A genuis unrecognized in her lifetime, Emily Dickinson is now acknowledged as America's most original poet. Because she never married and rarely went outside her house in the last twenty years of her life, biographers and critics are interested in her mysterious private life and make many speculations about her sexuality and reclusivity. In the following interview, Lyndall Gordon (the author of Lives Likfe Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson & Her Family's Feuds) talks about the possibility that Dickinson may have been elipeptic, Dickinson's relationship with her brother, her sister-in-law, and her posthumous legacy. Listen carefully and use 200-250 words to write down anything that inspires you. from npr.org (Fresh Air; July 6, 2010)
A week after Emily Dickinson died in 1886, her younger sister Lavinia opened drawers in the reclusive poet's bedroom and found a veritable treasure trove: nearly 1,800 poems, meticulously crafted by Dickinson during her lifetime.
But the discovery of the poems set off a multi-generational family feud within the Dickinson family over the poet's posthumous publication and her legacy. Writer Lyndall Gordon, a senior research fellow at St. Hilda's College, Oxford, describes the fight between Dickinson's sister-in-law Susan, and Susan's husband's mistress, Mabel Loomis Todd, in a new biography of Dickinson, Lives Like Loaded Guns.
"It would have seemed natural to everyone that Susan, who had been Emily Dickinson's support as a poet and keenest reader, should be the one to edit and publish the poems," Gordon tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "[But] after Emily Dickinson's death, she sent a poem to the foremost New York editor of the day, Richard Watson Gilder ... [and] he rejected Emily Dickinson's poem."
Nine months later, Mabel Loomis Todd — the mistress of Emily Dickinson's brother Austin — took matters into her own hands. Every few days, she typed up several of Dickinson's poems and started to send them to publishers. And she was successful: Four years after Dickinson's death, the first volume of her poetry was published.
Todd heavily edited Dickinson's poems, Gordon says. It wasn't until 1955, when Thomas H. Johnson published the Complete Poems, that Dickinson's writings were published without alteration from the manuscript versions.
Gordon says that several of those unaltered poems offer clues about why Dickinson rarely left her home: She may have had epilepsy. Several of her poems touch on a handicap — and, Gordon says, certain lines within those poems indicate that Dickinson may have had spells.
"I think that we have no way of knowing for certain," Gordon says. "But if it's true, it would explain everything. If there was this stigma associated with epilepsy, the best solution for her would have been for her to remain in what she called 'my father's house.' ... She was protected by her father and by her sister Lavinia. She had a comfortable room. She had the time and space to write poetry. If she had married, she would have had babies every year and many more domestic duties."
Lyndall Gordon has previously written biographies of T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Charlotte Bronte and Mary Wollstonecraft.
23 comments:
From a certain aspect, I think that Emily Dickinson is quite fortunate to be diagnosed with epilepsy. As Gordon had said, Emily Dickinson was unhappy after graduation from college and was anticipating a life of endless domestic chores and giving birth to babies one after one after marriage. In addition, the pressure from her husband and the society to be a “woman” as was expected of her contemporary. The host had explained on the show that women of the nineteenth century, when diagnosed with epilepsy, were forbidden to get married. Thus, Emily Dickinson was able to stay at home, unmarried, with lots of free time to do what she wants. It can also be said that epilepsy was her source of inspiration. Gordon mentioned that her “handicap” was connected with her visionary life; therefore, granting her the ability to compose such astonishing poems. However, you can't have your cake and eat it too—when there is gain, there is loss. Having epilepsy stripped her of her freedom to travel around in open air—she was unable to go outside. If I were her, I wouldn’t be able to last for a year. I wonder if she would be able to write poems like she did when having epilepsy.
Sometimes, I believe there is God. I heard from some speeches or artists’ interview, they share the magical experience while creating. Some said that it is like God writes, paints or sings through them. Sometime, I wonder what is the purpose of artists to produce a work of art. Skip the business part, I believe that some artists produce a work of art because they are really lonely and feel the need to express out. They are eager to express their feeling so that they can assure their existence maybe form the resonation of the audience, or maybe the work of art showing in front of them is enough. Emily Dickinson has one intimate friend, a soul mate. One is enough, once she can resonate with her. Dickinson must express the painful and scary feeling after her illness outbreak or maybe she wouldn’t have the courage to living through the rest of life.
