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White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson
White Heat is the first book to portray the remarkable relationship between America's most beloved poet and the fiery abolitionist who first brought her work to the public. As the Civil War raged, an unlikely friendship was born between the reclusive poet Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a literary figure who ran guns to Kansas and commanded the first Union regiment of black soldiers. When Dickinson sent Higginson four of her poems, he realized he had encountered a wholly original genius; their intense correspondence continued for the next quarter century.In White Heat, Brenda Wineapple tells an extraordinary story about poetry, politics, and love -- one that sheds new light on her subjects, and on the roiling America they shared.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published August 12, 2008
60 people are currently reading
1364 people want to read
About the author
Brenda Wineapple
20 books133 followersBrenda Wineapple is the author of the award-winning Hawthorne: A Life, Genêt: A Biography of Janet Flanner, and Sister Brother: Gertrude and Leo Stein. Her essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in many publications, among them The American Scholar, The New York Times Book Review, Parnassus, Poetry, and The Nation. A Guggenheim fellow, a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, and twice of the National Endowment for the Humanities, she teaches in the MFA programs at Columbia University and The New School and lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 100 reviews
December 4, 2013
After p. 125
'Tis a puzzlement - this Book -
'Tis - or 'twas -
Or -
Perhaps a bit of both -
At End
I must add this title to the short list of biographical narratives that I consider perfect (not that my selection bears any significance beyond the edge of my desk), in the company of Ann Wroe's "Being Shelly," Richard Holmes, "Shelly: The Pursuit," and Peter Ackroyd's "Dickens," and a very few others.
I will limit my comments to the narrative strategy that Ms. Wineapple chose for her book and to the design that implements her strategy.
First, I note that her book commences where clarity begins. Ms. Wineapple chose not to write a comprehensive account of her principle subject's life, ED, of course. There's no attempt here to trace the complete trajectory of a life, to understand how and when and the conditions under which ED became ED, but rather to reconstruct a segment of two lives, an interaction of very different persons who respected one another, cared and nurtured one another as they could - by letter, once they both had gained possession of themselves.
Ms. Wineapple does not explain her choice. Because, I conjecture, she experienced no need to explain. She suggests, nonetheless, that she wants to correct or illuminate a segment of the record that already exists - on shelves. Perhaps she wrote to capture the only entirely honest, open, self-revealing acts of a famously reclusive and elusive person, who never suspected, I suspect, that latter-day busy-bodies would ever dissect and examine. So in this way, Ms. Wineapple raises highly interesting questions regarding the purpose and scope of biography: If we seek to know someone long dead, why do we compose a cradel-to-grave narrative, the greater part of which does not and can not reveal the person we seek to know? Why do we not rather examine just the credible and comprehensible portions of the evidentiary record that conveys what it is we wish to learn - provided, of course, that such portions exist? She quotes ED on this matter, with her inevitable dashes and capitals, who noted, as did Virginia Woolf: "Biography first convinces us of the fleeing of the Biographied - " (p. 35). Perhaps she is/they are correct. Perhaps Ms. Wineapple learned from her encounter with Nathaniel Hawthorne - and others. In any case, she found her answers and proceeded splendidly as her conclusions required.
Secondly, Ms. Wineapple replicates in her narrative the episodic character of their friendship, a friendship that proceeded in installments - a choice that delights one who believes that form should follow content. We see ED's initial, cautious approach and TWH's equally caution response, of someone puzzled but intrigued, who does not know how to respond to someone the like of whom he had never encountered. Then Ms. Wineapple interleaves extended accounts of the principles' lives that interrupt their correspondence - as in life. We read extended accounts of TWH's many undertakings and projects, his personal struggles that have no apparent bearing whatever on his friendship with ED. And we read also of ED's life as it focuses on placating the grand tyrant of her existence, the supremely conventional, stolid and pointless Edward Dickinson. Just as in life.
At first this design puzzled me (Why do all these pages appear at all in a book that ostensibly portrays a friendship?), but then I decided - without Ms. Wineapple's permission or concurrence, mind you - that she included this seemingly extraneous material to allow us to participate - as we can - in the friendship that she portrays, a friendship that thrived in increments, in installments, letter by letter, that they exchanged over twenty-four years.
And this is the design that I find altogether thrilling - perfectly executed in prose that is as spare and beautiful as ED's verse.
'Tis a puzzlement - this Book -
'Tis - or 'twas -
Or -
Perhaps a bit of both -
At End
I must add this title to the short list of biographical narratives that I consider perfect (not that my selection bears any significance beyond the edge of my desk), in the company of Ann Wroe's "Being Shelly," Richard Holmes, "Shelly: The Pursuit," and Peter Ackroyd's "Dickens," and a very few others.
I will limit my comments to the narrative strategy that Ms. Wineapple chose for her book and to the design that implements her strategy.
First, I note that her book commences where clarity begins. Ms. Wineapple chose not to write a comprehensive account of her principle subject's life, ED, of course. There's no attempt here to trace the complete trajectory of a life, to understand how and when and the conditions under which ED became ED, but rather to reconstruct a segment of two lives, an interaction of very different persons who respected one another, cared and nurtured one another as they could - by letter, once they both had gained possession of themselves.
