The Life of Emily Dickinson

by Richard Benson Sewall

The life of Emily Dickinson, Richard B. Sewall's monumental biography of the great American poet (1830-1886), won the National Book Award when it was originally published in two volumes. Now available in a one-volume edition, it has been called "by far the best and most complete study of the poet's life yet to be written, the result of nearly twenty years of work" (The Atlantic).

R.W.B. Lewis has hailed it as "a major event in American letters," adding that "Richard Sewall's biographical vision of Emily Dickinson is as complete as human scholarship, ingenuity, stylistic pungency, and common sense can arrive at."

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

821 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1974

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all the biographies of writers and thinkers that I have read and considered over decades, this particular narrative is among the most highly successful. Biographical narrative rarely moves me to tears. This one does. And for many reasons: the simplicity, elegance, beauty of Sewall's narrative strategy and design, the steadfastness of his pursuit of ED, the clarity of his conception of the development of ED's inner life and its relationships to the behaviors that others could observe, its completeness, wholeness, unity, his cautions, the lucidity of his prose, and on and on. So far as I can tell, at the moment, one need read only Sewall and Wineapple ("White Heat") in order to know as much of ED's experience as we're likely ever to know - or need.

But that thought raises many questions about the purpose and scope of successful literary biography: What are the minimum, essential contents of a "successful" literary biography? At what point of accumulation of information, interpretation and synthesis does literary biography become "successful" and sufficiently complete? At what point is the question valid: for what purpose would one continue to accumulate, document and interpret additional detail? How can a biographer sense or know when he has established that content? To what evidentiary standard(s) does that content rise? What gaps, silences, uncertainties remain? What is one to do with these gaps, silences and uncertainties? And on and on. I am beginning to formulate for myself clear answers to those questions, and Sewall's work would serve as a proof text that I would adduce in any defense of my conclusions - if I ever reach final conclusions, which I hope never to reach. [Remember, John: Thou shalt not believe what thou thinkest.]

Regarding Sewall's narrative strategy and design.
Sewall's narrative strategy and design possesses two elements - it appears to me now, at this moment: (1) establishing the context in which the trajectory of ED's experience was at all possible, i.e. the Dickinson family, and (2) making that life course/trajectory apparent, as he ever so cautiously describes her character, personality, emotional makeup, drives, decisions, actions as they develop/transpire over the span of her life.

In its original format Sewall's biography appeared in two volumes. The first volume narrates the history of the Dickinson family, ED's generation and the two or three generations of Dickinsons who preceded her. [ED is born in the first chapter of volume two, chapter 15, p. 321.] Its messages are that (1) although ED claimed that her "country was Truth," she was altogether a citizen of the Dickinson family [to borrow one of William James' comments regarding his brother Henry - if I remember correctly] and (2) the particular life course that included her achievements as a poet was possible only through the freedom, solitude and money other members of her immediate family allowed and provided [Think Virginia Woolf]. He seems to be guided by the observations that Higginson, Austin and Vinnie Dickinson recorded, namely that
(1) the Dickinsons were not a family in the conventional sense, but rather an assembly of absolute monarchs, each of whom governed an independent domain, joined in a confederation of monarchies that operated rather uneventfully and, in the main, relatively happily (Higginson)
(2) ED was the only one of them built to think, the only one of them who had that work to do (Vinnie)
(3) ED's withdrawal and seclusion was altogether "natural," entirely predictable - given her gifts, powers of mind and imagination - and consequently accepted and encouraged - of course - within that assembly of independent, absolute monarchs (Austin).

In his second volume Sewall gives his narrative of ED's life and work. As a citizen of the Dickinson family (and absolute monarch within that confederation of monarchies) the self-erasure, self-obliteration that small-minded, altogether limited, petty and conventional "persons" demanded of her as a price for "acceptance" as "normal" was unthinkable - and quite unnecessary. Those conventional "persons" were not human in any full sense of the designation (I say) but rather complex configurations of putrescent organic matter that assumed humanoid form for a time, all along more or less ripe for composting. [And these are the "persons" who define a "normality" that can only revolt those who are truly and fully human.].

