My Wars Are Laid Away in Books

by Alfred Habegger

  footnote 6: EdD to Pliny Earle, 1-6-, 3-27-1868, Earle Papers 2:1.

  The most suggestive: Shurr 10-17, rightly emphasizing this poem, links it to the nearly contemporaneous Fr267, “Rearrange a ‘wife’s’ affection!”

  In this work Dickinson presents herself: Let 230; Mass Reports 81:582; HFE 8-9-1861.

  footnote 8: Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Writing beyond the Ending: Narrative Strategies of Twentieth-Century Women Writers (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985).

  “Saxon” is marked: In addition to pointing to CW, this word in conjunction with “the English language” suggests an awareness of Francis A. March’s 1860 Commencement speech (reported in detail in SR 8-9-1860) on the place of Anglo-Saxon in the development of English. See also Addresses Delivered at a Celebration in Honor of Prof. Francis A. March (Easton, Pa.: Lafayette Press, 1895) 72.

  The links between: Master Let 23, 33. Prior to this 1986 publication, it was thought the penciled draft followed the two in ink. Since Franklin did not address the differences in kind between ED’s penciled and inked scripts, the question of sequence remains unsettled. On ED’s “Daisy,” see Homans 201–205.

  Even apart from the wounded: Master Let 42, 34, 23.

  Readers are shocked: Master Let 42, 28.

  Paradoxically, Dickinson makes: Let 737; Master Let 41.

  footnote 9: Rowing 113.

  Although the writer calls herself: Master Let 38.

  To date, there is only: Let 744; Master Let 34–37.

  The Master drafts quote: Master Let 38; [CW] to “Miss Dickenson,” n.d., ED1012 A.

  Following Wadsworth’s death: Let 742. CW’s mother died on either 9-29 (Hartford Daily Courant 10-12-1859, Waterbury American 10-14-1859) or 10-1 (CT Headstone 67:117). On the problem of documenting CW’s first visit to ED, see George F. Whicher to MTB, 4-17-1936, MTB Papers 86:303.

  In the other recollection: Let 738; Edith M. (Clark) Nyman, “Lt. William Clarke of Northampton, Mass. and his Descendants through 6 generations in New England,” 2:85, 125, Forbes Lib., Northampton; Brooklyn directories from 1872–1873; “Death of Charles H. Clark,” SR 3-18-1915; Northampton Business Directory . . . 1860–1861 (Northampton: Trumbull & Gere, 1860) 31, Historic Northampton; Hampshire Co. RD 249:189, 425:305; Eleanor Terry Lincoln and John Abel Pinto, This, the House We Live in: the Smith College Campus from 1871 to 1982 (Northampton: Smith College, 1983) 50. The tale MDB recounted in LL 47 of Vinnie’s sudden appearance at the Evergreens—“‘Sue, come! That man is here!—Father and Mother are away, and I am afraid Emily will go away with him!’”—can’t be taken seriously, even if shifted from mid-1850s to early October 1861 (Leyda 2:34).

  Like Wadsworth, with his: Catalogue of the University of the City of New York (New York, 1858) 10; Obituary of Charles Clark, Hampshire Gazette and Northampton Courier 2-19-1889; Henry R. Stiles, A History of the City of Brooklyn (Brooklyn, 1870) 3:744; Lincoln and Pinto, This, the House, 50; “Clark Estate to Charity,” The New York Times 4-10-1915, p. 18.

  One of the poet’s memorable: Let 764, 738; Notices for Clark and Brownell’s Classical and English School, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 9-3-1858, 9-6-1859, 9-10-1860, 9-4-1862, 9-7-1863. 1864 may be excluded, as Clark ran the school by himself in its last year, 1863–1864; see [James S. Knowlson, James D. Clark, and Frederic J. Parsons, Committee], A Biographical Record of the Kappa Alpha Society in Williams College (New York; the Society, 1881) 126.

  footnote 10: “no near relatives”: SR 3-18-1915; Hampshire Gazette and Northampton Courier 3-23-1915. For a brief account of the photograph, see Appendix 1.