Ms. Wineapple does not explain her choice. Because, I conjecture, she experienced no need to explain. She suggests, nonetheless, that she wants to correct or illuminate a segment of the record that already exists - on shelves. Perhaps she wrote to capture the only entirely honest, open, self-revealing acts of a famously reclusive and elusive person, who never suspected, I suspect, that latter-day busy-bodies would ever dissect and examine. So in this way, Ms. Wineapple raises highly interesting questions regarding the purpose and scope of biography: If we seek to know someone long dead, why do we compose a cradel-to-grave narrative, the greater part of which does not and can not reveal the person we seek to know? Why do we not rather examine just the credible and comprehensible portions of the evidentiary record that conveys what it is we wish to learn - provided, of course, that such portions exist? She quotes ED on this matter, with her inevitable dashes and capitals, who noted, as did Virginia Woolf: "Biography first convinces us of the fleeing of the Biographied - " (p. 35). Perhaps she is/they are correct. Perhaps Ms. Wineapple learned from her encounter with Nathaniel Hawthorne - and others. In any case, she found her answers and proceeded splendidly as her conclusions required.
Secondly, Ms. Wineapple replicates in her narrative the episodic character of their friendship, a friendship that proceeded in installments - a choice that delights one who believes that form should follow content. We see ED's initial, cautious approach and TWH's equally caution response, of someone puzzled but intrigued, who does not know how to respond to someone the like of whom he had never encountered. Then Ms. Wineapple interleaves extended accounts of the principles' lives that interrupt their correspondence - as in life. We read extended accounts of TWH's many undertakings and projects, his personal struggles that have no apparent bearing whatever on his friendship with ED. And we read also of ED's life as it focuses on placating the grand tyrant of her existence, the supremely conventional, stolid and pointless Edward Dickinson. Just as in life.
At first this design puzzled me (Why do all these pages appear at all in a book that ostensibly portrays a friendship?), but then I decided - without Ms. Wineapple's permission or concurrence, mind you - that she included this seemingly extraneous material to allow us to participate - as we can - in the friendship that she portrays, a friendship that thrived in increments, in installments, letter by letter, that they exchanged over twenty-four years.
And this is the design that I find altogether thrilling - perfectly executed in prose that is as spare and beautiful as ED's verse.
June 15, 2011
Surprisingly good--on a number of counts: Dickinson's poetry, life, her intensity; Higginson's importance in history, his work as an abolitionist, leader of the first all-black (former slaves) regiment in the Civil War; his writings on and support of women's equal rights...
Wineapple is never condescending nor overly interpretive; she gives both Higginson and Dickinson their due, is respectful of these larger-than-life figures, and is as good at writing about the poems as she is about Higginson's Civil War regiment, his fight against slavery--on the battlefield and off--and his later-in-life search for fulfillment. What I especially like is how we are able to view these two personalities very much within the context of their time; she doesn't force a modern-day lens onto them as some biographers would do. In other words, there is a lot of correction and restoration when it comes to Higginson as he has been much disparaged over the years by Dickinson scholars and Historians alike.
Wineapple is also very good at tracking the soap-opera-ish struggle for control of the publication of Dickinson's many poems: the key players being her sister Lavinia; Mabel Todd (who'd had a 12-yr affair with Emily's brother, Austin); Sue, Austin's wife; and Higginson. The poems were copied and altered to various extents by Todd and Higginson, yet Wineapple also lets us see the work they were doing within the context of their time. Emily Dickinson's poems were so extraordinary, nothing like them had ever been witnessed (they felt they had to 'prepare the public').
One is left with love and admiration for the reclusive Dickinson: though she rarely leaves her father's house, her life and her art are wholly her own. She is her own Master (the term she gives Higginson): sharply intelligent, compassionate, true to herself and her poetry. I can't help but be awed by this astonishing woman and poet.
Wineapple is never condescending nor overly interpretive; she gives both Higginson and Dickinson their due, is respectful of these larger-than-life figures, and is as good at writing about the poems as she is about Higginson's Civil War regiment, his fight against slavery--on the battlefield and off--and his later-in-life search for fulfillment. What I especially like is how we are able to view these two personalities very much within the context of their time; she doesn't force a modern-day lens onto them as some biographers would do. In other words, there is a lot of correction and restoration when it comes to Higginson as he has been much disparaged over the years by Dickinson scholars and Historians alike.
Wineapple is also very good at tracking the soap-opera-ish struggle for control of the publication of Dickinson's many poems: the key players being her sister Lavinia; Mabel Todd (who'd had a 12-yr affair with Emily's brother, Austin); Sue, Austin's wife; and Higginson. The poems were copied and altered to various extents by Todd and Higginson, yet Wineapple also lets us see the work they were doing within the context of their time. Emily Dickinson's poems were so extraordinary, nothing like them had ever been witnessed (they felt they had to 'prepare the public').
One is left with love and admiration for the reclusive Dickinson: though she rarely leaves her father's house, her life and her art are wholly her own. She is her own Master (the term she gives Higginson): sharply intelligent, compassionate, true to herself and her poetry. I can't help but be awed by this astonishing woman and poet.
