletin Committee: Martha Ackmann Barbara Dana Bulletin Editor 1989-1990:Cristanne Journal Editor: Miller Cristanne Miller Bulletin Editor 1990-1991:Margaret Bulletin Editor: Freeman Kathleen Welton Barbara Kelly Bulletin Editor 1991-2002:Georgiana Strickland Georgiana Strickland Bulletin Editor 2002-2009:Michael Kearns 2010 Sustaining Members Martha Ackmann Diana Fraser Jack Capps James Fraser Sheila Coghill Cristanne Miller Scott Donaldson Gary Lee Stonum Jane Eberwein Ethan Tarasov David Forsyth Robin Tarasov
2010 Contributing Members Ellen Beinhorn Alice Fulton Jo Ann Orr Mary Elizabeth Bernhard Jonnie Guerra Carol Pippen Marisa Bulgheroni Eleanor Heginbotham Vivian Pollak Diane Busker Eleonore Humbert Nobuko Shimomura Carolyn Cooley Suzanne Juhasz Maxine Silverman Barbara Dana Lois Kackley George Stone Scott Donaldson Richard Tryon Donna Dreyer Polly Longsworth Robert Eberwein CindyNiels Kjaer MacKenzie Kathleen Welton Judith Farr Daniel Manheim TracyHiroko Winkler Uno
EDIS gratefully acknowledges the generous financial contributions of these members.
EDIS Bulletin (ISSN 1055-3932) is published twice yearly, May/June and November/December, by The Emily Dickinson International Society, Inc. Standard Mail non-
profit postage is paid at Chicago, IL 60611. Membership in the Society is open to all persons with an interest in Emily Dickinson and her work. For further information,Bulletin andcontact the PaulEmily Crumbley, Dickinson President, Journal EDIS, Department of English, UtahBulletin State University, only). Membership Logan, UT inquiries 84322 or should [email protected]. be directed to James Annual C. Fraser, dues 159 are Prospect $50.00 for St., regular Apt 7, 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 - ), or $20.00 for associate members ( Acton, MA, 01720-3654, USA. Membership applications and changes of addressBulletin should be sent to The Emily Dickinson International Society, c/o Johns Hopkins Univer sity 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;Bulletin. Back fax to 410-516-3866. Address submissions and other communications for the to Kathleen Welton, aka associates, 645Bulletin N. Michigan is indexed Ave., Suitein EBSCO, 800, HumanitiesChicago, IL International60611 or [email protected]. Complete, and the MLA Submission Bibliography. deadlines are March 1 (Spring issue) and September 1 (Fall issue). All articles become the property of the issues are available for $5.00 each from the editor. Copyright © 2010 by The Emily Dickinson International Society, Inc. The www.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.org I n Th i s Is s u e
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Page 6 F e a t u r e s S e r i e s 4 “Were I Britain born:” Oxford 2010 20 Dickinson Scholars: Jack Capps International Conference By Dorothy Oberhaus By Paul Crumbley and Cristanne Miller Edited by Cindy MacKenzie, Series Editor 21 What’s Your Story?: Dickinson for Two 6 Emily Dickinson’s Garden: By Georgiana Strickland, Series Editor The Poetry of Flowers By Judith Farr 23 Dickinson and the Visual Arts: Emily Dickinson and Elsie Driggs 8 Emily Dickinson and Women’s Basketball By Maryanne Garbowsky, Series Editor By Robert K. Wallace 25 My Criterion for Tune: Exhilaration Within: A Different Kind of 11 Recalling the Dean: Oral Life for Dickinson’s Lyrics A Tribute to Richard B. Sewall By Emily Seelbinder, Series Editor By Sheldon S. Cohen 12 Why White? R e v i e w s By Jo Ann Orr 28 New Publications By Barbara Kelly, Book Review Editor 13 Reflection: “I heard a Fly buzz— when I died—” 32 Reading Emily Dickinson's Letters: Critical By David Richo Essays, edited by Jane Donahue Eberwein and Cindy MacKenzie 14 Oxford 2010 International Conference Reviewed by Margaret DeAngelis Schedule Me m b e r s ’ Ne w s S e r i e s 33 Awards 18 Poet to Poet: Teaching Dickinson 33 Chapter News By Alice Friman 34 Notes & Queries Edited by Jonnie Guerra, Series Editor 35 Registration and Membership Forms
The Poems of Em- ily Dickinson Dickinson poems are reprinted by permissionThe Poems of the ofpublishers Emily Dickinson: and the Variorum Trustees Editionof Amherst, Ralph College W. Franklin, from the ed., following Cambridge, volumes: Mass.: The Belknap Press , Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard UniversityThe Press, Poems Copyright of Emily ©Dickinson: 1951, 1955, Reading 1979, Edition 1983, byRalph the President and Fellows of Harvard College; of HarvardThe University Complete Press,Poems Copyright of Emily Dickinson © 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998, 1999 by the President and FellowsThe of Letters Harvard of EmilyCollege; Dickinson , Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Copyright © 1929, 1935 by Martha 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 , Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1958, 1986 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; 1914, 1924, 1932, 1942 by Martha Dickinson Bianchi; 1952 by Alfred Lette Hampson; 1960 by Mary L. Hampson. features
“Were I Britain born:” Oxford 2010 International Conference By Paul Crumbley and Cristanne Miller
- Rothermere Institute and because - Pbeenlans for progressing the August smoothly 6-8 in sonable rates that include break- and we nowternational anticipate conference approximately have it offers comfortable rooms at rea - with indoor and outdoor seating. tries. We invite all EDIS members to Youfast can and book access rooms to a at college Keble Col pub- 130 attendees from at least 20 coun - ence through take advantage of this remarkable co.ulegek , before quoting or the after promotion the confer code toopportunity celebrate Dickinson’s to join Dickinsonians transatlantic EDIS2010. www.oxfordrooms. from around the world as we gather - clude an opening-night banquet, connections in this storied center of Keble College a Highlights book signing of the and conference reception in at beauty,learning. in Theaddition city of to Oxford being hashome long to air and mostly sunny skies. Blackwell Bookshop, a play about thebeen oldest recognized university as ain sitethe ofEnglish- great - Emily Dickinson, and the premier - - mously described the architectural The host institution for the con speaking world. Matthew Arnold fa withference Rhodes is the House, Rothermere which was Ameri es- takeof a place film inspired at Oriel byHall, Dickinson’s the main “Thyrsis,” coining the phrase “city can Institute (RAI) facility affiliated life and work. The banquet will- elegance of Oxford in his 1865 poem become synonymous with the city Librarytablished and in 2001 promoting for the American purpose dining hall of Oriel College. Found of dreaming spires” that has since Studiesof housing throughout the Vera the Harmsworth university. anded in its1326 dining by King hall Edward provides II, Oriel an - intimateis the fifth setting oldest rich Oxford in medieval college bustlingand university. urban With hub thata population retains itsof ing registration, the welcome, and atmosphere. The banquet will be identityapproximately as a historical 165,000, market Oxford town is a theMost business conference meeting activities—includ that concludes preceded by a reception on the col- while also supporting a vibrant busi- lege grounds, sponsored by Johns ness community and the thirty-eight - the conference—will take place on conclude with a talk by Lyndall leges that make up the university. the ground floor of this building. Gordon,Hopkins University a widely recognizedPress, and will Ox- independent and self-governing col- The building itself is situated across- - counter crowds passing along Corn the street from University Parks and pher whose recent book, Lives Like Market,Visitors to High, Oxford and can Broad expect Streets to en in wheredesigned additional so that it panel faces sessionsthe gar Loadedford professor Guns: Emily and literary Dickinson biogra and the town center while also discover- den area behind Mansfield College, Her Family’s Feuds (Virago 2009), has stimulated much interest. Fol- will take place on the first two days- ing quiet walks in University Parks ingof the at nearby conference. Keble TheCollege, majority a short of and plenary talks on Saturday, all along the gently flowing Cherwell conference participants will be stay arelowing invited a full to slate attend of panel a book sessions sign- River, a tributary of the Thames. Late is a Victorian college established in ing and reception at Blackwell hoveringsummer temperaturesbetween 70 and in 80Oxford degrees are walk from the Rothermere. Keble Fahrenheit.usually quite Attendees comfortable, should frequently plan to designed in the Gothic style by ar- bookstores in England. Authors will 1870 and known for its brickwork Bookshop, one of the most famous purchase while relaxing with con- bring light jackets just in case the chitect William Butterfield. EDIS sign Dickinson books available for famous English rain should appear, reserved a block of rooms at Keble but otherwise be prepared for soft because of its proximity to the ference-goers over a glass of wine. see page 35. Register now! The deadline is June 15, 2010 A tentative conference schedule appears on pages 14-17. For a registration form, 4 | EDIS Bulletin features
“Were I Britain born:” Oxford 2010 International Conference, cont. By Paul Crumbley and Cristanne Miller
Child, where C. S. Lewis and the
Inklings met for many years. This pub is a short walk from Keble or the Rothermere, as is The Turf, a- pub famous for its selection of real ales. In truth, pubs proliferate in Ox ford, each offering its own version of British hospitality. Restaurants providing cuisine from around the- enceworld activities. are also plentifulA particular and attracwithin- easy walking distance of all confer- bridge is the opportunity to rent a punttion and unique slowly to meander Oxford and along Cam the Thames (known as the Isis where
bottomedit passes boats through originally Oxford) designed or the Participants are also invited to at- - Cherwell. Punts are narrow, flat- Emily Dickin- - son & I: The Journey of a Portrayal. tion.offers Those service interested from Heathrow in exploring to Ox for the transportation of trade Thistend performances much acclaimed of one-act play ford via London’s Paddington Sta- goods that have proven ideal for- ing environs will be happy to learn floating picnics. historical Oxford and the surround As even this brief overview dem performed by Edie Campbell will city take place daily and the options course,onstrates, is the Oxford main has attraction, something but be staged at multiple times before, that tours of the university and the therefor everyone. is much to The do conference,in and around of 8:00after, and during the conference,- To learn more about touring, noonbeginning at 2:30. Wednesday Tickets are August available 4 at transportation,are plentiful. accommodations, and concluding Sunday after- restaurants, and the university, sim- weOxford encourage that is worth participants the investment to set tion site or at the registration table of additional time. For this reason, through the conference registra Google search window or go di- ply type “Oxford tourism” into your aside enough time to recover from artistat the SuzieRAI, beginning Hannah will the premierafternoon a jet lag, enjoy the conference, and of August 4. Contemporary British rectly to the Oxford City site: www. soak up the sights and sounds of oxfordcity.co.uk/info/visitors.html. Oxford. film related to Dickinson that will You will quickly learn that Oxford be available for viewing at the RAI classalso offersmuseums many like destinations the Ashmolean, for Paul Crumbley on Saturday afternoon. ainformal botanic touring,garden, and such the as Bodliean world- EDIS. Those traveling to Oxford for the Library. Another noteworthy and is president of Heathrowfirst time willor Gatwick have little airports. difficulty Bus distinctly British attraction is Ox- Cristanne Miller is past presi- linesmaking providing their way transportation there from either to - the Emily Dickinson Journal. ford’s thriving pub culture. One of dent of EDIS, and current editor of Oxford operate on a regular basis the most famous pubs, from a liter from both airports and British Rail ary point of view, is the Eagle and
May/June 2010 | 5 features
Emily Dickinson’s Garden: The Poetry of Flowers By Judith Farr erhaps because I was a - - city child, growing up in son, as well as poems that celebrated PNew York, I well remember thehim LuEsther and members T. Mertz of his Library, staff, the in of flowers grown by Emily Dickin cluding Susan Fraser, Director of - ily.them Visitors and many to the kinds Garden’s of materials Enid A. wereyearning many each carts springalong Manhattan’s for freshly 12thGarden’s century, superb and collection Todd Forrest, of books Vice Hauptassociated Conservatory with the Dickinsoncould expect fam to blooming flowers. Although there- and manuscripts dating from the- see violets and roses, gentians and ing Collections. Mr. Long had read daisies, asters, tulips, marigolds, li- gray streets that offered dusty daf myPresident book The for GardensHorticulture of Emily and Dick Liv- shinefodils out and only crumpled in summer. violets, One toApril, me inson however,the beauty my of plant-loving flowers seemed mother to observations (not new to Dickinson lacs, and (of course) daylilies: the decided to take her Girl Scout troop and was struck by one of its conservatoryblooms of her would two-acre boast delicate outdoor- to the National Treasure known as lygarden. scented Besides, tropical ablossoms replica such of her as The New York Botanical Garden. asscholars) a gardener that thanduring as her a poet. lifetime Mr. Dickinson was often better known Susan Dickinson claimed that Em- - ilythe “knew “poet’s her jessamine” chemistries” or “so jasmine. well” Its 250 rolling acres, now featuring the50 magnificentCrystal Palace, gardens now aand New collec York tions; a greenhouse that resembled- Now,that suchwhether specimens summoned bloomed in or out for barium, now containing more than decades under her careful hand. City landmark; an important her - of season, they would bloom again. many7 million kinds specimens; that represent and perhaps— the orig- Since an essential aim of the exhi most of all—the virgin trees of so Gallerybition was portion to tell would the story contain of Emilyorigi- York City, now many over a century nalDickinson’s letters, daguerreotypes, life, the Mertz Library photo- inal forest that covered all of New- tors then as they do today. old:The these Garden’s features Mission astounded Statement visi graphs, paintings, even a copy of the famous White Dress. There would- plant kingdom.” Its identity, ever brarybe manuscripts so that one borrowed could see Emily from declares it “an advocate for the Dickinson’sHarvard University’s handwriting Houghton and even Li a - servatory,since it was library, founded and in laboratory 1891, is that to Poems would be pasted on boards of a museum incorporating a con- alongfew of Gardenher most paths precious and “fascicles.” an audio ers, both native and rare. I recall my - tour would enable listeners to hear childishstudy and delight exhibit at plants seeing and a grand flow Long and his staff had conceived- ersthe akinexciting to theirplan recentlyof creating mounted an ex a painting by renowned botanical hibition of Emily Dickinson’s flow inspiredan interpretation it. of a poem while array of queenly orchids as well as theyWe gazed knew at that the mounting flower that so inelabo part- a blush red peony placed next to a visitorsshow in to2008 the onGarden the life with and Dickin works- rate a show, one that would both livingillustrator peony Pierre-Joseph with a sign Redouté inquiring, of son’sof Charles peculiar Darwin. genius: It would as a gardener acquaint teach and enchant, would be costly.
