Rowing in Eden: Rereading Emily Dickinson

by Martha Nell Smith

Emily Dickinson wrote a "letter to the world" and left it lying in her drawer more than a century ago. This widely admired epistle was her poems, which were never conventionally published in book form during her lifetime. Since the posthumous discovery of her work, general readers and literary scholars alike have puzzled over this paradox of wanting to communicate widely and yet apparently refusing to publish. In this pathbreaking study, Martha Nell Smith unravels the paradox by boldly recasting two of the oldest and still most frequently asked questions about Emily Why didn't she publish more poems while she was alive? and Who was her most important contemporary audience? Regarding the question of publication, Smith urges a reconception of the act of publication itself. She argues that Dickinson did publish her work in letters and in forty manuscript books that circulated among a cultured network of correspondents, most important of whom was her sister-in-law, Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson. Rather than considering this material unpublished because unprinted, Smith views its alternative publication as a conscious strategy on the poet's part, a daring poetic experiment that also included Dickinson's unusual punctuation, line breaks, stanza divisions, calligraphic orthography, and bookmaking—all the characteristics that later editors tried to standardize or eliminate in preparing the poems for printing. Dickinson's relationship with her most important reader, Sue Dickinson, has also been lost or distorted by multiple levels of censorship, Smith finds. Emphasizing the poet-sustaining aspects of the passionate bonds between the two women, Smith shows that their relationship was both textual and sexual. Based on study of the actual holograph poems, Smith reveals the extent of Sue Dickinson's collaboration in the production of poems, most notably "Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers." This finding will surely challenge the popular conception of the isolated, withdrawn Emily Dickinson. Well-versed in poststructuralist, feminist, and new textual criticism, Rowing in Eden uncovers the process by which the conventional portrait of Emily Dickinson was drawn and offers readers a chance to go back to original letters and poems and look at the poet and her work through new eyes. It will be of great interest to a wide audience in literary and feminist studies.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Biography, Literary Criticism, American, Essays

300 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 1991

Reviews

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given the reviews, I hate to toss a damper on things. I found this book to be disappointing. I had an expectation that it dwelled in ideas, but it is a sleuth book about whether there was a relationship beyond what we know between Dickinson and her sister-in-law. Although any book that adds to Dickinson scholarship is generally a good thing, I would recommend other books that look at Dickinson's art. One other thing: there is awkward sentence construction that traipses itself annoyingly throughout this book.

[sarah ☆ · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book is extremely biphobic... the whole time it tries to forcibly fit emily dickinson into the author's idea of her being a lesbian, but in doing so it disregards the letters and poems emily wrote to both men and women, especially those to judge lord, which the author implies were not actually written for him? (she says "supposedly written to judge lord"). this is absolutely ridiculous of course. it's okay to admit emily dickinson was attracted to both men and women, instead of trying to erase one part or the other of her life and literary production.

[Abbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was written by one of the BEST professiors I had in all of college.
Terps, take note, she rocks....

[Kara Whicker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Great book by Martha Smith. She is also the writer of "Open me, carefully" a autobiography similar to this one but one I believe might be just a bit better. What I liked about this one is that Smith wrote more backstory for each poem and letter quoted but also gave her personal opinion for each one. That I appreciate.

As someone who has studied literature and subsequently Emily Dickinson for most of her life I value Smiths opinions, and wish I had more of it.

A lot of my favorite poems by E. Dickinson were mentioned in the book and I enjoyed reading Smith's thoughts on them. Along with the edits Smith recorded and explained.

I feel this book Is more philosophical than "Open me, Carefully". In this one she debates the real meaning of being "lesbian" or "homosexual" and if it is correct to place E. Dickinson in this category. I guess what I have to say about that is; While that is interesting I think you might be thinking a bit to hard about it.

I quote for you a poem by E. Dickinson.

Her breast is fit pearls,
But I was not a "Diver" -
Her brow is fit for thrones
But I had not a crest.
Her heart is fit for rest/- +home-
I - a Sparrow - build there
Sweet of twigs and twine
My perennial nest.

And another from her letters;

August 1854
“I do not miss you Susie- of course I do not miss you- I only sit and stare at nothing from my windowy and know that all is gone- don’t feel it- no- any more than the stone feels, that it is very cold, or the block that it is silent where once 'twas warm and green, and birds danced in it's branches.

I rise, because the sun shines, and sleep has done with me, and I brush my hair, and dress me, and wonder what I am and who has made me so. .”

And again

“Will you write to me- why haven’t you before? I feel so tired looking for you, and still you do not come. And you love me, come soon- this is not forever, you know, this mortal life of our’s. Which had you rather I wrote you- what I am doing here, or who I am loving there?”

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I discovered this book was published the same year that I came out to the world that I an a lesbian, there was a certain synchronicity. Back then this close reading of Emily's writings and others was needed to make readers accept even the possibility of her love for women and particularly Sue. Now as an elderly lesbian who has binge watched DICKINSON and WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY, I still think this is a great book. While the populace acknowledging Emily's gayness has grown exponentially, it's good to have a scholarly affirmation. And I can only be sorry it wasn't available when I did a grad school course in her poetry.

[Nerys Blandová]

Martha slays (she supports the argument of my thesis)

[Mayryott]

待重读