January 21, 2012
Brenda Wineapple takes on the history of the peculiar friendship between Dickinson and Higginsworth. She is well-equipped for this task, having written about mid-19th century America in a superb biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and she is a thorough scholar, a good storyteller, a sensitive reader, and a stylish writer. White Heat is something of a dual biography, sketching out the main events of the main figures’ lives, but it aims primarily at the points of intersection in those lives, trying to answer the question of what made Dickinson pick this man, in all the world, as her “preceptor.” The correspondence itself is incomplete, and we don’t always know which letters got replies and whether there are links missing in the chain of their conversation. Wineapple does excellent work reconstructing and contextualizing the conversation, and in several ways she has done a great service to Dickinson and Higginson. For Higginson, she has rescued him from the dismissive conclusion that he was in over his head with Dickinson. He comes across as sometimes bewildered and sometimes bewitched by Dickinson, but Wineapple hardly blames him for this. Rather, she displays – and often admires – how he registers his own inability to fully comprehend the poetry he receives from Dickinson. But Higginson understands the value of the poetry and devotes himself to encouraging her work; he invites her confidence with no apparent self-interest or ulterior motive. And Wineapple argues convincingly that his efforts on Dickinson’s behalf are of a piece with his enthusiastic promotion of full and equal rights for women and his equally enthusiastic support for the work of women writers. In Dickinson, Wineapple shows, Higginson believed he had found a justification for his advocacy of women – a woman not only equal to any man in poetic power, but superior.
I posted a long review here: White Heat Review
I posted a long review here: White Heat Review
February 12, 2009
Emily Dickenson, the ghostly poetic genius, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson had an unusual friendship that spanned 25 plus years --- primarily through correspondence and primarily under the guise of Ms Dickenson rather coyly asking for guidance in her writing. We all know about Emily Dickenson, the New England spinster-recluse who produced some of the most exquisite, deep, and accessible poetry ever written. But Higginson? He was a prolific writer himself, though not of her caliber, an abolitionist and women's rights advocate, and commanded the first black regiment to be formed in the south. Until now Higginson has been dismissed as someone who both discouraged E.D. from publishing and after her death pulled the sting from her poems by regularizing the rhyme and punctuation (actually Mabel Loomis Todd did this). Wineapple successfully weaves the lives of E.D. and T.W.H. together, and sets the record straight.
February 22, 2009
Cool!
Now I understand
Higginson a little
and continue
to completely miss
ED's point
But then
even H
the Master
was puzzled
and he was no match
it turned out
for her staying power
Although he was
and should be famous for
his human compassion
Now I understand
Higginson a little
and continue
to completely miss
ED's point
But then
even H
the Master
was puzzled
and he was no match
it turned out
for her staying power
Although he was
and should be famous for
his human compassion
July 20, 2012
In 1862, Emily Dickinson wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a noted man of letters and radical activist for abolition and women’s rights, asking if he would look at her poems. He did and recognized immediately their strange power. As Wineapple points out in this brilliant study, Dickinson’s letter marked the blossoming of a complicated lifelong friendship. Although the two met face-to-face only twice, Higginson found Dickinson’s explosive poetry seductive. Drawing on 25 years’ worth of Dickinson’s letters (Higginson’s are lost), Wineapple contests the traditional portrait of her as isolated from the world and liking it that way. In her poems and her letters, Wineapple shows, Dickinson was the consummate flirt, a “sorceress, a prestidigitator in words.” Wineapple resurrects the reputation of Higginson, long viewed as stodgy in his literary tastes (he reviled Whitman) yet who recognized Dickinson’s genius and saw her work as an example of the “democratic art” he fervently believed in. As Wineapple did previously with Hawthorne (Hawthorne: A Life), she elegantly delves into a life and offers rich insights into the relationship between two of the late–19th century’s most intriguing writers.
August 10, 2009
This is wonderful biography. I was impressed by Wineapple's ability to present anecdotes and facts about Dickinson I'm not familiar with. Her convincing understanding of the formative teenager Emily sliding into eccentricity gives her picture of the mature Emily credibility. All of Wineapple's biographies seem a fresh approach, like a wrestler coming at his opponent with a different hold and angle. This, too, providing a dual biography of Dickinson and her friend Thomas Wentworth Higginson. I marveled at Wineapple's even hand in giving us a picture of Dickinson that's so fresh the material's not old news, interesting enough to seem being read for the first time. Higginson's part, how he promoted Dickinson's poetry following her death, is interesting. But I liked best Wineapple's account of his service during the Civil War.
April 25, 2012
I was not as enamored of this as I’d hoped to be, but it was educational. It was slow, then got interesting, leveled out, got dull again, sped up, and slowed down, and so forth. There was a great deal of Civil War history, probably more than I needed, and a lot of analysis of Dickinson’s poetry, probably more than I wanted. But I did learn a great deal about Emily Dickinson and the Civil War colonel /writer/editor/ abolitionist with whom the poet had a 24-year correspondence. They met in person only twice. It was a friendship, a supposed mentoring relationship (although Wentworth would have been the first to admit he had nothing to teach her), and at times a long-distance flirtation. Thomas Wentworth Higginson was not a figure I’d known anything about before, and what an interesting character. I could have fallen a little bit in love with him myself. In the mid-nineteenth century, he was an activist of a rather radical stripe, working tirelessly on behalf of the rights of blacks both before and after Emancipation and on behalf of women. He led a unit of black soldiers in the Union Army, and I have never read before of any man in that era who was so respectful and supportive of women and so willing to advocate for their equality in all facets of life. Very cool. And Emily, although reclusive, was apparently not the shrinking little violet one might think, given her isolated life. She actually seemed like a pretty shrewd little cookie.
