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Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson
For the first time, selections from Emily Dickinson's thirty-six year correspondence to her neighbor and sister-in-law, Susan Huntington Dickinson, are compiled in a single volume. Open Me Carefully invites a dramatic new understanding of Emily Dickinson's life and work, overcoming a century of censorship and misinterpretation.
For the millions of readers who love Emily Dickinson's poetry, Open Me Carefully brings new light to the meaning of the poet's life and work. Gone is Emily as lonely spinster; here is Dickinson in her own words, passionate and fully alive.
For the millions of readers who love Emily Dickinson's poetry, Open Me Carefully brings new light to the meaning of the poet's life and work. Gone is Emily as lonely spinster; here is Dickinson in her own words, passionate and fully alive.
360 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1998
581 people are currently reading
9410 people want to read
About the author
Emily Dickinson
1,552 books6,904 followersEmily Dickinson was an American poet who, despite the fact that less than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime, is widely considered one of the most original and influential poets of the 19th century.
Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.
Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.
Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content.
A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/emily-di...
Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.
Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.
Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content.
A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/emily-di...
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September 6, 2015
If you want to buy a collection of Emily Dickinson's letters, you have two choices. There is no complete collection currently in print, which throws me into a blind rage every time I think about it so let's just move on quickly, shall we – but there are two major editions of selected letters. (There are also minor, cutesy, gifty-looking volumes of letters, often with some poems thrown in for good measure; but never mind those for now.)
One of the collections is the first you're shown on Amazon. It's edited by Thomas H. Johnson, the first scholar ever to publish Dickinson's poetry with its original wonky punctuation and capitalization.
This collection of letters is very good. It's annotated enough to give the reader a good sense of what's going on in Dickinson's life, so even if you haven't read a biography of her, you won't be lost. In fact, this collection could work as a bare-bones biography.
However, this collection of letters is a bit pricey -- $22.57 at the time of this writing, which is an odd number in every sense. In its listing, Amazon suggests another edition that's slightly cheaper -- $16.39. Both are paperback, so why not get the less expensive one?
The answer is: They're not the same collection.
This other edition is edited by Mabel Loomis Todd, who is described on the back of the book as "a close friend."
I find that an interesting description of a woman who never actually met Dickinson. "A close friend of whom?" seems a logical question in this case.
Which is where the story gets creepy.
Mabel Loomis Todd came to Amherst with her husband when he got a post as a professor at Amherst College. Dickinson's family was closely associated with the school – her grandfather was one of the original founders – and Dickinson's brother Austin and his wife Susan were among the first to welcome the Todds to town.
Mabel quickly learned of Emily Dickinson's existence, though at this point in her life Dickinson never left the house just next door to her brother's. Susan often read Dickinson's poetry to guests, and Mabel was intrigued by the woman the townspeople called "the myth."
Eventually, Mabel was invited over to Emily Dickinson's house to play the piano and sing. (In the days before recorded music, gifted amateur musicians were desirable social commodities, and Mabel was used to this sort of request.) Emily listened from another room. After Mabel's performance, Dickinson sent in a glass of sherry and a poem she'd written while listening.
And what was the poem about? The beauty of music? The singing of the birds that Dickinson was so fond of and mentions so often in her work?
Well, no. This poem marvels about the "fortitude" a soul must have
That it can so endure
The accent of a coming Foot –
The opening of a Door –
In other words, Dickinson had come to dread and detest the intrusion of visitors, and she had no qualms about saying so to this one.
Let's hope the sherry was good.
Mabel was more intrigued than ever by the woman she was already convinced was a genius. She and Dickinson exchanged some letters, but Dickinson never relented on her closed-door policy, no matter how bird-like Mabel attempted to make her music.
This was friendship, of a sort. But it didn't hold a candle to the bond between Dickinson and her sister-in-law Susan. They'd known and loved each other since before Susan accepted Austin Dickinson's proposal of marriage. Dickinson wrote more letters to Sue than she did to anyone else. She also saw Sue in person long after she'd given up other social contact.
Mabel was "close" to Austin Dickinson, however. Specifically, she had a long affair with the man who had married his current wife the year Mabel was born.
In the words of the immortal bard, ew.
This was nineteenth-century New England. Divorce and remarriage wasn't an option. Mabel was passionately in love with Austin, and she wanted to be part of his life somehow. More, she wanted some sort of sign that their relationship wasn't just a fling – it was a union blessed by the God who must have been talking about other people when he made that commandment against adultery.
Mabel couldn't be Austin's wife – couldn't even be the mother of his child, though she tried. But she could be the midwife to a great poet's career, and in that way have her name forever associated with the Dickinson family.
Title divine, is mine.
The Wife without the Sign –
as Emily Dickinson wrote.
The strange, twisted story of how Mabel Loomis Todd came to be the editor of Dickinson's poetry and letters is a tale for another review. The reason I bring it up now is this: if you buy that less expensive edition of Dickinson's letters – which is also the edition you'll be purchasing if you click on the Kindle option – you won't hear a thing about Austin's wife Susan. Mabel was furious at Sue for even existing, and then for having the nerve to cut Mabel socially once news of the affair broke. She couldn't kill Sue off and marry Austin the way she desperately wanted to. But she could do her damnedest to write her out of history.
If you buy the edition of letters Mabel edited, you won't see a single reference to Susan Gilbert Huntington Dickinson. Sue was Emily Dickinson's closest friend. She's said to have prepared Dickinson's body for burial (though some biographers dispute this). Certainly she wrote an eloquent obituary of her brilliant friend. She's mentioned by name in some poems. And, as I mentioned, Dickinson wrote more letters to her than to anyone else.
But Mabel did her best to pretend she'd never existed.
Ironically, the back of Mabel's edition of the letters mentions how reclusive Dickinson grew in her later years. She "seldom saw her many friends, [but] she thought of them often and affectionately. ...The small cast of daily characters in her little world takes on vivid life in the letters."
Well, yes. As long as you understand that a large country in that little world was erased from the map.
That damage isn't localized. Robert N. Linscott's Selected Poems & Letters of Emily Dickinson, an inexpensive volume often found on bookstore shelves, doesn't contain a single letter to Susan. Neither does the Everyman Pocket edition of Dickinson's letters, a pretty hardcover just begging to be given as a gift to that Dickinson fan in your life.
Nicely done, Mabel.
Open Me Carefully seeks to undo some of that damage.
In their introduction to this collection of letters, Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith make it clear that they consider these missives "romantic and erotic." I don't know if I agree that Dickinson had to have been in love with Susan in order to have written as she did. My own opinion – and I'm only an interested civilian – is that Dickinson was emotionally close to very few people; but those she loved, she adored. Certainly she was passionately fond of Susan.
