Emily Dickinson

by Cynthia Griffin Wolff, R.W. Lewis (Foreword by)

Cynthia Griffin Wolff's brilliant literary biography of Emily Dickinson is the first to unravel the intricate relationship between her life and her poetry. It is a vivid portrait of the poet and her times as well as a fascinating interpretive study of the poems that will enable every reader to approach them with new understanding and delight.

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

656 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've carted this book about for twenty-six years. In earlier attempts to read to the end I've gotten so far as page 186, because, I suspect, I read on p.168: "[L]ittle by little, as the woman becomes Poet, biography must shift its principal focus from the person to that Voice of the verse, for it was in her poetry and not in the world that ED deliberately decided to 'live'." Of course, this is nonsense - from my perspective. I'm persuaded that ED did not lead a disembodied existence for the thirty-six years of earthly life that remained to her once she had chosen poetry as her vocation. Moreover, although I didn't witness the event, I believe that her family buried her earthly remains on May 19, 1886. And there was and is that rather annoying and off-putting presumption of the gatekeeper/Redeemer that Wolff adopts for the printed page, as in "No one cometh unto Miss Dickinson, but by me."

But I am not now the same person who bought a copy of Wolff's book in 1986. And for that I am most grateful. Now I can just about ignore authorial arrogance - having labored sporadically with biography myself for nearly thirty years, I understand and accept that such hazards are realized - with certain notable exceptions - Richard Sewall, for example. And now I pose the question to myself: What biographical facts does Wolff's work establish? How can the results of Wolff's labor enhance the sense of ED that I have created for myself over the years of my engagement with that extraordinarily gifted and preternaturally brave person, as heroic as Homer's depiction of Odysseus.

And that approach to Wolff's book has paid munificent dividends.

My sense is that Wolff's reading of the poetry that ED composed before 1862 - from my perspective much fuller and richer than any reading that appears in Vendler's compendium - provides an entirely plausible explanation of ED's choice of vocation. It seems to me that one could select and integrate several hundred pages of Sewall and Wolff and thereby produce a book that documents highly persuasive answers to questions - how and under what conditions did ED choose poetry as vocation? Highly significant biographical questions, I would say. [I suspect, however, that choice had little to do with her actions. How could she have "chosen" differently? An impossibility, so far as I can tell.]

Wolff's readings of all of ED's poetry might also serve as perfectly splendid hypotheses regarding the trajectory of ED's inner life. Her poems document certain events of her inner life - as do her letters. I say events, because her poems do not represent a complete transcript of the contents of her mind over time, but rather single events separated by more or less lengthy intervals that together might represent a "trajectory." [I do wish I could avoid this metaphor - but for now I'm at a loss to state what I think I mean by this word.]

I note, however, that Wolff does not appear to be overly scrupulous with chronology. That's understandable because those who have been, first Johnson and then Franklin, have produced very different sequences of events - from the bits and pieces of evidence that they employed to give us the best numbering and dating that we have. As a result Wolff describes the course of ED's inner life that I can't believe entirely, because the poems she adduces as evidence of sequence don't correspond to events in time as Johnson, whose chronology she had but dismissed, described or as Franklin asserts in his revision of Johnson's chronology.

So I suspect that ED's inner life was much more various and complex than Wolff's account allows. Hardly a surprise. And Wolff admits as much near the end of her book (p. 504): "In the days of her youth, ED's religious attitudes were surely dominated by defiance and anger, yet even in those early days there had been pensive moments of hope and trust in the Lord - never enough to suffuse her with faith or to conversion, but enough to find some expression in the poetry. In those early years the Voice of faith was faint in both religious and aesthetic terms ... As the years passed, however, the balance shifted, at first only slightly, but more and more as time went by. By the mid-1860s or early 1870s, well before Father's death, a new poetry of faith had emerged." Why then didn't this perspective inform nearly 300 pages of her reading of poems that ED composed in those early years? Oh, never mind. It's there, here and there.

So now I am persuaded that someone could devote a lifetime of study to ED, the results of which could be a biography that traces and juxtaposes events in ED's inner and outer lives - with uncertainties admitted and plainly stated. Someone who would give us a biography of ED to stand with Joseph Frank's life of Dostoyevsky (five volumes) or Brian Boyd's Nabokov. As for me I have purchased Franklin's variorum edition of ED's poems, and I think I'll devote a substantial number of the years of this life that remain to me in the company of ED and H. D. Thoreau.

Wouldn't it be paradise enough to spend an eternity or two listening to a conversation between ED and Margaret Fuller? But then again an eternity or two might not be long enough for ED to get a moment's free air time. Well, then three or four eternities.

