A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century

by Jerome Charyn

PEN/ Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography Longlist
O, The Oprah Magazine “Best Books of Summer” selection

“Magnetic nonfiction.” — O, The Oprah Magazine

“Remarkable insight . . . [a] unique meditation/investigation. . . . Jerome Charyn the unpredictable, elusive, and enigmatic is a natural match for Emily Dickinson, the quintessence of these.” — Joyce Carol Oates , author of Wild Nights! and The Lost Landscape

We think we know Emily the Belle of Amherst, virginal, reclusive, and possibly mad. But in A Loaded Gun , Jerome Charyn introduces us to a different Emily the fierce, brilliant, and sexually charged poet who

My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun—
…
Though I than He— may longer live
He longer must—than I—
For I have but the power to kill,
Without—the power to die—

Through interviews with contemporary scholars, close readings of Dickinson’s correspondence and handwritten manuscripts, and a suggestive, newly discovered photograph that is purported to show Dickinson with her lover, Charyn’s literary sleuthing reveals the great poet in ways that have only been hinted at as a woman who was deeply philosophical, intensely engaged with the world, attracted to members of both sexes, and able to write poetry that disturbs and delights us today.

Jerome Charyn is the author of, most recently, Bitter Thirteen Stories , I Am A Novel of Lincoln and the Civil War , and The Secret Life of Emily A Novel . He lives in New York.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Biography Memoir, Feminism, Memoir

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 8, 2015

About the author

Jerome Charyn is an award-winning American author. With more than 50 published works, Charyn has earned a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life.

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon calls him "one of the most important writers in American literature." New York Newsday hailed Charyn as "a contemporary American Balzac," and the Los Angeles Times described him as "absolutely unique among American writers."

Since the 1964 release of Charyn's first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, he has published thirty novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays, and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year.

Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was named Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture. Charyn is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the American University of Paris.

In addition to writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top ten percent of players in France. Noted novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn's book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong."

Charyn's most recent novel, Jerzy, was described by The New Yorker as a "fictional fantasia" about the life of Jerzy Kosinski, the controversial author of The Painted Bird. In 2010, Charyn wrote The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, an imagined autobiography of the renowned poet, a book characterized by Joyce Carol Oates as a "fever-dream picaresque."

Charyn lives in New York City. He's currently working with artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka on an animated television series based on his Isaac Sidel crime novels.

Reviews

[LindaJ^ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someone mentioned this in a thread in one of my GR groups. Since I was headed to the bookstore to see about another non-fiction, I thought I'd just inquire if they had this one. Well, they did and because I did not walk straight home but stopped for a happy hour glass of wine at a nearby restaurant, I started to read it. And it was much more interesting than the print book I was reading for another GR group, so I kept reading it!

This book is not a biography of Emily Dickinson. Rather, it is an investigation of Emily Dickinson and her work -- who was she really? what made her tick? But, don't think you are going to get answers to these questions it you read the book. What'll you'll get is a review of what's been said about Dickinson and her work by others (a lot of others) and insights from interviews and photographs and the work itself. There really are no answers to the questions about this poet who seems to have been misplaced in time. It doesn't matter though. It's enough that we have her work, and that, by the way, seems to have been only by chance.

It seems that Dickinson was very unlikely to have been who she was portrayed as by those who first published her poems and wrote about her. She is a mystery. One thing the author does is relate the greatness of her work to that of others who like her were far ahead of the time in which they lived, such as Van Gogh. He takes a lot of other tacks as well, all interesting, in his attempts to convey how unique he (and others) find her to be.

Even if you are not a poetry fan, I'd recommend this because there are just some artists, and Dickinson was an artist, that should be known to all -- at least a little. And, what Emily Dickinson, this woman, managed to do when women of her class were not supposed to do anything but be wives, is quite astonishing.

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't for the life of me figure out how I hadn't reviewed this earlier -- I'm half-convinced I did and it somehow got deleted -- but here it is:

This is not a biography of Emily Dickinson. This is literary criticism masquerading as a biography, walking a thin tightrope between the two and falling quite frequently. And it's pretty terrible literary criticism, at that.