Nature or Art?” both rare and commonplace and “Which of these is more beautiful: alsowho as excelled a bold, at exquisitely growing original flowers grantsAn Advisory to the Committee National Endowmentwas formed - American poet. to assist in applying for supporting- mostThat two first years trip ago, to the I received Garden a was let- The Garden invited me to become followed by many others. Then, al - Includedfor the Humanities, among the New eminent York Counmem- cil for the Humanities, and others. ter from Garden President Gregory a “Special Consultant” for this elabo 6Long. | EDIS Shortly Bulletin thereafter, I met with rate exhibition featuring the wealth bers in their respective fields were features
Emily Dickinson’s Garden: The Poetry of Flowers, cont., By Judith Farr
As I gladly contributed to this - Dickinson’s words and the rose’s Jane Wald, Executive Director of the- bering Redouté’s peony and the petalsor kisses become issue one.from Theythe lips). are “Hid,”Then Dickinson Museum; Alice Quinn, questionmajor effort, the IGarden found myselfonce put remem to us Executive Director of the Poetry So- young visitors: Which is more beau- interpreted, “drained” by the sym- ciety of America; Polly Longsworth, patheticof course, Eudocia. meant to be discovered, Dickinson biographer; Louise Cart- In order to create such sympathy er, professional horticulturist and hertiful, own Nature poems or Art? and Itletters is a question though in new ways, The New York Botani- Forrest,winner of Susan an award Fraser, for and reproduc Marta that Emily Dickinson herself asks in cal Garden has mounted Emily Dick- ing Dickinson’s Conservatory; Todd- inson’s Garden: The Poetry of Flow- nate that Marta was among the ad- answer.she often Sometimes seems to shedecide implies that thatit is ers McDowell. We felt especially fortu unanswerable or has no need of an- with Emily’s gardens in Amherst, ist-poet she declares, “The One that . It is a beautiful and uncommon visors since she was very familiar Art surpasses Nature. So, of the art tribute to one of the most beloved of Em- EnglishUnited States language. poets Emily and indeed, Dickinson one ilyhad Dickinson’s lectured for Gardens. the Garden, and is thecould Artist repeat transcends the Summer Nature day— since / onceof the described greatest poetsa symbolic writing identity in the theWhen author visitors of the arrive book entitledon the exhi - Were Greater than Itself—”; that is,
- admireshe or he it. can Certainly “reproduce she the suggests Sun—” between herself and her daylily in bition’s opening day—April 30—or- that(Fr549) Art againand Nature and again, have not purposes merely (Fr986): thereafter, they will encounter im that are not inimical. Thus she pro- Emily’spressions bedchamber of the Dickinson where one Home very claims in a letter to Mabel Loomis Where I am not afraid to go privatestead, of “Soul” the Conservatory, lived at the “Whiteand of Todd that “Art’s inner Summer [is] I may confide. . . . . my Flower— Heat.” Because the actual Herbari- In a lovely poem (Fr380) sent to her be able to look at a digitized ver- youngnever Treason cousin Eudocia,to Nature’s” she (L1004). equates um is too fragile to travel, they will Nor separate, Herself and Me a touch screen as though they were A single Bloom we constitute sion, examining pages by means of the petals of the rose accompanying By Distances become— There will be lectures, readings, mu- it toAll the the words letters of I canthe letterwrite itself: turning pages of the album itself.- bara Dana in The Belle of Amherst, ItDeparted, is to be or hoped at Home— that visitors to sical events, a performance of Bar each planned to accompany the ex- Are not fair as this— hibition until the Conservatory por- “Distance” between Emily Dickin- tion closes on June 13. (The Library Syllables of Velvet— son’sthe Garden time and this their spring own will somewhat find the Gallery will be open until August 1.) Sentences of Plush, annulled by viewing the poems and In addition, Emily Dickinson would the “Bloom[s]” that represent her probably be pleased that NYBG’s Depths of Ruby, undrained, legacy to us all. Everett Children’s Adventure Gar- InHid, this Lip, lyric for theThee— ruby-colored rose, - Judith Farr den will feature a “Children’s Poetry guage. Indeed, its petals are words soft as velvet, is fairer than lan- - moreGarden” than full one of the hundred small wildflowers years ago. I , professor emerita she herself coaxed from the woods and the curling forms it makes con of English & The American Passion of Litera Em- sought were granted and that the ture at Georgetown University, is alliterativejure sentences. patterns, If we we listen realize to that the ily Dickinson (1992) and The Gar- rejoice to report that the grants we- the author of music of the poem’s sibilants and- dens of Emily Dickinson bition will travel on to the Chicago nists call a “Deep Cup” rose meant Library Gallery portion of the exhi Credits (2004). toDickinson be put to is the writing lips (even of what as words bota Photos by John Peden summer. Botanic Garden at the end of this May/June 2010 | 7 features
Emily Dickinson and Women's Basketball By Robert K. Wallace
hen I decided to write a book about the wom- poetry were being published). As Wen’s basketball team as the first slim books of Dickinson’s Ivor used of thethe book—and text published of Dickinson’s closest to came to mind while I was inter- contribution to it (for each epigraph - viewing,one Dickinson watching poem practices, after another and The Introduction, subtitled “The at Northern Kentucky University beginning to write the book, the Challenge,”the poet’s lifetime). begins with the lines “I (NKU) in April 2006, I was not think ing of Emily Dickinson. I began to - think of her one month later, when reason for the association became Intook the my opening Power episode in my Hand— Coach Nancy/ And twelveI was interviewing players, as one I taped player her after an- thatplain. Dickinson The themes addresses of female explic em- went against the World—” (Fr660).- swersanother to in my my questions office. Each about of what the itlypowerment in her poetry and are self-actualization implicit in the basketball meant to her, was sitting physical, emotional, and communal Winstel challenges one of her play- directly under “I took my Power in namicers to playin which better player defense and incoach quite are a my Hand eachforceful strongly way, challenged. creating a power Winstel dy is that my student Camilla Asplen —” (Fr660), the artworkEmily in college basketball. She has be- Dickinson Bulletin, March 2003, p. one of the most successful coaches 3).created It did five not yearstake me earlier long to ( real- generouscome so byin beingthe inner fearless strength in what she was quite literally taking her power inspires.she expects from her players and inize herthat hand each of by these playing young basketball. women Chapter 1, “Watching Women’s Basketball,” begins with the line “My me that basketball had “shaped the personEach of I theam.” three Each co-captains was being toldem- powered through the education she Life had stood—a Loaded Gun—” received as well as the game she women(Fr764). whoNancy grew Winstel up represents without a chanceall those to generations develop themselves of American in played. The team grade point for the university,previous season would hadbe ready been to 3.54. say competitive sports. She joined the withEach Dickinson, player, upon “I took graduating my Power from in Photo courtesy of NKU Sports Information Office. first women’s basketball team at development each player shows as schoolNorthern because Kentucky her school University had only in a1974, boys', never not a having girls' team. played She in highhad myOnce Hand— the “power”/ And went poem against began the to through her senior year. learned to play sports with neigh- World—” (Fr660). sheFor develops a time I had from considered her freshman call- borhood boys in the streets and al- women during my initial interviews, otherassociate Dickinson itself poems with thesebegan to young sug- Power in Their Hands.” The pub- gest themselves as I watched them ing the book itself “They Took TheirThir- leys of Newport, Kentucky. When work out over the summer, practice teen Women Strong: The Making of a she was five she was upset when- in the preseason, and enter the ex- Teamlisher and I finally settled on ballshe helmet. got a doll for Christmas—she 2008). The book has ten chapters, hadChapter wanted 2, a “Learning machine gun the orSystem,” a foot interested to learn that women’s plus an (University introduction Press and of Kentucky, a conclu- collegecitement basketball of the season had been itself. created I was by Senda Berenson at Smith College begins with “We play at Paste— /- - sion; ten of these twelve have an Till qualified for Pearl—” (Fr282). son’s death in nearby Amherst (and epigraph from a Dickinson poem. A- noWe idea see what the futureit takes senior to succeed co-cap in in 1892, just six years after Dickin quick run through the sequence of tains come in as freshmen who have 8 | EDIS Bulletin epigraphs will give a sense of the fla features
Emily Dickinson and Women's Basketball, cont., By Robert K. Wallace top-tier Division II NCAA basket- scheduled exhibition games against ball. They learn about conditioning, much to do with the magic.” Again, two very strong Division I teams, the playbook, and, above all else, Melville’simposingly Ishmael beautiful, provides strength the hasapt all-out intensity. We see them, and - - - the University of Kentucky from the during two seasons in which “…our words for the inner and outer devel OurSoutheastern team played Conference very well and against In newthe next Hands year’s / Learned incoming Gem freshmen, Tactics / drillsopment that of precedethese young the threewomen weeks dur thesediana University taller and from stronger the Big players, Ten. ing the seven weeks of individual outrebounding both. We remained Chapter 3, “Magical Season,” be- - close to Kentucky well into the sec- Practising Sands—” (Fr282). cedeof official the regularpractice season.that precede Day the by two official exhibitions that pre gins with “As if no Soul the Solstice- - ond half before they pulled away.- menpassed— are / suddenly That maketh accomplished all things day, these players become more fit Wevailed. led Indiana at halftime before new” (Fr325). The awkward fresh for the game—as well as for them theChapter heavily favored 7, “Losing team finally What pre We seniors to an extraordinary season I took my Power in my Hand Had,” begins with the words “Expe- injuniors which leading they win a team the withoutGreat Lakes any rience is the Angled Road” (Fr899). Valley Championship, win in the And went against the World — The 2007-08 team was expected to
’Twas not so much as David—had return to the NCAA tournament, thefirst season round ofwith the a NCAA 28-5 win-lossGreat Lakes re- win the conference championship, Regional Tournament, and finish But I was twice as bold — — and be a contender for the national they passed their solstice, upsetting — — season began, Karmen Graham, cord. March 5, 2006, was the day championship. A week before the I aimed my Pebble Drury University in the conference our All-American center, suffered a tournament with a level of play and —but Myself knee injury from which she never intensity far surpassing anything- fully recovered. She played, but- Was itall Goliah the one wasthat toofell —large tion,”they had begins shown with before. “One most peril- was seldom herself, nor was the- Chapter 4, “Offseason Prepara team. After returning from a di ous and long voyage ended, only be- — oo small? — gins a second, and a second ended, sastrous road trip to Lewis Univer only begins a third.” This time Her- Or was myself—t sity in Illinois and the University man Melville’s Moby-Dick, rather of Wisconsin-Parkside, this year’s than a Dickinson poem, provides ( ) nationalteam had rankings. a 1-4 record in its own conference and had fallen from the - Fr660 Chapter 8, “Finding What We thing the team had achieved during Need,” begins with the words “Suc- the apt epigraph. In spite of every cess is counted sweetest / By those themselves to a strenuous summer who ne’er succeed. / To comprehend the 2005-06 season, they devoted selves. A second epigraph for this a nectar / Requires sorest need” conditioning workouts at 7:30 a.m. thischapter, team’s “I signature be up in song, the gym Fergie’s just (Fr112). The huge disappointments threeof voluntary days a activity: week, two strength summer and “Fergalicious.”working on my fitness,” comes from - league games every Thursday night, - ers to question themselves and to and open gym workouts with play- lenge,” begins with the words “’Twas reconnectof the early with season the cause game these they play had Chapter 6, “Rising to the Chal loved as young girls. They are in- Sunday night. - ersChapter from Xavier 5, “Preseason University Prepara every- not so much as David—had— / But ter Angela Healy posts in the locker tion,” begins with “In everything thisI—was year’s twice team, as Coach bold—” Winstel (Fr660). had spired by the poem that junior cen Because of the high expectations for room, asking each of her teammates
May/June 2010 | 9 features
Emily Dickinson and Women's Basketball, cont., By Robert K. Wallace
(Fr359). I thought my book had by the time the book came out in Oc- ended with the awards ceremony tober 2008. It was a great pleasure, to “dig deep within yourself and find your passion / Let’s play the rest of regularthe season season in badass games, fashion.” and playing This Decemberin April 2007. 2007 The and University by February Press as I prepared for teaching Dickinson themselvesthey do, winning back into13 of national their last con 14- wasof Kentucky well into accepted the editorial the book process in whichpoems to week appreciate after week, them. to have an tention. when Winstel’s new team began entirely new framework, now, with Chapter 9, “Giving All We’ve Got,” playing extremely well. The direc- interestedI found when in the being Dickinson interviewed con- about the book that journalists were begins with the words “Best Gains— anythingtor of the press remarkable said that in I could the post add- podcast posted by the press and dis- Theirmust have resurgence the Losses’ in January test— / and To a postscript if this year’s team did tributednection. onBill YouTube, Randall, openswho filmed it with a Februaryconstitute gives them—Gains” the team high (Fr499). hopes a question about Dickinson. John as the tournaments begin in March. - Cincinnati Enquirer opensErardi’s with feature Dickinson’s essay in “Ithe took sports my soundlyNKU wins by its Druryfirst game in thein the second con section of the round.ference We tournament still get the but second is beaten seed concludes with her “To comprehend in the eight-team NCAA Great Lakes aPower nectar in my / Requires Hand—” sorest(Fr660) need” and round in a very well-played game againstRegional, Ferris but State, we lose which in thewins first by 2008).(Fr112). (“Professor documents one point on a ball thrown up in NKU'sWhen rise I interviewed to the top,” pointOctober guard 30, desperation as the buzzer sounds. Last year’s gains are suddenly much youNicole have Chiodi to suddenly about the stop difficulty and set of Chapter 10, “Farewell to Five,” be- upshifting a play, gears she onsaid, a fast “You break, have whento be ginsgreater with than the ever words before. “This World is able to think on your toes. It’s a graduating seniors have concluded time.” So it is in Dickinson’s poetry. not conclusion” (Fr373). The five Photo courtesy of University Press of Kentucky. lot of thinking in a small amount of Division II athletes ever play on the she tells us, “No Man instructed their basketball careers (very few “I cannot dance opon my Toes—” season—which they did by winning - whichprofessional their collegelevel). They education will now has teamsthe national in the Elite championship. Eight. They NKUwon me—”, yet her “mind” achieves an preparedbe entering them. the In wider Coach world Winstel’s for thewas the championship lowest ranked game of the against eight athletic “Glee” as “It’s full as Op words, “They came here to leave.” era—” (Fr381). They are leaving the university be- cause they are ready to succeed in worm-eatinghighly favored bird. South Dakota with a Robert K. Wallace is Regents panache rivaling that of Dickinson’s they have learned in the classroom andthe on adult the worldcourt. because of what theseI feel young fortunate women. to Originally have spent sur a- taughtProfessor since of 1972. English His at books Northern in- The conclusion, “March 2008,” be- prisedyear of that my Dickinson scholarly lifehad following inserted cludeKentucky Jane University, Austen and where Mozart, he Mel has- gins with the words, “A Bird, came ville and Turner, Frank Stella’s Moby- less and less surprised as time went Dick, and Douglass and Melville. He on.herself I was into teaching their my story, course I became in Em- is currently writing a book on Her- down the Walk— / He did not know ily Dickinson and Henry James again man Melville’s print collection. I saw— / He bit an Angle Worm in halves / And ate the fellow, raw,” 10 | EDIS Bulletin features
Recalling the Dean: A Tribute to Richard B. Sewall By Sheldon S. Cohen enduring. It happened when he tem- passed away in August 2002), a class- Yale Daily I suppose that I will forever think classes when our regular instructor News, of him as Dean Richard Sewall,- wasporarily absent. took over I remember one of my that English the mate,prize students. also editor Following of the our gradu- rather than Professor Richard class was dealing with Shakespear- ation, Jimand had one studied of Professor at Cambridge Sewall’s Sewall. Regardless of the title, hav ean tragedy and that I was com- ing known him—even on a limited mybasis—he Yale undergraduate remains about career. the most My My hope was that somehow I would in Britain; had become a Far Eastern cherished memory that I possess of pletely unprepared for discussion.- concludedscholar; worked his distinguished in the upper career levels - asof federal a teacher governmental and administrator circles; and at first visual contact with Dean Sewall- sornot Sewallbe noticed, called but on alas, me. after Flustered, glanc mousoccurred commons in September dining hall. 1949 Num at a- Iing did at my his best attendance to circumvent sheet, the Profes crux - beringfreshman about class one gathering thousand, in the we enor had Harvard and Boston University. assembled there, to be enlightened speculations concerning Hamlet. He DeanAfter Richard the speech, Sewall? I introduced “Of course my - lookedof his question—offering at my helpless strained some situwild- Iself, loved and then asked if he recalled perience,” and I suppose admonished I do; on properthe true undergraduate meaning of the conduct. “Yale ex I “Mr. Cohen, I think you have the mind Dean Sewall, the man!” whom and Thomson tears formed once remember that the school had gath- ation and declared rather jocularly, hadin his aptly eyes. described That was asit; “saintlywe all loved and ered some illustrious upperclassmen, of a weasel!” The class exploded with the dean understood that through his undoubtedlyjustifiable laughter. recognized Simultaneously, a character passionate.” Those of us who knew- Sewall.the university chaplain, and from the traitI thought that I to had myself brought that to Sewall New had Ha- ing, he had truly put into words what freshman dean’s office, Richard B. wasabsorbing, in our gifted, hearts and and inspiring minds. teachTears prized to the present. I was already in awe of New Haven venPrior from toOhio, his and retirement, one which I Deanhave and the Yale campus; quite a change Sewall’s classroom stimulation had formed in my eyes as well, and I soon from my Ohio boyhood. It was with- persisted. And he had augmented bid farewell to Jim, confident that we considerable uneasiness, therefore, his instructional success by winning both had indeed been blessed! threatsthat I anticipated that we werea torrent obligated of inflex to - Sheldon S. Cohen ible reproofs and numerousor veiled else! - - son.a National Book Award for an ac is professor withuphold a marvelousthe honor “Downof Yale— East” ac- claimedSeveral biography years ago, ofI attended Emily Dickin a Yale emeritus at Loyola University Chica Instead, this slender, dignified man class dinner in New York City. The go. He received his B.A. from Yale in- speaker was Jim Thompson (who 1953, his M.A. from Harvard in 1956, tocent—while remind us givingthat we passing were about mention to and his PhD from New York Univer to our university’s tradition—sought sity in 1963. - enter upon perhaps the four most- The whole truth about Emily Dickinson will elude us always; she seems al ministrationimportant years were of eager our lives. to help He us most willfully to have seen to that. The family, the early friends and the- uncoveremphasized the how beauty the withinfaculty Yale and andad later, the mentors and the masters, the lovers or would-be lovers, or fantasy in surrounding New Haven, and he lovers—each yields it modicum of meaning. In our present state of knowl stressed the rich holdings that our edge, however, no more than that can be claimed for any of them. There is campus maintained. We seemed to a feeling of incompleteness, of areas still to be explored, of mysteries that still beckon. The aim must be to shore up what truth we have as firmly as be captivated by his zealous urgings possible in the never-ending dialectics of readings and counter-readings. To to us, as well as enthralled by this twist one of her later remarks, “’It is finished’ can never be said of us.” But to leave her with no more than passing glimpses into one major source Wemagnificent, clapped witheloquent, unbridled and feisty enthusi man- of truth about her—her life in books and reading—would be to cut her short who had uplifted and not berated us. indeed. Here she herself gives the lead in the remark to Joseph Lyman about The next incident that sticks in her fear of blindness: “Some years ago.” I had a woe, the only one that ever myasm mind when regarding he finished Dean his talk.Sewall was made me tremble. It was a shutting out of all the dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul—booksThe Life of Emily Dickinson, by Richard B. Sewall) (from Chapter 28: Books and Reading, perhaps the most meaningful and May/June 2010 | 11 features
