My Wars Are Laid Away in Books

by Alfred Habegger

  footnote 3: Let 692.

  Dickinson’s impetus: Let 463; Leyda 2:143.

  In late 1865: Var 994; Philadelphia Inquirer 4-10-1869; Clifford Merrill Drury, William Anderson Scott: “No Ordinary Man” (Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark, 1967) 292; San Francisco Daily Morning Call 6-30-1869; San Francisco Daily Alta California 6-30-, 7-1-1869; The New York Times 7-24-1869, p. 8. Johnson linked Fr1143 and Fr1186 to CW in Poems 794, 790, xxiv.

  Fr1143: I give what looks like ED’s preferred alternatives in the ms. (ED435 A).

  footnote 4: San Francisco Daily Morning Call 6-27-1869.

  Another poem on renewal: Var 1015; Leyda 2:149.

  Instead, her most enlivening: Leyda 2:132; Let 462.

  It is a mark: Let 460, 453, 450.

  Her strong refusal: Let 460–62. See Let 379–80, 517–20, 725–26, 840–42, 866–69 for the other letters and ED’s replies. On “the ‘Power,’” see Chapter 7 and Let 432, 631.

  To be sure: Let 460.

  In August 1870: Let 472–73; TWH, “Charlotte Prince Hawes,” The Radical (Jan. 1867) 284.

  The visitor’s wife: “Recent Deaths,” Boston Daily Evening Traveller 9-4-1877; SR 9-14-1877, p. 4; Let 473, 476.

  The Dickinsons’ home: On Stoddard, see Alfred Habegger, Henry James and the “Woman Business” (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), chap. 4.

  In the entry hall: Let 473–75.

  The next day: Let 475.

  Only after: Let 476; Carlyle’s 276. Originally, instead of the insinuating “something abnormal,” TWH wrote “an abnormal life” (“Emily Dickinson’s Letters,” Atlantic Monthly 68 [Oct. 1891] 453).

  Chapter 20

  Long after her death: FF 48; “Country Girl” 115

  In 1870: TWH, “The Door Unlatched,” “The Gate Unlatched,” Woman’s Journal (1-15-1870, 7-9-1870); Let 480, 481.

  the only pre-1865 poem she is thought: Var 1536.

  footnote 4: FN 94.

  The 1852 note: Let 184 (discussed Chapter 12).

  Meanwhile, a poem: SR 7-18-1882; EFF, “Eheu! Emily Dickinson!” SR 1-11-1891; Bliss 62.

  A third visitor: In Riddle (9, 224, 283–84, 329) Patterson conjectured that Anthon returned 1876–1877 and made the link with Fr1429 (which Franklin dates about 1877). In Patterson’s view, ED felt Anthon committed “Treason” by spurning the poet’s lesbian desire. As I see it, the poem concerns a plurality of loved ones and her own pattern of avoidance, and accuses no one of treason.

  These lines: Let 510 (quoting I John 4:10).

  “It was a return”: Capsule 94.

  In 1930: Austin Baxter Keep to George F. Whicher (copy), 11-30-1930, MTB Papers 86:303. I think it is unlikely the “exquisite note” was the one accompanying Fr1455B (Var 1275–76).

  At church: Vin to Nora Green, 1-14-1899, J; Green 291–92; 1870 federal census, Amherst, family 359; Let 599; Leyda 2:266, 273; “Country Girl” 11. Clara was the one person who both met ED and reviewed early books about her: see Clara Bellinger Green, “Guesses and Memories,” Boston Herald 5-10-1930, p. 17; Green to Genevieve Taggard, 4[5]-4-1930, Taggard Papers.

  footnote 5: FF 35.

  In 1882 or 1883: William T. Mather to MDB, postmarked 12-16-1936, 2:79, bMS Am 1118.97, H; Sewall 296.

  Once, when: Annie Holland Howe to MDB, 8-4-1931, 2:57, bMS Am 1118.97, H; FF 25. Leyda 2:115 dates the encounter July 1866, when Annie, b. 9-15-1851, was fourteen (Gilbert Warren Chapin, The Chapin Book [Hartford: Chapin Family Association, 1924] 1:998).

  This dark hallway: FF 25–30.

  To judge from: Let 508, 485 (cf. 567), 514 (cf. 524).

  “inveterate readers”: Allen 41, 43.

  cultivated Sarah Tuckerman: James S. Cushing, The Genealogy of the Cushing Family (Montreal: Perrault, 1905) 171–72; MVR-Marriages 80:57; HFE 2-22-, 4-18-1856, 12-31-1858; Sue, “Architecture,” fragments, H; 1870 federal census, Amherst, dwelling 202; Burgess 57.

