 |
| Did Emily write all her letters and poems at this tiny desk? |
Christine’s Minutes Eleven members, two associates and one guest, Susan Meigs, gathered at Constance’s house. There was much delight and relief when we saw that yet again we would enjoy Connie’s famous poached salmon.
President Joanna rang the bell at 1:02 PM and thanked the host for our last meeting (herself) and then thanked today’s host.Several of us were intrigued to learn that rocks will fragment at high altitudes, hence the need to carry heavy rock samples in one’s carry-on luggage.
The following books were recommended: Bear Claw, (in Crow Killer Series?), by Alfred Dennis; Anna Pigeon Mystery Series by Nevada Barr – all set in National Parks; Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood; Jesus Wept by Philip Shenon; Orbital by Samantha Harvey; Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism and the Making of Modern America by Clay Risen; Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy; Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett; Saint and Liars: Story of Americans Who Saved Refugees from Nazis by Deborah Dwork.
Laura passed out sheets with a list of all the possible topics for next year. Members were asked to indicate their top five choices, in no specific order. This first step in our two-pronged voting will allow her to narrow down the list, for our final vote with three weighted choices.
Jacquie announced that the Hillside Book Fair occurs this weekend, and there are many thousands of books. At the end of the Fair, on Saturday afternoon, some members will gather to choose and collect books for several destinations, including the Barkin Bookstore and boxes to Africa.
Lori, our treasurer collected dues from many members, a hefty $20 per annum.
The minutes of the February 26 (Connie’s program on Paula Modersohn-Becker) were read and accepted. In the interest of having more time for our program, the minutes for March 12, our annual meeting, were not read. Christine will email them to the members.
And throughout all this, being a truly sensitive and literary dog, poor Bosley suffered mightily from the vibrations of thunder and lightning.
At last, we arrive at the reason we are all gathered, to hear Linda discourse on the “Letters of Emily Dickinson.”
Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 at The Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts. She died on May 15 (my birthday!), 1886, also at the Homestead. Emily was the middle child, between her older brother Austin, and her sister Lavinia (Vinnie). Her grandfather was one of the founders of Amherst college. Her father, Edward Dickinson, was a lawyer, treasurer for Amherst College, and one-term representative in Congress. Her mother, Emily Norcross was from a leading family in a neighboring town. Except for a brief period on North Pleasant Street during some financial difficulties, the family always lived at The Homestead. Neither Emily nor Lavinia married, and they lived there all their lives. When Austen married Susan Gilbert, he built himself a house next door.
Our first reading was from Dickinson’s obituary, written by her sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert Dickinson. In exquisite language she extolled the life and works of her sister-in-law and dear friend.
Emily attended Amherst Academy, where she studied Latin, composition, and botany. She was interested in botany all her life and made an herbarium with pressed flowers.
Her first letter was written to Abiah Root, a classmate at Amherst Academy, when Emily was 16. She enclosed a geranium leaf.
For one year, Emily went away to school at the South Hadley Seminary, now Mount Holyoke College. Initially she was quite homesick, but then settled in, and wrote home about her exams, her daily schedule, and of course, the school food. She also wrote many letters to Austen who was away at law school.
From a young age, Emily had many questions about life and death. While the rest of her family were Calvinists, she was not. We would call her a Transcendentalist. While she needed solitude in order to write, she could also be sociable, within her circle of family and friends.
In 1856 Austen married Emily’s dear friend Susan Gilbert, and they lived next door to The Homestead. But theirs was not a happy marriage. Austen had a long-term relationship with Mabel Loomis Todd, who was married to an astronomer.
The years 1858 to 1865 were an intense period of writing for Emily. She was writing poems and then binding or sewing them together in “fascicles.” By the time she was 35, she had written over 1000 poems, some of which she shared with Susan, and some she sent to Thomas Wentworth Higgins. Upon seeing his “Letter to a Young Contributor” she sent four poems to Higgins, inquiring whether they were worthy.
Between 1864 and 1865, Emily spent time in Boston while being treated for an eye condition. After returning home, she stopped making her fascicles, and she never left Amherst again. Emily Dickinson’s father died in 1874, and then her mother had a stroke, so that Emily and Vinnie took over management of the house. Then Mrs. Dickinson died in 1882, and in 1883 her beloved nephew Gib died of typhus. After years of ill health, Emily died in 1886, at the age of 55.
While many of us have read her poetry for years, and in some way feel we “know” Emily Dickinson, in fact, as Linda made clear, there are lingering mysteries about her life, regarding her relationships with Thomas Higginson and with Susan Dickinson. Then there is awkward fact of Mabel Todd Loomis, her brother’s mistress, who was disliked by Emily, yet ended up deciding the fate of the poems.
In her will, Emily requested that Vinnie burn her letters. Only then did Vinnie discover the drawer full of poems she had not known existed. She showed them to Susan, who already had many poems that Emily had been sending her. Then Vinnie gave the poems she’d found to Mabel. No one seems to know why. Mabel Loomis connected with Higginson, and he went on to publish her poems, with altered words, altered meter, and added titles. It sounds like Emily Dickinson Lite™. Loomis and Higginson did not like the friendship (romance??) between Emily and Susan, and they may have pushed the image of the poet as a slightly crazy recluse scribbling away in solitude. There is much we shall never really know. One member, Jacquie, pointed out that there were “a lot of exclamation points for a recluse!”
A 2016 collection of Dickinson’s poems, edited by Cristanne Miller, is purported to be the most accurate version of her poems, as she wrote them.
While the mysteries remain, Linda left us with two irrefutable facts: at the artist Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party (permanently installed at the Brooklyn Museum) there is a place setting for Emily. Also, Taylor Swift is distantly related to the poet.
It was a revelatory afternoon.
Respectfully Submitted,
Christine Lehner, outgoing Recording Secretary
No comments:
Post a Comment