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These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson
An engaging, intimate portrait of Emily Dickinson, one of America’s greatest and most-mythologized poets, that sheds new light on her groundbreaking poetry.
On August 3, 1845, young Emily Dickinson declared, “All things are ready”—and with this resolute statement, her life as a poet began. Despite spending her days almost entirely “at home” (the occupation listed on her death certificate), Dickinson’s interior world was extraordinary. She loved passionately, was ambivalent toward publication, embraced seclusion, and created 1,789 poems that she tucked into a dresser drawer.
In These Fevered Days, Martha Ackmann unravels the mysteries of Dickinson’s life through ten decisive episodes that distill her evolution as a poet. Ackmann follows Dickinson through her religious crisis while a student at Mount Holyoke, her startling decision to ask a famous editor for advice, her anguished letters to an unidentified “Master,” her exhilarating frenzy of composition, and her terror in confronting possible blindness. Together, these ten days provide new insights into Dickinson’s wildly original poetry and render a concise and vivid portrait of American literature’s most enigmatic figure.
On August 3, 1845, young Emily Dickinson declared, “All things are ready”—and with this resolute statement, her life as a poet began. Despite spending her days almost entirely “at home” (the occupation listed on her death certificate), Dickinson’s interior world was extraordinary. She loved passionately, was ambivalent toward publication, embraced seclusion, and created 1,789 poems that she tucked into a dresser drawer.
In These Fevered Days, Martha Ackmann unravels the mysteries of Dickinson’s life through ten decisive episodes that distill her evolution as a poet. Ackmann follows Dickinson through her religious crisis while a student at Mount Holyoke, her startling decision to ask a famous editor for advice, her anguished letters to an unidentified “Master,” her exhilarating frenzy of composition, and her terror in confronting possible blindness. Together, these ten days provide new insights into Dickinson’s wildly original poetry and render a concise and vivid portrait of American literature’s most enigmatic figure.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published February 25, 2020
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3889 people want to read
About the author
Martha Ackmann
10 books76 followersMartha Ackmann, author of These Fevered Days, Curveball, and The Mercury 13, writes about women who have changed America. The recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, Ackmann taught a popular seminar on Dickinson at Mount Holyoke College, and lives in western Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews
March 18, 2020
Using ten pivotal moments, the author explores the life of the "at home" Emily Dickinson. From her early school days at Amherst to her early death and her life in between, her evolving talent of a poet is explored. One can follow, not only Emily, but the few people to which she had a strong connection. Her family members, her role in the family and the history of the time period in which she lived.
The Civil War plays out in the background as does the unexpected deaths of some of those she held dear. Her failing eyesight, which threatened both her reading and writing. Books, her family, a few friends, her dog and her poems were what meant the most. She was a homebody, embraced her solitude and didn't welcome unexpected visitors or travel. She was a unique and talented woman, but was never quite sure her poems were good enough.
In these ten moments that the author chooses, I felt we receive significant insight into what made Emily who she was. Each moment starts with the weather and barometer readings of that day, observations by s man who was important to Emily and Amherst. Many if her poems are also included, in part of whole.
I couldn't help but wonder what ten moments I would choose as having the most effect on my life.
ARC from Edelweiss.
The Civil War plays out in the background as does the unexpected deaths of some of those she held dear. Her failing eyesight, which threatened both her reading and writing. Books, her family, a few friends, her dog and her poems were what meant the most. She was a homebody, embraced her solitude and didn't welcome unexpected visitors or travel. She was a unique and talented woman, but was never quite sure her poems were good enough.
In these ten moments that the author chooses, I felt we receive significant insight into what made Emily who she was. Each moment starts with the weather and barometer readings of that day, observations by s man who was important to Emily and Amherst. Many if her poems are also included, in part of whole.
I couldn't help but wonder what ten moments I would choose as having the most effect on my life.
ARC from Edelweiss.
December 14, 2020
Two summers ago, we stopped in Amherst to see Emily Dickinson's house (as planned) and her brother Austin's house next door (unplanned). I hadn't read much of Dickinson's poetry, so that wasn't the driver, but I always felt there had to be more to her than the word "recluse" or the term "the Belle of Amherst."
As for her poems, I mostly knew a few from school lessons. The famous "I'm Nobody" resonated, but many others struck me as surpassing cryptic. My mind got hung up on the snags of those random dashes and capital letters she loved. That and slant rhymes, as she "told it slant" and left it for readers to straighten out.
With this background, Martha Ackmann's These Fevered Days proved an unexpected blessing to me. As was true with Laura Dassow Walls wonderful bio of H.D. Thoreau, I was immediately drawn in and quickly learned to appreciate Emily's human side.
In fact, if you are an introvert, she'll win your sympathies easily and quickly. True, as time went on, she became more and more secluded, but that is part and parcel of who she was and what she most valued -- being alone, reading, writing, stealing outside by herself to the garden or to the grounds around her home (like Thoreau, Dickinson and nature must be said in the same breath).
The book touches on some poems and her writing, yes, but it's more focused on her life as seen through the prism of "ten pivotal moments" chosen by the author. If you're looking for poetry criticism or insight into Dickinson's writing style and technique, you're walking up the wrong path (and Emily, upon hearing your footsteps, will fly for the refuge of her second-floor bedroom... "elfing it," as the family liked to call her flights).
Though her father Edward was a stern and traditional Whig (remember them?), he and his wife gave surprising license to their daughter on whether or not she attended church. At Mount Holyoke where she schooled, Emily declared herself undeclared when it came to the question of God. And it's not like she hid from everybody. There were a special few who she happily met with and/or invited to visit.
Then there were the near misses. Ralph Waldo Emerson visited and spent the night at her brother Austin's house a few hundred feet down a path the Dickinsons referred to as "the Pony Express." Emily chose to remain in her room, but it's interesting to think how close they came to meeting -- this after Emily had read and taken to heart Emerson's essay, "The Poet."
In the end, the unexciting on the outside, tempestuous on the inside life of Emily D. smashes stereotypes and gives up some of its secrets thanks to Ackmann's narrative. This was one interesting (and smart) girl / lady with strong feelings about poetry that didn't explain (and often begged explanation).
Read it and you just may revisit her poems to read them in a new light. For me, that means a few a day, because I'm more than Nobody now. I'm Somebody who knows better.