Sewall would never state that he had delineated ED's "life course" - he would never make such a bald-faced claim as that - in so many words. "Perhaps" appears more frequently in Sewall's biography that any other word other than Dickinson. One example (p. 479) among hundreds: "This is a tempting interpretation, and it may be valid. But other possibilities cannot be excluded." Sewall seems constitutionally incapable of composing a single specimen of Megan Marshall's bogus "must haves" [quite as if she had appropriated and taken possession of the inner lives of Elizabeth Peabody or Margret Fuller as personal property. You haven't, Dr. Marshall, and by the way, no number of Pulitzer prizes will ever convey title. But I do hope you enjoy the proceeds and the perquisites nonetheless.]. Yet he does delineate a life course, all his caveats and disclaimers notwithstanding, and for me his account is all the more persuasive for them.

In addition, he illuminates certain states of ED's inner life over the course of her life through his presentation and analyses of the letters that ED exchanged (and the poems she penned for them or poems that she composed at approximately the same time she wrote certain letters) with significant figures in her life over its span. A particularly prudent strategy given that he only has letters and poems as direct evidence of ED's experience, from her own hand. Obviously, evidence of this kind is particularly difficult to interpret in the case of ED, who assumed so many poses, presented herself in so many different guises that together reflect the extraordinary range of relationships - and the persona she presented in each - that were very important to her at one point in her life or another. And she communicated her thoughts and experience in symbols and metaphors - imagery - that stood for events and conditions, which she never explained, so that one wonders if even the addressees could decipher her meaning. A very tricky undertaking - that.

[An aside that I can't resist: my mother was a chameleon as well. On her eightieth birthday the celebration brought together persons who were acquainted with utterly different persona, and she knew it. The only occasion I ever witnessed my mother squirm and stutter - much to my amusement.]

So what Sewall has given us is a context and a life course/a trajectory (within that context) along which he hangs certain "moments of being" that illuminate states of ED's inner life during each of these moments - of course with all the cautions he can imagine (and they are legion) that outline plausible alternatives to his characterizations. In this sense his respect for his sources - and ED - as in "Who am I to contain ED?" - never flags, not for a paragraph or even a sentence that I can discern.

I'm tempted to summarize Sewall's description of ED's life course. But I won't, I think, because others who read and consider my comments might be tempted to confuse my list of stages with the Truth of ED's life, and consequently never to read Sewall's astonishingly successful biography - and that would represent a terrible mistake and an unforgivable wrongdoing.

[Elaine Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many stereotypical impressions existed about Emily Dickinson during her lifetime (in her 30s the citizens of Amherst began calling her "The Myth"), and many continue to exist to the present time. The truth is she was far too complicated to pinpoint any particular label on--and this 800+ page book, which entailed many years of research to write, is probably the best way to even approach getting to know her. You will not know her when you finish the book, but you will have a different and fuller understanding of her than when you began.

To wit, Emily Dickinson had a very rich family life. She did not need to travel far for companionship and love. She was a loyal correspondent and carried this on with many friends, lovers and relatives over the years. She would often include a poem or two in her letters to them. As the Dickinsons were the most prestigious family in Amherst, many visitors came to the home. There were numerous servants all about, animals, neighborhood children. It was an active home, and Emily loved it.

She was highly educated, she spoke many languages and she was well read. She especially admired the poetry of Elizabeth Browning and the fiction of George Eliot. She was well acquainted with the works of Shakespeare and the Bible. Emerson and Thoreau were even visitors to the Dickinson home.

Emily Dickinson fell in love several times, deeply and passionately. She did not hide it and she was very expressive of it. The early suitors of both Emily and her sister, Vinnie (the exact opposite of Emily, a practical extravert), appear to have been discouraged by her father. It did not seem he was at all anxious to see his daughters married.

There is a mother who floats through the narrative, but one never gets to know her. It does not seem that anyone in the Dickinson family (possibly with the exception of her husband) knew her either. She was not cold or mean or abusive. She was just timid and vacant. Likely she never even got to know herself.

Emily was closest to her brother, Austin, who lived next door with his wife and family (though there was a breach and the families did not even visit for years). His wife, Sue, was a very strange woman and one cannot help but feel that for Austin the marriage was a mistake and a lifelong burden to him. In his early 40s he met the wife of a professor, Mabel Todd Bingham, and the two became lovers with the consent of her husband. One doesn't know what Sue's attitude was towards the affair, or how she tolerated it. But Mabel Todd Bingham was responsible for the adept translation of Emily Dickinson's poetry that her sister, Vinnie, brought to her after her death.