My main problem with it? There is no cohesion. The book as terrible organization; it skips from topic to topic with no transition. The author goes off on strange tangents that have only the most tenuous connections to Dickinson. When it does present any sort of biography, there is scant chronology. And it needed a decent copy editor to take a stab at this before publication, because it was riddled with grammatical errors (two I took note of: "a 150 pounds" [p. 69] and "St. John River's" [p. 73]). The writing was hideous and confusing. I'm still not sure what the author intended with this book, but I'm fairly sure it shouldn't have gone out to the wider world.

Overall: 1/10.

[Michael McCann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jerome Charyn is an innovative writer whose passion for his subject matter--whether it be his native Bronx, Abraham Lincoln, or Emily Dickinson--is expressed in a style inimitably his own. In A LOADED GUN, as in I AM ABRAHAM, Charyn has conducted extensive archival research to provide his own sense of the inner life of a gifted individual. Rather than accepting what has been the conventional view of Emily Dickinson as an isolated woman crippled by agoraphobia and manipulated by a dominating father, Charyn sees her as a woman of passion and imagination who was very much in control of her own life. He describes her variously as "an alchemist," "an enchantress," and "a mistress of her own interior time and space".

A LOADED GUN and Charyn's previous work, THE SECRET LIFE OF EMILY DICKINSON, are not only fascinating in their own right, but provide an opportunity for a new generation of readers to discover the poet and her impressive work.

A LOADED GUN will appeal not only to readers of poetry, biography, and literary criticism, but also to all those seeking a refreshing read on a "conventional" life.

[Mary Narkiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am on the Newfoundland dog chapter.. Carlo.. Very pleased to see him get his due! 16 years in such a close connection with Emily Dickinson.. Yes, he deserves, at long last, at least a chapter! Thank you, Jerome Charyn.
And you are right, "if we're willing to admit that anyone can own a dog"..

Looking forward to immersing myself in this new book about Emily Dickinson..

[Brian Bess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firing both barrels

I would not immediately think of the name ‘Emily Dickinson’ and the phrase “loaded gun” appearing in the same sentence. However, the phrase belongs to Dickinson herself and belies the traditional image we have of the shy, reclusive scribbler and bread baker of Amherst that has passed down through a century and a half.

Much of the purpose of Charyn’s book is to challenge and revise the established depiction of Emily Dickinson, epitomized by William Luce’s play, ‘The Belle of Amherst’ and personified very memorably by Julie Harris. Charyn cites many instances, both in her poetry and in surviving letters, where Emily’s passionate nature was often sublimated or expressed through metaphorical language.

He describes the paradoxical nature of Dickinson:
“She was an agoraphobic who could dance anywhere on her toes, a reclusive nun who wrote the sexiest love letters, a mermaid who swam in her own interior sea, a shy mouse who could pillage and plunder in her poems. All her life she was a Loaded Gun.”

He has an explanation for why the image of Emily Dickinson as shy, repressed recluse became ossified in the public’s consciousness. Her brother Austin did not want his sister’s more unconventional notions to become public knowledge. His wife, Susan, with whom Emily shared a very passionate, kindred relationship, perhaps felt that the sensuality in Emily’s writing hit too close to her own sensual longings. Sue also was jealous of Emily’s intense relationship with another friend, Kate Scott. Sue became more cold and remote with her husband and learned to repress her emotions. Emily’s younger sister, Vinnie, had always adored her sister and felt like a mediator between Emily and the outside world and perhaps felt protective of her memory after her death. She acquiesced to Emily’s request and burned most of her sister’s correspondence. After the deaths of Austin, Vinnie, and Sue, it fell to Austin’s mistress, Mabel Todd, to oversee the first publication of Emily’s poetry over 20 years after her death. There were various caches of Emily’s letters that were more revealing but were not thought worthy of publication for many years, as well as numerous fragments of poems, phrases and words written on the backs of envelopes, receipts and sundry bits of paper and which were thought by those who initially published Dickinson to be meaningless as far as publication.

