Book Club

[Oznell]

It's by Lyndall Gordon, a senior research fellow at Oxford, and is rather luridly titled  "Lives Like Loaded Guns--  Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds".   

Has anyone read this?  To me it contained stunning bombshells about this foremost American poet, long considered Walt Whitman's equal, and her family.

I guess my image of Dickinson was the common one, frozen in time--  the reclusive genius clad in white, the shy Belle of Amherst.  From a prominent Massachusetts family, her grandfather founded Amherst College, and her brother Austin became the school's Treasurer.   Emily and her sister Lavinia lived in the old family house, "The Homestead", and brother Austin Dickinson and his wife Sue (who was also Emily's best friend) and children lived cozily right next door, in "The Evergreens". 

Gordon's book reveals unregulated passions, a seething, multi-generational split that haunted the family, impeded the full release of Emily's work, and persisted well into the twentieth century.

A good part of this chaos started with this unusually striking woman below, Mabel Loomis Todd.  She was a talented amateur performer and writer, married to a young astronomer, David Todd, who was hired by Amherst College.  Both Dickinson households welcomed the new couple with open arms, and they socialized frequently.  Mabel Todd almost immediately set her sights on Austin Dickinson, and the two began a wild, covert affair, right under the nose of the family. 

Mable Loomis Todd was a pleasure seeker, and felt that no man could resist her.  Can you get a sense of the pulsing,  personality from these old photographs?   She seemed to have no conscience.

Normally stern, fifty-ish Austin (seen below in his youth) plunged into the affair, and under the guise of paying calls to his sisters Emily and Lavinia, kept assignations with Mabel behind closed doors on the dining room couch of his sisters' house.

Meanwhile, intelligent, devastated wife Sue,  despaired right next door:

"The Homestead"--  it's bigger than this picture shows, rambling in several directions.

Lavinia and Emily were put in a terrible position.  Lavinia, as the one who ran the household, was essentially colluding with the illicit couple.  Emily was more remote because of her famous reclusiveness.  She held back, and never showed herself to Mabel (she only socialized with family members and a few, select others.)

The book reveals detail after detail about these lives, but bottom line--  when Emily died, and sister Lavinia discovered the full cache of her life's work--  1800 poems--  she asked sister-in-law Sue to edit and prepare them for publication.  Sue seemed a bit overwhelmed with the task, and, unbelievably, Lavinia drafted treacherous Mabel to do the job.   Thus, it happened that the precious poetic legacy of Emily was split between warring factions, for decades and decades.

Biographer Gordon discloses that during the affair, Mabel developed a fantasy that Sue's death would inevitably come about, and before leaving on a Japanese trip with her own husband, seemed to be exhorting Austin that that should happen soon.   Her comments to him about it are singularly chilling.

There's just too much fascinating, new (to me) information to go into here.  Including the theory that Gordon develops, with some persuasiveness, that it was primarily epilepsy, and the fear of public seizures, that caused Emily to withdraw from society.  Gordon also goes into some detail about a man that a later-age Emily actually considered marrying, family friend Judge Otis Lord.  

The book is written in a somewhat impressionistic style, which at times can be a bit baffling, despite its compelling narrative.  I found myself glossing over some parts, for that reason.  It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I believe for Dickinson admirers, it's a must-read.

[Zernia Rose]

This is a great summation of the book. The details here suggests actions similar to those  commuted by members of the Bloomsbury group.

[spiderw]

This sounds like a book I would be interested in, Oznell.  Your summaries are always so well written and  I am lured in!!!

In the very early nineties, my niece attended Smith College at Northhampton, Mass. which is one of my favorite states.  We often visited her because we loved being there.  We did visit Amhearst which wasn't far from Smith and I fell in love with that area!  We visited Emily Dickinson's house, appointment only, and enjoyed it very much. 

Thanks for your recommendation, I will put this book on my list!!!! 

[CalminHeart]

As with most families, especially famous ones, there is always more than what is pubicly shown.

[Still Raining]

Oh my 😳😳

Might have to see about this book.

[Group 5 minus 1]

Parting is all we know of heaven,all we need of hell.

[Free2be]

I have several books of Dickinson's poems having loved her work for many years.  Her mind intrigues me more than her family dynamics but they are certainly interwoven.  I'm not surprised that the brother was far more stern with others than himself.  I may read this biography with a grain of salt.

[Lilysmom1]

@Oznell , great review!

[Oznell]

Very interesting that you should mention the Bloomsbury group, @Zernia Rose --   in my youth I found them fascinating, loved Leon Edel's book especially--  "Bloomsbury-- A House of Lions" (or something like that!).

Agreed, in microcosm, the Dickinson situation has similarities.  I soured on Bloomsbury as time went on-- the same tired story of people with talent--  Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Virginia Woolf, Maynard Keynes, et al--  behaving in stunningly self-centered ways, under the guise of bohemianism...    Leonard Woolf was my favorite, the most sensible of the bunch...

@Free2be ,  you are right to read with a skeptical eye.  I wondered about the overwrought aspects of this literary psychodrama.  It looked to me like Lyndall Gordon's research and access to personal papers completely backed up even the most dire aspects of the divisive liaison and the subsequent rancorous family and publishing split. 

The material around the epilepsy diagnosis, she does present as a theory, not a 100% established fact, even though she seems confident she's right.  To me, it doesn't also rule out though, some of the other diagnoses that have been offered as possibilities by other biographers. Several conditions could co-exist.

"The Brain-- is wider than the Sky--......."       E. Dickinson  

[Zernia Rose]

@Oznell I read some of their liiterary works in English classes  but found H. G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw more interesting.  Although they don't often come to mind when thinking about the Bloonsbury Group, they were on the fringes and occassionally in the center.  My fascination lies more in the work of the Fabian Society, especially their ideas about empire, colonialism, and socialism.

Given the directions of schooling today, so many students will not have an opportunity to read their works, debate their ideas, or find caution or  inspiration in their lives.  I treasure my undergraduate liberal arts education and the professors that inspired intellectual curiosity.