Why White? By Jo Ann Orr
Emily Dickinson. Her poetry and her letters have New York City. She wore white exclusively even during For thirty years, I have been under the influence of- mother, Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, prominent resident of detected and removed. filled my mind with countless hours of wonder, baf the Mrs.winter Roosevelt so that any was speck born of and dirt died could almost be immediately the same flement, and pleasure. More than 100 books and stacks of ancillaryWhy did Emilymaterials Dickinson about her dress fill thein white? shelves Since in my 30 library. years One question in particular has always fascinated me: years as Dickinson (1835-1884). Because the Roosevelts to speculate as have many others. were highly educated, well-informed, wealthy and famous, of reading hasn’t turned up a definitive answer, I feel free andhave the escaped events Dickinson’sof their lives attention.recorded in It newspapers seems possible and a nun-like magazines,that Dickinson it seems would unlikely think that wearing this information white would would be gestureSome have conjectured based on clues in her poetry that an intelligent, common sense way to help prevent the Dickinson chose white as a symbol of purity— —an expression of her spirituality. Others that deaths they caused. wearingBeing the white highly was creative, flattering intelligent to her womanpale complexion that she was,and invasionPerhaps, of also, germs Dickinson’s and infections attention and to the detail indiscriminate would help red hair. Dickinson seemed to have a flare for the dramatic. Dickinson may well have enjoyed having her own unique explain the appeal of wearing white which would not be a look. When she “glided in” to meetwhite her friend Thomas hardship for her. Weorganized know that and she assembled. was attentive We know to detail that Wentworthpique, blue Higginson shawl, and for reddishthe first time, hair. fromchoosing the way the her right fascicles word were to complete carefully she was a vision of a Bluebird— AddingEven to Martha the effect, Dickinson she carried Bianchi two day in a poem to her satisfaction involved liliesThe Life as a and way Letters of introduction of Emily Dickinson(L342a). , carefully considered choices. We know, who too,by her from “exquisitely Higginson’s clean description white pique.” of her would have known Dickinson better at Ittheir seems first that meeting Dickinson’s that he deep was concern struck herthan biography any other of biographersher Aunt Emilydid— not to her choosing to wear white. From write, however, a charming description— andan early love age for she others witnessed would contribute and knew give a reason for “why white.” She did looking which at the time spread easily and of her aunt “flitting about the porch at allcaused about death, the tragicincluding results those of very diseases dear dusk to water her frail plants— to her. She never missed an opportunity in I her have white come dress to consider like just another to console, as evident in her letters. mothreason flutteringwhy whitein the twilight.”based on my Someone so caring would willingly do The Extraordinary Healing— Power of Ordinary— Things by germs. readings of the book anything she could to stop the spread of Larry Dossey, M.D. One of the chapters to wear white. WhenPerhaps President Dickinson Obama was invited on the doctors front in this book titled “Dirt,” describes the history of germs edge of an important tradition. Today doctors continue from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. immediatelyDuring Dickinson’s any dirt on the lifetime, garment around where, 1850,it was believed, doctors fromcoats. all around the country to come to the White House beganthe germs the were custom hiding. of wearing Much whitewas being which discovered would reveal and in Admittedly,support of histhere health is little plan, concrete they appeared evidence in towhite explain lab written about in the media alerting the public to this threat beyond a doubt why Dickinson chose to wear white. of germs. It was the age of the “filth diseases” as they were Perhaps she had many reasons. But, even if we can’t know called then. Everyone lived with the fear of these invisible forendearing. a certainty “why white,” it’s fun to speculate about threats and felt helpless in their menacing grip. theWorks thinking Cited of someone so engaging and so incredibly The phrase “germ theory of disease” came into The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson, Martha Dickinson common use, also during Dickinson’s lifetime, around 1870.“cunning.” Scientists Germs and were doctors thought used to be frightening evil and that terms they to The Riverside Press, Cambridge, MA. describestalked everyone. them such as “foreign,” “base,” “murderers,” and The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things, While no one knew how these invisible threats caused Bianchi, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, New York, illness and death, they were considered controllable and House, Inc., New York. Larry Dossey, M.D., Harmony Books, a division of Random Jo Ann Orr is an EDIS member and artist. She creates preventable by proper domestic sanitation. One of the beliefsstarted to then wear was white. that totally clean clothing could help magnets inspired by Emily Dickinson that are available at control the fight against disease, which is why doctors the Emily Dickinson Museum. One who firmly held this belief was Theodore Roosevelt’s 12 | EDIS Bulletin FEATURES
Reflection: “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—” By David Richo
Some poems present a poet’s real experience with no attempt to import a message. Others present a message the “uncertain stumbling buzz” of the intruder. The mournersa sign that are the certain; transpersonal the fly is realm uncertain has entered—like faith the unabashedly. Consider the following poem (Fr591) by androom/poem. doubt. The combination of so many opposites is Emily Dickinson, one of her best: Secondly, the dying woman wills her keepsakes and The Stillness in the Room I heard a Fly buzz—when I died— every portion of herself that can be given away. This is- Was like the Stillness in the Air— ahart’s letting words: go, so “Everything characteristic is meantof threshold to be lostetiquette that the on Between the Heaves of Storm— thesoul journey may stand to wholeness. in unhampered It reminds nothingness.” us of Meister Letting Eck go is not ending but preparing. The Eyes around—had wrung them dry— Thirdly, the poem escorts us into the liminal world, And Breaths were gathering firm interposed Be- For that last Onset—when the King tween the light and me.” That certainly can symbolize Be witnessed—in the Room— the realm of the between: “There a fly…
I willed my Keepsakes—Signed away the bridging of our mortal reality and a transpersonal What portion of me be worldEmily impervious Dickinson tostates time’s her decay experience —but bythe her poet bald is toode- Assignable—and then it was professional in her craft to inflict that on us directly. There interposed a Fly— recourse to a pre-existing creed. The poem is philo- scription of the fly and her reaction to it, with no added With Blue—uncertain stumbling Buzz— - Between the light—and me— sophical, confronting an existential issue and offering And then the Windows failed—and then no clear solution. It presents a future event as a meta IEmily could Dickinson not see to employs see— wry irony to show how our phor.signaling Her topurpose us that is death, to open and a subjectperhaps and all theleave ultimates it open. - She is letting us join her in being uncomfortable. She is - human solemnities are at the mercy of mundane reali indeath. life, may not turn out to be what we expect. And, she ties, “a fly in the ointment” as it were. It seems that Em is offering possibilities of how we might see our own ily Dickinson did not believe in the afterlife as it was conventionally understood. Hence we find her almost Yet, if Emily Dickinson believed in the afterlife, she humorousto enter the parody room and of the carry serious her soul leave-taking to heaven. in Instead, which probably would not have tried to convince us of her her friends are waiting for God (or Death), “the King,” faith in any case. Some people want to be left to their away, royalty or no. The great occasion has become his own beliefs. Emily Dickinson simply opens us to what- the ordinary house-fly interrupts and can’t be shooed shetween. found. We are left hanging, a legitimate description - of Nowour existentialwe can see conditionthat a poem and gives of thesomething realm of personal the be moment to be sure. The other-worldly light faded once attentionopposed towas the arched version toward held hisby thefumbling onlookers buzz. who The seeen trance of the fly represents the real arrival of death as aand chance investigation to be the istruth real. in In the a poem, moment. the Inpoet’s the objective world is The poet adds the extra “to see” in the last line to pre- world, only what can be proven or confirmed by reason death as the majestic king. sees in some new, astral realPoetry no matter enshrines how experience. fanciful it may Poems be. areWe uniquecan see com that- vent us from thinking she now poetryments onhas reality pluck andand self-esteem.grant the reader an opportunity way. I think Emily Dickinson wants us to know of the - finality of the death experience—the blind alley she is etry works best when it does not attempt to convince, confronting. She is bravely searching the extremities then to shape it as he sees and feels it. Even though po just as they appear in her experience. - It is the power of great poetry that a larger truth may there remains a place for the alternative. stillview emerge might slipin spite through of the to poet’sus. We belief see suchsystem. transcen An af- David Richo, PhD, is a therapist and author who firmationdence happening of a reality in the that poem. transcends It contains, the poet’s subtly, limited three leads popular workshops on personal and spiritual
First, we notice a combination of opposites in “the poetry, and Jungian perspectives in his work. This ar- chords of spiritual and transpersonal consciousness. growth. He is known for drawingBeing on TrueBuddhist to Life: thought, Poetic Paths to Personal Growth (Shambhala, 2009). King” and “a fly,” in the “stillness” and the “buzz,” in the ticle is adapted from his book held “breaths” of those gathered around the bed and May/June 2010 | 13 features
Oxford 2010 International Conference Schedule
“Were I Britain born”: Dickinson’s Transatlantic Connections, August 6-8, 2010 Friday, August 6 Dickinson, Nature, and God 9:00-9:30 Chair: Jane Eberwein, University of Oakland (Emerita), USA Welcome by Nigel Bowles, Director of the Rothermere American Nature, and Dao 9:30-10:45 Ningkang Jiang, Nangkang University, PR China, “Birds, Institute and by conference directors : A Comparative Study of Dickinson’s and British Connections I: Dickinson, Shakespeare, and Milton Tao Qiang’s Nature Poems” andConnie Moors Ann as Kirk, Creative Mansfield Inspiration University, in Dickinson USA, “‘Nature and the is Chair: Martha Ackmann, Mt. Holyoke College, USA Brontës”what We know—But have no Art to say—’: Meadows speareAnne Ramirez, and Dickinson” Neuman College, USA, “‘The Hardest Miracle’: Images of Death and Resurrection in Shake- Richard Brantley, University of Florida, USA, “Dickinson’s British Connections IV: Dickinson and Emily Brontë Empirical Voice: ‘. . . almost as omniscient as God’” ShakespeareanCindy MacKenzie, Sonnets” University of Regina, Canada, “‘Essential Oils are wrung’: Dickinson’s Poetics and the Aleksandra Vinogradskaya, Lomonosov Moscow State Chair: Marianne Noble, American University, USA Elizabeth Petrino, Fairfield University, USA, “‘Forbidden British Connections II: Keats Fruit’: Dickinson’s Echoes of Milton’s Eve” University, Russia, “The Dialogue of Loneliness and Free Spirit in the American Poetry of Emily Dickinson and the Chair: Ellen Louise Hart, University of California at Santa tionalEnglish Institutes, Poetry of India, Emily “EmilyBrontë” Dickinson and Emily Cruz (Emerita), USA Makhdooma Saadat, Babu Banarasi Das Group of Educa- Edith Wylder, Southwest Minnesota University (Emerita), USA, “Keats’s Awakened Psyche and Dickinson’s Rose” newBrontë: equation Renunciation given’: Emily and Discovery Dickinson, of Emily the True Brontë, Self” and “Readings on the Margin: Emily Dickinson’s Posthumous Brad Ricca, Case Western Reserve University, USA, “‘Some PoeticsYuji Kato, and Tokyo the English University Romantics” of Foreign Studies, Japan, Deep Time” 12:15-1:15 LUNCH have Keats’: Dickinson and Allusion” Martin Greenup, Harvard University, USA, “‘For Poets—I 1:15-2:45 Plenary Panel #1 British Connections III: Dickinson and the Brontës
Chair: Cristanne Miller, University of Buffalo, USA Chair: James Guthrie, Wright State University, USA Domhnall Mitchell, University of Trondheim, Norway, Yanbin (Daphne) Kang, Chinese University of Hong Kong, your“Aspects meeting of Dickinson’s Tennyson Reception in Ticknor in and Norway” Fields’: A Transat- “‘Oriental heresies’: ‘Oriental Circuit’ and Jane Eyre” lanticParaic Encounter Finnerty, Portsmouth with England’s University, Poet Laureate” UK, “‘Dreamed of Gary Lee Stonum, Case Western Reserve University, USA, - “Emily’s Heathcliff” “Passionate Reticence: Emily Dickinson and Brontë’s Lucy ing you in your transitions’: Dickinson in Ireland” Snow”Nancy Mayer, Northwest Missouri State University, USA, Maria Stuart, University College Dublin, Ireland, “‘Pursu 3:15-4:30 11:00-12:15 Dickinson and Class Global Connections I: Dickinson in and out of Japan, Russia, and France Chair: Suzanne Juhasz, University of Colorado (Emerita), USA Chair: Jonnie Guerra, Independent Scholar, USA Japan” Recognition”Aife Murray, Independent Scholar, USA. “‘Peony noses, Hiroko Uno, Kobe College, Japan, “Emily Dickinson and red as Sammie Matthews’s’”: Literary Rituals of (Class) “Dickinson’s Russian Connections” Tatiana Anikeeva, Far Eastern National University, Russia, der H. Jordan Revolts Landry, in Dickens University and Dickinson” of Wisconsin Oshkosh, USA, “‘Whip a Crown-Imperial’: Representing Class and Gen- Antoine Cazé, University of Paris 7, France, “‘Paris could Shakespeare, Mrs. Browning, Miss Dickinson, and the not lay the fold’: Dickinson’s Absence in France?” Servants”Mary Loeffelholz, Northeastern University, USA, “Master
Times and dates of sessions may change. Please check the conference website for updates and revisions to the program, beginning June 1, 2010
14 | EDIS Bulletin features
Oxford 2010 International Conference Schedule
Global Connections“Were II: IDickinson Britain in born”: German Dickinson’s and Polish Authors Transatlantic Traveling Feet:Connections, Dickinson’s MeterAugust and 6-8,the Lyric 2010
Chair: Antoine Cazé, University of Paris 7, France Dickinson’sChair: Jed Deppman, Lyrics” Oberlin College, USA EmilyTherese Dickinson” Kaiser, Aachen University, Germany, “Further Michael Manson, American University, USA, “Reading Transatlantic Connections: Paul Celan as a Translator of Debra Fried, Cornell University, USA, “Dickinson’s ‘Whips Gloria Coates, Independent Musician, USA, “A New Under- Hymns,of Time’” and (Transatlantic) Lyric Form” standing of Dickinson’s Poetry as Revealed in the Writ- Cristanne Miller, University of Buffalo, USA, “Ballad Meter, 6:30 Reception, Oriel College, sponsored by Johns Hopkins andings Cyprianof Novalis” Kamil Norwid” Adam Czerniawski, Independent Scholar, UK, “Dickinson University Press Dickinson, Gender, and the Woman Writer 7:30 Banquet, Oriel College 8:30 Plenary Speaker, Lyndall Gordon, Oxford University, UK, Chair: Stephanie Tingley, Youngstown State University, USA sonMohamad and Christina Saad Rateb, Rossetti” Fayoum University, Egypt, “The Search for Female Identity in the Poetry of Emily Dickin- “‘The World Within’: Emily Dickinson and the Brontës” Introduction by Sally Bayley, Balliol College of Oxford Kelly Lynch, Independent Scholar, USA, “‘A Bright Capacity Saturday,University, August UK7 for Wings': Dickinson’s Metamorphosis as a Woman Poet” 9:00-10:15 Ursula Caci, University of Basel, Switzerland, “Locating Gender” Dickinson and the Arts I: "Imagination's Muse: Emily Dickinson Gender in Space: Emily Dickinson’s Conception of 4:45-6:00 as Creative Inspiration" British Connections V: George Eliot Vol. I “WillChair: Barnet Georgiana and IsabelleStrickland, Arsenault: Independent Two Artists Scholar, and USA Barbara Mossberg, Goddard College (President Emerita), Maryanne Garbowsky, County College of Morris, USA, Chair: Emily Seelbinder, Queens University of Charlotte, USA Their Books”
USA, “Through the Transatlantic Lens: Emily Dickinson’s Nicole Panizza, Royal College of Music, UK, "Titanic Transatlantic Soul—A Reading of ‘On his British S/sky’ in Operas: English Song Settings of Emily Dickinson and ‘We Like March’” Elizabeth Browning" Margaret Freeman, Myrifield Institute for Cognition and - Play and Possibility” Suzie Hanna, Norwich University, UK and Sally Bayley, the Arts, USA, “George Eliot and Emily Dickinson: Poets of son's Opposing Lands: Miniature Worlds and Sovereign Balliol College of Oxford University, UK, "Emily Dickin Kristin Sanner, Mansfield University, USA, “‘I am afraid to British Connections VI: Dickinson’s Imagery Emily Dickinson and George Eliot” Territory" own a Body—’: Corporeal Independence in the Letters of Dickinson’s Isolation and Dissemination ByChair: a Letter’: Cindy Dickinson’sMacKenzie, TransatlanticUniversity of Regina,Cultivation” Canada Jesse Curran, Stony Brook University, USA, “‘By a Flower— Chair: Brad Ricca, Case Western Reserve University, USA Karen Foster, Independent Scholar, USA, “‘But cannot and Apocalypse: The Narcotic Imagery in Emily Dickinson Dickinson’s Poems” Hsu Li-hsin, University of Edinburgh, UK, “Asia, Animals dance as well’: The Blood of Language in Select Emily and Thomas De Quincey” Dan Manheim, Occidental College, USA, “Dickinson and Manuscripts I: Dickinson’s Manuscript Books Michelle Kohler, Tulane University, USA, “Dickinson, the Enigma of Gift and Sacrifice” British Connections VII: Solitude and Suffering Keats, and the Disease of Autumn”
Chair: Alexandra Socarides, University of Missouri, USA Chair: James Fraser, Utah State University, USA Ellen Louise Hart, University of California at Santa Cruz Mita Bose, University of Delhi, India, “‘Victorian (Emerita), USA, “‘Speaking of Pippa Passes’: Alliteration, Dickinson” Manuscript, and Browning’s Dramatic Verse” New England Sappho’—the Imploding Genius of Emily Rhetorical Emphasis, Dickinson’s Visual Strategies of “Between Loneliness and Solitude: Various Aspects son’s Thirtieth Fascicle” Gudrun Grabher, University of Innsbruck, Austria, Trisha Kannan, University of Florida, USA, “Emily Dickin- William Wordsworth” of Being Alone in Emily Dickinson, John Keats, and Pages”Kristen Kreider, University of London, UK, “Lyric Encoun- ters: The Material Poetics of Dickinson’s Later Manuscript EmilyHyesook Dickinson” Son, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, “The Rhetoric of Suffering in the Poetry of John Donne and