  “Wadsworth would seem”: Gelpi 21. This Was a Poet, antedating the publication of the Master drafts, gave a remarkably astute treatment of ED’s relationship to CW.

  Whether or not: Among the views on this question, Ward’s summation is one of the soundest: “whatever the complications in her personal relations, they were only the outward manifestations of a deep psychic disturbance marking the transition from a youthful phase to one more mature.” Let (Holl) 67.

  Soon after November: MVR-Deaths, 138:346; Let 361, 354. After Elizabeth Holland gave birth, Vin hoped she “did not pass through very ‘deep waters’” (Vin to Holland [transcription], n.d., MTB Papers 86:298).

  The lost-at-sea image: Let 356, 364; Henry James, A Small Boy and Others (New York: Scribners, 1913) 278; SR 10-12,13,16,17,25-1854; HFE 10-14-1854; Benjamin W. Dwight, The History of the Descendants of John Dwight of Dedham (New York: Trow, 1874) 2:868, 878; New York Tribune 5-2-1853.

  As Dickinson drifted: Master Let 26; Let 364; SB Let #8 [6-11-1861], #9 [6-22-1861), #59.3, 8-2-[1865].

  What Dickinson wanted: Let 363. Franklin’s date, about spring 1861 (Var 251), makes the poem contemporaneous with the Master draft, “Oh! did I offend it” (Master Let 7).

  The closest she came: Let 394. Of Franklin’s two dates for L250, about 1861 and spring 1861 (Var 228, 1575), the more specific one seems better. The ms. shows no apostrophe in “Heres” (ED678 A).

  If Dickinson wanted: Let 354, 394. Fr187B and Fr194A (ED679 & ED678, A) are on the same kind of paper, have the same script, and were written with a pen that left a small blot at the start of some strokes.

  footnote 11: [Fidelia H. Cooke], “Over the Border,” SR 6-1-1861; SB Let #81 [31 May 1861].

  Responsive as Bowles was: SB Let #12 [10-1- or 10-8-1861], #15.2 [2-5- or 3-5-1862], #80 [April 1861, after SB’s quarrel with F. D. Huntington (Mer 2:397–401)].

  footnote 12: SB Let #62 [10-2-1866].

  His crisis began: Mer 1:310; Northampton Free Press 6-11-1861; Mer 1:320-28; SB Let #11 [9-30-1861, dated by marriage of Catharine James and William H. Prince on 9-25-1861], #15 [10-17-1861], #15.1 [late Oct.? 1861]. The date usually given for SB’s visit to Amherst and resulting sciatica is “early spring” 1861 (Mer 1:310). The true date, early February, is established by weather reports in SR and SB’s 2-26 statement that he had “thrown my sciatica” (Mer 1:318). Nathaniel P. Banks wrote from Chicago, “The sciatica is a fearful master and I am glad to know you are well again” (Banks to SB, 3-5-1861, SB Papers 1:3).

  Emily’s many letters: Let 382, 383, 476.

  One of many reasons: Let 371, 419.

  All the same, Dickinson: Let 382, 395; Mer 1:330; Sue to [SB], 12-25-[1861], uncat ZA MS 77, Hooker, Y-BRBL. L252 has been dated early 1862 (Johnson), late December 1862 (Leyda), and ca. 1861 (Franklin). Himelhoch, spotting a parallel phrase in L246 (postmarked 1-3-1862), proposed 1-2?-1862 (Him 15). Sue’s mention of the picture points to soon after Christmas 1861. On the torment of adequately thanking SB, see Let 393, 395, 437.

  “I do not ask”: Let 389.

  “more stupendous”: Let 436.

  There is a recurring: Let 335, 390, 402, 393.

  footnote 13: SR 7-20-1861; Mer 1:324.

  By now the Evergreens’: Sue to [SB], 12-25-[1861], Y-BRBL; SR 2-9-1861.

  So far, neither spouse: Sue to [SB], 12-25-[1861], Y-BRBL; WAD to Sue, Palmer Depot [4-18-1861], WAD to Sue, postmarked 3-17-1863, H; SB Let #74 [2-14?-1875, dated by SB’s 2-9 birthday]. The Palmer Depot letter is dated by troop movements (SR 4-18-1861). MTB, no doubt echoing MLT, claimed WAD was disappointed “early” in his marriage (Home 55). Farr makes the same claim for Sue (Passion 154), with as little real evidence.

