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Powell's Staff:
Five Book Friday: In Memoriam
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Every year, the booksellers at Powell’s submit their Top Fives: their five favorite books that were released in 2023. It’s a list that, when put together, shows just how varied and interesting the book tastes of Powell’s booksellers are. I highly recommend digging into the recommendations — we would never lead you astray — but today...
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Brontez Purnell:
Powell’s Q&A: Brontez Purnell, author of ‘Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt’
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Rachael P.:
Starter Pack: Where to Begin with Ursula K. Le Guin
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Customer Comments
Dorothy Josephs has commented on (2) products
White Heat The Friendship of Emily Dickinson & Thomas Wentworth Higginson
by
Brenda Wineapple
Dorothy Josephs
, August 20, 2010
The Wineapple book on Dickinson and Higginson is good, but a fine companion to it would be WILD NIGHTS, WILD NIGHTS: THE STORY OF EMILY DICKINSON'S MASTER with a non-fiction afterword LOVER OF SCIENCE AND SCIENTIST IN DARK DAYS OF THE REPUBLIC, published in 2010 by Plain View Press and also available at Powell's. It is an exciting book that reveals a new truth about Dickinson's life and love and her motivation for writing poetry. It is peppered with Dickinson's poems and letters and is fascinating. Wineapple herself would enjoy it as much as she enjoyed writing White Heat, as it also involves Thomas Wentworth Higginson as Dickinson's correspondent and preceptor. WILD NIGHTS, WILD NIGHTS solves the greatest mystery in American literature, who the Master Figure of Dickinson's poems and texts really was. Read Gioseffi's non-fiction afterword upon which the drama of her novel is based to find out.
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Wild Nights Wild Nights the Story of Emily Dickinsons Master Neighbor & Friend & Bridegroom
by
Daniela Gioseffi
Dorothy Josephs
, July 05, 2010
I'll want to quote a review I just read online as I agree with every word of it from: The Montserrat Review: 2010 Grace Cavalieri, poet and a playwright who produces and hosts “The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress.” sponsored by The National Endowment for the Arts and The Wittner Bynner Foundation for Poetry. Cavilieri has interviewed all the major and poets laureate of the USA wrote: "This is a “biographical” novel with a scholarly non-fiction afterword on Emily Dickinson’s life. It clearly evokes her 19th century society and voice. The title of the book is taken from the first line of a poem by E.D. These are not the first words we attribute to the staid and formal image of the poet we’ve been accustomed to. In fact, all previous concepts are broken as the story of Emily Dickinson’s passionate love affair with her mysterious “Master” unfolds. Gioseffi supports the theory advanced by Dickinson historian, scholar, and guide at the Dickinson Museum, Ruth Owen Jones, that the love of E.D.’s life, and the fuel for her poetry was William Smith Clark. The book documents Jones’s plausible theory very well. Colonel Clark was a Civil War hero and founder of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, as a college for agricultural science. More than relying on the claims by others, Gioseffi tracks the historically accurate times and places where the two lived and most probably met, and augments her thesis with E.D.’s texts peppered throughout the drama to reveal some of their enigmatic meanings. Once we have our heroes – our Romeo and Juliet, author Gioseffi converts fact to fiction embarking upon a beautifully rendered tale of love found and lost, and turned into an immortal legacy of literary art.The great attraction in reading this book is in the poetry and letters of Emily Dickinson, suitably enhancing mind and motive. It is not difficult, once a blueprint is established, to fill in the historicity, passion, and prose. The idea of Emily as a “hot” rather than “cold” Emily took me a minute, but not much more, as myth after myth is unveiled (and that is not all being uncovered.) Never salacious, always tasteful, there are indications of sexual encounters. These would be easily debunked if the poetry did not track – as evidence – each place Emily occupied, connected to each event in William Smith Clark’s own life. Like a detective story, clue after clue is revealed and then substantiated. It is a fascinating journey and a terrific read. Admit it, in college we never thought we’d consider E.D. anything but a repressed spinster—her wit rusting away in family salons. Jungian scholars will champion Daniela Gioseffi for capitalizing on every psychological hint of fulfilled womanhood and emotion unleashed. The resonance in Wild Nights, Wild Nights is most certainly because the writer’s voice is so real. The author, a poet herself, makes our hero someone we feel we’ve spoken to ourselves…a far thought from the glass- encased image we once knew. The anarchic spirit of Dickinson and the delicate impropriety is frankly a delight. We find E.D. accountable for all her actions—some calculating, others manipulative, to be with her “Master” Clark, even after his marriage. We hear a background hum saying (In addition to conflict) Is not this what I chose. I cannot emphasize this point enough. It is Dickinson’s responsibility in the act of love that is consistent with her life, ethics, beliefs, and poetic declamations. The aesthetic capital for Gioseffi is in finding the essence of Dickinson, her transcendental thought and scientific adventure. This tracks the journey until Clark's and Dickinson's deaths within weeks of one another. Emily Dickinson’s poetry and writings incorporated in this fictive love story are what we will lovingly remember. We have Emily’s sadness, her glorifying God through nature, her vision of each moment as a spectacle that must come to an end, and therefore must be made permanent. Throughout the book we feel a clamor of thought is it better to leave or to be left, and “leave” she never chose. Finally, with forbearance, William ends the long affair. The line of vision holding the book intact is E.D.’s psychological motivation in the presence of repressive family and societal mores. She observes moderation with elegance, even when behaving immoderately. This storied Emily is easier to love than the daguerreotype imprinted on fractious memory. There are no maladroit characters in this book—an occasional drunk printing an occasional Emily valentine in the newspaper, causing her trouble at home. Mostly it is a story of proper folk drawn naturalistically and behaving properly, but for their very human FEELINGS! Grief and habit walked hand in hand with Emily throughout her days, her imagination always the locomotive, her poetry written with clarity of purpose. Daniela Gioseffi shows us not a lonely febrile woman but a vibrant being whose solitude was surrounded with rich cultural practices. If you think you know Emily Dickinson than you will be surprised to find you don’t really find a treasure until you examine the new box it came in. I recommend reading the nonfiction afterword first. The historical detail is a priceless compass to this “fictional work,” or should it more truly be called “biography?” ---------------------Author and retired Professor of World Literature, Daniela Gioseffi is a Dickinson scholar, as well as a poet and novelist, author of fourteen books. Among other honors she holds the American Book Award and the John Ciardi Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry, plus two New York State Council for the Arts award grants in poetry, and a PEN American Center award in fiction. Her verse has been transcribed in marble on a wall of the 7th Ave. Concourse of PENN Station . --------------------Reviewer: Grace Cavalieri is a poet and a playwright. She produces and hosts “The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress.” sponsored by The National Endowment for the Arts and The Wittner Bynner Foundation for Poetry. Cavilieri has interviewed all the major and poets laureate of the USA. The Monserrat Review, 2010
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