As for her poems, I mostly knew a few from school lessons. The famous "I'm Nobody" resonated, but many others struck me as surpassing cryptic. My mind got hung up on the snags of those random dashes and capital letters she loved. That and slant rhymes, as she "told it slant" and left it for readers to straighten out.
With this background, Martha Ackmann's These Fevered Days proved an unexpected blessing to me. As was true with Laura Dassow Walls wonderful bio of H.D. Thoreau, I was immediately drawn in and quickly learned to appreciate Emily's human side.
In fact, if you are an introvert, she'll win your sympathies easily and quickly. True, as time went on, she became more and more secluded, but that is part and parcel of who she was and what she most valued -- being alone, reading, writing, stealing outside by herself to the garden or to the grounds around her home (like Thoreau, Dickinson and nature must be said in the same breath).
The book touches on some poems and her writing, yes, but it's more focused on her life as seen through the prism of "ten pivotal moments" chosen by the author. If you're looking for poetry criticism or insight into Dickinson's writing style and technique, you're walking up the wrong path (and Emily, upon hearing your footsteps, will fly for the refuge of her second-floor bedroom... "elfing it," as the family liked to call her flights).
Though her father Edward was a stern and traditional Whig (remember them?), he and his wife gave surprising license to their daughter on whether or not she attended church. At Mount Holyoke where she schooled, Emily declared herself undeclared when it came to the question of God. And it's not like she hid from everybody. There were a special few who she happily met with and/or invited to visit.
Then there were the near misses. Ralph Waldo Emerson visited and spent the night at her brother Austin's house a few hundred feet down a path the Dickinsons referred to as "the Pony Express." Emily chose to remain in her room, but it's interesting to think how close they came to meeting -- this after Emily had read and taken to heart Emerson's essay, "The Poet."
In the end, the unexciting on the outside, tempestuous on the inside life of Emily D. smashes stereotypes and gives up some of its secrets thanks to Ackmann's narrative. This was one interesting (and smart) girl / lady with strong feelings about poetry that didn't explain (and often begged explanation).
Read it and you just may revisit her poems to read them in a new light. For me, that means a few a day, because I'm more than Nobody now. I'm Somebody who knows better.
February 25, 2020
In her Author's Note, Martha Ackmann tells of her first encounter with Emily Dickinson's poetry in high school English when she read, "After great pain, a formal feeling comes--"* Ackmann said she "woke up" and spent a lifetime trying to understand the poem and its effect on her. It's one of my favorite Dickinson poems.
Sadly, the selections in my high school American Lit textbook did nothing for me. When a college friend said he liked Dickinson, I shuddered.
It was Steve Allen's Meeting of Minds that changed my mind. The 1977 episode paired the poet with Charles Darwin, Atilla the Hun, and Galileo. Emily Dickinson recited, "I cannot live with You--" ending with, "So We must meet apart--/You there--I--here--/With just the Door ajar/That oceans are--and Prayer--/And that White Sustenance, Despair."** I stood up to attention. Wait! This couldn't be Dickinson! This was amazing stuff.
I bought her complete poems and soon became a fan.
Ackmann's These Fevered Days condescends Emily's life into ten moments that give insight into her life and work. Drawing from Emily's letters and poems, photographs and new understandings, she creates a vivid and fresh portrait of the poet.
Readers encounter Emily's strong, original, and independent mind.
She preferred the struggle of doubt over unexamined certainty, unwilling to profess her faith, regardless of social pressure at Mount Holyoke Seminary.
I loved learning that Emily dove into learning to play the piano, which taught her "style", and how she played late into the night, inventing her own "weird and beautiful melodies."
The vision of a girl with dandelions in her hair taught her how "one image could change everything."
We come to understand Emily's ambition, her life-long love affair with words, her dedication to perfecting her art. She strove to understand the impact of words on others, the responsibility of the writer, and how to remain anonymous while sharing her work. She created fascicles, hand sewn booklets of her poems, kept in her maid's room, unknown until revealed her death.
She enjoyed her costly Mount Holyoke education--$60 a year--learning algebra, astronomy, and botany. When other girls hoped to teach or become missionaries, and of course marry and raise a family, Emily had no vocation but poetry. She was summoned back to Amherst and became mired in deadly household duties. She did enjoy bread making.
Duty is black and brown.~Emily Dickinson
Amherst is not portrayed as a back-water safe zone during the Civil War; we see how the war impacted the community, the shared losses, and Emily's deep anxiety.
I had not known about the vision issue that threatened her sight that brought Emily to Boston for treatment.
Emily's friendships are there: Sue, who married Emily's brother, Austin Dickinson; her school friend and fellow author Helen Hunt Jackson; Samuel Bowles who published Emily's poems clandestinely shared with him; Carlo, her beloved dog.
Emily died a spinster, but she loved the special men in her life.
There was the Rev. Charles Wadsworth, the brilliant preacher Emily met in Philadelphia, "my closest earthly friend" she wrote, who one day unexpectedly came to her door.
Emily sent poems to Thomas Wentworth Higginson (who with Mabel Loomis Todd, a family friend and Austin's lover, would publish the first volume of Emily's poetry.) During the Civil War, Col. Higginson lead the first Negro regiment of Union soldiers and when wounded was returned home by Louisa May Alcott. When they finally met, Emily talked and a dazzled Higginson listened.
Other relationships are cloaked in mystery: the secret love between Emily and her father's peer Otis Phillips Lord, and the mysterious Master to whom she wrote unsent letters.
After Emily's early death at age 55, her family discovered her fascicles of nearly 2,000 poems--and the unsent Master letters. Emily had instructed her papers be burned after her death, but her sister Vinnie could not do that.
Emily comes alive through these ten moments, along with her family and friends and her beloved Amherst.
The book is illustrated with photographs of Emily's family, friends, and homes.
I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
Sadly, the selections in my high school American Lit textbook did nothing for me. When a college friend said he liked Dickinson, I shuddered.
It was Steve Allen's Meeting of Minds that changed my mind. The 1977 episode paired the poet with Charles Darwin, Atilla the Hun, and Galileo. Emily Dickinson recited, "I cannot live with You--" ending with, "So We must meet apart--/You there--I--here--/With just the Door ajar/That oceans are--and Prayer--/And that White Sustenance, Despair."** I stood up to attention. Wait! This couldn't be Dickinson! This was amazing stuff.