So you see, though Emily never left her father's house beginning in her middle years, her life was still very active. After the failure of a deep love, she did find another that was returned in full force and affection.

She was rarely published, and the poems that were published were altered by male editors and given titles Emily never applied to them. Basing their judgments on the Victorian standard of meter, rhyme and content, her poems were not valued except by Helen Hunt Jackson who recognized her genius. But she was to die before she was successful in persuading Emily to submit them to the right publishers.

Why did she wear white in later years? That question is still unanswered. She did associate the color with the holy, e.g., the white raiment of John the Baptist, but she was not conventionally religious. Unlike the townspeople and family, she never joined a church. She said she lived for love and poetry. And that is what she did.

I don't know of a better way to get to know her, yet not to know her, than this book.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carefully researched. I depended on this book when I was the villain in the film on E.D., "A Loaded Gun," directed for PBS by James Wolpaw (2002). It may have been surpassed by Alfred Habegger's "My Wars are Laid away in Books." For one thing, why not use a title from Dickinson, which so many non-Dickinsonians do, like my friend C. Binns Lindsay, "Such a Rare Thing" (for his book on Sherwood Anderson). But Sewall certainly follows the Ellmann model of exhaustive biographical research.

[Richard Osborn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always loved the poetry of Emily Dickinson, but without ever having delved into her life or made an extensive exploration of her work. I was inspired to go these extra miles after seeing the recent biopic, “A Quiet Passion”. The movie was elegant and physically beautiful, and Cynthia Nixon’s performance excellent. But the portrayal of Emily seemed skewed, extreme, and my impaired hearing could only catch about a third of the quiet, almost breathless recitation of some of her poems. Had the movie done her justice as a person? In my opinion it had failed miserably to do justice to her poetry. So much of the movie was shot inside, mostly dark interiors. OK, I got it. At least as viewed from the OUTSIDE, Emily’s life was all interior and claustrophobic. But she didn’t live it that way, and why not then have the poetry written across the darkened screen in a broad font, through which one could see ever-unfolding landscapes of clouds, flowers, birds, carriages, seas, legends, etc. which Emily used to express the grandeur of her interior life…..

Which brings me to Richard B. Sewall’s masterful “The Life of Emily Dickinson”. This is a BIG book, over 700 pages, crammed with extensive footnotes and appendices. I rarely go for (or complete, when I do) very long books, rarely examine extensive footnotes. But from the very first, Sewall’s writing grabbed me, and I found the narrative completely fascinating and gripping on many, many levels and at every one of the many turns it takes. Naturally, part of the book’s hold on me is because I grew up in a dysfunctional family, and am myself a creative type and a loner and outsider.

So, by turns, Sewall examines Emily’s family in its New England and Protestant roots, in the historical sweep of the time and the culture that surrounded them. He looks into the dynamics of a somewhat dysfunctional family, with peculiar members on each side, centered on a charismatic and somewhat autocratic father, and which later developed a hostile if cold war between two sides of the family for over 15 years while living within yards of each other. By turns, he looks into the powerful men who entered her life (and examines which might have been the mysterious lover Emily writes about) and her rich relations with women. Sewall doesn’t hesitate to bring in various theories about Emily from the world of Dickinson biographers, as he turns the subject of the creative personality over and under and inside out and finds ways to let Emily’s own writings bring light into her dark, outsider personality.

All along the way, Sewall ties his observations and scholarly illuminations to the poetry itself: if you get grabbed by this book, you will want to have a copy of the complete poems nearby. Your appreciation of her absolutely unique approach to poetry, kind of like zen telegrams, will grow deeper, when you see it placed in the context of New England hymnals and literary figures who spoke and thought in aphorisms….. Oh yes, and I found that my digital version of the Oxford English Dictionary assisted many times in understanding her wide vocabulary and use of words, many of which have somewhat altered their meanings in 150 years. Like me, you may also be led back to Shakespeare’s plays, or look into small unknown writings that informed Emily’s thinking. … A gift that keeps on giving.