  This phrase aptly describes: Let 520, 487; Adelaide Hills to ED, n.d., ED163 A. Henry F. Hills first shows up in New York directories in 1871.

  But there was an: FF 9–10 (cf. ED, The Single Hound [Boston: Little, Brown, 1914] xv); Let 862 (punctuated as in MS Am 1118.10 [13], H).

  Although Dickinson showed: Frances Hodgson Burnett to Myra, 4-7-1918, Bianchi Misc. 4, bMS Am 1118.98, H; Leyda 2:322 (“box” misread as “bow”).

  Heading the list: First Church of Christ in Pittsfield, Proceedings in Commemoration of Its One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary (Pittsfield, Mass.: Sun Printing Co., 1914) 85; Allen 37; Clarinda Boltwood to LMB, 5-4-1867, Bolt 11:1; FN 75–78; Let 464. In Pittsfield, the Jenkinses had a cook, a chambermaid, and a nurse (1880 federal census, district 59, dwelling 104)—a large domestic staff for a minister.

  It was perhaps: Jonathan Jenkins, memorial sermon for EdD, H; Let 473, 505–506, 548; EdD, pledge, H (facsimile in Leyda 2:200); FN 80–82. Sweetser’s name, dropped in Let (1894) 279 and FN/ED 495, was plausibly restored by Johnson. She struck an Amherst girl as “from another world in the elegance of her beautiful laces and rustling silks” (Allen 43). Like ED (Let 470), Bianchi made fun of her size and gait: “She walked . . . with a dipping motion, up and down—something like a dumpling in boiled water” (“Country Girl” 22–23).

  Sue’s daughter had: FF 8–9; Let 543. For SB’s birthday messages to Sue, see #36.1 [12-18-1863]; #52, 12-19-1864; #64 [12]-18-[1867]; #66.1, 12-23-1867; #67.1 [12]-14-[1869]; #116 [12-17-1872]; #77 [12-22-1872].

  footnote 6: Passion 145–46; Charles Wadsworth, Jr., How to Get Muscular (New York: Randolph, 1891), dedication.

  “pretty thoroughly”: AOT to John Tyler, 9-13-[1876], Tyler Papers 3:15. The source of the report was a neighbor, Richard H. Mather. After moving to Pittsfield in 1877, the Jenkinses remained friends, naming their third child after WAD.

  Emily’s letters to Louisa: Let 470–71, 515–16, 543, 504; FN 37. For the cousins’ Berkeley Hotel residence, see “Country Girl” 83–84 and Boston directories for 1873 and 1874. L442, previously dated summer 1875, was probably written in May. “The very weather that I lived with you” points to this month, which ED thought of as “the peculiar anniversary of your loving kindness to me” (Let 471). MW had visited the Norcrosses on 4-18-1875: see MW to James L. Whitney, Sun [3-6-1875] (misdated 3-31 by Y-MSSA and 3-1 by Leyda 2:232), WDW Papers 22:593. In L410 “J W ” must be James L. Whitney, a librarian. FN/ED 467 suggests that ED wrote “Tidings of a book” to explain her message to him. The phrase should not accompany her signature, as in Let 523.

  footnote 7: Marion V. Dudley, Poems (Milwaukee: Cramer, Aikens & Cramer, 1885) 41; Frederick I. Olson, “My Search for Mrs. Dudley,” Historical Messenger of the Milwaukee County Historical Society 13 (Dec. 1959) 11–15.

  When others broke: Let 500, 84; Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Hedged In (Boston: Fields, Osgood, 1870). The name was reduced to its initial for Let (1894).

  This tartness: Let 678, 668–69.

  Few aspects: Baym 194; Let 473.

  What we know: Buckingham 215–17; MVR-Births 215:57; 1870 federal census, Amherst, dwelling 316; FN 72–73.

  Oddly enough: Buckingham 216; FN 39–42; Let 559.

  footnote 8: MDB to Ned, 8-2-1876, Bianchi Coll.

  “Aunt Emily stood”: FF 6; FN 31–36, 67–68.

  Never moody: FN 58, 32–33.

  Once, when little Gilbert: “Country Girl” 64–65.

  Curiosity was growing: FF 50; WAD to EFF, [March or April, 1850], Thomas Cooper Lib, University of South Carolina.

