Evening star., 1951-12-30
New Biography of
Emily Dickinson
Is Down to Earth
EMILY DICKINSON

EMILY DICKINSON
BY Richard Chase. American
Men of Letters Series. (Wil-
liam Sloane, 81
Reviewed by Mary MeGrory
AS a poet Emily Dickinson
has few equals in American lit
erature; as an eccentric person.
ality she has none. Because of
her genius and because of her
elusiveness-she made a "virtue
of frugality"A "Aplaywrights and
biographers have been consist
emily and irresistibly tempted
to fathom the events and mo-
tives that led to that 30-year,
white-clad retirement, from
which she composed her letter
to the world"
Richard Chase differs from
her most recent biographer Re-
becca Patterson, THE Riddle of
Emily Dickinson") in that he
accepts Emily's unusual behav-
ior. Instead of rif1ing through
her life for causes, he seeks
and. to a good measure, finds
them in her century, in her
New England background and
Puritan environment.
Actually, he does little to en-
large our understanding of the
woman, although the descrip-
ton of her girlhood is excellent.
This is a profile of the poets
mind. a painstaking investiga-
tion into the literary. cultural
and social influences which
shaped her art.
What he does do-and this is
a kindness to Emily and her
admirerS-iS to place her eerie
behavior in the context of 18th
century New England, a time
which did not share our own
passion for conformity and
which saw many a spinster or
widow make a cult of child
hood or Of death. Mary Moody
Emerson. Ralph Waldo's aunt,
for instance, slept in a coffin
Says Mr.. Chase, himself a New
Englander:: Like other New Eng
land towns, Amherst had it's
characters, and the willingness
or desire to be known as
character shows, at least, a
commendable impulse to lend
drama and color to an other
wise monotonous existence"
Further on he speaks with
admirable insight of Emily's
tendency to play the coquette
with her friends with the cul-
ture In which she lived. and
with posterity." From this, to
some extent. came the freakish-
ness of sending out a clover on
a salver to rejected caller, of
greeting a friend with two lilies
and saying. These will serve as
NV iptrodI1ctjop -
1t is easy to laugh at such
goings-on. but is is wiser to go
along with Mr.. Chase, who
thinks she knew exactly what
she was doing all the time, cul-
tivating her seclusion to protect
her art. She had. it is we'll to
remember, a tremendous sense
of humor.
In discussing the poetry, Mr..
Chase brings a rather formi-
dable academic attitude and
vocabulary to bear on Emily's
tensile stanZas. He admits that
her intellectual bent is intui-
tive and radically realistic" but
proceeds anyway to the task
of studying the philosophical
background of her work;
burned-out Calvinism, stoicism,
with q dash of transcenden-
talism and romanticism. He
grades her poetry, so to speak,
and compares her achievement
with that Of her contemporaries
and the immortals.
Actually, the dissection is not
altogether rewarding. Emily
Dickinson had no formal
theories Of art or life. This is
how she herself spotted poetry:
IF I feel physically as if the
top Of my head were taken of,
know that is poetry"
That is precisely what the
best Of her own poetry does.
and given its stunning plain
ness. there is little use to
analyze.