I bought her complete poems and soon became a fan.
Ackmann's These Fevered Days condescends Emily's life into ten moments that give insight into her life and work. Drawing from Emily's letters and poems, photographs and new understandings, she creates a vivid and fresh portrait of the poet.
Readers encounter Emily's strong, original, and independent mind.
She preferred the struggle of doubt over unexamined certainty, unwilling to profess her faith, regardless of social pressure at Mount Holyoke Seminary.
I loved learning that Emily dove into learning to play the piano, which taught her "style", and how she played late into the night, inventing her own "weird and beautiful melodies."
The vision of a girl with dandelions in her hair taught her how "one image could change everything."
We come to understand Emily's ambition, her life-long love affair with words, her dedication to perfecting her art. She strove to understand the impact of words on others, the responsibility of the writer, and how to remain anonymous while sharing her work. She created fascicles, hand sewn booklets of her poems, kept in her maid's room, unknown until revealed her death.
She enjoyed her costly Mount Holyoke education--$60 a year--learning algebra, astronomy, and botany. When other girls hoped to teach or become missionaries, and of course marry and raise a family, Emily had no vocation but poetry. She was summoned back to Amherst and became mired in deadly household duties. She did enjoy bread making.
Duty is black and brown.~Emily Dickinson
Amherst is not portrayed as a back-water safe zone during the Civil War; we see how the war impacted the community, the shared losses, and Emily's deep anxiety.
I had not known about the vision issue that threatened her sight that brought Emily to Boston for treatment.
Emily's friendships are there: Sue, who married Emily's brother, Austin Dickinson; her school friend and fellow author Helen Hunt Jackson; Samuel Bowles who published Emily's poems clandestinely shared with him; Carlo, her beloved dog.
Emily died a spinster, but she loved the special men in her life.
There was the Rev. Charles Wadsworth, the brilliant preacher Emily met in Philadelphia, "my closest earthly friend" she wrote, who one day unexpectedly came to her door.
Emily sent poems to Thomas Wentworth Higginson (who with Mabel Loomis Todd, a family friend and Austin's lover, would publish the first volume of Emily's poetry.) During the Civil War, Col. Higginson lead the first Negro regiment of Union soldiers and when wounded was returned home by Louisa May Alcott. When they finally met, Emily talked and a dazzled Higginson listened.
Other relationships are cloaked in mystery: the secret love between Emily and her father's peer Otis Phillips Lord, and the mysterious Master to whom she wrote unsent letters.
After Emily's early death at age 55, her family discovered her fascicles of nearly 2,000 poems--and the unsent Master letters. Emily had instructed her papers be burned after her death, but her sister Vinnie could not do that.
Emily comes alive through these ten moments, along with her family and friends and her beloved Amherst.
The book is illustrated with photographs of Emily's family, friends, and homes.
I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
January 23, 2022
There are many books about Emily Dickinson: biographies, collections of her poetry, collections of poetry inspired by her, novels about her, critical appraisals of her work. Most of them are comprehensive, all-inclusive, especially the biographies. Perhaps some of the best, though, are those which shine a light on a few elements of her life or work which represent what's best about her. When I read Dickinson's poetry these fevered days I read Helen Vendler's splendid volume which pulls apart and analyzes only 50 of her most representative poems. Martha Ackmann, who's a Dickinson scholar teaching at Mount Holyoke College, has written one of the better biographies, one that explains Dickinson's life and oeuvre very well through the microscope of only 10 widely-scattered days during her 56 years of life. They're significant days, to be sure, but Achmann has chosen so well and fleshed out so carefully that the Dickinson which comes alive for us is vibrant and authentic and human and likable.
Ackmann has decided these are 10 days which define Dickinson. What makes them distinctive in forming the poetess that's come down to us today is that Emily was different at the end of them than she was at the beginning. Some of the moments are well-known, like the evening while attending Mount Holyoke Female Seminary she decided to not profess her faith in Christ. Another is the day she's forced to admit she needs treatment for her eye ailment. Other days provide less sharply-defined borders for us to see: the 1st publication of one of her poems, or the day she realizes she wants to be distinguished as a person. Truthfully, these are not so much moments in her life as periods. Her impaired vision, for instance, was iritis, and the treatment involved staying in Cambridge for several months of 1864 and coincided with an intense correspondence with Thomas Wentworth Higginson, an important literary mentor, whose influence is another pivotal moment.
There are some surprises. The Dickinson Ackmann sees is perhaps less eccentric and reclusive than she's portrayed elsewhere. The story's here about her talking to visitors from the upstairs landing while remaining unseen. And there's the woman who eventually dresses only in white dimity. But if she stays at home she's also a woman who shows herself more open to those who come to see her, especially if they want to discuss writing. She even falls in love.
In telling us the story of how this day or another 10 years later shaped her, Ackmann has to describe how that day was typically lived and organized in the New England society in which Dickinson lived. We learn quite a lot about Amherst itself in the mid-19th century as well as about those who lived there. Incidentally, the book includes a fine collection of contemporary photos, most of which I'd not seen before. Instead of the fragmented account you might expect from breaking Dickinson's life into 10 distinct parts, the book manages to give us a generous and detailed portrayal of her community along with her life and work. All of it makes one of the loveliest and most helpful books about Dickinson I know.
Ackmann has decided these are 10 days which define Dickinson. What makes them distinctive in forming the poetess that's come down to us today is that Emily was different at the end of them than she was at the beginning. Some of the moments are well-known, like the evening while attending Mount Holyoke Female Seminary she decided to not profess her faith in Christ. Another is the day she's forced to admit she needs treatment for her eye ailment. Other days provide less sharply-defined borders for us to see: the 1st publication of one of her poems, or the day she realizes she wants to be distinguished as a person. Truthfully, these are not so much moments in her life as periods. Her impaired vision, for instance, was iritis, and the treatment involved staying in Cambridge for several months of 1864 and coincided with an intense correspondence with Thomas Wentworth Higginson, an important literary mentor, whose influence is another pivotal moment.