  How did Edward feel: FF 24–25; [Alexander H. Bullock], “Mrs. Davis,” Worcester Daily Spy 1-25-1872; EdD to Bullock, 2-3-1872, Bullock Papers. EdD’s “almost perfect woman” echoes Alonzo Hill’s The Perfect Man (New York: Norton, 1854), a funeral sermon on Davis’s husband.

  As a trustee: William H. Ladd to Alexander H. Bullock, 10-4-1871, Julia Ward Howe and Lucy Stone to Bullock, 6-17-1874, Bullock Papers 1:6, 1:5; “The Committees,” Boston Daily Advertiser 2-19-1874; EdD to WAD, 2-18-1874, ED915 A
.

  There is a family story: MLT’s notes of Vin’s remarks, MLT Papers 82:402.

  “The Vein cannot thank”: Let 479.

  A few years earlier: Let 453, 481.

  Dickinson’s ambition: Let 491.

  When Higginson: Let 525 (cf. 500); TWH’s diary, 12-3,4-1873, bMS Am 1162 (11) 1873, H; Brocades 63, 128–29. TWH may have been entertained at the Evergreens, to judge by SB Let #68 [12-2-1873]: “Another day, when there is no stranger.”

  footnote 9: Leyda 2:112.

  On his side: Let 570, 518–20.

  Dickinson’s reply: Let 517–18. On letter and poem, see Loeffelholz 134–35.

  Hunt had grown up: EH Jr, Notebook “B+,” 14, Doc Hitch 7:26; Ruth Odell, Helen Hunt Jackson (New York: Appleton-Century, 1939) 57–61; Leyda 2:14, 213; Let 475–76; Wells 185, 198.

  footnote 11: Catalogue One: Women Authors Published by Roberts Brothers (Brockton, Mass.: John William Pye Rare Books, [1991?]) 16.

  As a professional: HHJ to James T. Fields, 11-16-1870, Huntington Lib; EFF to Horace Scudder (draft), box 3, gen. corr. n.d., EFF Papers; HHJ to Thomas Niles, 11-18-1876, Preston-Dodge Family Papers, MHS; [Harriet W. Preston], rev. of Mercy Phil, Atlantic Monthly 39 (Feb. 1877) 243 (attribution in Atlantic Index 1857–1888, 141); AOT to John Tyler, 2-4-[1877], Tyler Papers 3:16 (cf. Leyda 2:295–97). Henry James’s (suitably) contemptuous review appeared in The Nation.

  Higginson started things: Let 545, 461; unused envelope addressed to HHJ in “Bethleem” on which ED drafted Fr1183B and Fr1184; HHJ to James T. Fields, Bethlehem, NH, 7-29- to 11-16-1870, Huntington Lib; Odell, Helen Hunt Jackson 129–30; Leyda 2:204–205, 210.

  Whatever the answer: Let 544–45.

  Others had said this: Let 404–405; Leyda 2:239, 193; Let (1931) 131. In SR 11-25-1879 it was said (by SB’s son?) that “a great poet from among our women has not yet entered in the lists of expectation.”

  And Helen would not: Let 563, 565.

  Unable to field: Let 563, 565, 573.

  As the 1878 publication date: Let 624, 625.

  When A Masque: “Success,” A Masque of Poets (Boston: Roberts, 1878) 174; Thomas Niles to ED, 1-15-1879, H; Catalogue One.

  Perhaps not: FF 30.

  In March 1871: Leyda 2:172; Let 486; “Pen Pictures of the Prominent Men of Amherst. No. II. Honorable Edward Dickinson,” Amh Rec 10-11-1871.

  When Edward tried: SR 7-11-1872; Trustees Min 4:797, 806–807; SB Let #97.1, 11-26-1872, #68 [12-2-1873]; Endow 65–67, 104; Mass Reports 229:392. On the stringpulling: SB Let #77 [12-22-1872], #101 [7-15-1873]; Richard H. Mather to Julius H. Seelye, 12-27-1872, Seelye Papers 2:2; SB to Alexander H. Bullock, 11-18-1873, Bullock Papers 1:2.

  Ironically, as Edward: Home 441–44; Amh Rec 10-29-1873; Boston Evening Journal 11-7-1873. On Hoosac Tunnel: The New York Times 4-24-1873 (5), 5-2-1873 (4), 5-30-1873 (1), 11-28-1873 (5), 2-21-1874 (1), 9-12-1874 (6).

  Although the Panic: Let 511, 515; EdD to WAD, postmarked 1-21-1874, ED911 A.