I neither know nor care if that passion extended to anything physical, either in thought or in deed. I only know that it's an injustice both to Susan and to Dickinson to ignore or trivialize their relationship.
I was interested to learn that though Dickinson used conventional formal stationery with other correspondents, she wrote to Susan on whatever came to hand – "graph, scrap, and formal embossed paper of all sizes." That sort of casual intimacy is the equivalent of paying (or receiving) a visit barefoot, or in one's bathrobe. But it's not the kind of detail a reader can know unless the editor points it out.
Hart and Smith do something else I haven't seen other editors of Dickinson's letters do: they present her letters as they would have looked to the recipient. Not in her handwriting, although they do offer a few photos. But they follow the line breaks Dickinson made.
I found this artistically significant. Her early letters are in this respect perfectly conventional – they spread across the page as any letter would. But her late letters snake down the page, two or three words a line, looking like nothing so much as that "narrow fellow in the grass" she made the subject of one of her longer poems (one of the few published in her lifetime – but that's another story for another review). Seen this way, these late letters look less like correspondence and more like modern poetry. This, for instance, was written while Susan was visiting her sister in New York:
Without the
annual parting
I thought to
shun the
Loneliness that
parting ratifies.
How artfully
in vain!
Your Coffee
cooled un-
touched except
by random
Fly.
Compare that to William Carlos Williams' letter-poem "This Is Just To Say":
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
Dickinson may have been more ahead of her time artistically than she's yet been given credit for.
So this collection is important in that it attempts to restore not merely a crucial relationship, but some of Dickinson's artistry. Oh, and that cooling coffee makes it clear that contrary to what's been written elsewhere about Dickinson, she was still seeing Susan face-to-face in the 1870s.
There are also sweet personal touches one won't find in any collection of her poetry. In the 1850s, Emily sent this poem as a letter to Susan:
The morns are meeker than they were –
The nuts are getting brown –
The berry's cheek is plumper –
The Rose is out of town –
The Maple wears a gayer scarf –
The field – a Scarlet gown –
Lest I sh'd seem old fashioned
I'll put a trinket on!
I've loved this poem since I found it in a children's collection and read it to my very young son – we both laughed at the line about the rose being out of town. So I enjoyed learning that, as Smith and Hart point out in their note to this letter, "A yellowed ribbon that once held a flower is woven through this letter-poem. The paper is cut so that the ribbon, precisely trimmed, does not cover the text of the poem."
Anecdotes like this also make it clearer why Susan and Lavinia, Emily's sister, disagreed so strongly on what to do with Dickinson's poetry after her death. Lavinia wanted to follow the more conventional path of publication, including "correcting" Emily's spelling and punctuation and giving titles to the poems. Susan felt that this was ripping the poetry out of context. She struggled – and failed – to find a way to bring Dickinson's "letter to the world" in a way that was more authentic and less ironed-out.
It has taken years of patient scholarship to begin to undo the damage done to Dickinson's artistic legacy by Mabel Loomis Todd. I'm not being spiteful here. I understand that this was a long time ago, long before "Antiques Roadshow." But it's cringe-inducing to learn how Mabel eagerly took apart the booklets of poetry Dickinson sewed together by hand, and didn't bother keeping track afterwards of which poems had been stitched to which. It's maddening that the woman who supposedly recognized Dickinson's genius not only forced titles on those brilliant poems, but sometimes changed words in order to force rhymes.
If you buy an inexpensive volume of Dickinson's poetry, or see some in an old textbook, odds are good you're looking at Mabel's editing. Ironically, Dickinson's poetry as she wrote it won't be in the public domain any time soon, even though she died in 1886. Copyright has to do with what was published when, and Dickinson's poetry wasn't restored to its true self until well into the 20th century.
I mention this because Open Me offers the Dickinson lover not merely some wonderful letters, but also early drafts of poems. Dickinson was always sending Susan poetry – sometimes to bounce ideas off her, and sometimes to observe an occasion, whether that was a beautiful day or a shared grief.
I'll close this review with a letter-poem Emily wrote to Susan after the death of Susan's youngest son, Gib, at the age of eight. Both women adored him, and his death is thought by many biographers to have contributed to the final fatal decline in Dickinson's health. Not all of Dickinson's poems are so intimately tied to her personal life, but this collection makes it clear that many were, and many were written "for love of her," the almost-sister, always-friend, possibly-lover of our great American poet.
Climbing to
reach the
costly Hearts
To which he
gave the worth,
He broke them,
fearing punishment
He ran away
from Earth –
One of the collections is the first you're shown on Amazon. It's edited by Thomas H. Johnson, the first scholar ever to publish Dickinson's poetry with its original wonky punctuation and capitalization.
This collection of letters is very good. It's annotated enough to give the reader a good sense of what's going on in Dickinson's life, so even if you haven't read a biography of her, you won't be lost. In fact, this collection could work as a bare-bones biography.
However, this collection of letters is a bit pricey -- $22.57 at the time of this writing, which is an odd number in every sense. In its listing, Amazon suggests another edition that's slightly cheaper -- $16.39. Both are paperback, so why not get the less expensive one?
The answer is: They're not the same collection.
This other edition is edited by Mabel Loomis Todd, who is described on the back of the book as "a close friend."
I find that an interesting description of a woman who never actually met Dickinson. "A close friend of whom?" seems a logical question in this case.
Which is where the story gets creepy.
Mabel Loomis Todd came to Amherst with her husband when he got a post as a professor at Amherst College. Dickinson's family was closely associated with the school – her grandfather was one of the original founders – and Dickinson's brother Austin and his wife Susan were among the first to welcome the Todds to town.
Mabel quickly learned of Emily Dickinson's existence, though at this point in her life Dickinson never left the house just next door to her brother's. Susan often read Dickinson's poetry to guests, and Mabel was intrigued by the woman the townspeople called "the myth."
Eventually, Mabel was invited over to Emily Dickinson's house to play the piano and sing. (In the days before recorded music, gifted amateur musicians were desirable social commodities, and Mabel was used to this sort of request.) Emily listened from another room. After Mabel's performance, Dickinson sent in a glass of sherry and a poem she'd written while listening.
And what was the poem about? The beauty of music? The singing of the birds that Dickinson was so fond of and mentions so often in her work?
Well, no. This poem marvels about the "fortitude" a soul must have
That it can so endure
The accent of a coming Foot –
The opening of a Door –
In other words, Dickinson had come to dread and detest the intrusion of visitors, and she had no qualms about saying so to this one.
Let's hope the sherry was good.