Only in the mid-20th century did critics and scholars begin to examine the letters and fragments and piece together a distinctly different Emily Dickinson. Charyn feels that she was androgynous, regardless of whether any physical sexual acts with either sex were ever committed. She felt passionately about numerous male suitors but kept all of them at bay. She had relinquished enough of her liberty to her father; she did not wish to become an appendage to a man as she saw most of her friends doing. She felt a clear affinity with Susan Gilbert before Sue married Emily’s brother. Her father was a stern, repressed and strict man, a successful lawyer and a trustee of Amherst College. Her mother was a depressive and obedient to her husband’s authoritarian temperament. Emily loved her parents but she appears to have felt no inclination to be as obedient as her mother. She was the only one of the Dickinson children to never formally convert to Christianity or become a member of a church and her reclusive nature was tolerated and absolved her from compulsory church attendance.

Charyn explains:
“…dream brides drift in and out of her poems like a continued nightmare—yet she did not want to be “Bridled”. Sometimes she was married to God, with her “Title divine,” sometimes to the Devil. Like Sue herself, she had a genuine fear of sexuality, that infernal “man of noon,” who scorches and scalds every little virgin flower—“they know that the man of noon, is mightier than the morning and their life is henceforth to him. Oh, Susie, it is dangerous, and it is all too clear, these simple trusting spirits, and the spirits mightier, which we cannot resist! It does rend me, Susie, the thought of it when it comes, that I tremble lest at sometime I, too, am yielded up.” [Letter 93, 1852]”

He also theorizes that Dickinson’s idiosyncratic rhythms of grammar and punctuation stemmed from her mother’s “tangled, chaotic grammar” and that she was breaking the patriarchal laws of punctuation and grammar as a rebellion against her father. This seems to be stretching the point a bit too far. I believe that the spasmodic spurts of images and thought were more of a spontaneous stream of consciousness by-product of her creativity than a conscious rebellion. The attention Charyn gives to the long-neglected fragments on bits of paper she left behind illustrate that expression as much as the polished poems themselves.

The first scholar to explore the possibility of a passionate relationship with another woman was Rebecca Patterson in her 1951 book, ‘The Riddle of Emily Dickinson’. She felt that without Kate Scott Turner Anthon, widowed twice, Emily might never have become a poet, which seems to be a wildly foolish and inaccurate hyperbole, as Emily had been writing poetry for many years before she ever knew Kate Anthon existed. The book was widely reviled at the time but Charyn feels there is sufficient evidence through Emily’s poetry and letters that something significant occurred between the two women. Emily met her through Sue, who had also felt intensely about Kate.

He also uses a recently discovered daguerreotype of someone resembling the Emily of the only known photographic image of the poet, when she was sixteen years old. The later image is taken approximately thirteen years later when Emily would have been 29. She is posed next to a woman. Although there are similarities between the figure on the left, dressed very much like the seventeen-year old Emily in the established daguerreotype, with much the same hair style as in the earlier photo, establishing the identity of the woman to Emily’s left, around whose shoulders Emily’s arm is resting, would hopefully eliminate doubt. Charyn and the man who discovered the photo in a garage sale in Springfield, Massachusetts, believe that the woman on the right is Kate Anthon. There are two moles on the face like in other photos of her, and she is wearing black widow’s clothes, indicating that the photo was probably taken around 1859 after her husband died and she visited Amherst. Ophthalmologists have also examined Emily’s eyes and identified an astigmatism in one eye with a misshapen cornea that seems to substantiate Emily’s lifelong eye problems. Essentially, Charyn and others have extracted an entire backstory to the photo that makes sense given the corresponding letters and chronologies of both women, although Charyn ties it in to not only the passionately sensual if not sexual relationship between Emily and Kate but also to Emily’s entire identity as a woman who neither conformed to her society in lifestyle or in poetry.

I want to emphasize that Jerome Charyn is a novelist who has published over 30 novels, including one about Emily Dickinson herself in recent years, ‘The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson’. He has also written many non-fiction works. Although he has taught in universities, his work appears to be free of the arid language of literary scholars. He dissects Emily’s poetry but he does so with a great deal of passion, often overstating his case. However, he will admit that he could be wrong and that Emily’s poetry is written on the shifting sands of points of view that render it difficult to know whose voice we are hearing.