Everyone is different and thus produce the different work. Emily Dickinson was protected under her father and sister so the only thing she can do is writing. Besides, the epilepsy makes she has a visionary world that though painful and scary but special. She is so lucky to have been educated so that she can write great poems. Great art sometimes danger lives. I’m still thinking is it worthwhile?
I know that Emily Dickinson’s poems were published after her death, but I am surprised at the feud she set off in her family after I listened to the interview. In her poems, I can see her huge emotion when she lost control, just like Gordon says. The emotion seemed not allowed to show in her time. No wonder she wrote poems to express her feelings but hide them secretly. It’s a little bit hard for me to understand. Because nowadays, we can say everything we want even though we are female. Through her poems, I can know the background in that time more clearly. Meanwhile, I don’t understand why she’s being ambivalent and truthful about her sickness. She likes the pain and the feeling of death? Gordon doesn’t explain the reason. Her relationship between her sisters-in-law is interesting to me. I thought she lives in her father’s house alone and wrote poems in her lifetime. I have difficulties to believe that she can write the excellent poems without socializing with people. If she didn’t talk to people, how could she know humans so well? After I know she had the good relationship between her sister- in-law, I think that’s why she’s called a genius. She could observe her brother, Susan, and her brother’s mistress. The fight between them let Dickson know humanity and love.
Emily Dickinson inspired me that although she was ill and got epilepsy, she still insisted her dream and never gave up. If I was sick or got some incurable disease, I would not be sure that I could face the truth and stand up again. I saw many cases about that someone suffered from heavy trumps so that he/she started to give up hopes and be deliberately bad. Emily Dickinson wrote many poems to describe what she wanted to do and imaged any situation. I think she was very mysterious because she stayed home and never went out to see the world, she could write some secular thoughts or events. Through her poems, I can discover that she tended to do what she never experience and she imaged the conditions if she had done. She expressed her feelings and aspiration by poems. She could conquer the illness because she had firm stamina. If she gave up then, we would not read her masterpieces. I am very healthy and have many resources of learning. I hope that I can insist my dreams and goals , too. I will do my best and never give up. I admire Emily Dickinson because she made her life be abundant and without regret.
I think to be an artist really needs the sense of abundant sentiments. And the personal background would probably have a big impact on the artist’s creations. Maybe is personal experience, frustration or a fetter of affection. They need the space to express their feeling and to relax their stressful minded. By doing these, we can see a lot of masterpiece come out to the world. Although we cannot exactly know about Emily’s past life, but we still can find some clues line by line in her poems. Jump out the form of the poem in 19 century, we can realize that how creative the author was. Those poems are author’s interest and the place for her to express. Writing the poem, to her was very simple. I think everyone is totally different. We have different interest, expert skill and dream. So why not believe yourself, be yourself and make your dream come true? It would have a big chance for you to create the masterpiece even change the world.
Throughout her life, she seldom went out and lived alone because she had epilepsy. I think that is her family’s and friends’ support so that even she cloistered herself but could even had motivation to keep writing. Nobody knows what she saw and conquered after having epilepsy. As one who reads a book, but can still imagine the tableau of the setting and story. Emily Dinkinson was not defeated by epilepsy, she empowered herself made many works throughout her life. If there was no disease, maybe she would be just a common woman, or maybe led a different life. The world she imagined was different and without restriction. She could feel the change of season but could not have many opportunities to have seen the world. How would it be if she weren’t suffered from the disease? Be colorful? People sometimes don’t need too much to pursue of fame and entertainment. Many times after she had suffered from the great pain would make her ceremonious and also would not take too seriously of death. She would not care and steep in the wooden struggle because with those who support her very much. She found her own space to create poems and did not give herself up. I am a normal girl without pain like her, but I didn’t fulfill myself, she herself didn’t give up, I think is the most difficult.
