Synopses & Reviews
1975 National Book Award, Biography Category, National Book Foundation
Review
[A] brilliant, massively detailed biography...Emily Dickinson emerges in these pages not only as...one of the two greatest poets of America's nineteenth century, but as an extraordinary and credible human being...Sewall is an exemplary biographer and critic, perhaps in some ironic way the kind of friend Emily sought unsuccessfully in her life. Robert Kirsch
Review
By far the best and the most complete study of the poet's life yet to be written, the result of nearly twenty years of work...The story of a long-standing affair between Austin Dickinson and a woman twenty-seven years younger than he, Mabel Loomis Todd...has not appeared in print before, and it makes an entrancing tale...A plainly authoritative work. Los Angeles Times
Review
Richard Sewall's biographical vision of Emily Dickinson is as complete as human scholarship, ingenuity, stylistic pungency, and common sense can arrive at. Richard Todd - The Atlantic
Review
Although Professor Sewall produces new material everywhere, it is in the account of the scandals that he has the most startling abundance, much of it in the form of primary documents...One must thank him for the fullness and impartiality of his presentation. R. W. B. Lewis - New Republic
Synopsis
Winner of the National Book Award, this massively detailed biography throws a light into the study of the brilliant poet. How did Emily Dickinson, from the small window over her desk, come to see a life that included the horror, exaltation and humor that lives her poetry? With abundance and impartiality, Richard B. Sewall shows us not just the poet nor the poetry, but the woman and her life.
Description
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
About the Author
Richard B. Sewall was Professor of English at Yale University.
Table of Contents
- Volume One
- Preface
- Chronology
-
- 1. The Problem of the Biographer
- Forebears and Family
- 2. The New England Dickinsons and the Puritan Heritage
- 3. Samuel Fowler Dickinson
- 4. Edward Dickinson
- 5. Emily Norcross Dickinson
- 6. William Austin Dickinson
- 7. Lavinia Norcross Dickinson
- “War between the Houses”
- 8. Early Hostilities
- 9. Mabel Loomis Todd and Austin
- 10. Austin’s Marriage
- 11. Susan and Emily
- 12. Publication of the Poems: Mabel and Austin
- 13. Last Phase of the Quarrel and a Late View of Susan
- 14. The Dickinson Rhetoric and the Structure of a Life
- Appendixes for Volume One
- I. Vinnie as Stylist, Mimic, Reader, and Poet
- II. “War between the Houses”: Documents
- References for Volume One
- Volume Two
-
- 15. Childhood
- 16. Schooling
- 17. Early Friendships I
- 18. Early Friendships II
- 19. Brother and Sister
- 20. Charles Wadsworth
- 21. Samuel Bowles
- 22. The Master Letters
- 23. Thomas Wentworth Higginson
- 24. Helen Hunt Jackson
- 25. Dr. and Mrs. Josiah Gilbert Holland
- 26. The Norcross Cousins
- 27. Otis Phillips Lord
- 28. Books and Reading
- 29. The Poet
- Appendixes for Volume Two
- III. Charles Wadsworth as Husband, Father, and Poet
- IV. Popular Poetry: Selections from the Springfield Republican, 1858–62
- V. A Note on the Missing Correspondences
- References for Volume Two
- Bibliography
- Index of First Lines
- Index