Aside from overstating his case frequently, Charyn also allows himself to indulge in unnecessary tangents, such as the long-winded account of the background of shadow box conceptual artist Joseph Cornell, taking an excessively circuitous route to explain Cornell’s obsession with Dickinson that culminated in his shadow box creation devoted to Emily, ‘Toward the Blue Peninsula’. Charyn even refers to Cornell as Dickinson’s double.

‘A Loaded Gun’ is in no sense a wide-ranging, much less definitive biography of Emily Dickinson. He never quotes from or explicates any of the vast majority of Dickinson’s most celebrated poems. The book has one explicitly stated purpose and that is to present a revisionist portrait of the poet, challenging prevailing beliefs about her. I find Charyn’s passion for Emily’s passionate nature refreshing and admire his enthusiasm but it is all too often frustrating, and his tendency to jump to what he considers obvious conclusions is irritating. It is worth reading in that it provides another angle through which to view the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson but I don’t think it should ever be considered comprehensive.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't let it go. I'd spent two years writing a novel about her, vaporizing her letters and poems, sucking the blood out of her bones, like some hunter of lost souls.~ Author's Note, A Loaded Gun by Jerome Charyn

After completing The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, Jerome Charyn continued his obsession to write A Loaded Gun.

Charyn's essays draw from Dickinson's writings and scholarly studies in a search to finally pin down the slippery poet. Every time we think we have her pegged we find we are holding a void. She will not, can not, be categorized and shelved.

Charyn's novel The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson (on my TBR pile) did not offer him a sense of closure. "I knew less and less the more I learned about her," he admits.

In this book, he begins with my first encounter with Dickinson: Julie Harris's performance as The Belle of Amherst which I watched many times on a small black and white television. It was my first impression of the poet.

Charyn considers all the poet's relationships, from her companion Carlo, a Newfoundland dog, to her late in life love affair with Judge Otis, with all the thunderstruck men and heartbreaking women in between.

Emily's letters and poems show her deep passions. The spinster was no prude. She had strong loves, earth shattering heartbreaks, and was more than acquainted with despair.

Some chapters take us into roundabout side trips as Charyon explores the multiple influences of the poet. Relax, enjoy the ride.

I loved the chapter Ballerinas in a Box, beginning with the early 20th c poets who discovered Dickinson, to her love affair with Kate Scott, to the art of Joseph I. Cornell, to ballerinas, exploring the nature of art.

Charyn casts his net deep and wide, considering psychology and biography and retellings and imaginings.

Only to conclude that Emily wears too many masks to truly know her. She remains a mystery beyond our ken.

And we, like ghouls, try to toy with her biography, to link her language with her life. We cannot master her, never will, as if her own words skates on some torrid ice that is permanently beyond our pale, yet we seek and seek, as if somehow that soothes us, as if we might crack a certain code, when all we will ever have is "A Woe/of Ecstasy."~ from A Loaded Gun by Jerome Charyn

I purchased a copy of the book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. As other writers have done -- and overdone -- a personal look at Emily Dickinson. Her life always looks outwardly plain and quiet, yet the poetry that came out that life was captivating and full of turmoil. Perhaps there was more than meets the eye and that is what Charyn seeks. This not a biography in the traditional sense, but balances the story of the life through the realm of the author's interest in it. I liked the fact he devoted a chapter to her dog Carlo; that Newfoundland had a role in her life generally neglected by biographers.

[Wren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emily Dickinson's person and poetry are iridescent. Trying to explain or even describe either proves futile. Nevertheless, Charyn demonstrates deep knowledge, intelligence and creativity in _A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century_. I've been dazzled by his interpretations, but what Charyn produced may be more an optical illusion than an archaeological discovery.

Over the course of 200 plus pages, Charyn assemble a variety of primary texts and critical works in an effort to complicate the stereotype of Dickinson as a timid, reclusive virgin. Instead, his critical work depicts the belle of Amherst as courageous, sexual and powerful. While Charyn does provide a lot of textual clues to Dickinson's fierceness, I did at times find myself exasperated by how much time an how much hyperbole he employed in creating this alternate view of the poet.