I had a friend who also suffered from epilepsy. I understand how horrible when she lose control of her body. My friend also told me she sometimes had some strange flashes through her brain. Maybe that is caused by her illness. However, It is somehow became Emily Dickinson’s inspiration of her poems. I think she must got a lot of pressure at that time. The epilepsy is very shameful to a girl in the old time, so, she could only stay at home and wrote poems. I wonder if that is a kind of freedom to let herself to image the world. Fortunately, she was protected by her father and sister and she lived in a nice house. According to the interview, I also realized there was an editor who insisted not to correct Emily’s writing and published them. It’s a kind of challenge for that editor to publish her poems in that conservative time. I think there was still many people who appreciated her talent. I also appreciated her courage and faith, her poems are very tough just like herself. We all think she is very intelligent through her poems, but what makes her intelligent is actually what we have to find out. I think she has a strong heart and she tried to be passionate and full of curiosity of the world. No matter how her illness disturbed her, she still had feelings of the world and tried to describe them into the poem. Why she needs to do this? Except to express her fear and lonely, I think it is a way to make her strong and intelligent.
Just as expected, some the legends usually have an extraordinary story behind their great achievements. Emily Dickson was very weak, sickly and had epilepsy, in fact, I am hard to image how can she kept it. But after listening this interview, I really found many persons that supported and helped her, although just a few people, or even just contacted with them by letters, also gave her a big strength of spirit. At the life that did not know the disease broke out, or just died unexpectedly, these people became her power to live. I think this is her luck that she could meet the best friend in her life and did not stay the regret. Emily Dickson makes me feel that friendship is a quite strong thing.
So far as I know, many famous artists also have this situation, for example, like Vincent Willem van Gogh also had a person who was very kind and selfless to support him. That is his younger brother, Theo. His brother gave him economic aid as he began to be a painter and continued, never to cut off. And Vincent van Gogh also had epilepsy in his later live, to this condition, his brother still to be with him till his suicide. Vincent van Gogh improves again this relationship between person and person is very strong and powerful!
I think that Emily Dickinson is a unique poet in that period of time. There are no specific kinds of writing style in her poem. In her poems, she doesn’t follow the correct grammar and she doesn’t insist them to be smooth, which therefore show us more different aspects of life, about love, truth and death. It’s amazing that a person who seldom goes out but spends most of her time in a room can have such a wide field of sight. She finds out dignity and meaning in the monotonous and oppressive live putting them into her poem. In that male-dominated society, all of the pain and pressure become her power to write. Also, I think, to Emily Dickinson, having epilepsy may be a lucky thing because it makes her gain more source of inspiration to write. It seems that there will be a story behind every great poet or great writer. Difficulties are the inspiration and creativity. And, writing is an important way to free themselves from huge pain. I really appreciate how Emily Dickinson lives in the crevice of convention.
I think that Emily Dickinson was a woman that worked hard through the things she liked. That inspires me because striving through our dreams is a process that needs courage and patience. We need to try and try again and do not give up. It’s hard! And it will be harder if we suffer illness during the time. Emily Dickinson suffered from epilepsy. That is a serious disease that makes people can’t control themselves. It’s so tough to be uncontrolled especially when you are doing something important. Emily Dickinson used strange punctuations in her poems and she sometimes used unreasonable capital letters. I think that they are related to her sickness of epilepsy. She maybe wanted to express the feeling that she was keep being disturbed by the epilepsy in her poems just like she couldn’t have a normal and healthy life. I think that she is a person that stands a great standard. Not only because of her masterpiece of her poems but also because of her attitude toward life.