There are some surprises. The Dickinson Ackmann sees is perhaps less eccentric and reclusive than she's portrayed elsewhere. The story's here about her talking to visitors from the upstairs landing while remaining unseen. And there's the woman who eventually dresses only in white dimity. But if she stays at home she's also a woman who shows herself more open to those who come to see her, especially if they want to discuss writing. She even falls in love.
In telling us the story of how this day or another 10 years later shaped her, Ackmann has to describe how that day was typically lived and organized in the New England society in which Dickinson lived. We learn quite a lot about Amherst itself in the mid-19th century as well as about those who lived there. Incidentally, the book includes a fine collection of contemporary photos, most of which I'd not seen before. Instead of the fragmented account you might expect from breaking Dickinson's life into 10 distinct parts, the book manages to give us a generous and detailed portrayal of her community along with her life and work. All of it makes one of the loveliest and most helpful books about Dickinson I know.
November 3, 2024
Martha Ackmann delivers what she promises in
These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson
, by choosing ten known moments in Emily's life that influenced her direction, and the path she followed writing all along the way. These considerations of certain landmark happenings provide - maybe - answers to some of the whys that perch within Dickinson's poetry - leaving an unattended ambush for readers to comprehend, or not, as it happens (or doesn't). Richly woven throughout (and very appreciated by this reader) was the contextual time, place and community background information drops with which Ackmann sprinkled the read. I wished for a hard copy or e-copy of the book as those formats provide photographs and other illustrations my audiobook lacked.
This work isn't a biography, or study of Emily Dickinson's work in depth, but rather is a "Day in the Life of X" times ten. It would be a very interesting exercise to conduct in any person's life, especially so for one's own lived experience, to stop and consider what would be the ten most pivotal moments in a life? In your life? In mine?
As I closed the book, I wondered: What would Emily Dickinson think of this book and its conclusions - which are very much the author's own. . .I suspect the first thing she'd do is write.
This work isn't a biography, or study of Emily Dickinson's work in depth, but rather is a "Day in the Life of X" times ten. It would be a very interesting exercise to conduct in any person's life, especially so for one's own lived experience, to stop and consider what would be the ten most pivotal moments in a life? In your life? In mine?
As I closed the book, I wondered: What would Emily Dickinson think of this book and its conclusions - which are very much the author's own. . .I suspect the first thing she'd do is write.
December 28, 2020
Very good! As a follower of Emily Dickinson's poetry, this was a great insight into inspiration behind some of her verse as paired with "pivotal" moments in her life. Each chapter highlighted a specific time, event or person and the author did a researched and well-done job at developing more. There were times when I felt the author implied too much on the part of Dickinson as it was assumptions at feelings, etc. but overall very engaging and the audio book had a good narrator. The author succeeded at making Emily Dickinson alive on the page until she wasn't - great read.
March 13, 2021
I listened to this as a complement to my Lent devotional which uses Dickinson's poems. Ackman's choice to focus on 10 pivotal moments in Dickinson's life was interesting; it's a thematic lens rather than a strictly chronological one. I enjoyed it while I listened, but I don't always retain things from audiobooks that well. I am left mainly with the impression--based on a scene in which Dickinson has a rare social visit, and talks non-stop in aphorisms--that I wouldn't care to live with a genius.
March 14, 2020
I feel somewhat of an overload of Dickinson biography. We have things down to the weather in Amherst, which is not necessarily a bad thing for placement of when Dickinson was alive, but I struggled to find the nexus between the life and the writing. The author’s goal was to provide an episodic look at what the life was like, and although she largely succeeds, I was not clear on the understanding to be gained. As Dickinson once wrote, “if it ends, it ends beyond.”
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October 31, 2020 I appreciate the way that immersion in the local landscape and even in the Dickinson house itself contributes to the "feel" of this book. And Martha Ackmann's prose has been rarified, I think, by long familiarity with Dickinson. I'm grateful for the way this book selects, for the way, in fact, that it is redeeming in some small measure a practice I HATE in sports and history (Top Ten Lists). I like the non judgmental adjective "pivotal" as a principle of selection. We pivot, after all--some more like a compass than a basketball player looking for a teammate to pass to. There is a comfort too, in not having to be comprehensive.
April 2, 2020
Exploring ten transformative events in the life of Emily Dickinson, from girlhood to the end of her life, Martha Ackmann travels beyond the edge of our collective cultural imagination to reverse misconceptions about the great poet and reimagine her as, yes, reclusive at times, but also ardent, fussy and daring in her own way. In a biography this short, and with a constraint of this size (just ten days, people!), some crucial moments will understandably be left out, but Ackmann's deliberate choice to downplay the heat of Dickinson's romance with Susan Gilbert and the chill of the resulting heartbreak in numerous chapters, was frustrating. Like Maria Popova repeatedly reminds us in Figuring, a multi-biography that offers a more comprehensive reading of Dickinson's romantic and platonic relationships with women and men, the current vernacular we use to talk about same-gender relationships across history can be limiting and anachronistic, but heteromanticizing a figure who almost certainly was Not Straight is an affront.
December 31, 2019
What a delight this book is. There is so much we can’t know about Emily Dickinson, but this book, which details ten days in the life of the poet by turning archives into rich and engaging narrative, paints one of the most detailed pictures of her. The center may still be a mystery, but the outline of Emily Dickinson is clearer than ever.
August 26, 2022
The book bored me. It purports to be a series of discrete moments rather than a conventional biography. However, it feels like a conventional biography. Zen riddle: Was the author boring, or was it Emily Dickinson who was boring ? Or was it the reader who was boring? All three? In any case, the book did inspire me to buy the poet’s collected poems, so it did its job.
March 7, 2021
I found this book very approachable and easy to listen to as an audio book. Probably a great introduction for those who would like to know more about Dickinson, appreciate good research and attention to detail, but don’t want an overly dense comprehensive biography.
April 26, 2022
This book was so homophobic that I made a Goodreads account to call it out. Do better, Martha.
