Emily Dickinson e i suoi giardini. Le piante e i luoghi che hanno ispirato l'iconica poetessa

by Marta McDowell

Emily Dickinson era un’attenta osservatrice del mondo naturale. Meno noto è il fatto che era anche un’appassionata giardiniera, che inviava mazzi di fiori freschi agli amici e nelle sue lettere fiori pressati. Nella casa famigliare di Amherst, Massachussetts, curava un piccolo giardino d’inverno insieme al grande giardino intorno alla dimora. In "Emily Dickinson e i suoi giardini", Marta McDowell scandaglia la profonda passione che la poetessa nutrì per le piante e il modo in cui ispirarono e caratterizzarono le sue opere. Seguendo lo scorrere di un anno nel giardino, il libro rivela particolari poco conosciuti della sua vita e ci aiuta a capire meglio la sua anima. Giardiniera emerita presso l’Emily Dickinson Museum, in questo volume Marta McDowell alterna i testi con poesie e brani tratti dalle lettere di Emily Dickinson, affiancando vecchie e nuove fotografie a illustrazioni botaniche per inquadrare da una prospettiva inedita una delle figure letterarie americane più celebri ed enigmatiche.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Gardening, Biography, Nature, History, Literature

268 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

I live, garden and write in Chatham, New Jersey where I share my garden with my husband, Kirke, assorted wildlife and approximately 10,000 honey bees. You will often find me at the New York Botanical Garden, where I teach landscape history and gardening courses. My new book, All the Presidents' Gardens, is coming out from Timber Press in October 2016. (I'm excited!) When I'm not gardening I like to read and knit and cook and eat, though not all at the same time.

My husband, Kirke, summarizes my biography as “I am therefore I dig.”

Reviews

[Cheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

!! NOW AVAILABLE !!

3.5 Stars

This begins by going through the seasons, opening with Early Spring, and ending with Winter, but separated into more than the four seasons, alone. The author takes you on a literary walk through Amherst and invites you to stand in front of the Homestead, using your imagination to see it as it once was in the mid-1800’s. From here you could see Amherst College and imagine how this landscape appeared those many years ago. Before streetlights, or paved roads, before cars. If you can picture this during a snowy day, you could almost hear the sleigh bells and the sound of the hooves.

I love Emily Dickinson’s poetry, and I have loved gardening when I lived in a place where I had space and workable land to garden. I love the artwork, some of which came from books that Emily Dickinson personally owned on gardening, as well as the poetry of Dickinson included in this book. This seemed like it would be a perfect combination. I loved the passion and enthusiasm that McDowell has for both Dickinson’s writing and Dickinson’s passion for poetry and gardening.

The writing, especially in the beginning, is passionate, effusive, alternating between the history of Amherst, descriptions of the land, and back to gardens, often including a snippet of Dickinson’s poetry – including her first published poem, a valentine.

”Put down the apple Adam
And come away with me
So shal’t thou have a pippin
From off my Father’s tree!”

Included are prints of old portraits, some snippets of Dickinson’s writing, thoughts on gardening, and some advice on gardening. Along with those are descriptions of the changing of the seasons, including the late winter delicacy of fresh maple syrup.

What didn’t work as well for me was the writing after the first half, which was more often lovely as this began, but began to stray from inserting a relevant snippet of poetry or words from a letter written that carried the reader along to the feeling that the point was being pressed a bit too much.

Still, for those who love Dickinson, and particularly those who love her poetry and love gardening as well, this is worth exploring. As a reference tool for gardening, the illustrations from gardening and seed catalogues of Dickinson’s era add a special charm, and would make a nice gift with the holiday season approaching.



Pub Date: 01 Oct 2019


Many thanks for the ARC provided by Timber Press

[Literary Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

DELIGHT
This gorgeous book is a literary and gardening delight!

UNIQUE LIFE REFLECTION
It uniquely reflects Dickinson’s life through her love of gardening, with lush photos and illustrations, as well as excerpts from her poetry and letters.

POET’S GARDEN
Even includes ideas for growing a poet’s garden, along with a list of the plants Dickinson actually used in hers. 5/5

Pub Date 01 Oct 2019.
 
Thanks to the author, Timber Press and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#EmilyDickinsonsGardeningLife #NetGalley

[Emma | meadowroselibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book that I'm glad I read! 😊 And I'm very glad to my best friend for reading it with me! 🤗

[Mark Fallon · Rating 5 out of 5]

McDowell gives the reader a tour of the garden, and Dickinson's life through a year of seasons, flowered with verse. A trip to Amherst is a must for next spring.

