Companion to Emily Dickinson

Martha Nell Smith is Professor of English and Founding Director of the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities at the University of Maryland. Her numerous publications include three award-winning books – Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson’s Intimate Letters to Susan Dickinson (1998), Comic Power in Emily Dickinson (1993), Rowing in Eden: Rereading Emily Dickinson (1992) – and over 30 journal articles. The recipient of numerous awards for her work on Dickinson and in new media, Smith is also Coordinator and Executive Editor of the Dickinson Electronic Archives projects at the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH) at the University of Virginia. Mary Loeffelholz is Professor and Special Advisor to the President for Faculty Affairs at Northeastern University. She is the author of From School to Salon: Reading Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Poetry (2004), Experimental Lives: Women and Literature, 1900–1945 (1992), Dickinson and the Boundaries of Feminist Theory (1991), and of a number of essays on nineteenth-century American poetry and culture. She is also editor of Studies in American Fiction and of Volume D, Between the Wars: 1914–1945 in the seventh edition of the Norton Anthology of American Literature.

• Notes on Contributors viiiAbbreviations of Frequently Cited Sources xvAcknowledgments xviIntroduction 1Martha Nell Smith and Mary LoeffelholzPart I: Biography – the Myth of “the Myth” 91 Architecture of the Unseen 11Aife Murray2 Fracturing a Master Narrative, Reconstructing “Sister Sue” 37Ingrid Satelmajer3 Public, Private Spheres: What Reading Emily Dickinson’s Mail Taught me about Civil Wars 58Martha Nell Smith4 “Pretty much all real life”: The Material World of the Dickinson Family 79Jane WaldPart II: The Civil War – Historical and Political Contexts 1055 “Drums off the Phantom Battlements”: Dickinson’s War Poems in Discursive Context 107Faith Barrett6 The Eagle’s Eye: Dickinson’s View of Battle 133Renée Bergland7 “How News Must Feel When Traveling”: Dickinson and Civil War Media 157Eliza RichardsPart III: Cultural Contexts – Literature, Philosophy, Theology, Science 1818 Really Indigenous Productions: Emily Dickinson, Josiah Holland, and Nineteenth-Century Popular Verse 183Mary Loeffelholz9 Thinking Dickinson Thinking Poetry 205Virginia Jackson10 Dickinson and the Exception 222Max Cavitch11 Dickinson’s Uses of Spiritualism: The “Nature” of Democratic Belief 235Paul Crumbley12 “Forever – is Composed of Nows –”: Emily Dickinson’s Conception of Time 258Gudrun M. Grabher13 God’s Place in Dickinson’s Ecology 269Nancy MayerPart IV: Textual Conditions: Manuscripts, Printings, Digital Surrogates 27914 Auntie Gus Felled It New 281Tim Morris15 Reading Dickinson in Her Context: The Fascicles 288Eleanor Elson Heginbotham16 The Poetics of Interruption: Dickinson, Death, and the Fascicles 309Alexandra Socarides17 Climates of the Creative Process: Dickinson’s Epistolary Journal 334Connie Ann Kirk18 Hearing the Visual Lines: How Manuscript Study Can Contribute to an Understanding of Dickinson’s Prosody 348Ellen Louise Hart, with Sandra Chung19 “The Thews of Hymn”: Dickinson’s Metrical Grammar 368Michael L. Manson20 Dickinson’s Structured Rhythms 391Cristanne Miller21 A Digital Regiving: Editing the Sweetest Messages in the Dickinson Electronic Archives 415Tanya Clement22 Editing Dickinson in an Electronic Environment 437Lara VetterPart V: Poetry & Media – Dickinson’s Legacies 453 23 “Dare you see a soul at the White Heat?”: Thoughts on a “Little Home-keeping Person” 455Sandra M. Gilbert24 Re-Playing the Bible: My Emily Dickinson 462Alicia Ostriker25 “For Flash and Click and Suddenness–”: Emily Dickinson and the Photography-Effect 471Marta L. Werner26 “Zero to the Bone”: Thelonious Monk, Emily Dickinson, and the Rhythms of Modernism 490Joshua WeinerIndex of First Lines 496Index of Letters of Emily Dickinson 500Index 503

"The twenty-six essays that make up this Companion are all of extremely high quality [and] each is quite distinct from the others.... This book is an essential addition to any university library where Dickinson's poetry is included on courses, at any level, and would add depth and breadth to public library collections where Dickinson's poetry is already of significant interest." (Reference Reviews, November 2009) "The essays show the breadth, depth, and vitality of current scholarship in Dickinson studies. Indexed and selectively illustrated with black and white photographs, this volume merits a place alongside An Emily Dickinson Encyclopedia and The Emily Dickinson Handbook, but is unique in offering readers the benefits of digital collaboration." (Emily Dickinson International Society Bulletin, Fall 2008)