The book was one of the most moving literary journeys I have taken. Oh, and you may ask, what was my conclusion about the movie “A Quiet Passion”? It’s a beautiful movie, but did in fact seem to miss the whole point of Emily’s life because it looked at her from the outside. It portrays her as fey, neurasthenic and cranky, suffering from some extreme ailment that then made her a trial for others, all of which then abandons the question of why then so many people fiercely and deeply loved and defended her, and how the cloistered poet wrote so stirringly of the entire universe and beyond, and has inspired such passionate devotion by her readers ever since.

[erich · Rating 5 out of 5]

ну что сказать кроме того что это супер обзор вообще всего корпуса текстов дикинсон и про дикинсон а я больше никогда не буду тянуть с чтением 800-страничной научной книжки на английском ожидая что она волшебным образом сама прочитается за неделю (я прочла последние триста страниц за сутки и теперь ненавижу буквы)

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! A comprehensive biography of one of America’s best poets (alongside Whitman of course) that was absolutely eye opening. She was so much more interesting and full of life than the myth of the recluse dressed in white. Loved this! My first but certainly not last biography of our poet Emily Dickinson.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure why I stuck with this, other than having started the thing, I was determined to see it through. As feats of scholarship go, this two-volume biography is surely in a class by itself. I can't imagine how long it took to compile, organize and interpret all this information. It's not the author's fault that his subject is essentially unknowable:

The whole truth about Emily Dickinson will elude us always; she seems almost willfully to have seen to that.

Nor is it the author's fault that what remains is often quite sad:

...she seems always to have been grateful to anyone who would spark a poem in her or inspire a letter. At first it was...any of the young people, male and female, she wrote to with almost equal intensity. Later she turned to people of a quite different sort, most of them impossibly out of her reach...

There's something heartbreaking about this reclusive woman inundating her correspondents with so many letters and poems. Surely many of them felt overwhelmed by it—and by her—and that's heartbreaking too.

I guess after all those hundreds of pages, I mostly came away with a greater appreciation of her poetry, and that makes the reading worthwhile:

He ate and drank the precious Words -
His Spirit grew robust -
He knew no more that he was poor,
Nor that his frame was Dust -

He danced along the dingy Days
And this Bequest of Wings
Was but a Book - What Liberty
A loosened spirit brings -

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genius is lonely. Emily Dickinson didn’t have just one “love disappointment,” she had several. And the world disappointed her, as it largely failed to understand her and her poetry in her own lifetime.

Sewall carefully analyzes her environs, her important relationships, and her cultural influences. He is reticent to land on a verdict, as we have only a fraction of her total correspondence, and much of that is one-sided, and as her papers were destroyed immediately following her death.

This book is essential reading for any serious Dickinson scholar, and for anyone interested in the epitome of the biographical craft. Sewall’s treatment is simply the most thorough, the most fair, of any I have ever read.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Volumes I & II combined was lengthy but so well written, researched, and constructed I think I'd be happy to go over it all again, and probably will, as an excellent companion piece to the study of Dickinson. She becomes a person, a Poet, and an intellect with a sense of humor matched with serious zeal for poetry and Life. Forget that stuff of myths.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This huge book is more suited to the literature student, than the casual reader.

[John Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, first off, if there is someone putting together an ark of things to keep from Earth, my top three contenders to be included are Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, and Emily Dickinson.

Having said that, I am also forced to concede I was kind of disappointed in this book. It's been touted as the biography of Dickinson, and there is definitely a lot to admire, I had hoped to know her better for having read the book. And I didn't. Actually, Susan Howe's My Emily Dickinson is a much more insightful and (haha) shorter treatment.

The good
It debunks some of the mythology surrounding ED as secluded and isolated
It's exhaustively researched and expansively written.
It focuses (mostly) on important people in her life and their influence on her.
The version I read had both volumes in one book.
I learned that Emily Dickinson had a dog (Carlo)

The bad
By focusing on people, it was difficult to keep the chronology straight. For example, her mother died just four years before Emily did, yet the text makes it seem like she was not around for most of Emily's life.
There's a lot of research, but honestly, some of it is kind of a stretch. Like the author made conclusions about people and events based on the recollections of the grandchildren in 1972.
It leans toward being gossipy.
Pet peeve - extensive footnotes - like pages long - would have been better incorporated into the narrative or presented as endnotes.