Despite the “White Heat” of the title (a reference to a Dickinson poem and to the intensity of her poetry), there was nothing overtly steamy about the relationship between Dickinson and Higginson. It was a different story regarding the long-term adulterous relationship Emily’s married brother Austin had with a married neighbor, Mabel Todd, who, along with Higginson, edited and arranged for publication of Emily’s poetry after her death. Mabel herself would be an interesting subject for a non-fiction book or a novel. The issues between Austin’s widow and the former mistress, and squabbling between them and the surviving Dickinson sister who owned the poems made for some interesting final chapters. Also enlightening were the stories about how Higginson and Todd went back and forth as co-editors regarding which poems the public was ready for, and to what degree the published ones should be tamed into a more conventional shape to make them more palatable for a Victorian audience unused to such innovative use of language. Cutting edge stuff then. Still is.
Extensively researched, the book contains 64 pages of notes, and Wineapple’s writing is really extremely good.
Despite the “White Heat” of the title (a reference to a Dickinson poem and to the intensity of her poetry), there was nothing overtly steamy about the relationship between Dickinson and Higginson. It was a different story regarding the long-term adulterous relationship Emily’s married brother Austin had with a married neighbor, Mabel Todd, who, along with Higginson, edited and arranged for publication of Emily’s poetry after her death. Mabel herself would be an interesting subject for a non-fiction book or a novel. The issues between Austin’s widow and the former mistress, and squabbling between them and the surviving Dickinson sister who owned the poems made for some interesting final chapters. Also enlightening were the stories about how Higginson and Todd went back and forth as co-editors regarding which poems the public was ready for, and to what degree the published ones should be tamed into a more conventional shape to make them more palatable for a Victorian audience unused to such innovative use of language. Cutting edge stuff then. Still is.
Extensively researched, the book contains 64 pages of notes, and Wineapple’s writing is really extremely good.
Read
May 11, 2012WHITE HEAT isn't just a dual biography of poetry's Queen Recluse and her "Preceptor," the editor, essayist, ultra-abolitionist and women's rights advocate. It's also a brilliantly incisive microcosm of our culture as viewed through what Wineapple calls "a single window." Through placing Dickinson and Higginson in their appropriate context—abolition-fevered Massachusetts in the years immediately before, during and after the Civil War—WHITE HEAT takes a hard look at a central split in the American psyche: the desire to plunge into the deep mysteries of self, and the equally strong desire to plunge into civic life, even at its most violent. Those tempted to skip Wineapple's biography on the basis of its emphasis on the literary will be making a grave mistake: Through these two ur-representative American characters, Wineapple gives us an opening into ourselves, and into the history in which most of us continue struggling to live.
(For a typically splendid review of this book by Christopher Benfey, see: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/cu...)
(originally published in the NASHVILLE SCENE / Village Voice Media)
(For a typically splendid review of this book by Christopher Benfey, see: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/cu...)
(originally published in the NASHVILLE SCENE / Village Voice Media)
February 27, 2011
Brenda Wineapple writes an intimate portrait of Higginson and Dickinson with sensitivity and elegance. I was afraid it would be rather dry, but just the opposite is true. The author is heady and scholarly, but the writing takes off like an engrossing story, lifts you with it. There is nothing stodgy or stuffy about this book. The narrative flows with grace, and her prose style engages you with its intelligent delivery. It is thoroughly researched--while reading it, I was brought back in time and place. I saw through their eyes. I was inside of Dickinson and beside Higginson. At Emily's home in Amherst, I easily felt what she felt when she looked out her window.
August 20, 2008
This is a book for those who love Emily Dickinson. Higginson became her friend and
publisher, after her death. He fought in the Civil War and was an abolitionist. The reader learns about the cultural and social issues of the time for both Emily
and THomas and their strange friendship in Massachusetts. A serious book.
publisher, after her death. He fought in the Civil War and was an abolitionist. The reader learns about the cultural and social issues of the time for both Emily
and THomas and their strange friendship in Massachusetts. A serious book.
July 20, 2009
This is about the friendship between Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth, but I just could not get into it.
November 7, 2025
This is the third book I’ve read by Brenda Wineapple, and I’ve enjoyed them all. Probably most people come to this book primarily out of interest in Emily Dickinson; I come to it primarily out of interest in T.H. Higginson. I read Army Life in a Black Regiment: and Other Writings, and seeking to learn more about him, read the biography by Higginson’s second wife, Mary Thatcher Higginson Thomas Wentworth Higginson; the Story of his Life and 'Colonial of the Black Regiment' by Howard N. Meyer. They both have lots of information, but neither in my opinion is the biography he deserves, and he does deserve to be remembered. I got a good feel for Higginson as a person in this book.
I never liked Emily Dickinson in high school. I was then a huge Walt Whitman admirer, although today I think that I would have trouble tolerating many of his poems that I loved then. I am grateful to Brenda Wineapple for reintroducing me to Dickinson; I appreciate her a lot more, but she still doesn’t really speak to me.
The period 1830-1850 in the US is frequently called the “age of reform.” But then began a prerevolutionary period. Periods of intense political ferment tend to be expressed in the arts as well, including among artists who may not be fully committed to the change. Dickinson was not involved in the fight for Black and women’s rights, but it couldn’t help but influence her, and she knew who Higginson was when she sent him the letter that began their friendship.
Wineapple writes:
“Higginson brooked no qualms about the morality of force. ‘A revolution is begun!’ he shouted in Worcester. ‘If you take part in politics henceforward, let it be only to bring nearer the crisis which will either save or sunder this nation—or perhaps save in sundering.’”