Mabel was more intrigued than ever by the woman she was already convinced was a genius. She and Dickinson exchanged some letters, but Dickinson never relented on her closed-door policy, no matter how bird-like Mabel attempted to make her music.
This was friendship, of a sort. But it didn't hold a candle to the bond between Dickinson and her sister-in-law Susan. They'd known and loved each other since before Susan accepted Austin Dickinson's proposal of marriage. Dickinson wrote more letters to Sue than she did to anyone else. She also saw Sue in person long after she'd given up other social contact.
Mabel was "close" to Austin Dickinson, however. Specifically, she had a long affair with the man who had married his current wife the year Mabel was born.
In the words of the immortal bard, ew.
This was nineteenth-century New England. Divorce and remarriage wasn't an option. Mabel was passionately in love with Austin, and she wanted to be part of his life somehow. More, she wanted some sort of sign that their relationship wasn't just a fling – it was a union blessed by the God who must have been talking about other people when he made that commandment against adultery.
Mabel couldn't be Austin's wife – couldn't even be the mother of his child, though she tried. But she could be the midwife to a great poet's career, and in that way have her name forever associated with the Dickinson family.
Title divine, is mine.
The Wife without the Sign –
as Emily Dickinson wrote.
The strange, twisted story of how Mabel Loomis Todd came to be the editor of Dickinson's poetry and letters is a tale for another review. The reason I bring it up now is this: if you buy that less expensive edition of Dickinson's letters – which is also the edition you'll be purchasing if you click on the Kindle option – you won't hear a thing about Austin's wife Susan. Mabel was furious at Sue for even existing, and then for having the nerve to cut Mabel socially once news of the affair broke. She couldn't kill Sue off and marry Austin the way she desperately wanted to. But she could do her damnedest to write her out of history.
If you buy the edition of letters Mabel edited, you won't see a single reference to Susan Gilbert Huntington Dickinson. Sue was Emily Dickinson's closest friend. She's said to have prepared Dickinson's body for burial (though some biographers dispute this). Certainly she wrote an eloquent obituary of her brilliant friend. She's mentioned by name in some poems. And, as I mentioned, Dickinson wrote more letters to her than to anyone else.
But Mabel did her best to pretend she'd never existed.
Ironically, the back of Mabel's edition of the letters mentions how reclusive Dickinson grew in her later years. She "seldom saw her many friends, [but] she thought of them often and affectionately. ...The small cast of daily characters in her little world takes on vivid life in the letters."
Well, yes. As long as you understand that a large country in that little world was erased from the map.
That damage isn't localized. Robert N. Linscott's Selected Poems & Letters of Emily Dickinson, an inexpensive volume often found on bookstore shelves, doesn't contain a single letter to Susan. Neither does the Everyman Pocket edition of Dickinson's letters, a pretty hardcover just begging to be given as a gift to that Dickinson fan in your life.
Nicely done, Mabel.
Open Me Carefully seeks to undo some of that damage.
In their introduction to this collection of letters, Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith make it clear that they consider these missives "romantic and erotic." I don't know if I agree that Dickinson had to have been in love with Susan in order to have written as she did. My own opinion – and I'm only an interested civilian – is that Dickinson was emotionally close to very few people; but those she loved, she adored. Certainly she was passionately fond of Susan.
I neither know nor care if that passion extended to anything physical, either in thought or in deed. I only know that it's an injustice both to Susan and to Dickinson to ignore or trivialize their relationship.
I was interested to learn that though Dickinson used conventional formal stationery with other correspondents, she wrote to Susan on whatever came to hand – "graph, scrap, and formal embossed paper of all sizes." That sort of casual intimacy is the equivalent of paying (or receiving) a visit barefoot, or in one's bathrobe. But it's not the kind of detail a reader can know unless the editor points it out.
Hart and Smith do something else I haven't seen other editors of Dickinson's letters do: they present her letters as they would have looked to the recipient. Not in her handwriting, although they do offer a few photos. But they follow the line breaks Dickinson made.
I found this artistically significant. Her early letters are in this respect perfectly conventional – they spread across the page as any letter would. But her late letters snake down the page, two or three words a line, looking like nothing so much as that "narrow fellow in the grass" she made the subject of one of her longer poems (one of the few published in her lifetime – but that's another story for another review). Seen this way, these late letters look less like correspondence and more like modern poetry. This, for instance, was written while Susan was visiting her sister in New York:
Without the
annual parting
I thought to
shun the
Loneliness that
parting ratifies.
How artfully
in vain!
Your Coffee
cooled un-
touched except
by random
Fly.
Compare that to William Carlos Williams' letter-poem "This Is Just To Say":
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
Dickinson may have been more ahead of her time artistically than she's yet been given credit for.
So this collection is important in that it attempts to restore not merely a crucial relationship, but some of Dickinson's artistry. Oh, and that cooling coffee makes it clear that contrary to what's been written elsewhere about Dickinson, she was still seeing Susan face-to-face in the 1870s.
There are also sweet personal touches one won't find in any collection of her poetry. In the 1850s, Emily sent this poem as a letter to Susan:
The morns are meeker than they were –
The nuts are getting brown –
The berry's cheek is plumper –
The Rose is out of town –
The Maple wears a gayer scarf –
The field – a Scarlet gown –
Lest I sh'd seem old fashioned
I'll put a trinket on!
I've loved this poem since I found it in a children's collection and read it to my very young son – we both laughed at the line about the rose being out of town. So I enjoyed learning that, as Smith and Hart point out in their note to this letter, "A yellowed ribbon that once held a flower is woven through this letter-poem. The paper is cut so that the ribbon, precisely trimmed, does not cover the text of the poem."
Anecdotes like this also make it clearer why Susan and Lavinia, Emily's sister, disagreed so strongly on what to do with Dickinson's poetry after her death. Lavinia wanted to follow the more conventional path of publication, including "correcting" Emily's spelling and punctuation and giving titles to the poems. Susan felt that this was ripping the poetry out of context. She struggled – and failed – to find a way to bring Dickinson's "letter to the world" in a way that was more authentic and less ironed-out.
It has taken years of patient scholarship to begin to undo the damage done to Dickinson's artistic legacy by Mabel Loomis Todd. I'm not being spiteful here. I understand that this was a long time ago, long before "Antiques Roadshow." But it's cringe-inducing to learn how Mabel eagerly took apart the booklets of poetry Dickinson sewed together by hand, and didn't bother keeping track afterwards of which poems had been stitched to which. It's maddening that the woman who supposedly recognized Dickinson's genius not only forced titles on those brilliant poems, but sometimes changed words in order to force rhymes.