[marta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I swear to God, Emily Dickinson is my soulmate.

[Ria Van Herck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prachtig beschreven biografie over een van de bekendste dichteressen van de wereld. Ik kende van het de biografie van Dickinson enkel de tragische aspecten. Maar blijkbaar was ze ook een fervent tuinierster. Het is een prachtig boek dat een veelzijdiger portret van de dichteres en haar gedichten beschrijft. Ik had wel regelmatig een engelstalig woordenboek nodig maar de illustraties van de planten hielpen me al voorbij heel wat frustraties. De gedichten vond ik meestal wel in vertaling terug (als het Engels me in het donker liet blijven voor de juiste betekenis). Een aanrader

[Kelli Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really lovely book! Anyone who is interested in Emily Dickinson, gardening, or New England/Massachusetts history will enjoy it. Combining photos and details about the plants in Emily Dickinson's garden and her care for them, snippets of her poetry, and a look into life at that time, it is beautifully illustrated and designed and gives a great deal of information. I have a great love of Emily, her poetry, and Western Massachusetts, and this is a perfect book to complement these interests.

Thank you to Timber Press and NetGalley for the temporary advance review copy!

[Nostalgia Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emily came awfully close to literally living like an inhabitant of Mossflower and there's no better goal than that.

This provided a wonderful look at the Dickinson's gardening, a general biography of the family, and helped to provide some much appreciated floral perspective and inspirations on many of Emily's poems. (e.g. "beryl eggs" are white pine pinecones) There is also an extensive list of plants that Emily and her family not only grew, but that she mentioned in her poems or letters or included in her herbarium.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life by Marta McDowell as part of my reading about Emily Dickinson as I developed a quilt.
This is a gorgeous book, from the cover and the end papers to the illustrations that fill the pages.






McDowell incorporates Dickinson's poems flawlessly.

Readers are taken on a year-long journey into the garden, from early spring to winter, each season telling a part of Emily's life journey.

It was a joy to read, an escape from lock-down in the early spring, an inspiration as I tended our own garden, and this autumn found me dreaming of visiting The Homestead some day when this pandemic is over.

Chapters include an annotated list of Emily's plants and a visit to her home and garden.

This would be a wonderful Christmas gift for the reader of Dickinson or gardener in your life.

I have McDowell's book All the President's Gardens on Kindle. But after holding this book in my hands, with its lovely artwork and illustrations, the heft of it, I may need to buy a hardcover copy...along with Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life!

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an absolute delight. I received it as an e-book from NetGalley (many thanks) but it’s really one to own and treasure as an actual book, one to refer to again and again. I don’t read a lot of Emily Dickinson, although I do enjoy her work, nor am I a gardener, although I enjoy looking at flowers and plants as much as anyone, but this book is something special and I defy anyone not to take pleasure from it. Acclaimed primarily as a great poet, Emily Dickinson was also a keen gardener, loved plants and was knowledgeable about them. In this wonderfully illustrated book, the author takes us through a complete year in Dickinson’s garden, with excerpts from her poems and letters. If you’re a lover of her poems, then you need this book. And if you’re a lover of gardens and gardening then you need this book. And if you’re a lover of both – well, it’s simply essential reading.

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect mix of poetry, history, and horticulture

[Jacqueline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I LOVED this concept for a book (nature and literature, my two favourite things). I read a few of Dickinson's poems back in university and they just didn't click with me, but after reading this book, I want to read them again with this new perspective. I knew nature was her muse, but I didn't know much about her personal life and after reading a bit of it from this book, I feel more connected to the author so I'm now more curious about her writing and what it will reveal. I thought this book would have more story behind Dickinson's life, but it focuses more about the plants themselves (which was still interesting!). The illustrations were beautiful and I loved how there were so many images accompanying the text. I also liked the combination of Dickinson's poems with the rest of the text, it provided a bit more context to the poems, however this made the reading experience a bit disjointed. Overall, I liked this book, but I can't imagine it being very memorable for me and I didn't experience any revelations or aha moments. But it was enough to convince me to revisit Dickinson's poems, which is a good thing!

[Darcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before reading McDowell's book, I had only a passing interest in Dickinson's poetry. Some of her poems I liked, but mostly I felt adrift when reading them, knowing they held lovely secrets, but not being able to unlock them. This book opened my eyes to the botanical elements in Dickinson's poems and helped me understand the language she was writing in - the language of flowers, bees, birds, trees, and seasons. I also feel inspired to get out into my own garden and spend more time with it. My gardening methods are a bit more like Lavinia Dickinson, of whom Emily said, "all her flowers did as they liked: tyrannized over her, hopped out of their own beds into each other's beds, were never reproved or removed as long as they bloom; for a live flower ... to Lavinia was more than any dead horticultural principle" (104). Thank you, Marta McDowell, for writing such a well researched and inspiring book! I am eagerly looking forward to your book on The Secret Garden!

[Sophy H · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely book by Marta McDowell. She looks at Emily Dickinson's life from the perspective of the enjoyment Emily got from the family garden and her green-fingered exploits.

The writing is engaging and thorough without being overwhelming. There are some lovely colour and sepia photographs of everything from Dickinson herself to the dwellings of Amherst, to the family garden. Alongside this are colour paintings and drawings of flowers by female artists of the day.

I really enjoyed reading about the gardens of the day and the changing seasons of Massachusetts. Though not strictly a fan of Dickinson's poetry, there are some great gems of poetry to match the mood and feeling of the writing.

Recommended for any gardening fan.

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book is like taking a tranquil stroll through a botanical garden on a perfectly pleasant day. I love how the book is divided into seasons which are used to talk about Emily's life and her gardens. I could very easily picture the sights around her home in Amherst as the author describes. This is a peaceful, tranquil read that makes me want to find out more on Emily Dickinson as well as revisit some of her poetry.

[Molsa Roja(s) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I’m not much of a gardener myself, I thought it quite a remarkable project to trace & identify, throughout sometimes enigmatic Emily’s poems, the plants & flowers of her life. And Mrs. McDowell certainly succeeded, providing an exhaustive studio on a particular aspect of Emily’s life that give her so much joy & inspiration. Besides the botanical study, there are some really, if brief, tender accounts on what Emily’s life was —which, even if fragmentary, is slowly being filled through different materials.

“She received me in a little back hall that connected with the kitchen. It was dimly lighted. She asked if I would have a glass of wine or a rose. I told her I would take the rose, and she went to the garden and brought one in to me. She seemed very unusual, and her voice, her looks, and her whole personality made an impression on me that is still very vivid after all these years.” p.75

“Miss Emily knew how to entertain the neighborhood gang. In a designated post office in the hedge, she traded secret messages with the sometimes pirates, sometimes gypsies. She would lower gingerbread in a basket from her bedroom window. They would put in a daisy or clover in return. "We knew the things she loved best," Jenkins recalled, "and we sought the early wild flowers, a flaming leaf, a glistening stone, the shining, fallen feather of a bird and took them to her, sure of her appreciation of the gift as well as the giving." Though Dickinson had given up her wildflower wanderings, she still had emissaries to bring her treasures. She must have been an interesting puzzle to a child. "She had a habit of standing in rapt attention as if she were listening to something very faint and far off," wrote Jenkins. "We children often saw her at sunset, standing at the kitchen window, peering through a vista in the trees to the western sky—her proud little head thrown back, her eyes raised and one hand held characteristically before her." p.114

[Alex Rye · Rating 5 out of 5]

finally finished the “winter” section of this book. i’ve been reading this book throughout the year, reading the corresponding season as they went by. what a reading experience! this book was so immersive; i felt like i was walking by emily’s side, not only through her garden but through her life as well. the passage of time was also very fluid throughout the book from emily’s childhood at the homestead to the museum today (as a former historic house docent i really enjoyed the details on the conservation efforts). i also love the annotated list of emily dickinson’s plants at the end of the book. i’m excited to use it as a reference for my own garden!

[Grace Cordle · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75. I enjoyed learning about Emily Dickinson, and as a poet appreciated learning about her inspiration and work, but I don't think I was the target audience for this book because of the amount of time spent on the botanical aspects of Emily's life. The arrangement of the book was interesting, but I think I would have preferred a biography that focused more on her life chronologically, interspersing some of the botanical info alongside. This book was a beautiful book, and I can see how someone interested in gardening and literature would be delighted by the meeting of these worlds, but I would have found the book more interesting if it had focused more primarily just on Dickinson's life.

[Linda Rowlett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been an Emily Dickinson “fan” all my life. I have read her poetry and her letters. In my younger days I performed as Emily Dickinson in classrooms, bookstores, and other venues. I visited her home 20+ years ago and have plans to do so again next year.