For example.

"And what an old maid she was, on her own sexual prowl, and perhaps she was a pointillist of her own time, talking about her apocalyptic rage as a woman in a culture that didn't permit female lust and female power. And so she smashed the pillars of that Protestant ethos, like some Sampson in a white dress, and she went through the looking glass in a way that would have frightened Updike and most other men, and dealt in dreams and hallucinations, with all the tradecraft of a witch" (p. 206).

While that passage is incredibly exciting to read and the portrait of Dickinson awe-inspiring, I do believe that Charyn is taking a lot of liberties. Dickinson and the personas of her poem probably inhabit some middle position between recluse and witch. Well, let me remember: Dickinson is iridescent. She and the personas of her poem are probably alternate between the extremes of a spectrum. For example, she is at times timid and at times fierce. In keeping with the iridescent image, she vacillate between the two at once.

Or to bring contemporary physics to the act of critical theory, Dickinson and her poetry are at once particle and wave, depending on what tools we use to perceive the poet and her poems. I imagine the poet as a nuclear reactor, encased for the safety of others but creating enormous energy in the relatively small confines of her life. (Oh. Mah. Gosh. I'm doing the same thing as Charyn. Using hyperbole to discribe the poet and her poems. What is it about Dickinson that beguiles the reader so?)

Afterall, "The Brain--is wider than the Sky--"

Even if I don't agree with all of Charyn's interpretations, I do respect the amount of work he put forth, and he did bring together a vast collection of people to his interpretation. I got to know the members of Dickinson's household to a greater degree than before, and I got to know about twenty other extended relatives, friends, editors and acquaintances. My previous view was that Dickinson interacted with very few people, a handful of immediate relatives and a couple of editors. Not so. Her social circle was larger than the persistent stereotypes.

Furthermore, Charyn discusses some of Dickinson's most important critics--critics such as Susan Howe, Camille Pagilia, Rebecca Patterson, Richard Sewall, and Gertrude Stein. Most delightful was my new-found knowledge of Joseph Cornell's shadow boxes, inspired by Dickinson's poems. After viewing some of these works of art, I now see Charyn's book as a similar effort: the literary critic has gathered a number of textual objects (letters, poems, fragments, daguerreotypes) and created a collage--inspired by Dickinson, but the creating of a new cultural object (in this case a book) probably illuminating more about Charyn's psyche than Dickinson's.

I still recommend reading A Loaded Gun. Just keep a distinction between a primary text (letter, poem, journal entry), the object of interpretation (the meaning of a poem, the nature of the poet) and the work of the critic. These are three very different things.

While I don't accept all of his interpretations, I did enjoy the wild ride, and I thank Charyn for complicating my view of both the poet and her poems.

Here are his chapter titles:

1. Zero at the Bone
2. The Two Emilys--and the Earl
3. Daemon Dog
4. Judith Shakespeare and Margaret Maher
5. Ballerinas in a Box
6. Phantom Lady
7. Within a Magic Prison
8. Nothing
9. Cleopatra's Company
10. The Witch's Hour
11. Sam Carlo

[Tony Parsons · Rating 5 out of 5]

The life/times of Emily Dickinson (Bell of Amherst). The nitty gritty & even some dirt on her.
Poetry is not my forte. But this lady was 1 of a kind in her era & is still considered 1 of the best poet of all times.

Warning: This book contains extremely graphic adult content, violence, or expletive language &/or uncensored sexually explicit material which is only suitable for mature readers. It may be offensive to some readers.

I did not receive any type of compensation for reading & reviewing this book. While I receive free books from publishers & authors, I am under no obligation to write a positive review, only an honest one.

A very awesome book cover, great font & writing style. A very well written female poet biography book. It was very easy for me to read/follow from start/finish & never a dull moment. There were no grammar/typo errors, nor any repetitive or out of line sequence sentences. Lots of exciting scenarios, with several twists/turns & a great set of unique characters to keep track of. This could also make another great female poet biography movie, college PP presentation, or a mini TV series. A very easy rating of 5 stars.