This interview reveals that Emily Dickinson suffers from a sickness called epilepsy, not like what people said she was disappointed to love. I actually found this interview very interesting because at first, I can hardly understand what they are saying. After I read the transcript, there are some points I like to share here. First, they talk about the dash in her “I tie my Hat - I crease my Shawl”, there are a kind of spasmodic rhythm when using the dash. When they mentioned that the spasmodic stop or dash here was to referred to her seizure, I think she was a genius and very talented. Dickinson replaces the painful seizure with a dash to carry on the poem, so that dash stands for the time she was suffering. When they mentioned that woman at her time was dispelling a statement fear of loss of control, and I think that Dickinson wants to hinds her disadvantages and flaws (epilepsy) in order to meet the standard of 19th century. Lyndall Gordon continued to claim that the bomb in her poem can stands for her poetry, genius, expression and even epilepsy. “hold it---it is calm” if she can endure and stands herself when seizure happened, everything will be fine. I think that in the19th century, it was ridiculous to associates epilepsy with masturbation and even syphilis. There are even laws in some place that forbids woman to get married if they had suffered from this sickness. This might be the main reason why Dickinson lived a seclusive life. As for the love affair of Dickinson’s brother, once a teacher mentioned that love was invented at that time and you are forced to marry someone you don’t love. These two woman, being friends and a believer of Dickinson, they not only get involved in an irony and sad marriage, but also fight for the legacy she left after her death. Different legends that both sides made were ridiculous and meaningless, and I choose to believe that Dickinson really was a volcanic woman. (I did google the picture of Austin Dickinson and I burst into laughter because I don’t appreciate his Byronic handsome figure)
A person has to have one or some special experiences then the person will become much more different than others, it is what I believe in. Emily Dickinson is a great example. She has epilepsy which gives her a different way to see the world then she writes the poems of what she sees and how she felt about it. From the interview, there is not only the special experience causing Emily Dickinson, but also the support from Susan, her sister-in-law, and Mabel Todd, the mistress. My thought is when there are readers, one will keep on writing, like Emily Dickinson did. She can let her readers know how she felt through her poems. The poems are just like the diary, and they become one of the ways to let people know more about her life later. I am interested in Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath, I think they are top two intelligent female poets who I have known so far.
I think that Emily Dickison is a special poet in the generation. Her experience in her life let her poems unusual. She seclude from crowd. Living in her house and only writing her poem. Her epilepsy may let her writing more different than others. I think that everything have it own expense. Not everything can have a perfect ending. Emily Dickison can represent the example. Her epilepsy let her had many unusual imagination in life. Epilepsy can let her can’t control herself. It is a dangerous sickness. But it is also not a normal experience that everyone can feel. Not only epilepsy but also seclusion may affect her a lot. She usually far away people. Only stayed in her house to write her poems. Her experience let her poems different in the time. Emily Dickison used the punctuation different from the others. And sometimes she also used strange words in her poems. She used her special sight to writing. The unusual poems that all because her unusual life. She is a riddle. And I appreciate the women who is like a secret.
Nowadays Emily Dickinson’s poems are very famous, but in her time, most of her poems had been altered after they were published because publishers wanted to let her poems fit in with some traditional rules. In that time, it’s a pity that people could not read these cherish poems she wrote until she died. I think Emily Dickinson is a very special poet. It is impossible to me to stay at home for several years and just writing poems, so the support from her family must be very important, although we could not certain how she was in her old age. However, if she was an extroverted poet and always go out like other people, maybe these poems she wrote would be different. I think maybe because of the illness, resulted in her different viewpoint of life and death.
Susan is the most intimate person and the strongest support to Emily Dickinson, without her, I think Emily’s life would be different, but she failed to publish all these poems. In my point of view, Todd is a “mistress” who bothers Emily’s family, so she shouldn’t own the right to deal with these poems. However, because of Todd’s effort we can see the real poems Emily Dickinson wrote. I think this is unexpected to Emily Dickinson while she was alive.