If you buy an inexpensive volume of Dickinson's poetry, or see some in an old textbook, odds are good you're looking at Mabel's editing. Ironically, Dickinson's poetry as she wrote it won't be in the public domain any time soon, even though she died in 1886. Copyright has to do with what was published when, and Dickinson's poetry wasn't restored to its true self until well into the 20th century.
I mention this because Open Me offers the Dickinson lover not merely some wonderful letters, but also early drafts of poems. Dickinson was always sending Susan poetry – sometimes to bounce ideas off her, and sometimes to observe an occasion, whether that was a beautiful day or a shared grief.
I'll close this review with a letter-poem Emily wrote to Susan after the death of Susan's youngest son, Gib, at the age of eight. Both women adored him, and his death is thought by many biographers to have contributed to the final fatal decline in Dickinson's health. Not all of Dickinson's poems are so intimately tied to her personal life, but this collection makes it clear that many were, and many were written "for love of her," the almost-sister, always-friend, possibly-lover of our great American poet.
Climbing to
reach the
costly Hearts
To which he
gave the worth,
He broke them,
fearing punishment
He ran away
from Earth –
July 22, 2024
I don’t think I’m made for nonfiction because I couldn’t stop crying because this is real. These aren’t made up characters. Like wtf. NO. AND I KNOW THEY ARE NOW DEAD BUT STILL I CANNOT STOP CRYING NOW.
Best book ever
Best book ever
Read
June 19, 2023[john mulaney voice] i think emily dickinson was a lesbian
June 23, 2020
“You must let me
go first, Sue, because
I live in the Sea
always and know
the Road.
I would have drowned
twice to save
you sinking, dear,
If I could only
have covered your
Eyes so you would'nt
have seen the Water.”
How can anyone deny their love after reading these letters?
How can anyone go back to being a functional human being instead of a crying mess after reading this book?
No seriously: if you know tell me.
go first, Sue, because
I live in the Sea
always and know
the Road.
I would have drowned
twice to save
you sinking, dear,
If I could only
have covered your
Eyes so you would'nt
have seen the Water.”
How can anyone deny their love after reading these letters?
How can anyone go back to being a functional human being instead of a crying mess after reading this book?
No seriously: if you know tell me.
August 1, 2021
Emily Dickinson invented gay yearning
January 21, 2022
I hope Emily and Sue, wherever they are now, are able to see that their story is being told as it should have been from the beginning.
To Emily and Sue, forevermore!
To Emily and Sue, forevermore!
May 26, 2012
Considering myself less of a fan of poetry (in general) and more a fan of Emily Dickinson, the person, her thoughts and her life, I was completely enraptured by this piece of scholarly work. The editors' thesis was made plain throughout the book -- Emily and Susan were deeply devoted to one another throughout their lives. They spoke of everyday, emotional, spiritual, and literary matters and even collaborated in editing each others' poetry. The editors note that "in spite of the sheer volume of correspondence between Susan and Emily, and despite compelling evidence of an ongoing literary dialogue between the two women, the relationship between Emily and Susan has been neglected, distorted, and obscured." They posit that this is because of two cultural factors -- the view of the "Poetess" as tortured, delicate, and pining, and then perhaps the fear of mature, same-sex attraction that goes beyond the time's accepted ephemeral girl crush. (I rephrased the second point a bit.) Was Emily Dickinson in love with her brother's wife? We will never know. Conventions and language of the time period aside, I did find many of the letters and letter-poems to be delightfully provocative. Take, for example, this passage from one of the many early letters Emily wrote Susan while Susan was out of town:
"I hope for you so much, and feel so eager for you, feel that I cannot wait, feel that now I must have you -- that the expectation once more to see your face again, makes me feel hot and feverish, and my heart beats so fast -- I go to sleep at night, and the first thing I know, I am sitting there wide awake, and clasping my hands tightly, and thinking of next Saturday, and "never a bit" of you."
Also, as one who doesn't always "get" poetry, it pleased me greatly to read Emily's early correspondence, in which she plainly spelled out her feelings. I laughed out loud on multiple occasions. Allow me to make this review even longer by giving another example from the same letter:
"While the minister this morning was giving an account of the Roman Catholic system, and announcing several facts which were usually startling, I was trying to make up my mind w'h of the two was prettiest to go and welcome you in, my fawn colored dress, or my blue dress. Just as I had decided by all means to wear the blue, down came the minister's fist with a terrible rap on the counter, and Susie, it scared me so, I hav'nt got over it yet, but I'm glad I reached a conclusion!"
Having only limited knowledge about Dickinson's life prior to reading Open Me Carefully, I certainly learned a lot. Maybe she will always be pigeon-holed into the caricature of a brilliant but reclusive spinster by popular culture and even in classrooms, but I'm glad that this book exists for readers who, like me, desire to closely examine the life of a like-minded soul who found freedom of mind in solitude and the written word and who loved so passionately.
Later in their lives, as Emily became more prolific in her poetry-writing, the letters turned into letter-poems. I appreciate that the editors aimed to accurately portray the spacing and line breaks, although I find the thought of Dickinson only ever allowing herself a one-inch margin in which to write kind of hilarious. The fact that the cover of my copy is fading and the photographic insert in the middle of the book was bound completely upside down doesn't diminish my love. Thank you, ladies, for igniting my passion.
"I hope for you so much, and feel so eager for you, feel that I cannot wait, feel that now I must have you -- that the expectation once more to see your face again, makes me feel hot and feverish, and my heart beats so fast -- I go to sleep at night, and the first thing I know, I am sitting there wide awake, and clasping my hands tightly, and thinking of next Saturday, and "never a bit" of you."
Also, as one who doesn't always "get" poetry, it pleased me greatly to read Emily's early correspondence, in which she plainly spelled out her feelings. I laughed out loud on multiple occasions. Allow me to make this review even longer by giving another example from the same letter:
"While the minister this morning was giving an account of the Roman Catholic system, and announcing several facts which were usually startling, I was trying to make up my mind w'h of the two was prettiest to go and welcome you in, my fawn colored dress, or my blue dress. Just as I had decided by all means to wear the blue, down came the minister's fist with a terrible rap on the counter, and Susie, it scared me so, I hav'nt got over it yet, but I'm glad I reached a conclusion!"
Having only limited knowledge about Dickinson's life prior to reading Open Me Carefully, I certainly learned a lot. Maybe she will always be pigeon-holed into the caricature of a brilliant but reclusive spinster by popular culture and even in classrooms, but I'm glad that this book exists for readers who, like me, desire to closely examine the life of a like-minded soul who found freedom of mind in solitude and the written word and who loved so passionately.