[Lisa Sansone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously, this is not a book for everyone, and I am showing my "wonkish" side. However, I don't think you can find a more thorough, in-depth, unbiased, rigorous and deeply intelligent analysis of Emily Dickinson. It is not light reading, and it's probably only for the really serious student of Dickinson's work - but well worth the investment. It helps give context (biographical, social, religious) to much of her work.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written and researched book that was written thirty years ago. It is very lengthy and is probably only of interest to devotees of Emily Dickinson. I cannot find anything to criticize here, though the length of the book is daunting. The writing is good and the analysis of the work is solid. But I found Alfred Habegger's biography of Dickinson -- My Wars Are Laid Away In Books -- definitely better and probably a better choice for those curious about the intersection of Dickinson's life and work.

[Mauberley]

For reasons that are unclear, I found myself wanting to read Emily Dickinson's poetry last December. In my ignorance, I was much in thrall to the notion of Dickinson as the great poetic spinster of Amherst. However, the experience of actually reading the poems followed by the enormously helpful analysis of Professor Woolf have quite obliterated that foolish and limiting conception. For me, Woolf was particularly good in describing Dickinson's quarrels with God and she (Woolf) puts the Genesis story of Jacob's wrestling with the Angel at the centre of this exposition (Gen 32:24, ff.). I also enjoyed Woolf's discussion of Dickinson's 'Voices', especially that of the 'Wife'. At one point, Woolf makes the critical but regularly overlooked distinction between what I would call 'the person who wrote a poem' and 'the person who becomes a poet'. The book very successfully demonstrates that Dickinson is simply one of the world's greatest poets and not an agoraphobic spinster who wrote a number of good poems. One question and I welcome the response of other readers: I kept expecting Woolf to have more to say about the American Civil War and Dickinson's reaction/ response to it but there was comparatively little about that tragical history. Was I wrong to expect more or given what we know of her poems and her life, is Woolf's consideration right and sufficient?

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a beast of a book. Well researched and certainly rigorous but lacking a bit of editing that could have made the scholarship less redundant. If you’re interested in a biblical reading of ED, this is the book for you. For me, it was just nice to read more about this amazing poet.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent and very detailed biography of Emily Dickinson. The connection between the events of her life and her major poems provided great insights to understanding her poetry. It took me forever to read this mainly because of the extreme detail provided. Sometimes the commentary of the author was a little too much. That said, I finally forced myself to finish this book and was glad I did. It actually went much better about midway through the book when the focus was more on interpretation of Dickinson's poetry. That was, after all, why I read this book in the first place.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive, well-researched, biography of the great American poet. There's been other Dickinson biographies published since, but this one holds up. "My Wars are Laid Away in Books" by Alfred Habegger I'd also recommend highly to those interested in Dickinson's complex, cloistered, and breath-taking life.

[Kylie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful telling of the life of Emily Dickinson. Filled with her letters, poems, and life story. It was very informative providing plenty of background on the time as well and in a very profound way explained a lot. I read this to do a research paper and found plenty of information. Cynthia has a way with words and her thoughts in this book are simply striking.

[Patricia]

Since I have this highly recommended biography I decided I would read it at the same time I'm reading Dickinson's poems. It's long but very readable. I'm reading 20 pages or so after I read poems in the morning.

[Lindsay]

Genious.

[David Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most definitive biography to date at 537 pages with 50 pages of dense notes. It’s a well-balanced study between Dickinson’s family life and her poetry, and how closely they’re interwoven in a life renowned for its solitude. Wolf’s diligent research and analysis of selected works provides fresh insights to some 1,800 poems attributed to Dickinson. She’s long been a favorite poet, now ever more. A great resource. Highly recommended. See also: “White Heat…” by Brenda Wineapple and “These Fevered Days…” by Martha Ackmann.

[Kt Roth · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the poetry. Much about her family and less about the author.

[Mohini Jugran · Rating 4 out of 5]

😍😍😍

[Jen H]

This one is beyond the scope of what I need. Way too much about Emily’s parents before her birth. And the timeline is all over the place.

[Heather Gibbons · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've started this, but then I got caught up in The Liar's Club and I forgot all about it. Is this one of those cases where the poet is best known through their poems and, maybe, letters, but it's best to steer clear of biographical studies lest they muddy the waters? I'd be curious to hear reviews on this one, or a recommended alternate biography.

[jacky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I believe that this was one of those books I was supposed to read, but didn't. For my Dickson and Frost class, I believe that were were assigned to read at least segments of this biography; however, I think I read only a little bit that helped me to write my paper. I might enjoy it more now, but I will say biographies of people from long ago can be very hard to get through.

[Beatrice Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Emily Dickinson's short but deeply meaningful poems.