After listening to this conversation from FRESH AIR, I feel impressed by two issues, if Emily Dickinson had epilepsy and why does she become a famed female poet. In this interview, Lyndall Gordon pointed two forms of evidence of guessing Emily Dickinson didn’t have epilepsy. The first compelling evidence is that if epilepsy is a genetic illness, Emily Dickinson’s two members of family should have epilepsy like her. The other evidence is that Lyndall Gordon suspected the treatment for Emily Dickinson. Actually, I also puzzle about Emily Dickinson’s epilepsy. If she really had this awful illness, how could she complete about 1800 poems in her lifetime? It’s a controversial issue. And Lyndall Gordon said Emily Dickinson could write many awesome poems since she had a comfortable room and she didn’t get married. When Lyndall Gordon talked about the reason why Emily Dickinson wrote many poems, I think of a room of one’s own written by Virginia Woolf. In a room of one’s room, Virginia Woolf thinks if women need to write their works, they need their own rooms; besides, if women get married, they have to raise their children or do their housework. Therefore, having a room of one’s own and being unmarried may enable women to write their good works. On the other hand, people also can understand how Emily Dickinson became a well-known poet and written many classical poems through Lyndall Gordon’s conversation.
After listening to this conversation from FRESH AIR, I felt impressed by two issues, if Emily Dickinson had epilepsy and why did she become a famed female poet. In this interview, Lyndall Gordon pointed two forms of evidence of guessing Emily Dickinson didn’t have epilepsy. The first compelling evidence is that if epilepsy is a genetic illness, Emily Dickinson’s two members of family should have epilepsy like her. The other evidence is that Lyndall Gordon suspected the treatment for Emily Dickinson. Actually, I also puzzle about Emily Dickinson’s epilepsy. If she really had this awful illness, how could she complete about 1800 poems in her lifetime? It’s a controversial issue. And Lyndall Gordon said Emily Dickinson could write many awesome poems since she had a comfortable room and she didn’t get married. When Lyndall Gordon talked about the reason why Emily Dickinson wrote many poems, I think of a room of one’s own written by Virginia Woolf. In a room of one’s room, Virginia Woolf thinks if women need to write their works, they need their own rooms; besides, if women get married, they have to raise their children or do their housework. Therefore, having a room of one’s own and being unmarried may enable women to write their good works. On the other hand, people also can understand how Emily Dickinson became a well-known poet and written many classical poems through Lyndall Gordon’s conversation.
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I think the one reason that Emily Dickinson wanted to focus on writing poem, so she didn’t marry anyone through her life. Then she had a lot of time and space to do what she wanted, and she also needed to have domestic duties. Besides, the other reason why she didn’t want to marry is epilepsy, because of epilepsy, maybe she would face many challenges in her marriage, so she lived a secluded life. But those reasons contribute to the achievement in her special poems. The epilepsy made her think lots of unique things and experiences that ordinary people didn’t have, and those things made her poems be different from others’. In addition, I think a successful writer would have some readers no matter how many are they, it was important to make writers have more confidence to write incessantly if they knew somebody appreciate their works. And Emily lived a secluded life; furthermore, she also had to face epilepsy in her daily life so she needed support than ordinary writers. I think what Mabel Loomis Todd did is correct. Without her transcriptions, people can’t be able to know who was Emily Dickinson although the typesetters are exactly the same with initial poem. I think it is more important to let Emily’s works widespread than its problem of peculiar grammar and whether it was a initial typesetter.
Suffering from epilepsy, I think I can understand why Emily Dickinson chose to stay away from the crowds. She might afraid of being not accepted by people so she chose to keep herself in a small room and write numerous poems. Besides, in that period, men were the dominance in the society. What Emily Dickinson impressed me is that she can create so many great poems under the kind of prison. In the patriarchal society, women were always confined to create. They were taught to be the “ideal women” in that time. So I think, maybe it’s not bad for Emily Dickinson being unmarried. Because of this, she won’t have to be restricted from doing anything she desires to do. Also, she doesn’t have to stay at home to be a good wife or a good mother. She just wrote and kept on creating so many great poems. If she were married, maybe we won’t know Emily Dickinson today. Thus, she is really a legendary woman.