Later in their lives, as Emily became more prolific in her poetry-writing, the letters turned into letter-poems. I appreciate that the editors aimed to accurately portray the spacing and line breaks, although I find the thought of Dickinson only ever allowing herself a one-inch margin in which to write kind of hilarious. The fact that the cover of my copy is fading and the photographic insert in the middle of the book was bound completely upside down doesn't diminish my love. Thank you, ladies, for igniting my passion.
May 6, 2022
"I love you as dearly, Susie, as when love first began"
This book is the best and worst thing that's ever happened to me.
This book is the best and worst thing that's ever happened to me.
June 5, 2020
Some of the sweetest sapphic letters I've ever had the privilege of laying my hands upon.
Read
June 10, 2021"The World / hath not / known her, but / I have known / her..."
Man. I want what Susan and Emily had.
Man. I want what Susan and Emily had.
Read
September 28, 2013so fabulous. hadn't read much of dickinson and didn't realize she was a queer mystic.
April 22, 2021
Be still, my sapphic heart
December 8, 2021
"Sweet Sue, there is no first or last in forever [...]"
A thoughtful collection of snatched moments from the life of Emily Dickinson. I read this with full lesbian tin-hat on and feel little shame in that; yet another legend spun through time that we shall never receive an answer to.
Lovers or not, Emily and Sue cared passionately for one another and I spent most of this book furiously wishing for love letters to return en vogue (the rest of the time was spent Googling allusions and big words).
The authors overviews at the start of each section were valuable. I would have liked more of the explanatory/exploratory footnotes throughout. Because I am dumb.
A thoughtful collection of snatched moments from the life of Emily Dickinson. I read this with full lesbian tin-hat on and feel little shame in that; yet another legend spun through time that we shall never receive an answer to.
Lovers or not, Emily and Sue cared passionately for one another and I spent most of this book furiously wishing for love letters to return en vogue (the rest of the time was spent Googling allusions and big words).
The authors overviews at the start of each section were valuable. I would have liked more of the explanatory/exploratory footnotes throughout. Because I am dumb.
December 24, 2024
Love always, and ever, and true!
December 29, 2024
One of the most beautiful, and tragic, love stories of all time. It's a great shame it did not have a happy ending. Emily clearly could not take what was happening in her later years and just disassociated from everything. Their bond still remained through that, however. I can't imagine the pain Emily must've felt on a daily basis seeing Susan with Austin. It boggles the mind.
Emily Dickinson remains one of my favourite humans who have ever lived.
The fact that scholars actually argued whether these two were in love, or just friends, is both hysterical and deeply frustrating. What Imbeciles.
Emily Dickinson remains one of my favourite humans who have ever lived.
The fact that scholars actually argued whether these two were in love, or just friends, is both hysterical and deeply frustrating. What Imbeciles.
August 23, 2022
A luminous portrait of Emily Dickinson as a wild, uncompromised spirit as revealed by her notes, letters and poems to Susan Huntington Dickinson, here emerging for the first time as a crucial presence in Emily's life. Friend, fellow avid reader and poet, confidante, soul mate, possibly lover, Susan was the one constant and passionate listener facing the word streams flowing from Emily's mind and heart, the one who was there up to the very end, arranging flowers as lines, notes and bird songs to fill the page of memory. Thanks to their precious editing and research work, Hart and Smith allow us to discover Emily's hidden personality, reversing the sexist image of the "hysterical" recluse of Amherst embittered by unrequited (and undoubtedly heterosexual) love and enraged by the baseness of a cruel world. Instead, these pages show us her love for life and poetry, her eagerness in finding the lucid compass of meaning in every vital (perhaps even sacred) spark and connection she had with the ones she loved, especially Susan, whom she compared to imagination itself. A must for Dickinson lovers and for poetry fans.
March 12, 2020
Prior to reading this book and seeing Wild Nights With Emily recently, I knew very little about Emily Dickinson, but I loved this beautifully put together book. I shouldn’t have been surprised to find out the extent of the censorship that occurred during the publication of her work after she died, but knowing they went to the trouble of erasing Susan’s name and/or changing it still managed to get a rise out of me. But how beautiful it was to get a glimpse into the relationship these two had.
”You asked would
I remain?
Irrevocably, Susan –
I know no
other way –”
”You asked would
I remain?
Irrevocably, Susan –
I know no
other way –”
April 15, 2022
Emily Dickinson remains a mystery. The pop-culture capsule view is that she was sexless, virginal, reclusive, and roamed her Amherst cemetery like a lonely ghost. Her poetry has always reflected otherwise. Its passion and lyrical propulsion complicate this vision, but scholars argue about who was Dickinson's true muse. Was it nature, the unknown "Master," or Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Massachusetts minister/abolitionist and literary correspondent to Dickinson? Ellen Louis Hart and Martha Nell Smith, Open Me Carefully editors say no. They claim the real muse in Emily's life was her friend and sister-in-law, Susan Huntington Dickinson.
Emily and Sue met as teens, when Susan visited a sister in Amherst. Within a couple years, Sue had moved to Amherst permanently. By the time the two were twenty (they were born within days of each other in 1830), they were spending a good deal of time together and writing when they weren't together. It was a correspondence and a friendship that would last at least 36 years.
In this collection of Emily's letters to Sue, which includes notes, poems, and "letter poems," the editors attempt to show the growth and deepening of a close relationship between the two women. From the opening letters, which contain effusions like this: "Susie, did you think that I would never write you when you were gone away--what made you? I am sure you know my promise far too well for that. . ." (10) to one of Dickinson's last known notes that says, "The tie between us is very fine, but a Hair never dissolves" (259), the two share a lifetime of experiences. They commented on each others' writings, they loved and teased and prepared food for the same family members. They debated religion, discussed flowers, exchanged books, and grieved over family deaths (especially Austin and Sue's youngest child Gilbert or "Gib," who died at 8 from typhoid fever). They lived next door to one another for thirty years. Certainly, their relationship grew and developed and was intimate. But was it quite "intimate?" The editors' use of the word "erotic" several times in the introductory information and scholarly notes sections (along with their use of the Imogen Cunningham photo of a jack in the pulpit flower on the cover)seems to suggest it. In fact, they say that Emily was, frankly, always in love with Sue.
I won't give away more, but if you're interested, particular things of note in the book are these: The authors attempt to show Emily's form as well as content--they bring us her unique punctuation style and postmodern lay out. (Dickinson would love digital technology, I think). It's also fascinating to have a better idea of her writing process, to see various drafts of some of the poems, and to learn that many began as letters to "Sister Sue."