  As the end: SB Let #8 [6-11-1861, dated by defeat at Fort Monroe]; Let 437–38. L300 has the handwriting of 1861 and the same paper as L188 (moved to 1861 by Franklin). ED’s surprise at SB’s collapse, together with WAD’s seeing SB on Saturday, yields a date soon after 6-8-1861.

  Incapacitated as he was: SB Let #7 [6-16-1861], #93 [ca. 6-18-1861], #9 [6-22-1861]. #93 is on the same Carsons Congress paper as #9, the slightly irregular pen rules perfectly matching. These two letters, SB’s only ones using this stock, were written during his Berkshire trip.

  One of the most troubling: SJL to MLB, 6-13-1852, SCB Papers 2:50; Smith family monument, Glenwood Cemetery, Geneva, NY; MGS to Sue and Harriet Cutler, [summer 1861], H; SB Let #1
5.1 [late Oct.? 1861].

  Provisionally called Jacky: SB Let #13, 10-12-1861.

  Four months after the birth: Abbie Shaw to Sue, 10-22-1861, H; Let 486; SB Let #19 [3-26-1862]. When Sue reread SB’s letters in 1905 (Leyda 2:150), she may have destroyed offending passages.

  The baby’s first nurse: Obituary of Abbie Shaw, SR 2-16-1891; Will of Louisa Greene Shaw (copy), T. P. Ravenel Papers, Georgia Historical Society; Joseph Carvalho III, Black Families in Hampden County, Massachusetts 1650–1855 (NEHGS and Institute for Massachusetts Studies, Westfield State College, 1984) 93, 115; Springfield directories from 1856–1857; SB Let #7.1 [6-6-1861], #7 [6-16-1861].

  At first, Sue was charmed: Sue, untitled draft essay on nurses, H.

  Abbie’s successor: Sue, untitled draft essay on nurses, H; SB Let #11 [9-30-1861], #15.1 [late Oct.? 1861]. Cf. #106 [8-14-1861].

  The third nurse: SB Let #15.1 [late Oct.? 1861], #86 [3-28-1862].

  As this complicated: Abbie Shaw to Sue, 10-22-1861, Maggie [Conroy?] to Jacky/Ned, 5-11?-1862, H. Shaw’s letter is in the script of her new employer, Julia W. Coggershall, who lived on the Hudson south of Poughkeepsie (1860 federal census, Town of Poughkeepsie, family 1151).

  The split that opened: Let 711, 385, 396.

  The following April: Let 404; San Francisco Daily Alta California 9-25- 10-1-1861; William Anderson Scott, My Residence in and Departure from California (Paris: printed by E. Brière, 1861); Calvary 12-13.

  However, in his 2-5-1860 anniversary sermon at Arch Street, CW predicted that by 1870 “probably another preacher” would be in charge (CW, Eben-Ezer [Philadelphia: Helfenstein, 1860] 27). This may have been a veiled expression of his readiness to leave.

  “the meaning goes out”: Let 919. Cf. William C. Fowler to his son, William W., 12-12-1856, FF Papers, box 8: “Almost every one has a breaking down.”

  The one extant note: Sue to ED, “I have intended,” H. In height, the three scissored fragments (which perfectly fit) come to 177 mm, the usual vertical dimension of queen’s head stationery. Contrary to the inference in Walker 90, nothing is lost aside from “for.”

  The range of interpretation: Heman Humphrey, The Woman that Feareth the Lord (Amherst: Adams, 1844) 8; TWH, The Results of Spiritualism (New York: Munson, 1859) 11; Let 386 (punctuation as in FN/ED 410 verso).

  “I am not suited”: Let 379–80 (MS Am 1118.5 [B74b], H). That the pen rules perfectly match those of Sue’s “I have intended” note indicates the two sheets were probably manufactured as part of the same batch.