August 21, 2021
In her review of Alfred Habergger’s biography of Emily Dickinson, My Wars Are Laid Away in Books, (The New Republic, 10 December 2001), Helen Vendler noted a glaring absence in his narrative. “In every usual sense, Habegger’s biography is ‘well informed’ – about people, about events, about material conditions of life, even about Dickinson’s larger themes. But it is not a convincing portrait of the inside of her mind, nor of her work as an original poet.” Vendler concludes: “I am arguing that an adequate biography ought to track the moral or spiritual evolution of its subject as well as the person’s material life. When the subject is a poet, the biographer needs to realize that the strategies invented to represent the spiritual life are among the activities of the mind, and should be inventoried and analyzed.”
I find Vendler’s standard altogether persuasive. After all, what biographical facts are of greater significance in any assessment of the life and work of a great poet than the events of that poet’s inner life - in its emotional, moral, imaginative, and intellectual dimensions?
Nonetheless, nothing forbids us from thinking that Vendler's set of minimal essential criteria for successful literary biography is incomplete. What's missing from Vendler's standard, should a biographer wish to evoke in a reader the sense of the subject's "living presence," is a catalog and analysis of the traits of character and personality that find expression in a subject's behavior. Of course, these behaviors can (and do) vary with the persona that a subject projects in one or another domain of that subject's "material life," i.e. in a subject's exchanges and interactions with other persons in different social contexts - insofar as pertinent and reliable observations are available to us. (For example, in her biography of Baudelaire Enid Starkie describes the eight or nine persona that that poet, a true shape-shifter, presented to others in one context or another.)
This thought didn't originate with me. Among the biographers of poets and novelists whose narratives I remember reading, Jean-Luc Steinmetz expresses it most clearly in his biography, "Arthur Rimbaud: Presence of an Enigma". He claims: "The movement of Rimbaud's life obeys a personal impulse." (p. 204) He designates that impulse "Rimbaudian desire". Furthermore, Steinmetz writes that Rimbaud's "gaze brought to bear upon life, this never-ending interrogation, is ceaselessly present." (p. 358) The sources, operations and effects of this desire and this never-ending interrogation (and challenge) constitute the subjects of Steinmetz's biography. Enid Starkie must also have concluded similarly. I say this because the same sense of Rimbaud's dispositions and way of being in the world informs most every page of her biography, "Arthur Rimbaud".
So my thought (today, at this moment) is that any valid set of criteria for success in literary biography must include at least three elements: accounts of a subject's material life, a subject's interior/imaginative life, a subject's persona and behaviors in social contexts. [In future, I might identify others.]
And here I do not want to suggest that "successful literary biography" can only be found between the covers of single volume. Of course, it can be - the single volume abridgement of Joseph Frank's Dostoyevsky, for example - although I do prefer the five-volume edition. Nonetheless, it seems to me that the "successful biography" of a poet or novelist may consist of a set of carefully selected biographical works, each authored by different persons, perhaps. The objective of each member of that set is to represent at least one of the three elements of successful literary biography. In the ideal case the elements of that set, in combination, present a comprehensive - and successful biography.
The reader identifies candidate elements of that set and includes only the minimum number of elements in that set. (No requirement - or need - exists or can exist (except by fiat) that the selections of any two readers agree.) It is possible, even likely, that an avid reader finds that only a partial or unsatisfactory biography exists - or none at all.
Moreover, biography can and should evolve. This means, of course, that an avid reader of literary biography must review the definition of a subject's biography, i.e. the elements of that minimum set, as new narratives appear. An avid reader's work is never done.
And now we have Martha Ackmann’s (MA) These Fevered Days. So what to make of it? What has she achieved in her pursuit of the "fleeing Biographied"? Should I think of her book as a component - for the present, in any event - of my definition of ED's biography?
In her "Author's Note" MA states: "This book intentionally concentrates, extracts, and distills Dickinson's evolution as a poet. It does not claim to be a comprehensive, cradle-to-grave biography. Rather it seeks to shed light on ten pivotal moments that changed her."
It appears that MA wrote this note before she composed (or completed) her narrative. I make this claim because her intent does not correspond, in any precise manner that I can discern, to the content of her published text. Quite simply she promises more - and different - than she delivers.
It is certainly true that These Fevered Days is not a standard "cradle-to-grave" biography - just as MA promises. For that Richard Sewell's The Life of Emily Dickinson is the only account of ED's material life that one need read - today.
Furthermore, just as she states, MA devotes most of her words to "ten pivotal moments" in Emily Dickinson's (ED) experience that "changed her." These moments are quite familiar to readers of Sewell's (or most any other) biography. So insofar as I can detect she has discovered no facts that enhance our knowledge of any of these moments. Rather oddly, MA's ten "moments" include ED's death and burial. I certainly understand how death brought about change in ED, but I don't understand how death propelled ED's "evolution as a poet."
MA tells us that ED wrote poems, of course, but her biography doesn't include the material that would qualify it as an "adequate" account of a great poet's life - by Helen Vendler's criteria. Why do I think this? Simply because These Fevered Days does not present "a convincing [and comprehensive - JRW] portrait of the inside of [ED's] mind, nor of her work as an original poet" - or any of ED's "larger themes" - at any point along the trajectory of her evolution as a poet. Indeed, I don't find in MA's text a thorough, not to mention credible, account of ED's development as a poet at all, nor the specific advances in her poetizing that nine of these ten "moments" brought about or enabled.
HOWEVER, I find These Fevered Days spectacularly successful in ways that MA appears not to be aware. Successful, in fact, to the point that, to my mind, I must consider it an altogether indispensible element of ED's biography.
In what ways - exactly?
She has given us an entirely credible account of ED's observable behaviors - and her persona in action - in a variety of social contexts, i.e. her interactions and exchanges in different domains of her material life from youth to middle age and ultimately to her dying. In other words, MA has given us a highly detailed and extraordinarily vivid representation of ED as a living presence, i.e. her personae, her conduct and deportment, that we might have observed ourselves had we been "invisible eyes" (of the Emersonian variety) equipped with a capability for time travel.
Small wonder - after forty years of conducting a seminar on ED's life and works at Mount Holyoke College, which she conducted in the Dickinson home place, The Homestead. Not only that. She also gained access to the attic of The Homestead where she read Shakespeare aloud to herself - just as ED had done when she first discovered him.
I am most grateful to MA for her gift of These Fevered Days. It is a book that allows me to experience through reading the living presence of ED - as intensely as I could ever wish. For me ED has become a person who is much less elusive now that she had been before I read MA's book.