The influence of the (unfortunately failed) bourgeois-democratic revolutions of 1848 was widespread:
“Invoking the names of the revolutionary heroes of Europe, Giuseppe Mazzini and Lajos Kossuth, in a sermon he [Higginson] called ‘Massachusetts in Mourning,’ he exhorted his congregation not to ‘conceal Fugitives and help them on, but show them and defend them… ‘”
The failure of the European revolutions was the fear of the bourgeoisie for the working class (see Revolution & Counterrevolution in Germany). And in the end, Radical Reconstruction collapsed for similar reasons; it was more than simply symbolic coincidence that the troops being pulled out of the South in 1977 were used to suppress the railroad strikes (see The Great Labor Uprising of 1877; Racism, Revolution, Reaction, 1861-1877: The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction; and Marx and Engels’ writings on the Second American Revolution, The Civil War in the United States by Karl Marx). The bourgeoisie was afraid of the possibility of unity between freed slaves and Southern poor whites.
“His outcries lost to the ephemera of journalism, Higginson’s lasting contributions to Reconstruction were his Atlantic essays on the war, collected in 1869 as 'Army Life in a Black Regiment.' Including material copied directly from his journals as well as a narrative of his three expeditions, his ruminations on the valor of the black soldier—and his outrage that black soldiers had been underpaid when paid at all—Army Life is a minor masterpiece. Today considered gently racist, if not condescending, it nonetheless remains a striking, unusual, and empathetic social document; its account of daily activity in the army during wartime is riveting in its detail, compassion, and humor. Higginson’s very real affection for his regiment is evident on every page, as is his pride in what he and his soldiers were able to do, and his transcriptions of the spirituals sung by his men is itself a remarkable—and groundbreaking—contribution to African American folk culture.”
“Gently racist”? Perhaps not Wineapple’s words, but is it the use of dialect?—Higginson’s attempt to reproduce language of Gullah-speakers? What about the use of dialect in 'Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston? To hear people who have not contributed anywhere near what Higginson did, casually call his book “gently racist” is disturbing, but not at all surprising in this period when liberalism is the new elitism (see Are They Rich Because They're Smart?.
The abolitionist movement had given birth to the women’s suffrage movement, not surprisingly, since both slavery and women’s oppression are rooted in property relations. And during the Civil War, the National Woman’s Loyal League with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized support for the Thirteenth Amendment. Many other women were part of the efforts of the Sanitary Commission which worked to provide bandages, nurses, and other aid to the medical side of the war, which the government had not organized well.
Wineapple writes:
“Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony campaigned against the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Everyone walks through the door or no one does, insisted Stanton and Anthony, who opposed any amendment giving the vote only to men. More moderate feminists and former abolitionists disagreed, arguing this was the ‘Negro’s hour.’ The ladies’ turn would come. Higginson sided with the moderates. The enfranchisement of black men is what he had fought for, and much as he supported women’s rights, he could not support any demand that threatened to protract his thirty-year battle against slavery. In 1869, Stanton and Anthony founded the all-female National Woman Suffrage Association. (Frederick Douglass had called Stanton and Anthony racist for putting woman suffrage ahead of the gubernatorial candidacy of a black man.) That same year Higginson, along with Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and Julia Ward Howe, formed the American Woman Suffrage Association: ‘Without deprecating the value of Associations already existing, it is yet deemed…an organization at once more comprehensive and more widely representative.’ They were reformers, not revolutionaries.”
Frederick Douglass was right, and Brenda Wineapple is wrong--Higginson didn’t take the more moderate position. The revolutionary position was supporting the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. It’s not that in the abstract Black voting rights is more important than women’s voting rights. But there’s nothing abstract here: A revolutionary war had just been fought to end slavery, not for women’s rights. Voting rights was a bare minimum for people who really needed an economic base—like “40 acres and a mule.” Radical Reconstruction could only have won by dividing up the plantations for freed slaves and poor whites, especially those many who had supported the Union. It was a setback that the words “male inhabitants” were introduced into the Constitution, but women’s rights fighters needed to support Black suffrage without stopping their fight for women’s suffrage. Instead, they let themselves become divided rather than seeing that a victory for one oppressed group was a victory for all. Just as there was insufficient support at the beginning of the Civil War for making it about ending slavery, so there was insufficient support for combining women’s suffrage with Black suffrage.
And Elizabeth Cady Stanton proved her racism by asking “Are we to stand aside and see Sambo walk into the kingdom first?” Susan B. Anthony proclaimed: “I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work for or demand the ballot for the Negro and not for the woman.”
Thermidorian Reaction followed the downfall of Radical Reconstruction (see Racism, Revolution, Reaction, 1861-1877: The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction), and Higginson like most former abolitionists after the downfall of Radical Reconstruction, gave up trying to do much about racism in the US; he was not among the worst. This reaction also set back the fight for women’s rights and rampant racism greatly set back the labor and socialist movements.
I never liked Emily Dickinson in high school. I was then a huge Walt Whitman admirer, although today I think that I would have trouble tolerating many of his poems that I loved then. I am grateful to Brenda Wineapple for reintroducing me to Dickinson; I appreciate her a lot more, but she still doesn’t really speak to me.