This is my second book by Marla McDowell this month, the other being about the gardens of Frances Hodgson Burnett. I thought the book about Burnett was better written and structured. But I had more personal interest invested in this book, and perhaps I expected too much.

I appreciated the photos of the gardens at The Homestead. The gardens had not been restored to a condition resembling Dickinson’s time when I was last there. I look forward to seeing the changes.

The book included many of Dickinson’s poems and an extensive bibliography that has already steered me to a great online compendium of many of the poet’s works in her own hand.

[Gerri Bauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading a book that focused on Dickinson's deep involvement with botany and year-round gardening. She kept several blooming plants alive each winter in an attached conservatory and spent a good deal of time gardening outdoors in other seasons. Hardly the picture of a pale waif secluded in an upstairs bedroom. Reclusive, yes. Eccentric? No doubt. But between her writing, baking, gardening and tending of her invalid mother, Dickinson was a busy lady.

[Nelliamoci · Rating 3 out of 5]

A metà fra un saggio di botanica e uno di letteratura, questo volume è perfetto per chi vuole conoscere Emily Dickinson e scoprire la sua vita attraverso i fiori che più amava. La sua cura per il giardino di casa è paragonabile alla maniacale premura per le parole.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really is a wonderful book. The author has worked in Emily Dickinson’s garden and the museum of her home. Her writing about Dickinson’s life, work, family, community, and gardens and nature around her are so well researched and engaging to read.

[Jane]

its so nice knowing that someone cares as much about emily dickinson as i do

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to re-read each season’s section for every season. Beautiful illustrations, selections of poems, and a tiny look at the life of Emily Dickinson.

[Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Public library checkout. Describes Emily Dickinson’s garden through the various seasons, the poetry inspired by it, and restoration efforts still continuing today.

[Diane B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tying in Dickenison's gardening life with her poetry is such an interesting approach to biography. It's true she led a privileged life and enjoyed the benefits of gardening staff and a greenhouse, but she did pursue botany and had a genuine love and eye for plants.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Confession: I have been a huge Emily Dickinson fan forever. In high school, I dressed up like her on her December 10th birthday. Before I met a former boss, I learned she was an Emily Dickinson fan too, and low key stalked her until she hired me (We’re still friends; I wasn’t that creepy). And I planned to name a daughter Emily before the name became popular.

Sooo...I had to read this newly re-released book about Emily Dickinson’s gardening life. I knew I would be hypercritical, but! There was nothing to criticize. It is so beautiful. The poems, the photographs, the archival images, the prose. Oh, and the descriptions of the plants she grew, many of them old friends to me. Not that I could grow them. I live in Georgia, not Massachusetts, and lack a green thumb. It’s amazing to me that her gardens could be so closely reconceived after so many years.

The author chose not to correct spelling or perceived grammar, publishing the poems as they were written, showing that even when random capitalization, dashes, and spelling are seemingly preserved, a lot of changes have been made. I loved this book, and am planning my own poet’s garden. #netgalley #emilydickinsonsgardeninglife #emilydickinson

[Patrice Todisco · Rating 5 out of 5]

A garden exists in a place, whether discovered or familiar. For Emily Dickinson, that place was a stately Federal-style house in Amherst, Massachusetts. The axis of her world, it is where she lived, wrote, and nurtured her passion for plants, compiling the herbarium of 424 flowers referenced in her poetry. Combining Emily’s poems, excerpts from letters, contemporary and historical photographs, and the story of the garden’s restoration in Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life, Marta McDowell invites the reader to enter the seasonal world of the enigmatic poet, providing an intimate portrait of her gardening universe. A revised edition of the earlier book that launched McDowell’s career, it was Emily Dickinson’s garden that brought her to garden writing and this “do-over” of a previous book is an elegant reminder of how gardens and landscapes nurture the creative life.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was even better than I had imagined it would be. The author knows both plants and Dickinson, and she does a lovely job of bringing to life the gardens as they might have been, using thorough primary research (if a bit too much reliance on Mabel Loomis Todd, that villain to whom, alas, we must also be grateful). She also weaves poems in at just the right times, really bringing home just how much of ED’s world was wrapped up in her garden. Finally, in addition to being a delightful read, it also serves as a reference for anyone wanting to grow some of Dickinson’s favorites. This is certainly a niche book, but it is squarely in my niche.

[AcademicEditor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gardening and poetry--who could ask for anything more? The visuals in this book help to truly put an image to some of Emily's more intriguing figures of speech. It also gives a glimpse into what life was like in 19th-century New England. The author has clearly done her homework.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the digital ARC!