I find Vendler’s standard altogether persuasive. After all, what biographical facts are of greater significance in any assessment of the life and work of a great poet than the events of that poet’s inner life - in its emotional, moral, imaginative, and intellectual dimensions?
Nonetheless, nothing forbids us from thinking that Vendler's set of minimal essential criteria for successful literary biography is incomplete. What's missing from Vendler's standard, should a biographer wish to evoke in a reader the sense of the subject's "living presence," is a catalog and analysis of the traits of character and personality that find expression in a subject's behavior. Of course, these behaviors can (and do) vary with the persona that a subject projects in one or another domain of that subject's "material life," i.e. in a subject's exchanges and interactions with other persons in different social contexts - insofar as pertinent and reliable observations are available to us. (For example, in her biography of Baudelaire Enid Starkie describes the eight or nine persona that that poet, a true shape-shifter, presented to others in one context or another.)
This thought didn't originate with me. Among the biographers of poets and novelists whose narratives I remember reading, Jean-Luc Steinmetz expresses it most clearly in his biography, "Arthur Rimbaud: Presence of an Enigma". He claims: "The movement of Rimbaud's life obeys a personal impulse." (p. 204) He designates that impulse "Rimbaudian desire". Furthermore, Steinmetz writes that Rimbaud's "gaze brought to bear upon life, this never-ending interrogation, is ceaselessly present." (p. 358) The sources, operations and effects of this desire and this never-ending interrogation (and challenge) constitute the subjects of Steinmetz's biography. Enid Starkie must also have concluded similarly. I say this because the same sense of Rimbaud's dispositions and way of being in the world informs most every page of her biography, "Arthur Rimbaud".
So my thought (today, at this moment) is that any valid set of criteria for success in literary biography must include at least three elements: accounts of a subject's material life, a subject's interior/imaginative life, a subject's persona and behaviors in social contexts. [In future, I might identify others.]
And here I do not want to suggest that "successful literary biography" can only be found between the covers of single volume. Of course, it can be - the single volume abridgement of Joseph Frank's Dostoyevsky, for example - although I do prefer the five-volume edition. Nonetheless, it seems to me that the "successful biography" of a poet or novelist may consist of a set of carefully selected biographical works, each authored by different persons, perhaps. The objective of each member of that set is to represent at least one of the three elements of successful literary biography. In the ideal case the elements of that set, in combination, present a comprehensive - and successful biography.
The reader identifies candidate elements of that set and includes only the minimum number of elements in that set. (No requirement - or need - exists or can exist (except by fiat) that the selections of any two readers agree.) It is possible, even likely, that an avid reader finds that only a partial or unsatisfactory biography exists - or none at all.
Moreover, biography can and should evolve. This means, of course, that an avid reader of literary biography must review the definition of a subject's biography, i.e. the elements of that minimum set, as new narratives appear. An avid reader's work is never done.
And now we have Martha Ackmann’s (MA) These Fevered Days. So what to make of it? What has she achieved in her pursuit of the "fleeing Biographied"? Should I think of her book as a component - for the present, in any event - of my definition of ED's biography?
In her "Author's Note" MA states: "This book intentionally concentrates, extracts, and distills Dickinson's evolution as a poet. It does not claim to be a comprehensive, cradle-to-grave biography. Rather it seeks to shed light on ten pivotal moments that changed her."
It appears that MA wrote this note before she composed (or completed) her narrative. I make this claim because her intent does not correspond, in any precise manner that I can discern, to the content of her published text. Quite simply she promises more - and different - than she delivers.
It is certainly true that These Fevered Days is not a standard "cradle-to-grave" biography - just as MA promises. For that Richard Sewell's The Life of Emily Dickinson is the only account of ED's material life that one need read - today.
Furthermore, just as she states, MA devotes most of her words to "ten pivotal moments" in Emily Dickinson's (ED) experience that "changed her." These moments are quite familiar to readers of Sewell's (or most any other) biography. So insofar as I can detect she has discovered no facts that enhance our knowledge of any of these moments. Rather oddly, MA's ten "moments" include ED's death and burial. I certainly understand how death brought about change in ED, but I don't understand how death propelled ED's "evolution as a poet."
MA tells us that ED wrote poems, of course, but her biography doesn't include the material that would qualify it as an "adequate" account of a great poet's life - by Helen Vendler's criteria. Why do I think this? Simply because These Fevered Days does not present "a convincing [and comprehensive - JRW] portrait of the inside of [ED's] mind, nor of her work as an original poet" - or any of ED's "larger themes" - at any point along the trajectory of her evolution as a poet. Indeed, I don't find in MA's text a thorough, not to mention credible, account of ED's development as a poet at all, nor the specific advances in her poetizing that nine of these ten "moments" brought about or enabled.
HOWEVER, I find These Fevered Days spectacularly successful in ways that MA appears not to be aware. Successful, in fact, to the point that, to my mind, I must consider it an altogether indispensible element of ED's biography.
In what ways - exactly?
She has given us an entirely credible account of ED's observable behaviors - and her persona in action - in a variety of social contexts, i.e. her interactions and exchanges in different domains of her material life from youth to middle age and ultimately to her dying. In other words, MA has given us a highly detailed and extraordinarily vivid representation of ED as a living presence, i.e. her personae, her conduct and deportment, that we might have observed ourselves had we been "invisible eyes" (of the Emersonian variety) equipped with a capability for time travel.
Small wonder - after forty years of conducting a seminar on ED's life and works at Mount Holyoke College, which she conducted in the Dickinson home place, The Homestead. Not only that. She also gained access to the attic of The Homestead where she read Shakespeare aloud to herself - just as ED had done when she first discovered him.
I am most grateful to MA for her gift of These Fevered Days. It is a book that allows me to experience through reading the living presence of ED - as intensely as I could ever wish. For me ED has become a person who is much less elusive now that she had been before I read MA's book.
August 9, 2021
A close, beautifully written, and touching biography of American poet Emily Dickinson. Using ten moments in Dickinson’s life as jumping off points, Ackmann describes and sheds light on Dickinson’s thoughts, writing, and relationships, enlivened with many excerpts from diaries, letters, and poems. Highly recommended!