The period 1830-1850 in the US is frequently called the “age of reform.” But then began a prerevolutionary period. Periods of intense political ferment tend to be expressed in the arts as well, including among artists who may not be fully committed to the change. Dickinson was not involved in the fight for Black and women’s rights, but it couldn’t help but influence her, and she knew who Higginson was when she sent him the letter that began their friendship.
Wineapple writes:
“Higginson brooked no qualms about the morality of force. ‘A revolution is begun!’ he shouted in Worcester. ‘If you take part in politics henceforward, let it be only to bring nearer the crisis which will either save or sunder this nation—or perhaps save in sundering.’”
The influence of the (unfortunately failed) bourgeois-democratic revolutions of 1848 was widespread:
“Invoking the names of the revolutionary heroes of Europe, Giuseppe Mazzini and Lajos Kossuth, in a sermon he [Higginson] called ‘Massachusetts in Mourning,’ he exhorted his congregation not to ‘conceal Fugitives and help them on, but show them and defend them… ‘”
The failure of the European revolutions was the fear of the bourgeoisie for the working class (see Revolution & Counterrevolution in Germany). And in the end, Radical Reconstruction collapsed for similar reasons; it was more than simply symbolic coincidence that the troops being pulled out of the South in 1977 were used to suppress the railroad strikes (see The Great Labor Uprising of 1877; Racism, Revolution, Reaction, 1861-1877: The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction; and Marx and Engels’ writings on the Second American Revolution, The Civil War in the United States by Karl Marx). The bourgeoisie was afraid of the possibility of unity between freed slaves and Southern poor whites.
“His outcries lost to the ephemera of journalism, Higginson’s lasting contributions to Reconstruction were his Atlantic essays on the war, collected in 1869 as 'Army Life in a Black Regiment.' Including material copied directly from his journals as well as a narrative of his three expeditions, his ruminations on the valor of the black soldier—and his outrage that black soldiers had been underpaid when paid at all—Army Life is a minor masterpiece. Today considered gently racist, if not condescending, it nonetheless remains a striking, unusual, and empathetic social document; its account of daily activity in the army during wartime is riveting in its detail, compassion, and humor. Higginson’s very real affection for his regiment is evident on every page, as is his pride in what he and his soldiers were able to do, and his transcriptions of the spirituals sung by his men is itself a remarkable—and groundbreaking—contribution to African American folk culture.”
“Gently racist”? Perhaps not Wineapple’s words, but is it the use of dialect?—Higginson’s attempt to reproduce language of Gullah-speakers? What about the use of dialect in 'Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston? To hear people who have not contributed anywhere near what Higginson did, casually call his book “gently racist” is disturbing, but not at all surprising in this period when liberalism is the new elitism (see Are They Rich Because They're Smart?.
The abolitionist movement had given birth to the women’s suffrage movement, not surprisingly, since both slavery and women’s oppression are rooted in property relations. And during the Civil War, the National Woman’s Loyal League with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized support for the Thirteenth Amendment. Many other women were part of the efforts of the Sanitary Commission which worked to provide bandages, nurses, and other aid to the medical side of the war, which the government had not organized well.
Wineapple writes:
“Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony campaigned against the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Everyone walks through the door or no one does, insisted Stanton and Anthony, who opposed any amendment giving the vote only to men. More moderate feminists and former abolitionists disagreed, arguing this was the ‘Negro’s hour.’ The ladies’ turn would come. Higginson sided with the moderates. The enfranchisement of black men is what he had fought for, and much as he supported women’s rights, he could not support any demand that threatened to protract his thirty-year battle against slavery. In 1869, Stanton and Anthony founded the all-female National Woman Suffrage Association. (Frederick Douglass had called Stanton and Anthony racist for putting woman suffrage ahead of the gubernatorial candidacy of a black man.) That same year Higginson, along with Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and Julia Ward Howe, formed the American Woman Suffrage Association: ‘Without deprecating the value of Associations already existing, it is yet deemed…an organization at once more comprehensive and more widely representative.’ They were reformers, not revolutionaries.”
Frederick Douglass was right, and Brenda Wineapple is wrong--Higginson didn’t take the more moderate position. The revolutionary position was supporting the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. It’s not that in the abstract Black voting rights is more important than women’s voting rights. But there’s nothing abstract here: A revolutionary war had just been fought to end slavery, not for women’s rights. Voting rights was a bare minimum for people who really needed an economic base—like “40 acres and a mule.” Radical Reconstruction could only have won by dividing up the plantations for freed slaves and poor whites, especially those many who had supported the Union. It was a setback that the words “male inhabitants” were introduced into the Constitution, but women’s rights fighters needed to support Black suffrage without stopping their fight for women’s suffrage. Instead, they let themselves become divided rather than seeing that a victory for one oppressed group was a victory for all. Just as there was insufficient support at the beginning of the Civil War for making it about ending slavery, so there was insufficient support for combining women’s suffrage with Black suffrage.
And Elizabeth Cady Stanton proved her racism by asking “Are we to stand aside and see Sambo walk into the kingdom first?” Susan B. Anthony proclaimed: “I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work for or demand the ballot for the Negro and not for the woman.”
Thermidorian Reaction followed the downfall of Radical Reconstruction (see Racism, Revolution, Reaction, 1861-1877: The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction), and Higginson like most former abolitionists after the downfall of Radical Reconstruction, gave up trying to do much about racism in the US; he was not among the worst. This reaction also set back the fight for women’s rights and rampant racism greatly set back the labor and socialist movements.