May/June 2010 | 15 features
Oxford 2010 International Conference Schedule
“Were I Britain born”: Dickinson’s Transatlantic Connections, August 6-8, 2010 Archival Resources: “’Over the fence I could climb’: Primary Sources for Dickinson Scholarship” Marian Evans, and Strauss’s Das Leben Jesu” — “‘Dangerous fruit of the tree of knowledge’: Dickinson, Jane Wald, Executive Director, Emily Dickinson Museum, my George Eliot’: Emily Dickinson and Chair: Aife Murray, Independent Scholar and Artist, USA Eleanor Heginbotham, Concordia University (Emerita), USA, “‘Now, Amherst, USA, “Emily Dickinson at Home” 2:45-4:00‘Glory’” Suzie Hanna Film andMichael Amherst Kelly, College” Head of Archives and Special Collections, Drama in Dickinson Frost Library, Amherst College, USA, “Emily Dickinson
Chair: Eleanor Heginbotham, Concordia University ilyLeslie Dickinson A. Morris, at Harvard” Curator of Modern Books and Manu- scripts, Houghton Library, Harvard University, USA, “Em- “Drama(Emerita), in EmilyUSA Dickinson’s Poems and Its Possible 10:30-12:00 Plenary Panel #2: Causes”Lin Yupeng, Hefei University of Technology, PR China,
Chair: Paul Crumbley, Utah State University, USA with Emily Dickinson and Erasmus Darwin.” insonPaula Bernatand the Bennett, American Southern Dramatic Illinois Monologue.” University (Emeri- Joan Kirkby, Macquarie University, Australia, “Darwinising ta), USA, “From Browning to the American Civil War: Dick- Manuscripts II: “Dickinson in Pieces” tic Egos, Take 2: Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, and Ted Hughes.”Vivian Pollak, Washington University, USA, “Transatlan- Chair: Geoffrey Schramm, National Cathedral School, USA Martha Nell Smith, University of Maryland, USA, “Read Jed Deppman, Oberlin College, USA, “But, but . . . Emily Me: Poetry is ‘My Sermon—My Hope—My solace—My 12:00-1:15Dickinson LUNCH and Virginia Woolf?” Life’: Dickinson in the Drawing Room” 1:15-2:30 structionEliza Richards, in Dickinson’s University Civil of Northwar Poems” Carolina, USA, “‘Acres of Joints’/‘Acres of Seams’: Fragmentation and Recon- starting every 10 minutes. Suzie Hanna film will run continuously from 1:15-4:00, Dickinson and the Arts II: “Dickinson on Stage: A Roundtable Alexandra Socarides, University of Missouri, USA, “Why Discussion” We Resist Understanding Dickinson’s Late Fragments, as Fragmentary as that Understanding May Be” Marilee Lindemann, respondent, University of Maryland, Chair and Moderator: Jonnie Guerra, Independent Scholar, USA USA, “How Public, Like a B(log): Emily Dickinson and a Dickinson in New England Edie Campbell, LynchPin Productions, UK Feminist Literary Pre-History of the Blogosphere” Tom Daley, Boston Center for Adult Education, USA Barbara Dana, Independent Scholar and Artist, USA Chair: Michael Manson, American University, USA BarbaraJim Fraser, Mossberg, Utah State Goddard University, College USA (President Emerita), Dickinson’s Idiosyncratic Tie to Ralph Waldo Emerson” Jack Lynch, LynchPin productions, UK Jean McClure Mudge, Independent Artist, USA, “Emily Emily Dickinson and Henry David Thoreau in the Works Dickinson and the Self USA Alexandra Menglis, Oxford University, UK, “Excavating
of Susan Howe” Chair: Gudrun Grabher, University of Innsbruck, Austria Dickinson,Robin Peel, Whig” University of Plymouth, UK, “‘Burglar! Banker! Xu Cuihua, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, PR Father!’: Marx and Massachusetts in the Age of Edward China, “‘As if a Kingdom—cared’: Emily Dickinson’s Heroic 4:30-5:30 Plenary Speaker, Paul Giles, “Evolutionary Enigmas and MitochondrialThinking on Self-Management” Muse: Emily Dickinson’s Maternal Colonial Equations: Dickinson’s Transoceanic Geography” Ancestors”Cynthia Hallen, Brigham Young University, USA, “The
6:30-7:30Introduction Reception at by Blackwell’s Paraic Finnerty, Bookshop, Portsmouth across University, from the UK Bodleian EmilyPolly Longsworth, Dickinson's Health”Independent Scholar, USA, and Dr. Norbert Hirschhorn, USA, “Was It Epilepsy?: Diagnosing 8:00-9:20 Edie Campbell, in Emily Dickinson & I: The Journey of British Connections VIII: George Eliot Vol. II. a Portrayal Burton Taylor Studio (Gloucester Street) . Performances at the Chair: Margaret Freeman, Myrifield Institute for Cogni- “Supposedtion and the (Male) Arts, USA Persons: Narrative Cross-Dressing in EliotEmily and Seelbinder, Dickinson” Queens University of Charlotte, USA,
Jane Eberwein, Oakland University (Emerita), USA,
16 | EDIS Bulletin features
Oxford 2010 International Conference Schedule
Sunday, August“Were 8 I Britain born”: Dickinson’s Transatlantic10:30-11:45 Connections, August 6-8, 2010 9:00-10:15 Dickinson’s Ethics and Poetics British Connections IX: Dickinson’s Imagination and Words Chair: Gary Lee Stonum, Case Western Reserve University, USA Chair: Mary Loeffelholz, Northeastern University, USA “Secrecy and Revelation: English Writers and the Merve Sarikaya, Baskent University, Turkey, “The Loaded Judith Farr, Georgetown University (Emerita), USA Gun and the Haunted Chamber: Julia Kristeva’s Theory of the Abject” Imagination of Emily Dickinson” with Knives: Dickinson and Great Britain Have It Out” Shira Wolosky, Hebrew University, Israel, “Dickinson and James Guthrie, Wright State University, USA, “Mean Girls - ticeNietzsche: in Dickinson’s Poetics, Studio”Ethics, and the World of Becoming” son’s Dictionary Verse” (Samuel Johnson) Logan Esdale, Chapman College, USA, “Adornment Prac Katherine Kickel, Miami University, USA, “Emily Dickin- Dickinson and the Question of Fame British Connections X: Romantic and Religious Visions
Chair: Elizabeth Petrino, Fairfield University, USA Chair: Richard Brantley, University of Florida, USA Tom Mack, University of South Carolina-Aiken, USA, Linda Freedman, Selwyn College of Cambridge University, somebody’” “Emily Dickinson and Alice James: ‘How dreary to be wearUK, “Dickinson’s my wings’: Reading‘wonderful Dickinson Blakean through gift’” Wattsian Dissent”Victoria N. Morgan, University of Liverpool, UK, “‘I just One’sAndrey Public” Logutov, Moscow State University, Russia, “Emily Dickinson and Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Making of
Alan Blackstock, Utah State University, USA, “Dickinson, Dickinson’s Signature: Questions of (Poetic) Identity Paul Crumbley, Utah Sate University, USA, “‘Behold the Blake and the Hymnbooks of Hell” Atom—I preferred—’: Emily Dickinson Reading Fame in British Connections XI: Dickinson and the Brownings Emily Brontë’s ‘No coward soul is mine’” Chair: Martha Nell Smith, University of Maryland, USA Marianne Noble, American University, USA, “The Presence Chair: Michael Yetman, Purdue University, USA of the Face: Dickinson’s Mirror Neurons” Dickinson and Robert Browning: A Shared History” JD Isip, California State University Fullerton, USA, “Emily Dickinson’sRyan Cull, New and Mexico Keats’s State Post-Romantic University, Sublime” USA, “Interrogat- ing the ‘Egotistical Sublime’: The Continued Relevance of Poetess: Barrett Browning’s Impact on Dickinson’s Poetic Courtney Stanton, Rutgers University, USA, “A Poet, Not a
Jorge Hernández Jiménez, Universidad Nacional Self” Autónoma, Mexico, “‘Signatures of all things’: Portrayals Aurora Leigh and Barrett- Vincent Dussol, University of Montpellier 3, France, “Dick- of the Interruption in Dickinson and Joyce” inson’s Distance from Epic: Browning’s Formulation of the Contemporary Epic” 12-1:30 Buffet lunch and Annual Members' Meeting
ALL ARE WELCOME! This is a time to share ideas about the future of EDIS, discuss venues and ideas for future conferences, and to hear about the activities of the Society over the past year. Lunch will be available during the meeting for all who attend.
Special events:
Edie Campbell, in Emily Dickinson & I: The Journey of a Portrayal ton - Tickets may be purchased. Performances through at the the Bur online registrationTaylor Studio site (Gloucester or in Oxford Street), at the Wednesday registration Aug table, 4, 8:00 beginning pm; Thursday on the afternoon Aug 5, 8:00 of Aug pm; 4. Sat urday Aug 7, 8:00 pm; Sunday Aug 8, 2:30 pm.
A short film by artist Suzie Hanna will run continuously Saturday, August 7, 1:15-4:00.
May/June 2010 | 17 Series
Poet to Poet: Teaching Dickinson, By Alice Friman Edited by Jonnie Guerra, Series Editor I became acquainted with Alice Friman thing. How can you plumb the desola- as a poet with a Dickinson connection tion inherent in “The Brain has Corri- during my rereading of Sheila Coghill and Thom Tammaro’s Visiting Emily: dors—surpassing / Material Place—” In this issue, I am her(Fr407) mother? to one Ah, but whose you experiencewill say, there of pleasedPoems Inspired to present by Friman’s the Life poem and Work from misery goes no further than a fight with theirof Emily collection Dickinson. as well as her reflections with one’s mother. Still, I remember on Dickinson’s “diamond hard” poetic are fights with one’s mother and fights power and the resulting challenges Fri- man encountered in teaching Dickinson them,the time assigned I had Dickinson’s a class of sophomore“Success is to undergraduates. football players, and I, hoping to reach
Jonnie Guerra, Series Editor countedSuccess sweetest" is counted (Fr112). sweetest By those who ne’er succeed. - To comprehend a nectar inson. What was to say in the introduc- Requires sorest need. I never enjoyed teaching Emily Dick publication, Higginson, her too short tory lecture beyond her little history of Who took the Flag today saying her gait was “spasmodic” or his Not one of all the purple Host life, the eye troubles, the little sewn thepackets big houseof poems on found Main in Street a trunk, and etc., the Can tell the definition mysaying students that her to poems experience lacked the form power and gravebefore site passing where around on her the stone pictures Called of So clear of Victory thatthe rhyme I was imperfect, that I wanted Back Somehow they imagined her a sexless the white dress was always a good sell, As he defeated—dying— knew was there and had felt. guaranteedis carved. to intrigue Of course, my the young story au of- On whose forbidden ear dience, especially the more romantic The distant strains of triumph waif, perhaps from the stories they had - SurelyBurst agonized I could relate and clear!that last image to heard in high school—a recluse known rious Master letters. And when it came - gardento the citizens outside of herAmherst window, as “the a makermyth,” downones, as to was the the nitty business gritty, of the the poems, myste I ing students’ seemingly only passion. whose gaze went no further than the was also at a loss. Let me assure you Thatthe playing the class field, discussion my burly, disintegrated beer-drink - - rienceof Indian her pudding passion, and her wearer pride, and,of white yes, at Melville, a regular thrill-a-minute - herdresses—when smoldering anger.I wanted Why them else to the expe vol- withI was Thoreau. / am a good But Dickinsonteacher—a was marvel an- into a discussion of how the pulchritu leyball in the chest when I read her? It other story. Each poem, it seems to me, dinous attributes of certain cheerlead - is so diamond hard, there’s no door, ers and the comfort of the presence of one threw it. no, not even a crack to enter by. One parents at games made up for any losses- had to come from somewhere. Some terbrought I lost us heart. no closer I was to tempted the heart to ofleave the you would a Praxiteles statue. What is poem. My lesson faltered. Each semes did’st break it, finds oneself circling the poem the way but how could I, with a clear conscience, Proud of my broken heart, since thou Dickinson out of the syllabus altogether,- there to “explain,” to clarify, when the Proud of the pain I did not feel till thee, a“meaning”—how great wave, knocking I hate thatyou down.word when The do that? Of course students were intro- moons dost slake it, it comes to poems—comes at you like- vey,duced that to aall handful they had of herread poems were inwhat high I NotProud to partake of my thy night, passion, since my thou humility. with wouldschool, call but the I found, ones whose after a central quick surim- volleyball in the chest theory of teach Thou can’st not boast, like Jesus, drunk- pedagogy.ing poetry: “See how it affects me, and en without companion respond in kind.” Not the best kind of age was offered up to them as a sort of what can’t be explained because the riddle—“A narrow Fellow in the Grass" originalSo I found is said myself so straight,forced to so“explain” spare, (Fr1096), what’s that? “I taste a liquor Was the strong cup of anguish brewed never brewed—”(Fr207), what’s that?- Thoufor the can’st Nazarene not pierce tradition with around the poem, to restate her words plicated“I like to poems,see it lap the the ones Miles—"(Fr383), whose mean- the peerless puncture, inso another the way way, it is. a One way is that forced inevitably to talk what’s that? But as for the more com thy she’s talking about a train,” nothing. - ing lies beyond that first reach of, “Oh,- See! I usurped crucifix to honor talproves clear, wanting one ends if not up downrightmuddying upoff the cence, how she acceded to Higginson’s mine! (Fr1760) mark. Trying to clarify what is so crys So much has been made of her reti 18 | EDIS Bulletin Series
Poet to Poet: Teaching Dickinson, cont., By Alice Friman Edited by Jonnie Guerra, Series Editor
cell phones and blood-and-guts televi- Of Women Who Wear White sion where even the commercials are I wanted to bring to life the voice that compared her life to “a Loaded Gun—” practicing ballet, white dress in a case. (Fr764), or the person who put the Like a farmthe girl klutzy sycamore frantic.I recall At walking the top of around the stairs it quite was sur the- heardwords theon Bucklewhat it’s snap” like (Fr330).to feel trapped, “He put the Belt around my life— / I Stuns us with her pose. So too the blotchy bride creatureprised, for at the all, dress—whichsmall in stature I take yes, wasbut masterThe truth teacher of the that matter I was is, (and I gave I was up.) pausing at aisle end nota replica thin. to Substantial size—wasn’t I’d say.for a Thenwaif-like we Ah reader, you expected different: the presentation that succeeded in reach- ingfound them the on holy a gut grail: level. the Well, poem it never and Before her thelong libidinous waft down. theentered slam herin the room. chest. In frontI had ofto me,run herout happened. That is, it never happened It is the white— writing table. And then, there it was— without it happening again. Now, I do In 2005, my husband and I, both notof the believe room. in ghosts. Nor could I am I too go rational back in except for me. Over and over. Chastity of it, the Dover Cliffs and crown a six-week pilgrimage to all the New It’s the powerof any suit. wardrobe. Englandteachers literary of literature sites. for We years, read Elizamade- haute couture. prettilya creature. laid But out thatdress fist or camemaybe from it was the a beth Bishop poems at her grave site The one decision made writing table. Not from the bed with the The Moby D. of leavingshawl. meI remember quite breathless. none of itOur but guide that Room.”in Worcester We saw and theon the Frederick corner Dougof the- and menses. wouldthing that not feltallow like me a tohand be shovingin the room me, In defiance of good sense famed dental office of “In the Waiting Mincing theAnd park no in smirk pastel of April evenlass House scooting in New our Bedford bottoms and along visited his can eclipse the thunder hadalone been even allowed for a minute, a private so I’llaudience never all the Melville sights we could find, withknow that what space. would But have here’s happened something if I to absorb all Melvillian molecules that I do know. Those poems are alive be- mightpew in still the be New lingering Bedford on church the wood so as- of its speech. cause she is alive in them. Fierce and shawled wonder, who is heir Tell me, Ladyto yourof Amherst, scraps? wants, or else it does not care” she en bench. Thoreau’s Waldenis blue Pond, and if wrotepowerful. in a letter. “The heartOr more wants to the what point. it you’ve never been there, from the point Lawn and trim, snippets “Vesuvius don’t talk.” Right. It knocks Emerson’sof view of thehouse cabin, has reallybecome a tourist Who gets the leftovers? you over. meccagreen togetherwhere Transcendentalism just as he said, is while not of eyelet—the white wink to be mentioned because it’s too con- Every genius in America troversial, I kid you not. And yes, we Of Election? is out beating the bushes Alice Friman’s - saw Edith Wharton’s The Mount, Salem etry is Vinculum, For your sewing basket. Press. Previous books ninth arecollection The Book of po of They know your habits, the Rotten Daughter forthcoming and Inverted from Fire,LSU and Hawthorne’s house of seven gables BkMk Press, and Zoo, - Mansewhich features where Hawthornehis yellow highchair, and his and be- kansas Press, which won the Ezra Pound your penchant for cache— we looked through the windows of the Those little stitched paper University of Ar loved Sophia scratched their love into Everests Poetry Award and the Sheila Margaret the window panes. We saw Sarah Orne you stashed away in a chest - - The world’s black needle Motton Prize. She has received fellow AmherstJewett’s desk where with the her lady bunch in of the chewed white wobbling to North andships the from Bernheim the Indiana Foundation, Arts Commisand won dressup pencils, stitched and, herof course, packets the andhouse wel in- sion, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, comed, although shyly, a Mr. Higginson would turn pearl to find. Shenandoah. Poems appear in Best Po- who probably never got over it. etrythe 2001 2009, James Poetry, Boatwright The Georgia Prize Review, from Nor did I. We were the only people Revised version published with the The Gettysburg Review, Shenandoah, - and others. Anthologized widely, she - visiting the house that afternoon, for Alicepermission Friman ofappeared the poet. in Visiting Original Emily: ver which I was grateful. I remember think Poemssion “Of Inspired Women by Who the Life Wear and White” Work by of has been published in thirteen different Emily Dickinson, edited by Sheila Coghill thating ofquiet my studentsplace would as wehave were made shown any 1993,countries. she nowProfessor lives of in English Milledgeville, at the around and wondering if just being in Press, 2000. Georgia,University where of Indianapolis she is Poet-in-Residence from 1973– and Thom Tammaro, University of Iowa difference in their attitude, or if they were too jaded what with yammering at Georgia CollegeMay/June & State University. 2010 | 19 Series