November 9, 2023
I was drawn to this book because of the unique way it was presented. Not exactly a page turner but a fascinating glimpse of a gifted poet. Looking forward to getting back into reading poetry again soon.
May 18, 2021
This was the closest I could come to finding a 'real' biography of Emily Dickinson - and Ms. Martha Ackmann, scholar and former professor, did not disappoint. I know "Fevered Days" obviously required a lot of research: evidenced by the extensive Notes section at the back. The only thing that really puzzles me a bit is HOW Ackmann is able to delve so deeply into Emily's state of mind. All the tiny, super-precise details and little quirks...she lived in the 1800's! Again I know the scholarly material on her is dense, but HOW do you get that level of detail and maintain your reader's trust?
Anyway, ignore me, I'm being picky.
By most accounts today, and even from older times, Emily Dickinson lived an unusual life. She was 'at home' throughout her life; close to her family and never really desiring a life of travel, or complete independence. I've noticed a lot of modern scholars tend to paint this as odd - and indeed, Dickinson may have been an odd duck - but I try to look at the context of the times as well. In the middle of the 1800's, women weren't seen as much of anything, beyond a somewhat-glorified maid...and that's if they were lucky. Women didn't have careers like they do today, much less support themselves. They were thought of as sensitive, doe-eyed and weak. Doctors at the time actually pontificated that a female's hard work and learning would decrease their fertility and 'hurt' them over time due to a 'loss of cells'...(I'm paraphrasing, but what the actual hell??) Yes, the Dickinson family was well-off compared to others of the time, and Mr. Dickinson urged education for his children, but Emily always felt a call to her poetry, over all else. I think this is something to be celebrated, not shunned.
Just because she lived an odd life, doesn't mean it was a life without meaning. In fact, Emily Dickinson saw meaning in all things, and that's what I find most fascinating about her. She wrote just about 1,800 poems in her lifetime, (she was most prolific from about age 14 on until her death in 1886) so you can't say she never did anything in all those years she was 'at home'.
Now I really want to visit the Emily Dickinson Museum!
Anyway, ignore me, I'm being picky.
By most accounts today, and even from older times, Emily Dickinson lived an unusual life. She was 'at home' throughout her life; close to her family and never really desiring a life of travel, or complete independence. I've noticed a lot of modern scholars tend to paint this as odd - and indeed, Dickinson may have been an odd duck - but I try to look at the context of the times as well. In the middle of the 1800's, women weren't seen as much of anything, beyond a somewhat-glorified maid...and that's if they were lucky. Women didn't have careers like they do today, much less support themselves. They were thought of as sensitive, doe-eyed and weak. Doctors at the time actually pontificated that a female's hard work and learning would decrease their fertility and 'hurt' them over time due to a 'loss of cells'...(I'm paraphrasing, but what the actual hell??) Yes, the Dickinson family was well-off compared to others of the time, and Mr. Dickinson urged education for his children, but Emily always felt a call to her poetry, over all else. I think this is something to be celebrated, not shunned.
Just because she lived an odd life, doesn't mean it was a life without meaning. In fact, Emily Dickinson saw meaning in all things, and that's what I find most fascinating about her. She wrote just about 1,800 poems in her lifetime, (she was most prolific from about age 14 on until her death in 1886) so you can't say she never did anything in all those years she was 'at home'.
Now I really want to visit the Emily Dickinson Museum!
March 5, 2020
*I won this in a GoodReads giveaway.
The author picks out ten incidents in Dickinson’s life that seem to her the most important, or most relevant to Dickinson’s poetry. The result is a sort of brief biography that covers some elements of Dickinson’s life in moving detail, and elides others.
Most moving was the ever-present death around Emily. Because the book is short, it hits home just how many people in her life died, and how frequently the deaths came. The author seems to interpret Emily’s death as stemming from a broken heart after she lost both her parents and her favorite nephew in quick succession. ‘The dyings have been too deep for me.’
The most notable absence is the author’s avoidance of the topic of Emily’s sexuality. Or rather, her assumption that Emily was straight. It has been pretty well established by now that Dickinson was romantically involved with Sue, her sister-in-law. Sue is discussed in These Fevered Days, but the sexual nature of their relationship is never hinted at. It’s an… odd oversight, and irritated me.
This is the first biography of Dickinson I’ve ever read, so I can’t speak to the accuracy of the author’s information. It was engaging enough that I now want to know more about Dickinson.
The author picks out ten incidents in Dickinson’s life that seem to her the most important, or most relevant to Dickinson’s poetry. The result is a sort of brief biography that covers some elements of Dickinson’s life in moving detail, and elides others.
Most moving was the ever-present death around Emily. Because the book is short, it hits home just how many people in her life died, and how frequently the deaths came. The author seems to interpret Emily’s death as stemming from a broken heart after she lost both her parents and her favorite nephew in quick succession. ‘The dyings have been too deep for me.’
The most notable absence is the author’s avoidance of the topic of Emily’s sexuality. Or rather, her assumption that Emily was straight. It has been pretty well established by now that Dickinson was romantically involved with Sue, her sister-in-law. Sue is discussed in These Fevered Days, but the sexual nature of their relationship is never hinted at. It’s an… odd oversight, and irritated me.
This is the first biography of Dickinson I’ve ever read, so I can’t speak to the accuracy of the author’s information. It was engaging enough that I now want to know more about Dickinson.
April 24, 2020
As the sub-title tells us, the book chronicles ten pivotal moments in Emily Dickinson’s life, ten events that the author claims were integral to her development as a poet and a person. It’s an interesting conceit for a book, rather than the usual cradle-to-grave biography, and overall I found it worked well. The author knows her subject and her research is painstaking and thorough. It’s a readable, accessible and entertaining account, accompanied by some excellent photographs, and I felt that it certainly gave a vivid portrait of Emily and her surroundings. The author obviously feels a deep connection with her subject, which I felt sometimes led to her imagining thoughts that she can’t possibly know if Emily actually had, but this is perhaps nit-picking. I don’t think the book added anything new to Dickinson scholarship, but for anyone not familiar with the poet and her work, this would be an illuminating introduction, and well worth reading.