Thank you for the free Goodreads; MakingConnections; Bellevue literary press; paperback book
Tony Parsons MSW (Washburn)

[Claire Garand · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not get through this book. I really wanted the information but this is by far the most poorly organized biography I have ever read.

I love Emily Dickinson, but this book literally went from her mother's illness to a dog in one paragraph with no transitions. I can't get into Emily's story because the prose reads like a Dickinson scholar (who knows his stuff) got drunk at the pub and is now spouting off all the facts he knows to anyone who will listen. Honestly, that would be a much more pleasant experience.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this biography, but I think I enjoyed arguing with it more. I couldn’t put it down, and at times I couldn’t get it out of my head. But it was also infuriating, exasperating, intoxicating in the way that most unhealthy things are. The excerpts about Carlo and Emily Norcross were quite worth the read. The rest I took with the many grains of salt required to digest opinions presented as fact without much in the way of convincing argument or significant supporting evidence. The book’s strengths are in its sharp prose and its curious approach to biography—which is rambling and thematic, rather than strictly chronological, and which I actually found to be an engaging narrative to trace. (Even if the rather lengthy aside on Joseph Cornell felt wholly unnecessary.) But, while the author’s clear passion(s) for the subject make for a galloping pace, this also gives the biography an almost obsessive (possessive?) quality. I wonder if Charyn might have been attempting to create an Emily RepliLuxe of his own from the pages of his research.

(Edited with more to say on January 7, 2023)

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emily Dickinson is endlessly fascinating and lots of authors have tried to unlock the secrets of her life with their own theories about who she was, what she believed, etc. I dipped into several of these and read a few of them. This is my favorite. Charyn's book takes a meta approach. He discuses the family members who had their own motivations for steering Dickinson's heritage in one direction or another, and introduces us to many scholars and their theories about Dickinson's life and work. But he does this not to pick them apart and offer his own superior analysis, but rather to open our minds to the fact that Dickinson's genius is ultimately unknowable. Charyn casts a wide net too, in terms of helping us think about Dickinson -- from Shakespeare, to what life was like for a woman in new England in her lifetime, to the art of Joseph Cornell and Vincent Van Gogh. "She will continue to fuel our hunger and to baffle us, no matter how many portraits of her we uncover, or how many interpretations we have of every image. She's still out there 'opon Circumference,' where she'll always be hard to find."

[Faith Flaherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Loaded Gun by Jerome Charyn is well worth your time reading. Not only is it enjoyable, but you will learn some history of an era, besides gain a little understanding of what makes a poet tick. The poet is the poetess, Emily Dickinson. Charyn views Emily as a complicated character. She was agoraphobic, but her poems take her out of her self-imposed cloister to meet all kinds of people. She was a spinster, but her poems can be erotic. Her eroticism includes fantasies between both sexes. Perhaps Emily was bi-sexual. But despite this radical ambiguity, Charyn’s depiction of Emily Dickinson as “A Loaded Gun,” showcases an expert mistress of creative writing. Her poetry, writing and life are liquid language personified into A Loaded Gun.
Charyn is a detective writing up his surveillance of Emily. He has to be meticulous because if he can’t prove she’s guilty, the evidence will be thrown out. Hence the microscopic analysis of her life. First, Charyn considers what others have concluded: William Luce’s play—the Belle of Amherst, Adrienne Rich’s Vesuvius at Home, Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s The Magnicent Activist, Jay Leyda’s The Years and Hours of Emily Dickinson, Christopher Benfey’s works, Rebecca Patterson’s The Riddle of Emily Dickinson,Joseph Cornell’s art, etc.. There’s too many to name. Read the Bibliography.
Next, Charyn follows Emily around. She hides in her home, running when the door knocker raps. Charyn teases her out. She does have relatives and some of these are friends. There’s Carlo her dog and sometimes muse. But each of these tells conflicting experiences. Which relationship reveals the true Emily? Charyn finds that the deeper he digs, the more elusive she becomes.
Finally, Charyn has to conclude that Emily Dickinson is a loose cannon. She is guilty of impersonating a simple woman of letters. She’s guilty of impropriety. She is guilty of hubris. She is just not who we think she should be.
In the end, the reader has to agree with the excellent research and scholarship of Jerome Charyn. He gives enough evidence to prove that Emily Dickinson was a loaded gun. But Charyn’s biography also has evidence that Emily was an innocent product of her environment. Everyone wanted her to be their version of Emily. And she tried to placate everyone. Nonetheless, the conclusion is still that she was a loaded gun.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this were fascinating, but the unnecessary digressions were distracting. This felt a bit like it started out as a great dissertation and then was too short to be a real book, so Mr. Charyn padded it. I did really enjoy his writing, though, and the resources cited were helpfully contextualized. For any Dickinson fan, it's worth reading.