Dickinson Scholars: Jack Capps, By Dorothy Oberhaus Edited by Cindy MacKenzie, Series Editor Jack Capps has long been appreciated university presses at Princeton, Cornell, by Dickinson scholars for his 1966 book on - Emily Dickinson's reading, a subject that forgot. Dickinson then dropped from his still intrigues the poet's admirers. In the memory for the next thirty years. and Columbia, and received “polite refus following profile, Dorothy Huff Oberhaus, After attending Missouri’s William- whereals” from his all book three. was Finallysoon published. he submitted professor of English at Mercy College and taryJewell Academy College at for West one Point year, by Jack Senator was an abstract to Harvard University Press, the author of Emily Dickinson's Fascicles: Harryappointed S. Truman. to the Though United atStates that Militime - (Penn State University the West Point curriculum emphasized After its publication, Jack returned to Press, 1995), provides background on this engineering, he was required to take two DuringWest Point his tenureas associate at West professor Point, he of was Eng a importantMethod & MeaningDickinson scholar. - lish and director of composition courses. Cindy MacKenzie, Series Editor countered Emily Dickinson in a nine-line - cameosemesters in Stephenof English, Vincent where Benet’she again John en herst,visiting where professor he called of American on Mary Hampsonliterature Brown’s Body. at the University of Massachusetts in Am- Emily Dickinson’s - After more than forty years, Jack L. Reading: 1836-1886 with a General Engineering degree, Jack at the Evergreens; at the American Uni- Press)Capps’s is still 1966 an indispensable book, source that After graduation from West Point versity of Beirut; and at the Royal Mili (Harvard University - including Fort Benning in Georgia, where tary Academy at Sandhurst. After serv ry Works Cited pages. Emily Dickinson’s heserved attended in a series “Jump of School” military and assignments became a ing as chair of the West Point English regularly appears on twenty-first-centu Reading is among the trailblazing books andDepartment received, for among eight years, other he honors, retired the in Distinguished1988 with the Servicerank of Medal.Brigadier General Art of Emily Dickinson’s In addition to Emily Dickinson’s Read- of the 1960s—a list that includes David Early Poetry ing, Porter’s 1966 Concordance - and S.P. Rosenbaum’s 1964 - Jack’s majorJohn scholarly Brown’s publications Body (Holt, son’s Complete—books Poems that of Emily appeared Dickinson after, include the following: editor of an Anno the 1955 publication of Thomas H. John tated Edition of The Faulkner Journal poems and variants, and that attempted Rinehart, Winston, 1968); editor of a the first collection that included all her to represent in print Dickinson’s hand- special editionConcordance of to the Prose and written manuscripts. Poetry(1986); of and William general Faulkner editor of a thirty- - five volume to 1990). (University Capps’s text is brief, dense, and con usual Bibliography and Notes and a use- PressNow of retired Michigan, and publishedliving in Kansas, from 1977 Jack cise, comprising only 147 pages plus the - is still “addicted to Emily Dickinson.” - ful Annotated Bibliography of Emily Dick her literary allusions occur in letters as - works on her poetry and gives an occa- inson’s reading showing where many of - “qualified Parachutist;” Nuremberg, Ger sionalHe sometimes lecture, aswrites he did reviews in October of critical 2007 tion, the book’s chapters are chronologi- themany, Haile where Selassie he met I Miliary his future Academy wife, Maand at the Dickinson Museum. The photo ac- well as poems. After a short introduc cal, beginning with her readings in the rie; and Ethiopia, where he co-founded companying this article shows Jack chat- ting with the Museum’s director, Jane and continuing with “British Literature: wordsan officers’ well” training and proposed school. that After he hisre- King James Bible, “a basic reference,” turnco-founder to West told Point Jack, “Youto teach put together English, “British Literature: Romantic and Victo- Wald, after his lecture, whose subject Renaissance and Eighteenth Century”; Pennsylvania, where he took a Dickinson was “Emily Dickinson’s Reading!” seminarhe earned taught an M.A. by none at the other University than the of rian;” “American Reading: Colonial and “Readings in Newspapers and Periodi- great Thomas H. Johnson. Jack describes cals.”Contemporary;” As Capps shows, and her concluding vast readings with reveal that Dickinson was not an isolated Dickinson.” Dorothy Huff Oberhaus is pres- recluse, but rather was knowledgeably himself as thereafter “addicted to Emily- ently writing another book about Em- and passionately engaged in Western lit- nar, “Place Names in Emily Dickinson,” His research paper for Johnson’s semi Jack Capps was born in Liberty, Mis- allusions and thus inspired his Ph.D. toily her Dickinson’s books and fascicles. numerous Jack articles Capps' erature and the issues of her day. souri, where he attended grammar school dissertation,made him aware “Emily of Dickinson’sher many literary Read- aboutbook hasthe poet. been of enormous import when he was required to memorize and his dissertation, was certain it should be and first encountered Emily Dickinson recite “The morns are meeker than they published.ing.” Thomas (“It’s Johnson, the best,” the said director Johnson.) of were—” (Fr32) —whose final line he Jack therefore submitted abstracts to the 20 | EDIS Bulletin Series
What's Your Story?: Dickinson for Two By Georgiana Strickland, Series Editor
duced Nancy to Robert Heinlein and - - Breakfast at the home of Bill and mind.Nancy SincePridgen their in Universal marriage City, in 1993, Tex Ayn Rand. “We exchanged a lot of dif as, provides food for both body and ferent kinds of books,” says Nancy. to After lead their naturally marriage to their in 1993, morning Bill poem.just about They every start day at has the begun beginning with and Nancy’s love for reading seemed the reading of an Emily Dickinson work their way to the end, day by day inspirationalreading ritual. books. “We decidedWe’d read our maybe jobs andof the poem Johnson by poem, or Franklinthen begin edition, again. were very stressful and we had some-
They’re now on their eighth or tenth go-around and they have no plans to booksthe day’s to each entry. other Then in it the just car boomer on long - trips,”anged!” adds explains Bill. “We Nancy.“We read Brideshead also read of engineering degree,” he explains. Revisited and everything by Chaim stop.Dickinson “It’s a sortisn’t ofthe perpetual only intellectual thing,” Later came a bachelor of divinity de- Potok and some by C.S. Lewis.” says Bill. “We just start over.” lowedgree from by ten Episcopal years in Divinity the Episcopal School table. Thoreau gets equal billing with in Cambridge, Massachusetts, fol food served at the Pridgens’ breakfast my background.” Later still he earned NancyDickinson had the came initial into interest, the breakfast and Bill priesthood—“a little known part of table mix shortly after their marriage.- PersianDickinson, poet and Rumi the dailyto Frost fare or may Auden, also Trinity and spent thirty years teach- est. Their Johnson paperback edition include readings ranging from the- inga master’s social studies degree at in Samuel sociology Clemens from soon found that he shared that inter liam Least Heat Moon. The latest ad- High School in Schertz, Texas, near has now been replaced by a Franklin ditionfrom Tolkien to this eclecticor Wittgenstein list is Whitman. to Wil recently fell apart from long use and The Pridgens’ interest in literature alternate between the two variorum is not a recent development. Both their present home in Universal City,- editions.paperback Asked for travel. how At their home discus they- were book worms while growing up. northeast of San Antonio. Bill retired after the 2001-02 school year. In be tween came a first marriage and the comesion is to formulated, a word we Nancy don’t know, explains: Bill callingBut their it literature youthful literary is stretching interests it a births of two children, now thirty-five is“We always don’t quickalways to discuss get out a thelot. 1828If we were somewhat different. “Maybe andNancy thirty-seven. was born He in has Warren, just become Ohio, dictionary and the other dictionaries. a grandfather for the first time. inlittle,” high says school Bill. he He discovered enjoyed stories the Beat of the poem is about, and we talk about poets.space travelLater cameand science T.S. Eliot fiction, and Oscar then and attended Ohio State University- that,We may but havewe don’t a general go into idea depth of what dis- Wilde, whom he still loves. terbefore her getting son’s birth married, she returned moving to schoolTexas, andto earn having a bachelor’s a baby. Shortly degree af in usually last about thirty minutes. English, Spanish, and teaching, then Thatcussing was it.” true Their even breakfast while they readings were Nancy was “kind of a loner, so I a master’s in counseling and guid- highdid aschool. lot of “I reading,” also liked she song says. lyrics, She early,” explains Nancy.“We didn’t read enjoyed children’s poetry, even in- asteaching. many books, “I think but we we got have up read awfully dai- ance, both from Southwest Texas especially ‘The Ballad of Davy Crock atState Samuel University. Clemens In High 1974 School, she began and we either make it up later in the day songwriters,ett’ and cowboy was songs an by outstanding the Sons of that’sthirty-three where years she of and teaching Bill met. English “We ly since we got married. If we miss it, the Pioneers. Bob Nolan, one of their days it gets skipped, but not a lot.” orBill we just claims go on not the to next be aday. “literary Some Ipoet.” was reallyLongfellow taken by.and And Poe Auden.” were also twowere months best friends and got for married.” seventeen years person,” but he has studied the New favorites, but “Houseman was the one beforeDuring we dated,their then seventeen we dated years’ for Critics and likes their approach. “I wasThese born two and avid raised readers in San began Antonio, life books. Nancy introduced Bill to Kurt going into biography or something earningin different a bachelor’s parts of degreethe country. at Trinity Bill Vonnegut,friendship, theBernard two often Malamud, exchanged and like that.a close I don’t reading read of a thepoem text to before prove Ann Tyler, among others. Bill intro- -
University in Home Building, “a kind anything. But I do like to follow ref May/June 2010 | 21 Series
What's Your Story?: Dickinson for Two, cont., By Georgiana Strickland, Series Editor
poems, but it got ridiculous.” - metaphors and allusions to religion, pretations, “but the students always philosophy,erences. Dickinson math, astronomy, makes a and lot so of wantedthe dog.” to Nancy act out offered the scary several story.” inter ledBill some and Dickinson Nancy don’t sessions confine with their a For example, we started on the poem churchlove of group poetry they to home. belong Nancy to. “But has I Dickinson is “Emily Dickinson in the forth, and I like to follow up on those. HillAn Country,” outgrowth a weekend of Nancy’s event interest she be in- gan last year and continued this April that begins “Ah, Teneriffe!” Somebody onhave and to on.be veryBut thecareful one becausething that I canre- sowanted I did toa littleknow geography, if a mountain looked in that up become monomaniacal and just go and Love.” It took place at a church part of the world could have ice on it,- with the theme of “Emily Dickinson tiplied that by what’s called the lapse allally the helps way.” is bouncing ideas off Bill. In San Antonio. Discussion combined rate,the height and it ofturns the outmountain, that yes, and it could mul fact,Thoreau we bounce has things always off beeneach other Bill’s Dickinsoncamp, U Bar biography U ranch, and northwest poems with of have ice on it. Such research brings in art activities, hiking, walking the lab- - yrinth, and reading spiritual poems. son was knowledgeable about. That favorite poet. He and Nancy have- Last year’s event drew eight partici- so many different things that Dickin read his major essays, several of his pants, and this year’s doubled atten- For a long time, Nancy did all the books, and all of his poems. At pres dance to sixteen, says Nancy. Marcy fascinates me.” ent they’re alternating readings from involved in something else that was twoa biography poets, Billwith replies, his journals. “Oh, indeed. Asked Bill spoke on “Thoreau’s lost love.” reallyreading long, of Dickinson.so she turned Then Dickinson she was Weif they think find they connections had a lot betweenin common. the LastTanter year was Wendy the featured Barker speaker spoke. and “I’d over to Bill to read. “Well, when I was They were both New Englanders and ready to take it back, he wasn’t will- chapter,” says Nancy, who is an EDIS ing to give it back. That’s when we wit.” “What excited me,” adds Nancy, like to use it as a start for an EDIS- started reading two poems. Now we both had a wry sort of dry Yankee ter committee. each read aloud a Dickinson poem board member and chair of the chap every day.” German“was when philosophers.” I found that Thoreau and she and Bill have been to most meet- DickinsonNancy’s interests studied atend lot ofmore the to same bi- ingsNancy since joined 1998. Both EDIS appreciate in 1996, andthe take on a poem the second or third ography and criticism than do Bill’s. welcoming atmosphere at the meet- timeAsked around, if they Bill often replies have emphatically, a different “Oh, certainly. A poem has many lev- Dickinson poems set in the mind. - One of her current enthusiasms is ings. They especially enjoy the small- Juhasz’s The Undiscovered Continent. group discussions of poems. Nancy haveels of meaning.” meant,” adds “We’ve Nancy, had disagree “but we “ButShe has the beenmost influencedexciting book by I’veSuzanne ever comments, “When we first went to don’tments haveabout problems what some with of the disagree poems- read is Jed Deppman’s new book, meetings, Bill would say, ‘She’s the Trying to Think with Emily Dickinson, hasDickinson gone beyond person, being I’m justmy husband.” along for sometimes we change our mind.” which deals with her education, the the ride.’ Now he’s a full member. Bill ments. We just agree to disagree, and in school, and the philosophers she The Oxford conference is definitely dead/Nancy When recalls it is hersaid.’ first I liked exposure that a studied.”‘try to think’ exercise she learned on the calendar for both Pridgens to Dickinson in college: “‘A word is- providefor this mental summer. and Meantime, spiritual nourthose- - breakfast-table readings continue to nesslot. Later is divinest my favorite Sense’ education when I pro was children,Some of especially Bill and on Nancy’s Nancy’s interest grand- fessor recited for me ‘Much Mad son,in literature Robert, has who rubbed has been off exposedon their ishment for this remarkable couple. was amazed that someone could un- derstandvery frustrated what I was about going something. through.” I Georgie Strickland, - During her high school teaching ca- taughtto Dickinson Dickinson from in his birth. classroom. Beginning At EDIS Bulletin, now edits a reer, she taught “I taste a liquor never when he was in fourth grade, Nancy a former edi torwho of have the interesting stories about studentsthe end of drawing each week straws they’d to play act outthe theirseries in ofvolvement articles onwith EDIS Dickinson. members To brewed.” “I was just taken away by dog,“I started the mouse, Early—Took the town, my and Dog,” the with sea. the idea of tippling on sunshine.” “Somehow Robert always became That’s one of Nancy’s favorite poems. tell your story in a future issue, please “I started writing a list of my favorite contact her at [email protected]. 22 | EDIS Bulletin Series
Dickinson and the Visual Arts: Emily Dickinson and Elsie Driggs By Maryanne Garbowsky, Series Editor
In her “letter to the World” (Fr519), her own artistic creations. Perhaps with the clouds, and the hills and the Emily Dickinson “commits” her it was serendipitous that Driggs valleys beneath them, child as she - surely was always, playing in some inson’s poems, read through them celestial garden space in her mind, addresseswords “To inHands her poem, I cannot asking see—”. these It andpicked took up the a 1924 time volume to transcribe of Dick at readersis this unseen, to be gentle future with audience her: “Judge she sport was the one thing necessary - were “The Soul selects her own So- to. . . herwhere ever freedom young for and this incessantly childish least three of them. These three- capering mind . . .” (Hartley 200- tenderly—of Me.” So, too, in “Essen 201). gonetial Oils—arebut her poems wrung—” will live (Fr772), on ciety—(Fr409), “I taste a liquor nev It is this quality exactly that Driggs the poet foresees a time when she is (Fr730).er brewed—” In addition,(Fr207), and she “You’ve writes …in Lady’s Drawer seen Balloons set—Hav'nt You?” three poems she transcribed, “The soulfinds selects so captivating. her own society,” Driggs used “I taste all at the top of the sheet “I picked up a liquor never brewed” and “You’ve abook daughter in 1938” Merriman. (47). InWe 1938, can only she Make Summer—When the Lady lie was to have her first and only child, paint. (Driggs quotes the Bianchi seen balloonsThe set—haven’tPoems of Emily you?” Dick to- InDickinson Ceaseless Rosemary—knew that on some in- speculate why at this time in her life inson tuitive level, despite the scant en- edition of couragement she received during later edition.); therefore, the numbering and capitalizationThe latter differ two paintingsfrom Johnson’s were done in 1938 and celebrate a child- popularlyher lifetime, anthologized future readers poem would “Be- - value her poems. At the end of her like simplicity and joy in life. De intocause eternity. I could not We stop notice, for Death—” however, small,spite the cramped limitations house in her in Lambert own life,- that(Fr479), she is she not takesalone awith carriage the driver, ride becoming a first time parent in a but “Immortality” is along as well. - Her poems would be remembered atedville, theseNew Jerseytwo watercolors with “no studio with anof she believed. airyher own”buoyant (Kimmerle quality. 44), she cre - I Taste a Liquor Never membered, but more than merely Brewed, is a small watercolor on And, of course, they have been re The first, insight, they have provided many artistsread and with reread a springboard for pleasure to their and paper measuring 14 ½ x 11 inches. own creative work. Like seeds, her ascending.Against a background As they ascend, of shades they of growblue, welarger see andcircles more of varyingtransparent. sizes to be gathered up by musicians, vi- the poems appealed to her mind They are various colors: yellow, sualpoems artists, have andfallen other on fertilepoets asground well. and temperament. blue, red, pink, and lavender. Read- These seedlings have germinated One suggestion might be that it - - inson’s poem, which Driggs actu- art. ness” that artist Marsden Hartley ing the first two stanzas of Dick andA case blossomed in point into is the new early works twen of- was Dickinson’s spirit of “playful tieth century artist Elsie Driggs, in his 1921 book, Adventures in the thatally “transcribedDriggs visually on depictsthe back bubbles of the - Artsfound (200). so attractive He writes about a the chapter poet frame” (Kimmerle 47), we realize- ist paintings. However, she was so about her in which he applauds her takenknown byprimarily Dickinson’s for her poems Precision that rising from a glass of some efferves that “like some sky child pranking viewercent liquor. also awareHowever, that the the lack inebria of a- “sublime, impertinent playfulness” source of these bubbles makes the at least three of them encouraged May/June 2010 | 23 Series
Dickinson and the Visual Arts: Emily Dickinson and Elsie Driggs, cont., By Maryanne Garbowsky, Series Editor
Works Cited poem, and what Driggs accurately Bianchi, Martha Dickinson and Al- tion that Dickinson speaks of in the chariot painted over a large profile- The Poems the very air that we breathe that tercolors,of a Greek which looking are man” light (Kimmerle and buoy- of Emily Dickinson, Boston: Little, portrays, is the spirit of life itself, ant.142) Fort and isdescribes unlike the this other painting two wa as fredBrown, Leete and Hampson, Company, ed. 1935. - Hartley, Marsden, Adventures has this intoxicating effect. Nature in the Arts, New York: Hacker Art herself during the “endless sum Itone is of more Driggs’, serious “more in enigmatic” tone, like and the Books, 1972. elationmer days— and enthusiasm. / From inns of molten “surreal works” (Kimmerle 142). Franklin, The Poems of Emily Blue—”The second (Fr207) painting, fills our Balloons spirits ,with also What a rare insight into the act Dickinson, Reading Edition, ed. R.W. dated 1938, is a small watercolor on poem itself. Franklin, Cambridge, MA: Harvard paper (11x13 inches). Here there artist’s studio. Perhaps the very act of creation, a front row seat in the Johnson, Thomas H. ed., The Com- - letter, word by word triggered in pleteUniversity Poems Press, of Emily 1999. Dickinson, Bos- ingare size. more They circles rise of against color – a sixteen back- Driggsof transcribing the images the poems that she letter would by ton: Little, Brown and Company, in all – that are balloons of vary use in her watercolors. In this in- stance, it is not an artist inspired by Kimmerle, Constance, Elsie ground of blue, green and white. another, but one artist collaborat- Driggs:1960. The Quick and the Classical, What appears to be the strings of- ing with another. Both Dickinson Doylestown, Pennsylvania: James A. catelythe balloons—what penciled in. HereDickinson they glidecalls and Driggs are working side by side, Michener Art Museum, 2008. weightlessly,“ribbons”—are like nine the swans balloons, deli - which are light and airy. The swans ative energy. Dickinson and Driggs charged by the same current of cre Driggs.”Mitchner, Town Stuart, Topics: “A Life Princeton’s in Art: into the visual, working together Weekly,The Long 13 Feb Heroic 2008. Career of Elsie are barely visible, lightly sketched; evenare at though one, the they poetic are more transformed than 70 they are “stately”— Dickinson’s years apart. (Fr730).”word — like the balloons which “go Maryanne Garbowsky is a pro- softlyThe out last / Opon painting, a Sea entitled of Blonde— The - Soul Selects her Own Society, based - sey.fessor She of hasEnglish written at the two County books, ColThe name, is according to art critic Ilene Houselege of WithoutMorris in the Randolph, Door and New Double Jer Susanon Dickinson’s Fort a “complex poem of conceptual the same Vision as well as numerous articles statement.” It shows “a horse and about Dickinson.