Emily and Sue met as teens, when Susan visited a sister in Amherst. Within a couple years, Sue had moved to Amherst permanently. By the time the two were twenty (they were born within days of each other in 1830), they were spending a good deal of time together and writing when they weren't together. It was a correspondence and a friendship that would last at least 36 years.
In this collection of Emily's letters to Sue, which includes notes, poems, and "letter poems," the editors attempt to show the growth and deepening of a close relationship between the two women. From the opening letters, which contain effusions like this: "Susie, did you think that I would never write you when you were gone away--what made you? I am sure you know my promise far too well for that. . ." (10) to one of Dickinson's last known notes that says, "The tie between us is very fine, but a Hair never dissolves" (259), the two share a lifetime of experiences. They commented on each others' writings, they loved and teased and prepared food for the same family members. They debated religion, discussed flowers, exchanged books, and grieved over family deaths (especially Austin and Sue's youngest child Gilbert or "Gib," who died at 8 from typhoid fever). They lived next door to one another for thirty years. Certainly, their relationship grew and developed and was intimate. But was it quite "intimate?" The editors' use of the word "erotic" several times in the introductory information and scholarly notes sections (along with their use of the Imogen Cunningham photo of a jack in the pulpit flower on the cover)seems to suggest it. In fact, they say that Emily was, frankly, always in love with Sue.
I won't give away more, but if you're interested, particular things of note in the book are these: The authors attempt to show Emily's form as well as content--they bring us her unique punctuation style and postmodern lay out. (Dickinson would love digital technology, I think). It's also fascinating to have a better idea of her writing process, to see various drafts of some of the poems, and to learn that many began as letters to "Sister Sue."
July 16, 2024
5 ⭐️ this book genuinely means so much to me. it was the inspiration for my -forevermore! tattoo, which i love dearly. reading more dickinson poems gave me a renewed appreciation for the second half of this book. emily and sue were so in love, and their love will forever be memorialized in their writing. maybe i'm a hopeless romantic, but i can only dream of a romance as pure as theirs. :')
original review:
4 ⭐️ i LOVED the first section of this book. if the whole book had been like the first section it would have gotten 5 stars. emily’s letters to sue were so poetic and romantic. i would have liked to see more of sue’s letters to emily. i feel a little bad for emily because their interactions seemed very one-sided at times. however, i think that would have been less so if we had gotten more of sue’s perspective.
original review:
4 ⭐️ i LOVED the first section of this book. if the whole book had been like the first section it would have gotten 5 stars. emily’s letters to sue were so poetic and romantic. i would have liked to see more of sue’s letters to emily. i feel a little bad for emily because their interactions seemed very one-sided at times. however, i think that would have been less so if we had gotten more of sue’s perspective.
December 1, 2023
Hear me clearly now: the greatest to ever do it. I don’t even know what to say. I miss them.
April 24, 2024
(read for class) love through intimacy and poetic collaboration
“Be Sue, while
I am Emily —“
“Be Sue, while
I am Emily —“
February 24, 2022
throughout this book my only thought was:
it’s a damn shame and a damn injustice that Sue and Emily’s romance is amongst history erasures.
Why!? I can’t help but feel so frustrated reading Emilys poems and KNOWING they are written inspired by her “only woman in the world.” It was purely an act of erasure to try and persuade audiences that Emily was only a recluse with perhaps an aesexual identity. Frankly, it pisses me off; Emily’s poems should be taught/shown/read correctly and honestly.
What people don’t know is that Emily never published a poem on her own; she never desired fame or wealth. “I am a Nobody | Who are you”
But even then, this world tainted her writings after she died by erasing the most important muse: Sue Gilbert.
I’m glad I read this book. I love Emily and I love Sue and their letter poems to each other are heated, compassionate, innocent, mature, and as Emily would have thought “Immortal”
Please do them justice: 5/5
it’s a damn shame and a damn injustice that Sue and Emily’s romance is amongst history erasures.
Why!? I can’t help but feel so frustrated reading Emilys poems and KNOWING they are written inspired by her “only woman in the world.” It was purely an act of erasure to try and persuade audiences that Emily was only a recluse with perhaps an aesexual identity. Frankly, it pisses me off; Emily’s poems should be taught/shown/read correctly and honestly.
What people don’t know is that Emily never published a poem on her own; she never desired fame or wealth. “I am a Nobody | Who are you”
But even then, this world tainted her writings after she died by erasing the most important muse: Sue Gilbert.
I’m glad I read this book. I love Emily and I love Sue and their letter poems to each other are heated, compassionate, innocent, mature, and as Emily would have thought “Immortal”
Please do them justice: 5/5
March 19, 2021
It’s a beautiful and touching book. I consider the first section (it’s divided in four) to be the best one, because it’s the correspondance Emily and Sue kept during their twenties, and it’s filled with passion and ache for the other (half). Then from section 2 to 4 included we find a compilation of poems Emily sended, which I found less personal as Sue was mainly her advisor more than the purpose and destinatary of those poems.
However, between the darkness of all those poems that I didn’t understand or that just didn’t reached me, I was lucky enough to find sparkles of light, that eclipsed all possible doubts of not liking the book. Thus, maybe, it was meant to be this way, as when fewer the rose, more precious it is.
However, between the darkness of all those poems that I didn’t understand or that just didn’t reached me, I was lucky enough to find sparkles of light, that eclipsed all possible doubts of not liking the book. Thus, maybe, it was meant to be this way, as when fewer the rose, more precious it is.
July 28, 2024
their love makes everything seem small
February 3, 2023
Después de mil siglos lo terminé BFNSJDK 😭😭😭 Emily Dickinson lit era una lesbiana gen z viviendo en 1800 lol. Era chistosa, pero profunda. Enamorada de la muerte y demasiado culta e inteligente. Me demoré porque primero re flipaba cuando decía cosas wekis, y después porque sus poemas son demasiado épicos, y profundos, y perfectos, yyy lit todo lo que escribe es arte, y realmente escribía en poemas o letter-poems todo lo que pensaba y pasaba, y yo lo disfrutaba e intentaba entender todo jeje. Entenderla 100% es re complicado siu, no lo hice y dudo que haya alguien que la haya entendido así (probablemente solo Sue), y es que se necesita mucho contexto, además que a veces escribía en inglés antiguo, y también recordar que lit escribía poesía como le daba la gana en términos de puntuación y más haha. Sin embargoooo, no hay dudas de que es demasiado épica y cuando no la entendía, pensaba como mm okei, no hay que entender, hay que sentir ee.