  Johnson’s placement: Let 379; Var 161; Sue to [SB], 12-25-[1861], Y-BRBL. The letter has the same paper as Sue’s “I have intended” and “I am not suited” and also the early December note to EdD concerning Jacky/Ned’s name (H). Each sheet has the same irregularity on pages 2–3, the rules being out of parallel with top and bottom, rising slightly to the right. These features support the notes’ contemporaneity. Sue’s “Never mind Emily” (MS Am 1118.5 [B94], H), on the upside-down bottom half of a leaf of queen’s head stationery (thus lacking the boss) shows the identical irregularity.

  footnote 16: Let 434.

  “Your praise is good”: Var 162.

  “Why Susie – think of it”: Let 315.

  “makes my whole body”: Let 473–74.

  “Could I make you”: Var 162. For two very different treatments of “Safe in their alabaster chambers,” see Rowing 190–96 and Mitchell, chap. 9.

  The two women stubbornly: When the poem appeared in SR 3-1-1862, it was dated, mysteriously, “Pelham Hill, June, 1861.” Franklin connects this with SB’s visit to Amherst that month but clouds the picture (Var 160) by bringing in the Orient Hotel, dedicated July 4 and opened soon after. This resort was not situated on Pelham Hill, a name reserved even then for higher Pelham center (Carlene Riccelli, “Place-Names of Pelham,” 11, J). All local newspapers placed the hotel at Pelham Springs or Hygeian Springs, near the base of Mount Orient (Northampton Free Press 6-4-, 7-2-, 7-5-1861; Hampshire Gazette 7-16-1861, 3-1-1881; HFE 7-19-1861). Only the more distant SR—Franklin’s one source—situated the hotel on Pelham Hill (3-14- 7-6-1861).

  Pelham’s central burying ground was on the flat summit of Pelham Hill. The date assigned the poem may commemorate a side trip there by SB on 6-17-1861, the day he stopped at the Evergreens on his way north with Edward B. Gillett (SB Let #8 [6-16-1861], #93 [ca. 6-18-1861]). The public reference to this visit, two days before Ned’s birth, would have had a special meaning for Sue.

  Chapter 18

  In faraway San Francisco? San Francisco Daily Alta California 12-10-1861, 4-3-, 5-27-, 6-1-1862; George Burrowes, “My early labors in San Francisco,” 85, P; Questionnaire, CW’s alumni file, PTS; New York Tribune 4-29-, 5-2-1862; This Was a Poet 324. Calvary 12–13 prints a letter from CW dated 4-8-1862.

  Prior to Wadsworth’s: Let 390, 396; SB Let #15.3 [3-21-1862].

  Presently, Dickinson thought: Let 398. The Hollands’ granddaughter, Theodora Ward, first surmised the meaning of these obscure requests to SB (Capsule 157–58); see also Shurr 141.

  What Wadsworth’s departure: Let 404, 460. The postmark of L261, misread by Johnson (Let 405) and Franklin (Var 136), is Palmer APR 28 1862 (MS. Am. 1093 [4], BPL).

  That Bowles also sailed: SB Let #15.3 [3-21-1862], #15.2 [2-5- or 3-5-1862]; Let 604; Frederick Law Olmsted to SB, 9-26-1865, Container 10, Olmsted Papers.

  By the time Bowles: SB Let #86 [3-28-1862], #109, postmarked 4-3-1862; Let 402–403 (corrected against ED681 A). MDB’s color-word for ED’s eyes was “wine-brown” (FF 86). #86 is dated by Frazar Stearns’s death (“the great Amherst bereavement”) and a fast day on 4-3-1862. Johnson’s claim that SB visited Amherst on 4-5-1862 is mistaken.

  On April 5: SB Let #109, postmarked 4-3-1862, #19.1 [4-9-1862].

  Soon after Samuel sailed: Let 405–406.

  For once, Mary replied: Let 410; SB Let #21.1 and #21 (both belong to the same letter), “April [lapse for May] 12,” [1862]; #20, Vevey, 9-15-[1862]. ED probably read SB’s enthusiastic response to Paris before asking “how Amherst looked, in your memory.”