Bulletin Seeks New Editor - - - ing). The editor also must have ex- didate who would be prepared to Kathy Welton has informed the cellentthe United writing States and (to editing facilitate skills, mail be The Board is looking for a can BulletinEDIS Board of Directors that she in tends to step down as editor of the and work, and be reasonably cur- responsibilityassume partial beginning responsibility with the for to take after over the this current demanding issue. The but rentfamiliar with with Dickinson Dickinson's scholarship. biography springediting 2011the fall issue. 2010 To issueapply, and please full veryBoard rewarding is now looking task. for someone The position is unpaid, but all nor- - mal expenses are reimbursed. The terest to Georgiana Strickland, 133 position carries with it membership Lackawannasend a resume Rd., and Lexington, a letter of KYin The basic qualifications are that the candidate be a member of EDIS in good standing and a resident of on the EDIS Board of Directors. 40503 or [email protected]. 24 | EDIS Bulletin Series
My Criterion for Tune: Exhilaration Within: A Different Kind of Oral Life for Dickinson’s Lyrics By Emily Seelbinder, Series Editor
“My Criterion for Tune” is a new name for the EDIS Bulletin‘s series on Mick Jagger or Tina Turner. - Dickinson and music. How fitting that Adams once identified as suitable for It is clear in his discussion of his- the new series title comes from the evoking the passion, but also the ach- work that Kallor relies first on his in same poem that inspired the theme for Kallor’s setting is far more nuanced,- stincts in finding the appropriate set this summer’s conference in Oxford (Fr dressing an absent lover, with whom inting those for a instincts,poem. His now extensive augmented work 256). My thanks to Cindy Dickinson sheing uncertainty may never share of the such speaker, passion ad as a jazz pianist has developed a trust for passing along a copy of Exhilara- again. When asked about this setting, tion and thus leading me to meet the by his study of classical composition, dynamic and delightful musicians who which he undertook after finishing a are the subject of this piece. inKallor his not explains, setting “Urgency the song wasin a particwhat -I Citydegree in 2000.in American In Boston, Studies he had at stud Tufts- ularwas goingkey, but for.” by This placing mood “two is reflected chords iedUniversity privately and with moving Fred Hersch, to New “who, York Emily Seelbinder, Series Editor - in addition to being a master impro- Listening to Gregg Kallor’s evoca- ing no “harmonic resolution” to the viser and accompanist, produces one on top of each other,” thereby provid - etry, one would not guess that Kallor the piano I have ever heard.” Hersch tive settings of Emily Dickinson’s po urgedof the Kallor most beautiful to study insounds New from York with his classical piano teacher So- ninewrote songs his firstthat songmake only up his two Dickin years- sonbefore song-cycle publishing Exhilaration and recording. His setthe- “changed everything. I experienced a phia Rosoff, and that, Kallor insists, tings are elegant and immediately - - kind of rebirth; I reengaged my study ing the listener into what Kallor calls sion, and the music resonated very engaging, lifting up the words, draw of the classics with newfound pas poems. Subsequent hearings deepen had come home.” deeply. I had the strong feeling that I that“the experienceemotional sound and reveal world” a of com the- Hersch also introduced his eager student to composer and lyricist composer’s claim that he really had plexity and careful craft that belie the - Herschel Garfein. “Until then,” Kallor he began setting Dickinson texts was more interested in creating that ied composition, and in Herschel I very little experience of poetry when piece. As for the passion, he says, “I recalls, “I had never formally stud
("Intersections"). frenzy rhythmically.” That rhythmic whatfound to the do perfectwith the mentor. inspired He sketches taught Take, for example, his setting of melismasfrenzy begins on the in theword rolling, “Wild” clashing as the me about the craft of composing— “Wild Nights” (Fr269). Though I am chords of the piano and the singer’s and Herschel both encouraged me not familiar with all of the over thirty after the Muse has departed. Sophia song opens; it continues unabated settings of this poem, I know quite a- moment as the singer concludes the few, including Lori Laitman’s “tango- until one brief, “more contemplative” to draw upon my background in jazz and improvisation in my ‘classical’ inspired” version; Lee Hoiby’s set- phrase “Rowing in Eden— / Ah! the playing and composing. I am grateful gianating for Strickland the lush and describes powerful as voice “an Sea!” and then pauses for several bars to them for so wisely and patiently appropriatelyof Leontyne Price, stormy with background what Geor in “It seemed important to give this mo- when Kallor became an uncle, he while the piano reflects her thoughts. helping me to find my way.” In 2005, the piano, evoking waves crashing, ment a chance to breathe. Essentially, - asked Garfein for assistance in find this poem is about lust and desire—it ing a text to set as a lullaby. Garfein choruswinds howling”;and orchestra and that the concludes over-the- devising. calls for a frenetic energy and a rich obliged by providing lyrics of his own Johntop, eleven-minute Adams’s 1980 setting work forHarmoni mixed- - harmonic palette—but here it feels um like she is closing her eyes for a mo Kallor was pleased with his first . Most settings focus on the highly ment to savor the sweetness of her song, but the nephew for whom it fantasy.” was composed was far too young to charged passion of the poem—a lyric May/June 2010 | 25 Series
My Criterion for Tune: Exhilaration Within: A Different Kind of Oral Life for Dickinson’s Lyrics, cont. By Emily Seelbinder, Series Editor to gauge appreciation when the in- - appreciate his uncle’s gift. “It’s hard prano,choice in for opera composers and art song working the voice on Spanish,an elegant an windup. auspicious The linguistic last part as of- the listener to sleep,” Kallor says, “so Dickinson settings—but mezzo-so his surname (bala) means ‘bullet’ in tended effect of your song is to put who knows her own mind and does slightly older and more demonstra- of experience, the voice of a woman- granddaughtersociation for a as pitcher” well. (281-2). It I decided to write some songs for a is an auspicious association for his - not fear the consequences of speak Zabala sparkles in the well-known emstive audience.”in English. ShortlyAt that timethereafter, he knew he ing it. Kallor found such a singer in- belIn canto the large-scale and trouser world roles of that opera, are verypurchased little about a used reading anthology poetry. of This po Adriana Zabala,Elmer Gantrywhom Garfein knew - “somewhat daunting” challenge was hadthrough written her performancethe libretto. inAn the experi pre- ertoire. She also brings remarkable perhaps to his advantage, allowing encedmiere of singer with a diverse, for which reper he- the staples of a mezzo’s operatic rep- him to explore the poems without eras, most recently in the title role song, Zabala proved to be an ideal vigor to the performance of new op should and should not do in ap- toire and an immense love of the art Jonathon Dove’s The Adventures of proachingpre-conceived texts. notions of what one Kallor. Pinocchiofor the United with the States Minnesota premiere Opera of collaborator“She’s such for a literatethe less-experienced person,” Kal- in March 2009. In more intimate Kallor was drawn to Dickinson im- lor says. “She approached the songs settings, she glows, making an im- mediately.Like many Her composers poems, he beforesays, “blew him, mediate connection with the audi- me away.” There was “something - ence. Kallor marvels at how, in their about her writing, the way she cap- tionsfrom an about intellectual phrasing place and as my well inten as- musical. She would ask specific ques sometimes I would make a change. inconcerts Adriana’s together, physical “A lot presence of people and we atured language these that ineffable is “understated, sensations but in tions—we would talk about it, and- theperformed way she for conveys have gottenthe poems caught in her up packsvery subtle,a real punch.” not flowery Kallor language,” set aside ing with her is that she will take the body language and her expressions. poemsOne of the without things the I love music about and work get a It’s very real.” Operatic roles might pay the rent, the anthology in favor of the Johnson but Zabala’s abiding passion is the art “thatedition spoke of the to me, complete and narrowed poems. that He makesense senseof what to theyher. mean,We both what choose they - downread them to the all, onestaking that note suggested of the texts a mean to her, and see if the settings musical idea. I didn’t choose these resonance to us, that speaks on many song. As a performer, as Artistic Di poems. They chose me.” levels.”to perform Working music with that Zabala has personal was “an rector for the Southeastern Festival In setting the poems, Kallor strove - of Song (a position she held for five- - years), and now as a member of the inson’s words: “I didn’t want to add reallyincredible works learning and what process” doesn’t.” for Kal materialvoice faculty and at giventhe University much thought of Min always to preserve the power of Dick lor, helping him “get a feel for what tonesota, how she chamber has examined concerts a lot can of new and didn’t need to be augmented in any stage is extraordinary. Perhaps her - way.something The way extraneous—the I went about it, I poemswould parentsZabala’s anticipated feel for what her worksability on to es that when she received the packet read them and speak them aloud and should be structured. Zabala confess imagine them being sung. They’re not extroverted. I tried to imagine catch fire with an audience when they- knewof songs that Kallor many had composerssent her, she havewas named her after her grandfather, a at first reluctant to look at them. She speech-like. Because I was so struck rememberedbaseball player by in long-timeCuba and the baseball Unit - bythem these in poems,an understated I didn’t want voice—very to weigh ed States in the 1940s and 1950s, still inson’stried, but texts. far too She few had have “an immediatesucceeded them down. I wanted to give them a she is in Miami. According to Roberto andin evoking moving the response,” elusive spirit however, of Dick to Gonzálezfans Adriana Echevarría, Zabala encounters Adrián Zabala when Kallor’s “commitment to expression and meaning,” which she describes in different kind of oral life. I tried to be origin . . ., a good overall athlete and the liner notes to their CD as “wide- very conscious of her phrasing.” alsowas could “a strong hit. . six-footer. . He had ofspeed Basque and The voice of Kallor’s settings was not soprano—the most common ranging and profound. His settings 26 | EDIS Bulletin Series
My Criterion for Tune: Exhilaration Within: A Different Kind of Oral Life for Dickinson’s Lyrics, cont. By Emily Seelbinder, Series Editor reveal shades in every word, even the moments when there are no words.” and the knowledge that “Exhilara- She eagerly accepted his invitation one might expect from the cycle’s newfound or renewed love of poetry to work with him in developing his buttitle. Kallor Several sought of the to poems avoid exploremorbid the Ground” (Fr1157) and remains - the experiences of death and loss,- tion is the Breeze / That lifts us from ing. inson is mistakenly viewed as being Wine / So royally intoxicate / As that songsOver for the performance next several and months, a record Kal- settings of these texts: “I think Dick “within” us—“There can no Outer wasn’t death that interested her. It obsessively focused on death, but it divinerWorks Brand” Cited (Fr645). lor refined his songs and came up- Adriana Zabala with two song-cycles, one featuring was the sensation of feeling loss, and adrianazabala.com. ering nine Dickinson poems under - . 2010. 4 May 2010 www. the work of W. B. Yeats, the other gath joy and passion—the feeling of being Echevarría, Roberto González. The Pride the title Exhilaration: “Exhilaration sons I was drawn to her was that she of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball. New is the Breeze” (Fr1157), “It bloomed alive and engaged. One of the rea Exhilaration: Dickinson and Yeats Songs. York: Oxford UP, 1999. doesn’t elevate the drama for effect- Gregg Kallor, piano. Adriana Zabala, mezzo- and dropt, a Single Noon—” (Fr843), —she is honestly (and exquisitely!) soprano. Gregg Kallor Music, 2008. “Bee! I’m expecting you!” (Fr983), conveying what she felt at the bed Music.” By Ketzel Levine. Morning Edition. “We Cover Thee—Sweet Face—” Theside of hesitancy, someone the she uncertainty, loved who was the “Intersections: John Adams’ Poetry of- (Fr461), “Wild nights—Wild nights!” dying, or the guilt of not being there. vember 2008 www.npr.org/templates/ story. National Public Radio. 12 January 2004. No (Fr269), “What Inn is this” (Fr100), “I php?storyId=1590792. [Note: The story in- should not dare to leave my friend” stutteringKallor and thoughts—she Zabala have captured (Fr234), “Still own thee—still thou that feeling.” cludesGregg a link Kallor. to a recording of Adams’ setting art” (Fr1654), and “Exhilaration—is www.greggkallor.coof “Wild Nights.”] m. [The site includes 2008. 4 May 2010 thewithin—” two poems (Fr 645). that Kallor calls “book- that feeling as well, especially in their The name of the cycle comes from- performance of “I should not dare to- audio samples of Kallor’s work and a video lor employs similar melodies in these lor’sleave website: my friend,” www.greggkallor.com which is available. recordingKallor, of Gregg. Kallor andExhilaration: Zabala performing A Work “I- should not dare to leave my friend.”] ends” for the poems in between. Kal- Therefor viewing is a link or on download that website on Kalto a shop in Poetry & Music www.SongsWorkshop.com. new collaboration between these two Kallor, Gregg. Exhilaration:. 2009. Nine 4 MayDickinson 2010 two settings. “I love the idea of re- remarkable artists: Exhilaration: A Songs. Gregg Kallor Music, 2007. hilaration’turn—when poems something complement comes backeach Workshop in Poetry and Music (www. Kallor, Gregg. Personal interviews and other,to us atand the I endwanted of a topiece. include The both. ‘Ex songsworkshop.com). Through live 2010. - email correspondence. JanuaryMystery: 2009–April The inson describes in these two poems high school or college students in Songs of Lori Laitman. Albany, NY: Albany To me, the sense of wonder that Dick theperformance workshop, and Kallor interaction and Zabala with Records,Laitman, 2000. Lori. Liner notes for - - Strickland, Georgiana. “Emily Dickinson sums up what much of her poetry in Song,” liner notes for Dwell in Possibility: stasy, despair, and everything in be- Emily Dickinson in Song, with mezzo-soprano tween.”is about—savoring Choosing where experience. to place the Ec provide an opportunity for partici Virginia DuPuy. Peterborough, NH: Gasparo pants to explore the relationship of Records, 2003. poetry and music and find new ways Zabala, Adriana. Personal interview and email correspondence. January 2009–April aother narrative seven as poems “an architectural was a matter plot.” of openof experiencing to a wider texts. audience While than visiting that 2010. Itfinding was nota “musical by conscious flow,” not design so much that a campus, they also offer a concert,- Emily Seelbinder for the workshop, in which they per ment “Wild Nights” is in the exact center of English.form Kallor’s compositions as well as is professor of- the set, but it works beautifully there,- otherGiven composers’ their combined settings passion of texts and in English and chair of the Depart nerability,Zabala says, repression.” evoking so many feelings talents, one cannot doubt that any- Amongof English, the Drama, courses and she Creative teaches Writ is at once: “desire, sex, confidence, vul one lucky enough to experience a ing at Queens University of Charlotte.-
With the exception of “Bee! I’m classroom or the concert hall with a Dickinsonone entitled, song "Dickinson settings. and her de expecting you!” the settings do not Kallor-Zabala performance leaves the scendants", which includes a study of evoke the playfulness or exuberance May/June 2010 | 27 Reviews
New Publications By Barbara Kelly, Book Review Editor