Por otra parte, el trabajo de las editoras en este libro es 20/10. Lit es una recopilación de cartas y poemas de toda su vida, ordenado cronológicamente, con todos los detalles respecto de los escritos originales de Emily, también dando contexto a todo lo que esta hacía referencia en sus escritos (que literalmente era demasiada información porque metía a les lokites con les que convivía, metía partes de la biblia, diálogos de Shakespeare, referencias a autores y libros de esos tiempos, etc, etc), contextos que si no estaban específicados, realmente los poemas y cartas no se entendían nada. Hay demasiado esfuerzo y dedicación de parte de las editoras, se merecen todo.
En finn, amé mucho. Tiene cartas chistosas y tiernis, poemas de los temas recurrentes de Emily, cahuines familiares (algunos re turbios ah), letter-poems, y mucho amor de Emily a Sue y de Sue a Emily 😭💕 Espero que estas dos sagis hayan reencarnado y hayan tenido lo que merecían pero que su tiempo les quitó (aunque tuvieron cosas en - casi - secreto jeje)
EmiSue - forevermore!
Por otra parte, el trabajo de las editoras en este libro es 20/10. Lit es una recopilación de cartas y poemas de toda su vida, ordenado cronológicamente, con todos los detalles respecto de los escritos originales de Emily, también dando contexto a todo lo que esta hacía referencia en sus escritos (que literalmente era demasiada información porque metía a les lokites con les que convivía, metía partes de la biblia, diálogos de Shakespeare, referencias a autores y libros de esos tiempos, etc, etc), contextos que si no estaban específicados, realmente los poemas y cartas no se entendían nada. Hay demasiado esfuerzo y dedicación de parte de las editoras, se merecen todo.
En finn, amé mucho. Tiene cartas chistosas y tiernis, poemas de los temas recurrentes de Emily, cahuines familiares (algunos re turbios ah), letter-poems, y mucho amor de Emily a Sue y de Sue a Emily 😭💕 Espero que estas dos sagis hayan reencarnado y hayan tenido lo que merecían pero que su tiempo les quitó (aunque tuvieron cosas en - casi - secreto jeje)
EmiSue - forevermore!
November 2, 2021
"I shall think of you at sunset, and at sunrise, again; and at noon, and forenoon, and afternoon, and always, and evermore, till this little heart stops beating and is still. Emilie"
If one line had the duty of concisely delivering you a summary of this near-300 page emotional, loving, romantic journey, it would be that line resting atop page 29. It summarizes nearly everything you need to know about how Emily Dickinson felt about Sue Huntington Dickinson, their divine correspondence for decades, and the upmost love they shared equally for each other. This one line, in my opinion, encapsulates the whole picture of them, yet so, so, so many others do the trick, and that's what makes 'Open Me Carefully' such a treat. It almost feels like you are unworthy of its content, of its passionate words it gives on every single page with every single poem, letter, or letter-poem. You're stepping inside of the shoes of a woman who held such great love for another woman in a time where the full acceptance of queer people, their love, and their identity isn't even comprehensible. A time where intimate relationships with women were merely platonic and never romantic, which simply doesn't match the relationship we have here. A time where men and women married, women expected to be housewives, men the breadwinners and on the forefront of nearly everything, and yet Emily, and Sue, defy these societal contracts through the words (and actions of Emily) they shared.
Throughout the book, Martha Nell Smith and Ellen Louise Hart, the editors who did an extraordinary job with this work, will talk in rather brief detail about the people and things that attempted (one could say succeeded pretty well) to erase the love Emily had for Sue which was very prominent in her work. Sue was either Emily's muse or her reader of hundreds of Emily's poems, letters, or letter-poems, and to erase Sue, not just such an enormous part of Emily's work but of her life and relationships, is not only blatantly disrespectful to her words, her work, her legacy, but also a disservice to the honesty and meaning behind her work.
The one prominent name that comes up in regards to the erasure of Sue from Emily's work is Mabel Loomis Todd, an editor who was the first to get her hands on Emily's poems and publish them publicly, not to mention her affair with Austin Dickinson, Emily's brother and Sue's husband. It's important to note that Sue did not like Mabel (for obviously glaring reasons) and did not want her publishing Emily's poems, while Lavinia, Emily's sister, trusted Mabel with Emily's poems and believed in was in best interest to publish them. And so, they were published. A lot of them were. And all of them were published with this factually incorrect notion of who Emily Dickinson really was.
Mabel Loomis Todd tarnished the public image of Emily Dickinson and turned Emily into a figure with an entirely fictional image, the image that you're probably familiar with hearing in your classroom: a sexless virgin who stays inside of her room 24 hours a day-living in full isolation from the world around her-doesn't see anyone else, only writes and writes and maybe decides to do some more writing if she's up to it, and oh, writes very depressing ideas and death. And all of this is lies. Emily in fact got out a lot, was very sociable, had a humorous mark to her, and sure, she writes about some pretty depressing things, but she also wrote about nature, the world she saw around her, love, her love for Sue. She even had her gardening and would collect different types of flowers (her herbarium) (if you want to know more about her gardening, I highly suggest checking out 'Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Iconic Poet' by Marta McDowell).
Now why would Mabel want to do this? The short answer: jealously. Remember that affair I mentioned previously? Yeah, that comes in handy right about now. If Sue was going to "take" (can't take what you already have, eh?) Austin from Mabel, then Mabel would destroy Sue's life, and the only way she knew how to do that was to do it through Emily's work, someone, if the not the most important person, who Sue held so dear in her heart.
'Open Me Carefully' successfully and so lovingly erases the image painted of Emily Dickinson by Mabel into something so much more beautiful and truer to the poet you could ever imagine. This isn't just a book, it's a journey; a journey into the passion and love these two women shared for each other, and man, it's electric up until the end.
On numerous occasions throughout the book, Hart and Smith make it apparent that this correspondence between Sue and Emily is so much different compared to other correspondents Emily had throughout her life. One difference is the way Emily sent her poems to Sue. In contrast to others, Emily would send incomplete drafts to Sue for advice or revision, some of her poems would have a flower attached or a gift, and Emily would write on nearly any type of paper she could get her hands on, no matter the condition, which only gracefully shows the willingness she had to send things to Sue as quickly as she could because the actual content inside of these poems or letters was the only thing that mattered. This shows the intimacy and care they had for each other and Emily's work, and some things that Emily never did for others beside Sue.
The end: the one bad part about this book. In the end, Hart and Smith had decided to close this loving journey with Emily's obituary, written no other than Sue herself (something Mabel did not want to include the introduction of a book of Emily's poems). It's the most right ending to the book, to their relationship, to their journey.