  The letter from Samuel: SB Let #20, 9-15-[1862]; #22, Black Forest, 7-13-[1862]. Leyda 2:68 mistakenly incorporated the message for ED (part of #22) into the later #20.

  How appreciative was he: SB Let #21 [5]-12-[1862]; Let 382.

  After the editor came: SB Let #23 [11-22-1862]; Mer 2:79; Let 419–20.

  “the vagaries of fine womanhood”: SB Let #16 [1-5-1863]. Dated by slightly later letters, trips to Boston, the framing of pictures, Catharine Scott Turner’s expected visit, Charles H. Sweetser’s work at SR, and Sue’s interest in Jean Paul’s Titan (reviewed in Atlantic Monthly 11 [Jan. 1863] 136–39).

  “To the [Newman] girls”: SB Let #16.1, Fri. [1-9-1863]. Misdated March? 1863 in Leyda 2:76, this letter was written two or three days after MW left Northampton for New Haven to assist her brother and sister-in-law in a double emergency—the birth of a child a month early on 1-6-1863 and the stroke suffered that day by father-in-law Roger Sherman Baldwin. The date is confirmed by Sue’s return from Long Island, Catharine Scott Turner’s anticipated visit, and the framing of a picture SB calls Rebecca (unframed in #16 [1-5-1863]). The sequence of letters is: #41 [12-28-1862], #16, #16.1, #33 [1-15-1863], #24 [1-16], #23.2 [1-29], #25 [2-2], #18 [2-7], #111 [2-19].

  Like Old Hundred, China was a standard hymn tune. Leyda’s misreading, “Aleluia” [sic], is not only too long for the script, but the initial letter, comparable to the C of “Col. Lincoln” (in #16), doesn’t resemble SB’s usual capital A. More seriously, Leyda’s failure to italicize Maiden’s loses the crucial nuance.

  SB’s praise of Mrs. Gillett’s “sly humanity” suggests his uneasiness with ED’s absolutism: “Too perfect goodness is for admiration, not for love” (SB Let #86 [3-28-1862]).

  When Bowles visited: Annie Adams Fields, diary, 1-30-1867, Annie Fields Papers, MHS. According to Johnson (Let 961), ED sent four letters to SB in 1863 and 1864. Of these, L299 and L300
have been moved to 1861 by Leyda (2:28) and Franklin (Var 1575), and L283 to 1862 by Franklin (Var 302). The fourth, an impersonal note accompanying END’s gift of apples (L284), is shown in facsimile in Let (1894) 218.

  On his side: SB Let #26 [5-2-1863]; Let 420. #26 is dated by Elizabeth Chapman’s marriage on 4-16 and Fast Day on 4-30 (SR 4-17, 23-1863).

  But Bowles no longer: SB Let #90 [6]-7-[1863], #36.1 [12-18-1863], #59 [2]-12-[1864]. #90 is dated by SB’s signature on the Mountain House register (Summit 6-9-1863).

  footnote 1: Mer 2:66.

  The April that removed: TWH, Atlantic Essays (Boston: Osgood, 1871), 75, 79, 92, 76; Let 573, 405. In quoting, ED replaced “seek” with “presume” and shortened “time and deliberation.”

  Like Ralph Waldo Emerson: TWH, Atlantic Essays 186. On TWH’s radicalism, see Tilden G. Edelstein, Strange Enthusiasm: A Life of Thomas Wentworth Higginson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968); Howard N. Meyer, ed., The Magnificent Activist: The Writings of Thomas Wentworth Higginson (n.p.: Da Capo, 2000).

  During the four years: SR 2-27-1858; SB Let #15.2 [2-5- or 3-5-1862].

  An admirer of Thoreau: [TWH], “My Out-Door Study,” Atlantic Monthly 8 (Sept. 1861) 302; Sewall 549. See Wells, chap. 7.

  Further qualifying: TWH, Atlantic Essays 106, 102; EdD, “A Colloquy on A comparative view of the intellectual powers of the sexes,” H.

  On April 15: Let 403. Ms. Am 1093 (1), BPL, has a comma after “occupied.”