July 7, 2023
The poet never lived to see fame in her lifetime and perhaps never wanted it. The friend achieved fame and notoriety in his lifetime but lived long enough to see it fade.
This dual biography of Dickinson and Higginson is the best biography of the poet out there. No external fussiness, none but the most important speculations about her personal life, especially prominent because it is anchored with the closest literary confidante in her life, the ex soldier, progressive promulgator, and literary "Master" as she called him, Thomas Wentworth Higginson. After a first section handling their biographies separately, the most important and fascinating part of the book begins when Emily Dickinson reaches out to TWH soliciting feedback and advice regarding her verses. It is often assumed that Dickinson never intended her poetry to see the light of day or publication, just as she shut herself up in the Homestead in Amherst (so much so that she was the gossip of the town, where citizens thought she must be demented and insane). This was far from the truth. This book doesn't fascinate over her reclusion, or even really gives us the unnecessary answer as to why it was. It uses the extensive correspondence between Dickinson and TWH to illuminate the works themselves, as these conversations are the basis for our most personal look at the poet herself and her concerns. It's even possible based on this book that Emily may have been attracted to TWH, flirtatious and needful as Emily is in those letters. TWH was startled and supremely impressed by the verses she sent, and he remained a lifelong advocate for her, eventually leading to the publishing of these poems that could have been lost.
The final section covers the posthumous life of those poems in 50 pages: how the poems came to be published, how her brother's mistress Mabel Todd Loomis (who seems pretty self absorbed and demented to me) "corrected" the poems' punctuation, grammar, and metrical regularity to meet the standards of the day. Unfortunately, TWH received the blunt of the blame for her bowdlerization, and continues to do so to this day. Fortunately, modern editions retain the original forms that startle us today. This book corrects that misassumption and also illuminates the work of the poet like few books do. It's a compelling and fascinating read, and doesn't overstay its welcome. Essential for Dickinson fans and literary lovers, particularly for those who want to understand her continuing fascination for us. By focusing on their professional relationship and not by prying too much into her personal life, I even think Emily wouldn't be too disconcerted by what it reveals. A+
This dual biography of Dickinson and Higginson is the best biography of the poet out there. No external fussiness, none but the most important speculations about her personal life, especially prominent because it is anchored with the closest literary confidante in her life, the ex soldier, progressive promulgator, and literary "Master" as she called him, Thomas Wentworth Higginson. After a first section handling their biographies separately, the most important and fascinating part of the book begins when Emily Dickinson reaches out to TWH soliciting feedback and advice regarding her verses. It is often assumed that Dickinson never intended her poetry to see the light of day or publication, just as she shut herself up in the Homestead in Amherst (so much so that she was the gossip of the town, where citizens thought she must be demented and insane). This was far from the truth. This book doesn't fascinate over her reclusion, or even really gives us the unnecessary answer as to why it was. It uses the extensive correspondence between Dickinson and TWH to illuminate the works themselves, as these conversations are the basis for our most personal look at the poet herself and her concerns. It's even possible based on this book that Emily may have been attracted to TWH, flirtatious and needful as Emily is in those letters. TWH was startled and supremely impressed by the verses she sent, and he remained a lifelong advocate for her, eventually leading to the publishing of these poems that could have been lost.
The final section covers the posthumous life of those poems in 50 pages: how the poems came to be published, how her brother's mistress Mabel Todd Loomis (who seems pretty self absorbed and demented to me) "corrected" the poems' punctuation, grammar, and metrical regularity to meet the standards of the day. Unfortunately, TWH received the blunt of the blame for her bowdlerization, and continues to do so to this day. Fortunately, modern editions retain the original forms that startle us today. This book corrects that misassumption and also illuminates the work of the poet like few books do. It's a compelling and fascinating read, and doesn't overstay its welcome. Essential for Dickinson fans and literary lovers, particularly for those who want to understand her continuing fascination for us. By focusing on their professional relationship and not by prying too much into her personal life, I even think Emily wouldn't be too disconcerted by what it reveals. A+
March 27, 2023
This book clears up some popular misconceptions about Dickinson and her easy-to-caricature first editor, Higginson. I was taught Dickinson erroneously! I have taught her erroneously! This book is great at showing the real prosy worth of Higginson and helps to explain the mystery as to why Dickinson reached out to him specifically to be the vehicle for her poems. Dickinson emerges as a mystery hero, as per usual but better. Higginson emerges, surprisingly, for those of us raised on the myth of the bumbling officious rhyme-inserter, as a likeable sympathetic longstanding aid to Dickinson herself and, as Wineapple puts it, "in unfashionable terms, a very good man": he was a disciple of Emerson and Thoreau, helped John Brown do his astonishing things, he led the first all-black regiment in US history in the Civil War, and worked tirelessly for women's suffrage. We should know more about this guy! This book is a needed and charming corrective.
Some additional thoughts:
-Mabel Loomis Todd, Dickinson's other editor: man. What a weirdo. In comparing strange people, Emily is the one you want to be more like.
-CS Lewis noted that all biographies, because they contract all the events and sorrows of a life into a small space, end up feeling tragic. That remains true, even for people so good natured and harmless as these protagonists.