But worst of all is the author's constant assertion that a) Dickinson needed some sort of romantic outlet in her life and b) that outlet had to b) heterosexual. Here's a quote " Perhaps it was the woman in her, perhaps it was simply a basic human need, but for all her life Emily Dickinson needed an object, a person, on whom she could focus her creative powers." Oy.

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Firstly, this is not really a biography, it is a academic study. I would recommend another book for a biography, not sure which one, but it’s bound to be shorter.
I’m glad that I speed read these long books because I’d never get through them otherwise.
The writing is far too academic and uninteresting for me. I thought initially that Emily Dickinson may be « on the spectrum », but I decided that if you’re an introvert and you lived in a tight knit smallish town, then yes, you might want to escape from too much intrusion. And in her letters she writes very much as a poet, in fact an uber poet! She’s very hard to understand.
Very heroic that I finished this book.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating biography of Emily Dickinson. I learned a lot more about the relationships between Emily D. and her immediate family and her friends. She really was much more connected to many people and was not the recluse I first assumed. She wrote numerous letters and cared about many, many people. The relationships with her sister-in-law Susan Dickinson and others was painfully depicted as was Lavinia's relationship with Sue Dickinson and her childred. The book was long but so worth reading. I read the footnotes with great interest. I highly recommend this biography.

[atito · Rating 5 out of 5]

i have reservations--the affinity (bias really) towards the todds, the ultimately sexist readings of select portions, the lack of any insight into gardens/plants for her poetics (?!!!)--but also this has been one of the most "revealing" reading experiences. i feel as if some of life's greatest mysteries have been illuminated a tad more--that my mysteries were her life for a long time and maybe even more too. lodged in me will be parts of this forever. at last i think i have become a student (i have supposedly been one all my life). but im learning the practice anew

[Mark Babcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the magnum opus on the life of Emily Dickinson. She is the proto-modernist of poetry in the United States. Co-equal with Walt Whitman. Thanks to Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson for preserving and publishing Dickinson posthumously. Can you imagine losing one of the greatest poets for lack of being published in her lifetime? How many great poets were never recognized because of their obscurity. A must read for poets and readers of poetry.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating read, as much for the rich detail about the time. As about the life of the intriguing poet. although some of the assertions in the book, have since been credibly questioned, there is much here that should not be missed by fans of Emily Dickinson. additionally, to me, the book made the second half of the 19th century, seem less like a fuzzy sounding wax cylinder, and more like it happened in a much more accessible, although still sealed-off, next room.

[Gail DiVico · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the audible format of Emily Dickinson's life and several readings of her poems. A short listen but very informative and gives a good overall view of her life. Highly recommend this one. Emily fans will adore - so will those who have not had the pleasure of getting acquainted with her.

[Janina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. There was some good stuff in it, but the author definitely got bogged down by the analysis of Dickinson's poetry. I know I know she's a poet and there is much we can glean from her writing, but I wanted less speculation and more facts.

[Mary Pace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detailed biography of Emily Dickinson. Sewall builds her profile around the people who were a part of ED’s life using written letters, articles, and other artifacts, and connecting the dots to what happened in ED’s timeline. Great, detailed read for ED enthusiasts.

[Ezri Baedeker · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a big book, I want to finish it, help me to understand some more about Dickinson’s poetry.

[Jay Carraway · Rating 5 out of 5]

The standard -- and excellent -- Dickinson biography. The Amherst attic, Thomas Higginson (her non-editor at The Atlantic Monthly), the horrible Mabel Loomis Todd, who burned Dickinson's journals, and left her emotional life a mystery forever. A wonderful, text-enhancing book.

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dense and academic, but so expansive, in-depth, and balance, how could you not love it?

[Dody · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most amazing biography.

[Robertscholar777 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best Historical book on Emily bio

[Hapzydeco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sewall puts a light on Dickinson's life.

[Stephen Murley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent! A must read for any Dickinson fan!

[Mary Narkiewicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

a great and important bio of ED. Have read several times.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant

[Hope Shutt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read chapters 2,8,9,19,20,22,23,28

[Kate]

Mentioned in A Shadow in the Garden: A Biographers’ Tale by James Atlas