After Emily
Subtitle: two remarkable women and the legacy of America's greatest poet
By: Julie Dobrow
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 426
ISBN-13: 9780393249262
Subjects: Friends and associates
Description: "The untold story of the mother and daughter who opened the door to Emily Dickinson's poetry. Emily Dickinson may be the most widely read and beloved of all American poets, but the story behind her work's initial, posthumous publication in 1890 and the mother-and-daughter team most responsible for her enduring legacy are barely known. After Emily recounts the extraordinary lives of Mabel Loomis Todd and her daughter, Millicent Todd Bingham, and the powerful literary legacy they shared. Mabel's complicated relationships with the Dickinsons--including her thirteen-year extramarital affair with Emily's brother, Austin--roiled the small town of Amherst, Massachusetts. Mabel and Austin's love led to her work with Emily Dickinson's poetry, which inspired both Mabel's life and her daughter's, and fed controversies over the poetry's promotion, editing, and ownership. Julie Dobrow has unearthed hundreds of primary sources to tell this compelling narrative and reveal the surprising impact Mabel and Millicent had on the Emily Dickinson we know today"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: "One fine day in May" (1886); title: Arriving in Amherst (1856/1881); title: Meeting and courting the Dickinsons (1881/1882); title: Soaring love and seething tensions (1883/1894); title: Dickinsonian inspiration (1883/1893); title: Lingering puritanism and Millicent's sensibilities (1884/1897); title: Embracing Emily's poems (1886/1897); title: Losing Austin, finding Mabel (1895/1904); title: Suing the "Queen of Amherst" (1897/1898); title: Traveling and travails (1899/1917); title: "Sincerely, Joe Thomas" (1918/1919); title: Fighting to define Emily Dickinson (1920/1929); title: Bringing lost poems to light (1930/1939); title: Dealing with Dickinsoniana" (1940/1955); title: Battling over Emily's Papers (1946/1959); title: Seeking closure and meaning (1960/1968); title: Unpacking the camphorwood chest; title: Sorting through the clutter.