  It was in the middle: “Disappearance of Mr. Sweetzer,” clipping in EDC’s scrapbook, MTB Papers 101:567; “INFORMATION WANTED,” New York Herald 1-23,24,25-1874; “A Missing Merchant,” Herald 1-24-1874; “$250 Reward,” Herald 1-26,27,28-1874.

  Although a Mulberry Street: Nivens George, detective, Trow’s New York City Directory for 1873–1874, 973.

  From time to time: Let 521, 662–63 (cf. 543), 528; Amh Rec 4-29-1874; SR 6-19-1874.

  The next morning: Leyda 2:223–24; Boston Morning Journal 6-17-1874; MLT to TWH, 7-9-1891, TWH Papers, BPL.

  Emily was at supper: Let 526.

  Three days later: FF 13; SR 6-20-1874; Leyda 2:225.

  She also could not: Leyda 2:226–27; Jenkins, memorial sermon, H; Home 219.

  The Springfield Republican’s: SR 6-17-1874.

  It is a tribute: Jenkins, memorial sermon, H.

  bought large life insurance policies: EdD, inventory for 1851, Bianchi Coll. EdD’s 1858 inventory shows the insurer as State Mutual Life Assurance Co. All American Financial, today’s successor company, has not been able to find the policy.

  “it is doubtful”: JGH, “The Woman Question,” JGH Papers, box 1.

  In Edward’s case: Hampshire Co. RP, Estate of EdD, 192:6, WAD’s 1874 petition (copy) and Vin’s 1895 statement (copy); Vryling Wilder Buffum to Genevieve Taggard, 3-6-1930, Taggard Papers. MDB misleadingly claimed that ED and Vin “were never dependent upon their brother financially in any way” (FF 142).

  footnote 13: Let 596 (misdated by Johnson); FF 250; SR 12-12-1876; Amh Rec 12-18-1876; EdD, inventory for 1873, Bianchi Coll; WAD’s record of EdD’s estate, H.

  A defect in this: FHB to LMB, 11-24-1876, Bolt 15:1; AOT to John Tyler, 11-26-1876, 6-11-[1878], Tyler Papers 3:15, 3:17; Ned to MDB, postmarked 1-7-1889, Bianchi Coll; Ned to MDB, Wed evening [1890s], Bianchi Coll. The gravity of WAD’s illness is indicated by SB Let #80.1 [Nov.? 1876].

  footnote 14: FF 173; MDB, “Indian Summer,” New England Magazine 17.2 (Oct. 1897) 212.

  The striking anomaly: Forgery noted by Leyda 2:229. EFF to Mary, 1-25-[1881], 3:1, to Mr. Loper (draft), n.d., box 3, EFF Papers.

  The first time Mattie: FF 32; Let 537, 528.

  A bulwark was gone: Let 551, 529, 559; LL 100; Let 600.

  footnote 15: Helen Jameson to JFJ, 11-14-1882, Container 5, Jameson Papers.

  The last books: Let 547.

  The most powerful: Brocades 128–30; Poems 960–62; Var 1247–49; Let 525, 528.

  footnote 16: On James W. Boyden, see above, p. 715.

  The letter to Higginson: Let 583.

  Knowing how: SB Let #69, 11-24-1874 (cf. Let 557); FF 13; Let 852, 683.

  The deadliest calendar day: Let 526, 542, 635, 588, 627; Var 1533.

  At Edward’s funeral: Let 526–27.

  Now that she: Let 540.

  Eighteen seventy-five was a: Mer 2:319–20; SB Let #71 [8-8?-1875], #71.1, 8-4-[1875]. For other pertinent letters, see SB Let #124 [summer 1875?], #80.2 [5-26-1876?], #71.2 [6-3-1876], #76 [12-14-1876]).

  By 1877 he was: SR 6-27,28-1877; Leyda 2:275–77; Graves; FF 62–63; Let 589–90; SB Let #119, Wednesday, 7-4-[1877]. July 4 fell on Wednesday in 1866 and 1877. 1866 is ruled out by the postage stamps (first issued 1870–1871) and by what is said about Edward B. Gillett.

  For Emily, the interview: Mer 2:426; William S. Robinson, “Warrington” Pen-Portraits (Boston: Mrs. W. S. Robinson, 1877) 163–66; Let 588–89.