Anderson, Karen Leona. Punish Hon- completed works, hoping to expand the ey. Durham, NC: Carolina Wren Press, text in history?” Like Virgil in Dante’s Divine materials and the completed text. In Comedyasks, “What, Cuban-born difference historian has eternity and made Yale definition of to encompass both draft 2009. 49 pp. Paper, ISBN 0-932112-58- guide, as he leads readers through more 3. $14.95. the first three chapters she introduces a professor Eire is an alert, knowledgeable Fellowship Award, Anderson brings to- method to study draft materials; she then- ancient times, through early Christian- Recipient of the 2007 EDIS Graduate gether poetry and science in her debut applies this method to textual analysis of ity,than the 3,000 medieval years of period, religious the history Protestant from drafted works by Wordsworth, Tenny into three sections: “Tulips,” “Bees,” and son, and Dickinson. In her final chapter the present secular period dominated by collection of thirty-five poems divided “The Animal Parliament.” The book’s title Bushnell reflects on “the nature of textual- Reformation, and the Enlightenment, to process, of the making of meaning and - Frenchthe kind genetic of interpretation criticism, Jerome it requires.” McGann, In individualism and the decline of belief in is taken from Emily Dickinson’s lines, “In - andformed other by Heidegger, contemporary Derrida, critics, Foucault, Bush- eternity. Each chapter focuses on “a dif vain to punish Honey— / It only sweeter asferent Plato, dominant Augustine, paradigm Dionysius or conception the Are- grows” (J1562). Like Dickinson, Ander and can be cryptic, dark, and linguisti- with hermeneutics, teleology, phenom- opagite,of eternity,” the popes, encompassing Luther, Calvin, such figuresPascal, son has an affinity for the natural world - enology,nell’s writing semiotics, is clear, and but structuralism a familiarity is Nietzsche, Stephen Hawking, and others. derson’s “explosive diction and endlessly Like Emily Dickinson, Eire struggles with cally difficult. Evie Shockley cites An helpful. Her study will appeal to textual his chapter on modern religious history, shifting syntax.” Echoes of Dickinson can- scholars and theorists; and to scholars the fact that we must die. Introducing be found in words, phrases, and lines like tion,” and “Magnolia, throat too soon open of Whitman, Tennyson, and Dickinson.- “charnel house,” “the sign of true elec ingIn Dickinson’s“Dickinson’s work Process” and interpreting (168-214), he treats Dickinson briefly (157-59) but - Bushnell surveys the problems of edit significantly, discussing her skeptical and to the fumbling fingers of beetles.” For - historyagnostic should voice interest in J502, anyone 976, andinterested 1551. Dickinson, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feath much like Sylvia Plath), “Behold hope as ativethe fascicles; acts and but strategies,” the core particularly of her study her is Eire’s erudite, engaging, and often witty ers—,” but for Anderson (sounding here a “detailed analysis of Dickinson’s cre - in Dickinson’s “Flood subject” (L319), as an insect bitch, golden bones / for legs, - “resistance to making judgments and to she called her understanding of immor- acwraith-wristed, world marked of by course, disease a parody and entropy, of the ‘fixing’ the text.” Working with Fr 369, tality, for he places Dickinson into the fat / and feathered.” In Anderson’s elegi even magnolia blossoms are on the wane 911, 1255, 1278, 1356, 1365, and 1476, Includedcontext of are a longsixteen history illustrations, of human an con ap- as “wine-stained gloves.” Her world can and providing illustrations of manuscript pendix,cern about notes, what and index. happens after death. pages, Bushnell focuses on Dickinson’s- toward nightmare and brutality, recalling deletions and footnote crosses, showing Felstiner, John. Can Poetry Save the be dream-like and fearsome, often edging Tennyson’s world, “red in tooth and claw.” makinghow she oneuses change “a stable can frame lead with to others. pock Earth? A Field Guide to Nature Poems. Bushnell’sets of instability meticulous allowed work within enables it,” how her - ousAnderson’s readers poems interested do in not the offer poet’s cheer, use New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, comfort, or happy endings, but for seri 2009. 396 pp. Cloth, ISBN 0-300-13750- to suggest sequential layers of revision— Felstiner says, “ecological losses are and ideas put together in inventive ways, anEire, impressive Carlos. analytical A Very Briefeffort. History of 7. $35.00. theseof language poems andcan provide metaphor, what with Alice words Ful- Eternity. - nearly beyond repair and time is running out,” believing that “poetry more than Princeton, NJ: Princeton Uni tonBushnell, calls “a Sally.sumptuous Text linguistic as Process: feast.” Cre - versity Press, 2010, 268 pp. Cloth, ISBN ative Composition in Wordsworth, Ten- 0-691-13357-7. $24.95. forever, onany earth.”other kind In of short, speech he reveals argues the persua vital- nyson, and Dickinson. Charlottesville, or eternity, have evolved in Western cul- signs and warning signs of our tenancy ture,Eire surveys and what “how roles conceptions these conceptions of His book is a noble enterprise. Accessible tosively general that readers,poetry can Felstiner’s make a difference.essays be- VA: University of Virginia Press, 2009. understanding, personally and collec- gin with Native American songs and the 302 pp. Cloth, ISBN 0-8139-2774-9. have played in shaping our own self- - $55.00. intellectual and social history” and the in process and their relationship to the tively.” Interested in the “intersection of poets,Bible; heincluding then discusses Blake, the the Wordsworths, lives and se Bushnell explores the nature of texts lected works of 40 British and American “symbiosis of ideas and practices,” he The Bulletin
welcomes notices of all Dickinson-related books, including those published outside the U.S. Send information to Barbara Kelly, 444 Washington Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94301, U.S.A. Email: [email protected] 28 | EDIS Bulletin Reviews
New Publications, cont., By Barbara Kelly, Book Review Editor
Coleridge, Keats, Whitman, Dickinson, Hardy, Hopkins, Yeats, Frost, Stevens, Williams, Lawrence, Millay, Kunitz, Ro- from fossils and dinosaurs to a panoply age of Dickinson on the cover, Kjaer’s text ethke, Bishop, Kinnell, Hughes, Snyder, children,of plant life, their sea teachers, creatures, and insects, inquisitive birds, concludes with a biographical sketch of- and mammals. Intended for school-age- the author, a bibliography of his work on - Dickinson, and suggested further read- and others. In “‘Earth’s most graphic minds of all ages, this informative, delight ing. A charter member and former Board thantransaction’: a dozen Syllables Dickinson of poems, Emily Dickin noting “Prehistoricful anthology Praise,” contains “Think nine sections: Like a Tree,” “Oh, translatedmember (1991-92) selected Dickinson of the Emily poems Dick and herson” keen (75-87), attention Felstiner to detail references in “A more Bird Fields of Wonder,” “The Sea Is Our Mother,” lettersinson into International Danish and Society, has written Kjaer books, has Termite,” “Everything That Lives Wants to articles, and plays about Dickinson in Fellow in the Grass.” In an otherwise Fly,”“Meditations “I Am the of Family a Tortoise,” Face,” “Someand “Hurt Primal No engagingcame down essay the accompanied Walk—” and by “A illustranarrow- Living Thing.” Introductions to each sec- English about the poet. Danish; he has also written six articles in pages, Emily Dickinson is represented in tions of the “narrow Fellow” manuscript- drawingstion, instructive accompany editorial the notes poems. following The troversial Gura photograph purchased editorsmany poems, emphasize and a few that fine both pen-and-ink scientists ona nearly Ebay, full-page its undocumented photograph provenanceby the con and poets are keen observers using their unmentioned. Dickinson’s authentic da- imaginations to explore, experiment, col-
- wonders are explained with imagination guerreotype and the retouched copy of it lect, and connect information. Nature’s oncan other be found poets in throughout the essay on the May book. Swen He says the Tyrannosaurus rex has about concludes,son. Felstiner poems notes can Dickinson’s awaken individuals influence and humor: in her poem “206,” Winston- inson is represented by “The Pedigree 206 different bones—”Same as us.” Dick illustrationsto consciousness (22 color and “makeplates), us bibliogra mindful- Grass,” the latter contrasted to Theodore Lewis, Kevin. Lonesome: The Spiritual of fragile, resilient life.” Included are 60 Roethke’sof Honey” “Snake.” and “A narrowIncluded Fellow are an inaudio the Meanings of American Solitude. New phies for each chapter, and an index. York: I. B. Tauris/Palgrave Macmillan, CD with 44 poems, 18 poets reading their own work; a glossary of 47 scientific and - 2009. 202 pp. Cloth, ISBN 1-84885-075- literary terms; biographical sketches of 0.In an$85.00. extended essay, Lewis explores the andthe poets, an index. editors, and illustrator; sugges tions for further reading and research; like character, and the “ways Americans Kjaer, Niels. Dialogue with Dickinson: havecomplexity negotiated of lonesomeness, their privatized, its religious- non- Papers Read at International Confer- traditional religiousness.” To support his ences of the Emily Dickinson Interna- - tional Society. Arhus, Denmark, 2009. - “plea for recognition of the fecund ‘lone - someness’ of the greater American expe 24 pp. Paper, spiral bound, ISBN 87- - rience, and for its occasionally religious 989716-7-2. $10.00. To purchase, con ets Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Stevens, significance,” he examines American po tactDanish the author,author attranslator, [email protected] and poet Niels
he made at three Emily Dickinson Inter- Roethke, Ammons, and James Wright; Hoberman, Mary Ann, and Linda Win- nationalKjaer gathers Society together events: presentations “Celebration” that fiction writers Mark Twain, Sherwood ston, eds. Illustrated by Barbara Fortin. (21-22), a tribute to Dickinson, present- Anderson, and James Agee; “country” The Tree That Time Built: A Celebration ed at the twentieth-anniversary meeting James,songwriters; Romain and Rolland, artist Abraham Edward Hopper;Maslow of Nature, Science, and Imagination. anddrawing others. also Believing from Rudolf that Otto, dictionaries William Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks: Jaberwocky, Kierkegaard, Emily Dickinson, and Haiku have not caught up with the uses and 2009. 209 pp. 9.25 x 8.25 x .75 inches. in Amherst, August 1-3, 2008; “Søren Category” (5-13), presented at the EDIS distinguishes between “lonely” with its Poetry: ‘The Moment’ as a Cross-cultural negativenuances of connotations “lonely” and and “lonesome,” “lonesome” he - Cloth, ISBN 1-4022-1857-6. $19.99. - - - international conference in Kyoto, Japan, anic, peak experience and illuminated reateStrongly Hoberman influenced and by teacher Darwin’s Winston discov lating Emily Dickinson” (15-20), pre- August 3-5, 2007; and “The Art of Trans consciousnesswith its potential that for lead the to numinous, transcendence oce presenteries, United 117 poems States by Children’s 77 well known Poet Lau and - lesser known poets celebrating the mys- 1992.sented Written at the EDISin English, international containing confer two ence in Washington, D.C., October 22-24,- and intimations of eternity. He begins with Dickinson’s poem (J1116): “There is teries and miracles of the natural world, pictures, and featuring a hand-drawn im another LonelinessMay/June . . . Not want 2010 of friend | 29 Reviews
New Publications, cont., By Barbara Kelly, Book Review Editor occasions it . . . But nature sometimes, amines Dickinson’s letters and more than Wardrop, Daneen. Emily Dickinson sometimes thought.” Lewis says, “Our a dozen poems. She concludes, Dickin- and the Labor of Clothing. Hanover, NH: distinctly lone and lovely poet . . . Ameri- son “repeatedly returns to the prophetic persona who is always expectant, always University Press of New England, 2009. couldcan to bethe revealed core, testifies / By mortal that ‘whoso’ numeral.’” this 246 pp. 10.25 x 7.25 x 1 inches. Cloth, other loneliness ‘befalls / Is richer than waiting in readiness for the next bars of ISBN 1-58465-780-4. $30.00 melody, the next sip of sacred wine, the characterizingIn the section Dickinson’s on Dickinson lonesomeness (32-40), he next breadcrumb of grace that will be asdiscusses “tough-minded, J258, 262, austerely 532, 774, evanescent, and 1370, transformedThomson, Shawn. into poetry.” The Fortress of American Solitude: Robinson Crusoe chill.” Notes and an index are included and Antebellum Culture. Madison, NJ: uncomforted, braced by an irresistible anyone wanting to understand loneliness Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, andin this its illuminating potentially therapeutic book, of interest counter to- 2009. 243 pp. Cloth, ISBN 0-8386-4217- part lonesomeness. Robinson Crusoe was a popular and pow- 7. $54.50. Focusing on nineteenth-century cloth- Magid, Annette M. You Are What You ing, those who wore it, and those who - Eat: Literary Probes into the Palate. made it, Wardrop seeks “to reposition roicerful individuality role model for in theyoung antebellum men leaving pe- home and seeking self-reliance and he Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars, - the perception of Dickinson from that riod; for women, Crusoe gave access to 2008. 464 pp. Cloth, ISBN 1-847184924. son argues, however, that the Crusoe of a reclusive figure to a figure involved the “terrain of male experience.” Thom prose, the author surveys nineteenth- $89.99.Twenty-one scholars examine the role in social interactions.” In clear, graceful negotiating the crowded cities and mar- - story offered “no practical guidance in corsets,century fashions chemises, made crinoline at home and and hooplater mesticatingfood plays in Women,” literature, “Consuming film, politics, Films,” and in factories: basque bodices, bustles,- “Multiculturalpoetry. Divided Tastes,”among five “Childhood chapters (“Do Eat- productiveket values of energy the burgeoning breaks down nation.” in theHe says, “Crusoe’s meaning as a model for ables,” and “Contemporary Cuisine.”), the - skirts; calico, chintz, cashmere, and dam ask fabrics; gaiters, bonnets, straw and- and topics including: “Food Fight: War becomesself-seeking reconstituted ideology of as the an liberal emotional indi encespalm-leaf among hats; pantalettes, sacque jackets, pantaloons, tippets, andessays Domesticity provide a diversity in Fay Weldon’sof approaches Fic- vidualism of the nineteenth century and andlace, bloomers.and veils. Readers Illustrating learn the the text differ are tion,” “You Gotta Eat Somethin’: Food, - infortress America’s of solitude imperial that ventures.” shields men Thom from- Godey’s Lady’s Book, Harpers, and other ban Films,” “Knowledge is as Food: Food, sonrecognizing surveys the the cost Crusoe of their theme participation in works archival66 pictures materials, (24 color including plates), culled art by from Ed- DigestionViolence, andand Perversity Illness in Milton’s in Scorsese’s Paradise Ur by Herman Melville, Frederick Douglas, gar Degas, Winslow Homer, and Currier Lost,” “Perceptive Appetites: Food Issues Elizabeth Stoddard, James Fenimore and Ives. Wardrop analyzes Dickinson’s in Mother Goose and Nursery Litera- Cooper, Emily Dickinson, and others less white dress, her daguerreotype picture, ture,” and “Never the Right Food: Eating well known. About Dickinson (192-200), vitally concerned with how she dressed.” shipwreck and privation” . . . “provide a and her writing, finding “a young woman wereand Alienation presented in at John the NortheastUpdike’s Rabbit Mod- Thomson says her “castaway tales of- Angstrom Saga.” Most of these papers Only two blocks from the Homestead, refuge from an austere and rigid patriar discusses two “castaway poems” (J750, the Hills factory, the largest hat factory ern Language Association’s 2006, 2007, chy and a site for personal growth.” He employed local seamstresses and later Thought” sessions chaired by Magid. in the United States in the mid-1860s, and 2008 Conventions in the “Food for Irish immigrants, their hard working conditions surely known to Dickinson. - 550) and two “shipwreck poems” (J1454, In Anne Ramirez’s “Breadcrumbs of 1469), stating, “while the castaway poems - Grace, Birdsongs of Joy: Emily Dickin served as a vehicle for abstract thought, - own dark obsession with moribundity.” Referencing scores of her poems and ex son’s Gifts (44-55),” the author focuses on the shipwreck poems reflect Dickinson’s - He concludes, “It is through . . . rupture amining Fr 367, 388, 495, 705, and 735, Dickinson’s use of breadcrumbs “to rep Wardrop details how the making of cloth resent precious morsels of grace that she others.” She traces Dickinson, a suppli- ing informed Dickinson’s writing, leading humbly receives—or generously offers to of the civilized self from the elaborate commentary and comedy.” Wardrop’s se- - her greatest power.” This interesting, to “expressions of eroticism, biting social - wellforms designed of society book that includes Dickinson three achieves illus- cant, moving from deprivation and hun Robinson rious title belies the accessibility and fun ger to fulfillment, gratitude, and accep - Crusoe, notes and an index. of this well researched, informative book tance of transient joy, becoming the giver trations from early editions of clad Dickinson. that dispels the myth of a pristine white- of gifts. To support her essay, Ramirez ex
30 | EDIS Bulletin Reviews
Book Notes