This holy book is so, so, good. A sapphic treasure. A landmine of gold. It's intimate, passionate, loving, deep, whole, romantic, and all in between. If you want a better understanding of who Emily really was, who she loved fondly, her relationship with Sue, a queerer look into Emily, and a deeper look into Emily's work, pick up 'Open Me Carefully.' Hart and Smith do a fabulous job with this piece, something I've never seen before, and they execute it so perfectly. They carve the image of the true Emily Dickinson for you onto a silver platter, and just keep on serving you until you're full, and then you want more and more and more. It took me a little while to complete this book, partly because I didn't have a ton of time, and partly because I wanted to fully take it in and experience it all.
I'll end off this lengthy review and swooning with this, the last line or so of Emily's obituary:
How better note the flight of this "soul of fire in a shell of pearl" than by her own words-
Morns like these, we parted;
Noons like these, she rose;
Fluttering first, then firmer,
To her fair repose.
If one line had the duty of concisely delivering you a summary of this near-300 page emotional, loving, romantic journey, it would be that line resting atop page 29. It summarizes nearly everything you need to know about how Emily Dickinson felt about Sue Huntington Dickinson, their divine correspondence for decades, and the upmost love they shared equally for each other. This one line, in my opinion, encapsulates the whole picture of them, yet so, so, so many others do the trick, and that's what makes 'Open Me Carefully' such a treat. It almost feels like you are unworthy of its content, of its passionate words it gives on every single page with every single poem, letter, or letter-poem. You're stepping inside of the shoes of a woman who held such great love for another woman in a time where the full acceptance of queer people, their love, and their identity isn't even comprehensible. A time where intimate relationships with women were merely platonic and never romantic, which simply doesn't match the relationship we have here. A time where men and women married, women expected to be housewives, men the breadwinners and on the forefront of nearly everything, and yet Emily, and Sue, defy these societal contracts through the words (and actions of Emily) they shared.
Throughout the book, Martha Nell Smith and Ellen Louise Hart, the editors who did an extraordinary job with this work, will talk in rather brief detail about the people and things that attempted (one could say succeeded pretty well) to erase the love Emily had for Sue which was very prominent in her work. Sue was either Emily's muse or her reader of hundreds of Emily's poems, letters, or letter-poems, and to erase Sue, not just such an enormous part of Emily's work but of her life and relationships, is not only blatantly disrespectful to her words, her work, her legacy, but also a disservice to the honesty and meaning behind her work.
The one prominent name that comes up in regards to the erasure of Sue from Emily's work is Mabel Loomis Todd, an editor who was the first to get her hands on Emily's poems and publish them publicly, not to mention her affair with Austin Dickinson, Emily's brother and Sue's husband. It's important to note that Sue did not like Mabel (for obviously glaring reasons) and did not want her publishing Emily's poems, while Lavinia, Emily's sister, trusted Mabel with Emily's poems and believed in was in best interest to publish them. And so, they were published. A lot of them were. And all of them were published with this factually incorrect notion of who Emily Dickinson really was.
Mabel Loomis Todd tarnished the public image of Emily Dickinson and turned Emily into a figure with an entirely fictional image, the image that you're probably familiar with hearing in your classroom: a sexless virgin who stays inside of her room 24 hours a day-living in full isolation from the world around her-doesn't see anyone else, only writes and writes and maybe decides to do some more writing if she's up to it, and oh, writes very depressing ideas and death. And all of this is lies. Emily in fact got out a lot, was very sociable, had a humorous mark to her, and sure, she writes about some pretty depressing things, but she also wrote about nature, the world she saw around her, love, her love for Sue. She even had her gardening and would collect different types of flowers (her herbarium) (if you want to know more about her gardening, I highly suggest checking out 'Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Iconic Poet' by Marta McDowell).
Now why would Mabel want to do this? The short answer: jealously. Remember that affair I mentioned previously? Yeah, that comes in handy right about now. If Sue was going to "take" (can't take what you already have, eh?) Austin from Mabel, then Mabel would destroy Sue's life, and the only way she knew how to do that was to do it through Emily's work, someone, if the not the most important person, who Sue held so dear in her heart.
'Open Me Carefully' successfully and so lovingly erases the image painted of Emily Dickinson by Mabel into something so much more beautiful and truer to the poet you could ever imagine. This isn't just a book, it's a journey; a journey into the passion and love these two women shared for each other, and man, it's electric up until the end.
On numerous occasions throughout the book, Hart and Smith make it apparent that this correspondence between Sue and Emily is so much different compared to other correspondents Emily had throughout her life. One difference is the way Emily sent her poems to Sue. In contrast to others, Emily would send incomplete drafts to Sue for advice or revision, some of her poems would have a flower attached or a gift, and Emily would write on nearly any type of paper she could get her hands on, no matter the condition, which only gracefully shows the willingness she had to send things to Sue as quickly as she could because the actual content inside of these poems or letters was the only thing that mattered. This shows the intimacy and care they had for each other and Emily's work, and some things that Emily never did for others beside Sue.
The end: the one bad part about this book. In the end, Hart and Smith had decided to close this loving journey with Emily's obituary, written no other than Sue herself (something Mabel did not want to include the introduction of a book of Emily's poems). It's the most right ending to the book, to their relationship, to their journey.
This holy book is so, so, good. A sapphic treasure. A landmine of gold. It's intimate, passionate, loving, deep, whole, romantic, and all in between. If you want a better understanding of who Emily really was, who she loved fondly, her relationship with Sue, a queerer look into Emily, and a deeper look into Emily's work, pick up 'Open Me Carefully.' Hart and Smith do a fabulous job with this piece, something I've never seen before, and they execute it so perfectly. They carve the image of the true Emily Dickinson for you onto a silver platter, and just keep on serving you until you're full, and then you want more and more and more. It took me a little while to complete this book, partly because I didn't have a ton of time, and partly because I wanted to fully take it in and experience it all.
I'll end off this lengthy review and swooning with this, the last line or so of Emily's obituary:
How better note the flight of this "soul of fire in a shell of pearl" than by her own words-
Morns like these, we parted;
Noons like these, she rose;
Fluttering first, then firmer,
To her fair repose.
August 10, 2021
literary sapphic ecstasy
November 4, 2024
It took a little getting used to, reading only one side of the letters- but when it’s Emily Dickinson you’re reading, that’s not exactly a downside.
Her affectionate words were such a joy especially after being taught she was a virginal hermit her whole life. She was vibrant and witty and in love.
Her affectionate words were such a joy especially after being taught she was a virginal hermit her whole life. She was vibrant and witty and in love.
September 6, 2024
such beautiful letters and poems. very emotional.
October 11, 2024
after two years... SLAY EMILY AND SUE!!
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