  The editor’s own gallant: Mer 2:419, 426 (cf. Higgins 230–31); SR 10-19-1861. There is no question the letter went to ED, who alluded to it twice before its publication: about 1884 she spoke of “the Warrington Words” (SB’s excerpt from “Warrington” Pen-Portraits), and in January 1885 she quoted “greatly impressive to me” (Let 828, 856). Sue (Leyda 2:277–78) could not have been the recipient: SB’s letters to her in the 1870s were far more direct and ungloved.

  Higginson was sent: Var 1252; Let 573, 627, 569, 570.

  Since Dickinson’s letters: For ED’s use of the Hollands as intermediaries, see Let 737, 562, 596, 608, 648, 689, 575; Let (Holl) 106, 162. For an attempt to discredit Ward’s report of the family tradition that Elizabeth Holland facilitated ED’s correspondence with CW, see Sewall 593 and Richard B. Sewall, “In Search of Emily Dickinson,” in Extraordinary Lives: The Art and Craft of American Biography, Wiliam Zinsser, ed. (New York: American Heritage, 1986) 84. For ED’s use of other intermediaries, see Let 523, 549, 656, 668, 702, 703, 740, 772, 778, 793. Mary Lee Hall’s tale of Luke Sweetser’s part in ED’s romantic correspondence (Leyda 2:359–60) probably reflects Hall’s own conspiratorial bent.

  footnote 17: ED222 A (Fr1570A).

  footnote 18: ED277 A; Var 1224–25.

  “The Sermon you failed”: Let 572–73; God’s Culture. The end of ED’s sentence—“and ‘Corn in the Ear,’ Audacity, these inclement Days”—quotes this sermon: “as if the Omniscient Husbandman did not know when his immortal grapes are purple, and his corn in the ear!” (7).

&n
bsp; footnote 19: George F. Whicher, “Pursuit of the Overtakeless,” Nation 169 (7-2-1949) 14–15.

  On December 10: MVR-Deaths 292:275.

  Chapter 21

  Lizzie Mather: Henry F. Hills to Adelaide Hills, 10-31-1877, Hills Papers 3:1; AOT to John Tyler, Tuesday A.M. [10-30-1877], Tyler Papers 3:16; MVR-Deaths 293:2; Let 595.

  Two months later: AOT to John Tyler, 1-1-1888 [1878], Tyler Papers 3:17; Let 595-96.

  When Maria Whitney: MW to WDW, 10-28-1877, WDW Papers 26:733 (see also 26:736, 739; 27:743, 749); Sue to SB, 12-11-[1877], Hooker, uncat ZA MS 77, Y-BRBL; Dr. David P. Smith to Sue, 12-29-1877, bMS Am 1118.8, fd 17, H; Mary Clemmer [Ames], “Forever Lives the King,” Poems of Life and Nature (Boston: Osgood, 1883) 61; Let 595; MVR-Deaths 301:347; Amh Rec 1-23-1878.

  footnote 1: MLT/ED 695.

  It is clear: Let 600; Fr1314C; Let 601, 620–21.

  “my dearest friend”: MW to [SB], [late April 1875, after Concord centennial of 4-19], Hooker, uncat ZA MS 77, Y-BRBL.

  footnote 2: WDW Papers, boxes 8–25; Passion 207.

  lived with the family: See MW’s letters to WDW or EBW from 2-10-[1867], box 12, to 3–10–1868, box 13, WDW Papers. MW to EBW, 8-11-[1867], misdated 1862 by Y-MSSA, is in box 9. On the rumors, see MW to EBW, 3-10-1868, 13:293, and “Sat P.M.” [3-14?-1868] (misdated 1863? by Y-MSSA).

  “with peculiar,” “sweet,” “long fidelity”: Let 623. For a thinly contextualized and often conjectural survey of ED’s mss. to MW, see “Putnam.”

  Yet it is true: Mer passim; SB Let #16 [1-5-1863], #16.1 [1-9-1863], #126 [mid-April 1867]; MW to EBW, 1-27-[1878], WDW Papers 46:1409. For two major statements on the friendship, see SB Let #44, 2-26-[1864]; MW to WDW, 9-13-[1865], WDW Papers 11:215.

  “I have thought”: ED to MW, [early 1878], MS Am 1118.10 (6), H (Let 602).

  To “hope you”: ED to MW, [early 1878?], MS Am 1118.10 (8), H; MW to Sue, 11-25-[1895], Bianchi Coll. L591 is dated early 1879? in Let 634 and ca. December 1878 in Var 1294–95. Two considerations point to an earlier date: it appears the correspondence was just getting under way, and “we cannot believe for each other” shows up in a June 1878 letter (Let 612).