[Craig Masten · Rating 3 out of 5]

“A Loaded Gun” by Jerome Charyn is the novelist’s rather obsessive non-fiction exploration of the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson. He’d first written a novel called “The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson,” which so intrigued him he was led to this second effort to come to terms with her compelling creativity.
Let me say I am also a fan of this great poet, and can therefore quite understand how the author wanted to know more and more about her. The book takes us in a somewhat rambling free form quest of past scholarship, insights from fellow writers, and comparison with comparable spirits in his opinion, ranging from ballerinas to artists like Vincent Van Gogh.
Let me also say I gave up in his novel about Emily because I found it too full of speculative inventions about explicit romantic involvements fat from known fact. This non-fiction sequel I think is his attempt to support his highly sexual characterization of her, as revealed in past research and examination of her poetry and letters.
He makes a clearly heartfelt case, marshaling sometimes previously obscure information about her, along with powerful language leading to the general conclusion she will remain a unique mystery who leads us ever deeper into the mysteries she sought and unwillingly shared.

[Lisa Mcbroom · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title comes from Emily Dickinson seeing a loaded gun in her father's room and metaphorically comparing herself to a loaded gun. Miss Dickinson to me was the Metaphor Queen. Charyn takes a spin on Emily Dickinson in the 21st Century and femnisits vies of her. For Dickinson scholars or just for Poetry Fans!

[Cathy Nicastro · Rating 4 out of 5]

If it's summer, I am reading a book about Emily Dickinson. This one was a little breezy, but interesting, with some terrific what ifs that deal more with her revolutionary passions than with whoever (if ever) there was a Master. Indeed the premise here is that she is her own Master!

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a huge fan of Emily Dickinson's work and fascinated with who she was I was very excited to read this book.

However, it was a disappointment to me. I could not find a pace with the writing style and organization of the novel. Because of that I could never fully enjoy.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote a review of this book on my blog.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was introduced to Emily Dickinson through Julie Harris' one-woman play, The Belle of Amherst in grade school. Later, as a student of literature, I quickly tired of the various attempts to mansplain Emily's life. Until I discovered Adrienne Rich. She GOT Emily. According to Rich, Emily didn't have a problem, it was the "unwritten and written laws and taboos underpinning patriarchy" that Emily found the sweet spot to living a life of her own design. So with that background, imagine my excitement when I discovered Charyn's new book on Emily. The title alone - A Loaded Gun - promised more. Tipping his hat to Rich, Charyn introduces a woman fully engaged in all aspects of life. As a retired professor of film studies, Charyn's use of language and plausible plotlines are driven by archival research and a strong survey of existing literary criticism. Here, finally, is my favorite adaptation of Emily's life to date. And yet, why only three stars? Page 147. For me, Charyn breaks the fourth wall on his description of a childhood photo of Sue Gilbert. Is Lolita-ize a word? I readily own my heightened sensitivity and acknowledge I could no longer suspend my disbelief that Charyn's own predilections would show up in the picture.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a tough one for me to read. It seemed that the author was all over the place in his details of Emily Dickinson. However, I was still able to learn from it despite my challenges with it.