When it mention to Emily Dickinson, I was come up with her mysterious and legendary lifetime. According to Lyndall Gordon’s introduction, in the spite of the fact that she never leave home after she suffer from Epilepsy, she dedicates all her lifetime to literature. In the period of seclusion, she can wrote without any worldly disturbance and gain the create inspiration from the Epilepsy, I guess that’s why she can make the achievement about publish 1700 poems after her death. A great number of legacy about the authority of publication, no wonder her family was fight for this, it is the human nature.
In my opinion, having a sister-in-law like Susan Dickinson, was the greatest blessing to Emily Dickinson. She also had suffered terrible shock in her early age, so I assume she held most agree of Emily’s reluctance of her illness; and She was such a bookish woman at the same time that no one can be more suitable to be the most devoted reader of Emily Dickinson.
Emily must be real genius to have people appreciating her work; professional like Mabel Loomis Todd can see at once knowing these were poems of genius. “The Lord does answer prayer and that when one door closed another door opens.” God gives a great gift to Emily, who suffered from epilepsy, which is fortunate in other way to make them stands out.
I am longing to acquaintance Emily, if she accepts. Meeting a genius who has such visionary without traveling the world, I would ask her how does the vision came up in her mind. I know epilepsy is sometimes accompanied by visions, but I’d like to hear her own description.
After hearing the interview, the story of “Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds”, I felt that every character has their history behind, isn’t as what external seems. And when things happened, it has perplexed circumstances within, outsider better keep quiet before knowing it all.
Finally, though Mabel Loomis Todd and Austin Dickinson somehow needs each other, I still opposed to their affair.
She is a woman who suffered from epilepsy. Although she was lived out of people, she still eager to love. She put all of her mind, her mood and her craze in her poems. Why her poem can be full of passion? One of the main reason is that she don’t have friend to vent their emotions. I thought that there is no genius in the world. What can we do at home? Only books could kill her time. What kind of books would appear in a wealthy family? It might like collection of poems. I speculate that she live in piles of books. All she can do is look poems. She don’t have teacher, so she can fly in her fantasy world without grammar-bound. As my opinion, I thought that she was lucky. Because she won not disturb by other average people, her mind and thought was pure and adventurous. If she was famous in that time, her talent will be covered. As a epilepsy patient, even she famous in that time, most people might discriminate her. So, I thought that she as lucky for she won’t famous. Our generation give her a big proud, and she owned it!
I think it is quiet a bad but good thing to Emily Dickinson to suffer from epilepsy and the family’s feuds. It is so sad that she encounters so much bad things in her whole life but those experiences do help her with her writing. Without those things, Emily Dickinson might be a normally domestic girl. Those experiences make a domestic girl, who never leaves home, a huge imagination to write poems. Those complicated feelings make Emily Dickinson a genius writer, a legend.
I am fascinated with her poems. I like crazy and abnormal poems. I think this kind of poems is much more interesting than of the normal poems. I think it is important that life needs more experiences no matter it is a good thing or a bad thing. You can image a lot of things from the experience. I think if without those complicated feelings, Emily Dickinson would not write a mister piece. It inspires me that we should experience more and more things in our life to expend our view. No matter it is happy or unhappy. Unhappy feelings can also brings you a lot of understandings. It will fill our life and we won’t feel unbent. Life should be up and down.
I don’t think Emily Dickinson’s poems are jerky. Both dashes and Capital letters are my favor. I hope I can be as crazy as she was. I like dashes because they are lovely marks. A dash may represent very things, such as an extend sound, a deep breath, or a short break—quite interesting. It may also cause some visual effects. I like word and word being tied up by dashes—while the other is not—that demonstrates her unusual way to express thoughts. Still, Dashes cause her poems being slow in tempo—you can’t ignore—just like musical notations. For Emily Dickinson this is how to express her thoughts and emotions at the same line—some words with Capital letters that are like stress marks—emphasize what is Emily Dickinson strongly concerned. I think epilepsy is a gift only for Emily Dickinson—a very suitable gift—that made herself so different, and so natural. When I read myself her poems, I quickly get used to her tone. Her poems are not hard to read—at least—not like those nineteenth century things. Because we enjoy the crazy woman’s poems so much; hence, we should thank God that He gave her Epilepsy.
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