June 24, 2022
I always felt fascinated by Emily Dickinson. Her simple life hid a remarkable creativity and intelligence. Thus, I had really high expectations about this book and it had been in my reading list for quite a while. However, even though I liked and enjoyed the book, I did at times felt that this was a book more about the people and the places surrounding Emily than about Emily herself.
I understand the author wanted to be as truthful to documental sources as possible, but sometimes minor details were given more attention than important pieces of Emily's life. For example, the relationship between Emily and her sister in law is overlooked. It's obvious that she respected Susan's opinion, as much as she respected Higgunson's, but one is given a lot more attention than the other in this book.
Nevertheless, it's an interesting book that provides further insight into Emily's life.
I understand the author wanted to be as truthful to documental sources as possible, but sometimes minor details were given more attention than important pieces of Emily's life. For example, the relationship between Emily and her sister in law is overlooked. It's obvious that she respected Susan's opinion, as much as she respected Higgunson's, but one is given a lot more attention than the other in this book.
Nevertheless, it's an interesting book that provides further insight into Emily's life.
January 27, 2023
I was very impressed by the scholarly rigor of this book. Ackmann gives us a vivid picture of Emily while completely avoiding speculations about her sexuality or mental health. Every claim she makes is supported by historical evidence; but since evidence is sometimes lacking, the fragmentary conceit of this book was a smart structural choice. There are some tangential anecdotes that maybe could have been trimmed a bit, but they do a fine job of illustrating nineteenth-century Amherst. Ackmann is also a lyrical writer in her own right, and I thought several passages here were genuinely moving.
January 17, 2020
**Disclaimer** I won this ARC from a Goodreads giveaway. I wasn't required to write this review, it just seemed polite to do so after getting a free book.
I remember falling in love with Emily Dickinson's poetry in elementary school. I had an assignment to memorize/present a poem to the class, and being my dramatic self I found and chose the longest poem from the list that I could find.
These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson by Martha Ackmann makes for a great introduction to the history of a poet surrounded by myth. Easy to read with it's snapshot format I sped through all ten chapters delighted by all the new things I was learning not only about Dickinson, but about the people who surrounded and inspired her.
I think I was enchanted
When first a sombre Girl—
I read that Foreign Lady—
The Dark—felt beautiful—
I remember falling in love with Emily Dickinson's poetry in elementary school. I had an assignment to memorize/present a poem to the class, and being my dramatic self I found and chose the longest poem from the list that I could find.
I started Early – Took my Dog –
And visited the Sea –
The Mermaids in the Basement
Came out to look at me –
And Frigates – in the Upper Floor
Extended Hempen Hands –
Presuming Me to be a Mouse –
Aground – opon the Sands –
But no Man moved Me – till the Tide
Went past my simple Shoe –
And past my Apron – and my Belt
And past my Boddice – too –
And made as He would eat me up –
As wholly as a Dew
Opon a Dandelion's Sleeve –
And then – I started – too –
And He – He followed – close behind –
I felt His Silver Heel
Opon my Ancle – Then My Shoes
Would overflow with Pearl –
Until We met the Solid Town –
No One He seemed to know –
And bowing – with a Mighty look –
At me – The Sea withdrew –
These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson by Martha Ackmann makes for a great introduction to the history of a poet surrounded by myth. Easy to read with it's snapshot format I sped through all ten chapters delighted by all the new things I was learning not only about Dickinson, but about the people who surrounded and inspired her.
There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll –
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human Soul –
August 6, 2020
The level of research that this biography must have involved is astounding. With careful attention to even some of the most granular details of Dickinson's life, Ackmann's portrait of Dickinson is vivid and meticulous. I came away with more insight about Dickinson's personality, her day to day life, and her poetics, as well as the important (and compelling in their own right) figures of her life, including Higginson and Helen Hunt Jackson.
December 27, 2020
A new biography of Emily Dickinson—told in ten episodes which “tell it slant.”
See full review here: https://openlettersreview.com/posts/t...
See full review here: https://openlettersreview.com/posts/t...
January 1, 2021
Not a straightforward biography, but ten moments/ events that contribute to the full and rich life of Emily Dickinson. There were many interesting things that were new to me.
May 2, 2023
A really excellent, lively work of Dickenson scholarship.
Read
July 7, 2024Emily Dickinson, dream blunt rotation
January 9, 2022
The real quiet loveliness of Emily Dickinson was lost in the numerous details of describing every acquaintance and friends’ daily activities
December 20, 2019
This book is an absolute treasure for any fan of Emily Dickinson. I thoroughly enjoyed the description of Emily’s Amherst, her family, her beloved home and her eventual seclusion. Here and there, the episodes of her life are accompanied or illustrated by her poems.
There was a lot about Emily that surprised me, because I had a vague idea of a secluded lady in white drifting around Amherst, Massachusetts in her usual white dress and drawn-back hair. It was a surprise to me to learn of her as a teenager, as a young woman who was required to work hard at housework, and as a middle-aged lady who worked hard caring for her mother.
I also learned, that Emily died at age 55 years, 5 months, and 5 days old! How à propos of her: 55-5-5.... So poetic!
I read this book slowly because there is so much to take in. I found myself wishing I had lived at that time - life being filled with familiar people and events, good manners, letters exchanged, Valentines, visits, etc... But at the same time, I was shocked to learn that Emily had lived through some very hard times too. (I won’t give that away - read the book!)
So, if you love Emily Dickinson as I do, you really should get to know the real Emily by reading this book. Then, take out your anthology of Dickinson poems, and enjoy, once again!
There was a lot about Emily that surprised me, because I had a vague idea of a secluded lady in white drifting around Amherst, Massachusetts in her usual white dress and drawn-back hair. It was a surprise to me to learn of her as a teenager, as a young woman who was required to work hard at housework, and as a middle-aged lady who worked hard caring for her mother.
I also learned, that Emily died at age 55 years, 5 months, and 5 days old! How à propos of her: 55-5-5.... So poetic!
I read this book slowly because there is so much to take in. I found myself wishing I had lived at that time - life being filled with familiar people and events, good manners, letters exchanged, Valentines, visits, etc... But at the same time, I was shocked to learn that Emily had lived through some very hard times too. (I won’t give that away - read the book!)
So, if you love Emily Dickinson as I do, you really should get to know the real Emily by reading this book. Then, take out your anthology of Dickinson poems, and enjoy, once again!
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