Emily Dickinson was often mocked as the half cracked village muse in her hometown. She was seen as the "most dangerous type of alien - a poet." Emily had two such companions that were constant in her life as an adult, a dog named Carlos and her maid, an irishwoman named Margaret.
Perhaps her mother, named Emily as well, helped teach her daughter her little way with words. Emily very much used silence as a strategy against her husband. Emily also most likely passed along her melancholy ways as well to her daughter.

----quotes and poems I enjoyed----
"language is first made in the mothers body."

She dealt her pretty words like Blades-
How glittering they shone-
And every one unbared a Nerve
Or wantoned with a Bone-

I can dance opon my toes-
No man instructed me-
But oftentimes, among my mind
A Glee posseth me,
That had I ballet knowledge-
Would put itself abroad
In Piroutte to blanch a Troupe-
Or lay a Prima....Mad

[Mariellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The author has a great passion for the poet. Her life is a mystery. The work of her life doesn’t align with the hagiography that has been passed down from family and acquaintances. The truth is likely much more complicated and interesting. Will we ever know it? Probably not. The author doesn’t indicate that his is the definitive way to understand Emily Dickinson. In fact, he tells us that we will likely never unravel all her mysteries. I love a mystery as much as the next person but is solving one the reason we read poetry? I like to read about writers, especially women writers to understand how they think, what makes them want to write. These are things that we may never know about Emily Dickinson but it is interesting to hear what people who have spent their lives studying her think.

[Dolina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century by Jerome Charyn 5 star

The title of this scholarly work of biography and critical analysis comes from
a Dickinson poem "My Life As a Loaded Gun." Contradicting depictions of
Dickinson as a shy recluse, the author sees her as a raging Vesuvius with
hidden fires who lived in a heaven and hell of words. He often compares
her to a predatory bird hunting words. He discusses her companionship
with her dog and Irish maid and her presumed bisexuality and intense
friendships with two women. He also discusses works of modernists
such as the artist Joseph Cornell and the writer Joyce Carol Oates who were
inspired by Dickinson.

This is an interesting book with new insights on the poet and her works.

POETRY

[V. Briceland · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the earliest chapters of Jerome Charyn's very personal appraisal of Emily Dickinson, he's skillful at weaving biography and literary criticism to form a portrait of a poet who's adept at resisting description, interpretation, or even sitting still for a daguerrotype.

The book runs out of material before the midway point, however, especially in a long and digressive chapter about mid-twentieth-century artists inspired by Dickinson that seems woefully out of place in a work that purports to be about 'Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century.' Although the book's obviously a labor of love, Charyn doesn't really convince me here that the scholarship surrounding Dickinson in the 21st century is any different than from fifty years ago.

[Sofia M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.”

Seems like I will never get enough of Emily and I’m okay with that. I knew all about Sue but had not heard about this Kate who seems be featured on a daguerreotype with her so that was definitely interesting. 👀

“I knew less and les the more I learned about her.”
A moving target I’ll probably keep chasing for the rest of my life.

[Wanda Lea Brayton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it. I also love "The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson" by this same author. I've read books by him, interviews with him, reviews of his prolific work, and still, he continues to impress. I'd love to be able to read his books on Teddy Roosevelt and Jerome Salinger as soon as possible, and anything else Jerome Charyn writes. We share a love of Emily Dickinson and his wife, Lenore Riegel.

[Adam Bricker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never read any Emily Dickinson before this book and turns out that's a good thing. This book is well written and the author's passion saves it, but not my favorite. For me, breakdown in the middle describing Joseph Cornell was the only interesting part of the book.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Benfry agrees with W.H.Auden "that language finds certain people and lives through them, almost the way a virus lives by finding a host, I think language lives by finding hosts . . . It found a way to live in Shakespeare. Infested him. Got all it could out of Shakespeare and then moved on."

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here’s how most of this book goes:

Something something something by some historian or biographer or critic.

I disagree says Jerome Charyn. Also Emily’s dog Carlo is more important than you think. Iconoclast. Something something.

[Megan Rosol · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating second look at the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson. Was she really as reclusive and innocent as portrayed by her family or biographers? Could someone who wrote such wildly original and often explosive poems be so insular? Maybe not.