Now available in paperback editions: “the relationship between loss and the re- her own heart against the truth. But her - • A Summer of Hum- ing, “The necrophilia that lies at the heart mingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the In- constitution of the missing object,” argu very actions show that the Spirit of God is tersecting Christopher Worlds Benfey’s of Emily Dickinson, Mark 830, 831, and 1239] can be understood stirring in her bosom, and she is perfectly Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin of Dickinson’s poetry [Fr 411, 431, 442, wretched. I went there the other day & Johnson Heade articulated by Agamben.”] she• treated me as if she were insane.”] as an elaboration of the psychodynamics Amor infiel. Emily Dickinson • Brock Clarke’s, Penguin, An Arsonist’s $16.00. Guide to • - por Maier, Nuria Carol. Amat “Love. Emily Unfaithful Dickinson but Journal True: Writers’ Homes in New England, Algon- PMLA Reflections18.2 (2009): on 77-93. Friedlander, Benjamin. “Emily Dickin • • Marietta Messmer’s Vice for Voices: soncompares and the “When Battle I of was Ball’s small, Bluff.” a Woman quin Books, $13.95. 124.5 (2009): 1582-99. [Friedlander- Emily Dickinson to Billy Collins, Re: A Reading Emily Dickinson’s Correspondence, Missing Nguyen, Bonnet.” Nicole. Red“An Open Cedar Letter Review from diedsuggesting —,” to other that Civil it provides War poems, the identi “best (2008): 17-18. [Perhaps written in re- 43 University• Domhnall of Massachusetts Mitchell’s Emily Press,$29.95. Dickinson: fiesevidence discordant that Dickinson notes in Dickinson’s was consciously poem, Monarch of Perception - Emily Dickinson’s Clothes,” Nguyen’s poem sponsebegins, to“Dear Billy Mr. Collins's Collins, poem, / It has “Taking come Off to , University of Mas engageda wartime in literary positioning marketplace.”] herself as a war my attention / that you may be in posses- sachusetts• William Press,H. Pritchard’s $32.95. Talking Back to poet,” “bending her facts and feelings to fit Emily Dickinson, and Other Essays, - • Gilliland, Don. “Textual Scruples and Emily sion• O’Malley, / of a certainMaria. “Dickinson’s bonnet of mine Liberato — ”.]- Univer Dickinson Journal ry Poetics.” Emily Dickinson Journal 18.2 sity• Judy of Massachusetts Jo Small’s Positive Press, as $29.95. Sound: Emily Dickinson’s ‘Uncertain Certainty.’” Dickinson’s Rhyme • Gleason, George. 18.2 “Is(2009): It Really 38-62. Emily Dickinson?” Emily Dickinson Journal 18.2 (2009):• Ryan, 63-76. Michael. “Dickinson’s Stories.” , University of Georgia (2009): 1-20. American Poetry Review 38.2 (2009). Press,• Brenda $24.95. Wineapple’s White Heat: The - Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas • Harris, V. C. “Emily Dickinson and the Wentworth Higginson Comic Imagination.” TJES: Teresian Jour- [Ryan explicates three of his favorite po nal of English Studies 1.1 (2009): 1-7. ems focusing on their narratives: “I heard , Anchor, $16.95. - aHe Fly concludes, buzz — when “They I aredied,” as good“These as —poetry saw Journal Articles Visions,” and “There is a pain — so utter.”- [Harris defines comedy as “lack of a logi- etic skill is unmatched in my view by any Articles published in the Emily Dickinson calvelopments.” movement Thefrom author cause todiscusses effect leading J189, gets”other andpoet “theever.”] range of [Dickinson’s] po Journal to unexpected and often incongruous de Muse. - • are available online at Project 214, 280, 465, 754, 877, 1192, 1426, and- • Álvarez Castaño, Emilio José. “Emily 1732,lows humor finding in comedy end-game in the situations.] absurd, illogi in EmilySzalay, Dickinson’s Edina. “‘A WomanPoetry.” — Neohelicon: White — Dickinson o la búsqueda de la trascenden- cal, macabre, and unreal; also grim gal ToActa Be’: Comparationis Politics of Subjectivity Litterarum and Universa Gender- cia.” Espéculo: Revista de Estudios Literari- • rum os Dickinson, Alberto Manguel, and the Na- - ture Kern, Poet’s Robert. Dilemma.” “Birds ISLE: of a Feather: Interdisciplin Emily- 35.1 (2008): 61-72. [Szalay’s well- 42 (2009): n.p. Electronic Written publication: in Span- ary Studies in Literature and Environment researched, close analysis of “A Charm http://www.ucm.es/info/especulo/nu- - investsclass nineteenth-century a face” (Fr 430), shows woman, how reveal Dick- mero42/edickins.htmlery and relationship to mysticism.] ets” struggle to convey “a reality that is insoning “the critiques vulnerability the image and illusory of the middlenature ish. [Author focuses on Dickinson’s imag 16.2 (2009): 327-42. [Kern says “ecopo • Boggs, Colleen Glenney. “Emily Dick- He studies Wordsworth, Emerson, Dick- women.”] inson’s Animal Pedagogies.” PMLA foreign to words and that resists them.” of the privileges enjoyed by this class of - writer Alberto Manguel, and others, con- • Tamburini, Anna Maria. “Amore e cono- teenth-century attitudes toward animals, 124.2 insoncluding, (J69 certain and 178), writers Argentine/Canadian possess “venture- scenza: Forme di scrittura del sacro: Mar- (2009):citing Dickinson’s 533-41. [Boggs’s uncle Asa surveys Bullard’s nine gherita Guidacci e Agostino Vene[a]nzio Dog Stories imagination” to write with “startling real- Reali sulla scia di Emily Dickinson.” Campi someity and verbal power.”] creativity” and “fecundity of Immaginabili: Revista Semestrale di Cul- 1863behavior book, as exemplary”, featuring and “uses a ani dog- tura namedmals to Carlo; teach the children book “portrays kindness.” animals’ Boggs • - 2008; 1-2 (38-39): 172-218. Written- Dickinson’s Longsworth, Lonely Polly, Religious ed. “‘And Rebellion.” Do Not in Italian. [Author focuses on topics of discusses Fr 333, 591, and 1236, count ForgetNew England Emily’: Quarterly Confidante 82.2 Abby (2009): Wood 335- on love,Reali.] knowledge, and the sacred; and Em ing more than seventy different animals ily Dickinson’s influence on Guidacci and throughout• all of Dickinson’s poems.] comes a newly discovered 1850 letter, • Erotic Melancholia in Agamben and Dick- 46. [From an estate sale in Massachusetts- inson.” Diehl, Imago Joanne Feit. “The Poetics of Loss:- - Emily Vogelius, Dickinson Christa. Journal “‘Paralyzed, 18.2 (2009): with Gold(21- hl explains Italian philosopher Giorgio Ag- nowah Root: at Amherst “How can College I tell youLibrary, that fromshe [Em Em- —’:37). Dickinson’s Poetics of Photography.” 66.3 (2009): 369-81. [Die ilyily] Dickinson’s ridicules and friend opposes Abby us,Wood and to shuts Abi amben’s theory of melancholy, specifically May/June 2010 | 31 Reviews
Reading Emily Dickinson's Letters: Critical Essays
ReviewedEdited by byJane Margaret Donahue DeAngelis Eberwein and Cindy MacKenzie: Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2009. xiii + 292 pp. Cloth, ISBN 1-55849-741-2. $39.95. For many people, their introduc- - to her as a reader is traditionally thought to miss the mark that her in elementary school, where her po- friendly letters giving news to ac genius deserved. emstion to about Emily snakes Dickinson or snow comes storms first quaintances and family members- or steam trains open young minds both near and far, thank-you notes, - letters of congratulation and condo Other essays take a fresh look at- lyric. Later, in American literature thelence, occasion. and notes to accompany gifts, ciallythe conduct those with of her particular aunt, Catherine friend to the uses of the short descriptive oftenReading with Emilypoems Dickinson’s included to Letters mark, Dickinsonships that Dickinson Sweetser, enjoyed, and with espe Jus- and undergraduate years, the same - tice Otis P. Lord. Finally, two pieces studentssurvey classes might see of their more high poems, school but ited by Jane Donahue Eberwein and Cindya collection MacKenzie, of ten gatherscritical essaysnew work ed - least some attention is given to the examining the ways that Dickinson’s look at the tangible objects that the biography,never more with than emphasis a few dozen. on the re At- herletters as an constitute, artist who offering created the visual stu clusiveness and the white dress, and her artistic method as well as her asdent well of asDickinson textual works. a way to consider practice of letter writing illuminates Contributors to the collection had essayists are Paul Crumbley, Karen at their disposal the latest in digital a brief explanation of the century- Dandurand,webs of friendship Jane and Donahue kinship. Eber The- - actuallylong process wrote of them. bringing the poems wein, Judith Farr, James R. Guthrie, - toMany publication teachers in thenthe form reiterate Dickinson Dick- Ellen Louise Hart, Eleanor Hegin- and other electronic tools for study inson’s own caveat about the search botham, Cindy MacKenzie, Marietta Dickinsoning the letters. scholarship The collectionand does not of - Messmer, Martha Nell Smith, and fers a look at the current trends in- ing her statement to Thomas Went- Stephanie Tingley. Each examines sial areas that still trigger division worthfor biography Higginson: in the “Whenpoems by I quot state amongshy away readers from the who more love controver this poet - ingthe lettersher “letter as evidence to the World”), of Dickinson’s to dis- each essay are as engaging as the myself, as the Representative of the chargeefforts toher explain social obligations,herself (by tooffer ex- and all of her work. Endnotes to- casualVerse, it student does not might mean—me—but learn about a ter includes not only a general in- rhymesupposed and person” meter, (L268).simile and Thus meta the- dex,points but they an indexamplify. to theThe poems back mat and press the anguish of her own heart an index to the letters that the es- to capture a moment or express an engagewhen informed in intellectual of the bereavement stimulation says consider. emotion,phor, and butthe powerlittle beyond of the briefthe mun lyric- byof adiscussing friend or familyher reading member, with and like- to Although the essays are written dane about the woman who com- minded individuals. As Marietta - posed the poems, reworked them, demics working in Dickinson schol- tried alternative versions, and kept - arship,by some theof the material most prominent is accessible aca quiryMessmer to benotes devoted in her foreword, exclusively this to to the educated lay reader. Reading the while engaging in the normal theis the correspondence. first collection of scholarly in Emily Dickinson’s Letters is a trea- most of them from most people, all - cultured nineteenth-century gentle- cially those to Thomas Wentworth learn more about the poet but also woman.social and domestic activities of a Higginson,Some of Dickinson’sseem to have letters, been espewrit- sure not only for those who wish to- - ems, to help them better understand for those whose interest is in nine theseDickinson compositions was a are lifelong extant, letter and herten aspurposes guides foras anreaders artist. of The her edipo- teenth-century domestic life. theywriter. represent More than but a a small thousand portion of tors note in their introduction that Margaret DeAngelis, an inde- the letters to Higginson get more - attention in this volume than do the tersof the anyone total inshe her wrote. position Her would notes letters to others, even though his Dickinson.pendent scholar and fiction writer, berun called the gamut upon ofto thewrite. kinds There of letare response to her work and his value has had a lifelong interest in Emily
32 | EDIS Bulletin Members’ News
Awards
Marcie Tanter, and Margaret Free- scholar and superb teacher. She is no- DistinguishedThe University Scholar-Teacher of Maryland honorsaward. Scholnick describes Smith as a “fine who met in Regina. I have chosen an Accordingfive senior professors to Ellin Scholnick, each year Associ with a- ableman co-chair: have joined Lois our Kackley. group ofShe those has - andtable scholarly for her ability endeavors. to blend She the is partwo- - ticularlydisciplines—the good at teaching digital others humanities how organizing and maintaining a local tinguishedate Provost winners and professor represent of psychol a broad to do research in literary areas.” Dickinsonproven herself group to in beAmherst. outstanding Her cre in- ogy at the University of Maryland, dis- In addition to using the traditional - keeping an interest in Dickinson alive whorange have of academic demonstrated excellence. outstanding The pro - andative theprograms chapter have members been effective returning in accomplishmentsgram honors tenured as faculty educators members and tools of literary criticism, Smith ex - notable achievements in their respec- ploited technology as part of an in- cepting this position. chivalternational and cohort comparative to create research the field as to Wemeetings. have sent Thank questions you, Lois, to the for vari ac- a lecture during the school year, and of digital humanities, enhancing ar- ous members who have either had thetive award fields. carriesEach scholar an honorarium will present to a chapter group in the past, have a well as text analyses. She is the found group now, or are interested in start- (MITH).ing director Funded of the partly Maryland by a InstituteNational ing one. support professional activities. for Technology in the Humanities- lenge grant, the institute is a network Endowment for the Humanities Chal If you attended the chapter group questionsat Regina or about have since establishing joined us, Emily you of digital humanities collections from,- will be hearing from us soon with among others, Stanford University, the these groups with the Emily Dickin- UniversityIt is almost of Virginia, impossible Duke to Universiseparate sonDickinson International local groups Society. and affiliating We need ty and the University of California. her teaching. Graduate and under- graduateProfessor students Smith’s under scholarship her tutelage from now,feedback groups from no people longer in meeting, all stages and of acquire skills in text encoding, Web groupsorganization in the various – groups planning going stages. strong site construction, and archiving, as well as in archival research and tex- survey questions that were sent as an attachmentIf you have notto an yet email responded in March, to thewe theory. She also includes students as Martha Nell Smith, a 2010-2011 tual, feminist, and queer criticism and- receive this email, please let me know: Distinguished Scholar-Teacher award need to hear from you.m . If Please you did share not - co-authors. Remarkably, she is affili your experience, your expertise, and ate faculty in seven departments, and [email protected] individual slant on how to estab- mostwinner important with the Department and innovative of Eng ex- Lesbian,she developed Gay, Bisexual some of theand courses Trans- lish, is widely regarded as one of the- genderthat became Studies the program. foundation Smith for also the groups. makes vital contributions within the lishAs successful I write, I have EDIS-affiliated already received chapter a renownedperts on the woman poetry poet, of Emily she is Dickinamong classroom, repeatedly volunteering son. Using letters of America’s most- to teach a large lecture class. Finally, Lois Kackley, Margaret Freeman, Ellen she reaches beyond the university Beinhorn,lot of feedback and Eleanor and suggestions Heginbotham. from tothose a woman who revised who was notions ambitious of Dick in By the time you read this I will have inson from a self-effacing recluse- in local high schools and community tent on establishing her legacy. This colleges.to coordinate seminars for teachers crafting her self-presentation and in heard from several others. Thank you thinking about American literature groupsso much throughout for your help. the I world. dream of To a- asapproach a whole. has While influenced having scholarlydramatic Chapter News network of Emily Dickinson chapter impact within the academic com- Chapter Groups Update munity, Smith’s writings are ac- gether we can make this happen! By Nancy List Pridgen Nancy List Pridgen is a board cessible to the general public, as is Progress continues on the chap- New York Times Magazine cover story. member of EDIS. evidenced by her being featured in a ter groups project. Carol Woodson, May/June 2010 | 33 Members’ News
Notes & Queries October 7, 2010 Announcement Emily Dickinson Lecture in American Poetry
essayist, will deliver the eleventh annual Emily Dickinson Lecture three-yearThe Nominations term as Committee a Board Member welcomes at Large. nominations, The Members-at-Large including self Jane Hirshfield, prize-winning international poet, translator, and- nominations, for candidates who will stand for election to serve a organization that all EDIS Board members have. These include: be- in American Poetry at the Pennsylvania State University on Octo have the same responsibilities and opportunities for service to the andber 7,open 2010. to theA reception public. and book signing will follow. The lecture, Bulletin and the Journal supported by an endowment from George and Barbara Kelly, is free coming familiar with the By Laws; conducting Society business by- serving on committees; reading the EDIS ; being After following discussions on email; attending annual meetings as of Hirshfield is the author of sixWashington books of poems, Post, the her San most Francisco recent ten as possible; checking the Society’s web site for information and Chronicle, and (shortlisted the London for Financial England’s Times T. S.). EliotShe hasPrize also and written named a updates; staying current with Homestead and Museum activities;- a “best book ofNine 2006” Gates: by theEntering the Mind of Poetry and has ed- ingwriting ways for to increasethe Bulletin; membership, and, depending and Members-at-Large on location, participating are asked ited and translated The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems toin activitiescontribute with to thislocal goal chapters. by having An on-going their ears issue tuned for toEDIS members’ is find bookShikibu, of essays,Women of the Ancient Court of Japan, Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, by and Komachi Mirabai: & Ecstatic Poems. preferences, interests, and concerns. Please submit names to Ellen Louise Hart, Chair of the Nominations Committee,Events at [email protected] by July 15, 2010. Hirshfield’s other honors include the Poetry Center Book Award; fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, the- April 30-June 13, 2010 National Endowment for the Arts, and the Academy of American The New York Botanical Garden’s exhibition, Emily Dickinson’s Poets; Columbia University’s Translation Center Award; three Push cart Prizes; and (both twice) the Commonwealth Club’s California Bronx, New York Book Award and the Northern California Book Reviewers Award. In Garden: The Poetry of Flowers 2004, she was awarded the Academy Fellowship for distinguished www.nybg.org/emily poetic achievement by the Academy of American Poets. May 27-30, 2010 American Literature Association Crossword Puzzle San Francisco, CA Answer to More Words To Lift Your Hat To (Fall 2009 Bulletin) http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/english/ala2/american_lit- erature_association_2010.htm Across Down Friday, May 28, 2010
9:30-10:50 am 2. Sirocco Fr355 Session 8-A Emily Dickinson 3. Mien Fr254 1. Capsule Fr1284 Organized by the Emily Dickinson International Society 4. Pinions Fr50 7. Debauchee Fr207 5. Brindled Fr1419 4. Parallax Fr1269 8. Burdock Fr289 Chair:1. “This Ann is my Jacobsen, letter to University the World: of EmilyCalifornia Dickinson’s Davis Epistolary 6. Sepal Fr25 10. Sabachtini Fr283 Poetics,” 9. Pleiad Fr48 12. Flambeau Fr327 11. Vevay Fr235 10. Sere Fr1419 Cindy2. “Concealment MacKenzie, and University Revelation: of Regina, Emily Saskatchewan,Dickinson, Marcel Canada Du- 14. Festal Fr53 13. Bobolink Fr54 17. Poltroon Fr329 champ and the Poesis of the Archive,” Jessica Beard, University of 15. Cuirass Fr1481 16. Superficies Fr1512 22. Perihelion Fr1375 19. Bernardine Fr211 California, Santa Cruz 18. Pigmy Fr96 3.August “The Poet 6-8, in 2010 the Kitchen,” Aife Murray, Independent Scholar 24. Aliment Fr317 20. Corolla Fr1458 “Were I Britain born”: Dickinson’s Transatlantic Connections EDIS 2010 International Conference 27. Mazarin Fr 436 21. Affiance Fr1550 25. Tamborin Fr229 28. Cochineal Fr1489 23. Surcingle Fr1426 Oxford, England 31. Sepulture Fr1565 www.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.org/oxford.htmlSeptember 25, 2010 26 Vail Fr293 29. Attar Fr772 Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon 28. Calyx Fr1261 The Emily Dickinson Museum www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/events 30. Bur Fr420
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The Robin’s my Criterion for Tune— Because I grow—where Robins do— But, were I Cuckoo born— I’d swear by him— The ode familiar—rules the Noon— But,The Buttercup’s,were I Britain my born, whim for Bloom— Because, we’re Orchard sprung—
I’d Daisies spurn—
None but the Nut—October fit— WithoutBecause—through the Snow’s dropping Tableau it, The Seasons flit—I’m taught—
Winter, were lie—to me— Because I see—New Englandly— The Queen, discerns like me— Join us: Emily Dickinson's Garden Provincially— (Fr256) comes to the New York Botanical Join us in Oxford for the EDIS 2010 International Conference
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