-This is a small quibble for an excellent book and a strong read, but is it actually a feather in an academic's hat to be shaky on Biblical knowledge? Wineapple has Dickinson "quoting the book of Revelation" in writing "Don't you know you have taken my will away and 'I know not where' you 'have laid' it? ... 'Spare the "Nay" and spoil the child'?" (John the Revelator, yes, Revelation, no. Also, the book of Proverbs. And no one on the editorial team caught this?)
If you're a Dickinson fan-- and you should be-- you need to read this book. But don't trust it for your Bible quoting.
Some additional thoughts:
-Mabel Loomis Todd, Dickinson's other editor: man. What a weirdo. In comparing strange people, Emily is the one you want to be more like.
-CS Lewis noted that all biographies, because they contract all the events and sorrows of a life into a small space, end up feeling tragic. That remains true, even for people so good natured and harmless as these protagonists.
-This is a small quibble for an excellent book and a strong read, but is it actually a feather in an academic's hat to be shaky on Biblical knowledge? Wineapple has Dickinson "quoting the book of Revelation" in writing "Don't you know you have taken my will away and 'I know not where' you 'have laid' it? ... 'Spare the "Nay" and spoil the child'?" (John the Revelator, yes, Revelation, no. Also, the book of Proverbs. And no one on the editorial team caught this?)
If you're a Dickinson fan-- and you should be-- you need to read this book. But don't trust it for your Bible quoting.
May 16, 2025
This was a different book for me...I have always loved Emily Dickinson's poetry, even when I didn't understand them. Just her choice of words and the way she used them were so beyond what anyone else has done poetry wise. I knew she had a couple of male admirers but didn't know much about either of the men. This book interested me, as this man really befriended Emily because of her poetry...at a time when many if not most couldn't understand her need to write or her poetry. The research for this book is incredible, which is why I was so impressed and gave it five stars. I enjoyed reading about the man, Higginson...and his life and how it became woven in with Dickinson's life. The background of the Civil War, and his own writings were informed by Emily. She read him, he read her works (lucky him, so few saw her work prior to her death). They only met a couple of times...but their friendship endured. She became more famous than he after her death...but this book brings his importance to Emily to life, and we can all be grateful for his influence on her.
March 7, 2020
This is a beautiful examination of the relationship between the poet and the editor/activist who encouraged her. Dickinson, the brilliant, reclusive and lauded poet and the now much forgotten urgent, eminent soldier, writer and editor are rendered lovingly by Wineapple. The author navigates a line between biography, analysis and literary criticism. She comprehends the multiple levels of the unusual relationship and writes with compassion and real understanding of her two subjects. This was a magnificent read. The scholarship is stunning, while the story flows beautifully. One cares very much about both of these figures. In the end, much remains unexplained, as it should.
March 20, 2021
The more you read about the enigmatic Emily, the more you want to know about her and her poetry. I certainly do. This book fuels the fire. If not a merry dance between Miss Dickinson and Mr. Higginson, it’s a delightful pas de deux. And what a joy to take part in their prolonged (10-year) duet. Highly recommended. See also: “Emily Dickinson” by Cynthia Griffin Wolf and “These Fevered Days…” by Martha Ackmann.
February 2, 2019
Exposing Emily Dickinson
This is a terrific book about the details of the life of Emily and her mentor and first editor of her poetry publications after she died, Thomas Wentworth Higginson. It reveal his and her family's influences on her life and poetry. Well researched and very thorough.
This is a terrific book about the details of the life of Emily and her mentor and first editor of her poetry publications after she died, Thomas Wentworth Higginson. It reveal his and her family's influences on her life and poetry. Well researched and very thorough.
January 7, 2021
The book is much more about Higginson than Dickinson, and even their relationship through letters and infrequent visits takes a backseat to Higginson's life. Despite this, and a very slow beginning, it becomes engrossing toward the end and provides insight into Dickinson's life, work, and relationships.
September 6, 2021
I was pleased to learn more about both of them, and their remarkable friendship and correspondence. But it was a sort of book that I will probably not be able to retain a lot from. I did appreciate his abolitionism, and his leadership of a black regiment during the Civil War. I did not know about that.
December 31, 2023
Insightful Biography of Two Fascinating Americans
Lyrical writing that Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson themselves would have appreciated, I loved how this biography wove their two lives and relationship through letters into such a cohesive telling. I’ve long admired Dickinson. But the context in which many of the poems were written gives them even greater depth.
Lyrical writing that Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson themselves would have appreciated, I loved how this biography wove their two lives and relationship through letters into such a cohesive telling. I’ve long admired Dickinson. But the context in which many of the poems were written gives them even greater depth.
October 8, 2024
An insightful biography of a friendship. Wineapple shows the richness of Emily’s world both in the relationships she holds onto so passionately and the range of her poetic vision. As with Wineapple’s other books, the research and clarity of writing are impeccable.
March 26, 2019
A bit dry at times, but a great work of scholarship and an interesting angle to gain access to Emily Dickinson. Sometimes I felt the organization was a bit odd, but the overall product was solid.
May 1, 2019
One of my favorite books, about one of my favorite poets. Lyrically written.
October 9, 2019
Literary and interesting.
Want to read
July 19, 2020elibrary
February 24, 2021
...Because I could not stop...
May 13, 2021
I read this because of Emily Dickinson and fell in love with Higginson. What a man! Usually I read biography to learn about the subject, but this book was enjoyable to read on its own.
May 1, 2024
I kinda have a crush on Thomas Wentworth Higgins now?
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