After Emily

by Julie Dobrow

  58.Ancestors’ Brocades, 40.

  59.Editing, 125.

  60.http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/poetsorg-guide-emily-dickinsons-collected-poems.

  61.John Mulvihill, “Why Dickinson Didn’t Title,” http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/dickinson/mulvihill.htm.

  62.MLT, “Journal,” November 1890, MLTP, III, 46, reel 8.

  63.Ancestors’ Brocades, 33.

  64.Elizabeth Horan, “Mabel Loomis Todd, Martha Dickinson Bianchi and the Spoils of the Dickinson Legacy,” in A Living of Words: American Women in Print Culture, ed. Susan Albertine (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995), 74.

  65.Jackson, Dickinson’s Misery, 17–20.

  66.MLT, “Journal,” November 1890, MLTP, III, 46, reel 8.

  67.Ancestors’ Brocades, 51.

  68.Ibid.

  69.Ibid., 53–54.

  70.MLT, “Journal,” November 1890, MLTP, III, 46, reel 8.

  71.MLT, in Ancestors’ Brocades, 57.

  72.MLT, “Journal,” November 1890, MLTP, III, 46, reel 8.

  73.Ancestors’ Brocades, 69. Note: It’s also likely that in selecting the packaging she did for this volume Mabel was tapping into aesthetic changes of the era; historian Thomas Schlereth suggests that the new abundance of mass-produced goods and advertising about them “altered ideas regarding status and wealth in a society that aspired to be a people of plenty”; Schlereth, Victorian America, xiii.

  74.Ancestors’ Brocades, 61.

  75.MLT, “Journal,” November 1890, MLTP, III, 46, reel 8.

  76.Ibid.

  77.Ancestors’ Brocades, 69.

  78.Editing, 27.

  79.MLT, “Emily Dickinson’s Literary Debut,” 467.

  80.T. W. Higginson to MLT, 15 December 1890, BPL.

  81.William Dean Howells, “Review of Emily Dickinson’s Poems,” Harper’s Monthly Magazine, January 1891, 320.

  82.MLT, “Journal,” 30 November 1890, MLTP, III, 46, reel 8.

  83.Horan, “Spoils of the Dickinson Legacy,” 73.

  84.MLT, “Diary,” 26 March 1891, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  85.MLT, “Lecture Notes,” n.d., MLTP, IV, 53–15.

  86.Ibid.

  87.MLT, “Journal,” 9 May 1890, MLTP, III, 46, reel 8.

  88.MLT, “Journal,” 28 April 1896, MLTP, III, 46, reel 8; 2 May 1902, MLTP, III, 47, reel 9.

  89.Ancestors’ Brocades, 135.

  90.Ibid., 127–37.

  91.MLT, “Journal,” November 1890, MLTP, III, 46, reel 8.

  92.MLT to T. W. Higginson, 25 July 1891; T. W. Higginson to MLT, 28 July 1891, BPL.

  93.Ancestors’ Brocades, 177.

  94.MLT, “Journal,” 16 June 1891, MLTP, III, 46, reel 8.

  95.S. G. Dickinson to T. W. Higginson, 23 December 1890, in Ancestors’ Brocades, 86–87.

  96.L. N. Dickinson to T. W. Higginson, 23 December 1890, in Ancestors’ Brocades, 87–88.

  97.MLT, “Journal,” 16 June 1891, MLTP, III, 46, reel 8.

  98.Horan, “Spoils of the Dickinson Legacy,” 73.

  99.MLT, “Diary,” 1 December 1890, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  100.Letters, xiv.

  101.Ibid., xv.

  102.MLT, “Journal,” 16 June 1891, MLTP, III, 46, reel 8; New York Herald, December 8, 1894.

  103.Ancestors’ Brocades, 193.

  104.Ibid., 201.

  105.Ibid.

  106.MLT, “Diary,” 24 May 1892, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  107.Editing, 85.

  108.MLT to E. D. Hardy, 3 December 1894, ACA.

  109.https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/letters.

  110.Ancestors’ Brocades, 247.

  111.Revelation, 1–2.

  112.For a good summary of the discussion and theories about the Master letters, as well as their full text, see the Emily Dickinson Museum website: https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/love_life.

  113.MLT, “Diary,” 1 November 1892, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  114.MLT, “The Evolution of Style: Reading Emily Dickinson,” n.d., MLTP, V, 78–313. Note: While Mabel did realize that there were poems embedded in some of the letters Emily wrote to others, because she was not in possession of all of Emily’s letters—most notably, her letters to Susan Dickinson—she probably did not realize that there might well be other poems that she, herself, had not yet seen.

  115.WAD, n.d., ACA; Gardner Fuller, letter to the editor, Nation, 23 November 1891, ACA, 12–7.

  116.WAD to E. D. Hardy, 26 September 1894; MLT to E. D. Hardy, 28 September 1894, in Ancestors’ Brocades, 296–99.

  117.Ancestors’ Brocades, 303–304.

  118.Ibid., 305.

  119.“New Publications,” New York Times, 25 November 1894, 3, 23; “New Publications,” Boston Herald, 27 November 1894, 7.

  120.Ancestors’ Brocades,, 211–12.

  121.Ibid., 211.

  122.Marietta Messmer, A Vice for Voices: Reading Emily Dickinson’s Correspondence (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001), 5.

  123.MLT to E. D. Hardy, 3 December 1894, ACA.

  124.Ancestors’ Brocades, 335.

  125.Ibid.

  126.Editing, 114; Ancestors’ Brocades, 341.

  127.“Recent Poetry,” New York Evening Post, 10 October 1896, 14.

  128.Editing, 114; Ancestors’ Brocades, 341.

  129.MLT to E. D. Hardy, 7 January 1896, ACA.

  130.Ancestors’ Brocades, 324.

  CHAPTER 7: LOSING AUSTIN, FINDING MABEL

  1.MLT, “Diary,” 4 January 1895, MLTP, III, 39, reel 1.

  2.MLT to WAD, 5 January 1895, MLTP, VII, 101–232.

  3.MLT, “Diary,” 7 January 1895, MLTP, III, 39, reel 1.

  4.Ibid., 19 April 1895, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  5.Ibid., 1 June 1895.

  6.Ibid., 14 July 1895.

  7.Ibid., 17 July 1895.

  8.Ibid., 19 July 1895.

  9.Ibid., 28 July 1895.

  10.Ibid., 3 August 1895.

  11.MLT to WAD, 10 August 1895, MLTP, VII, 101–232.

  12.MLT, “Diary,” 11 August 1895, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  13.Ibid., 17 August 1895.

  14.MTB, “Diary,” 16–17 August 1895, MTBP, VII, 132, 42–43.

  15.Ancestors’ Brocades, 331.

  16.Ibid., 331–32.

  17.MTB, “Reminiscences,” 25 August 1962, MTBP, II, 46–8, 9.

  18.“Obituary of William Austin Dickinson,” Amherst Record, cited in Theodore Green, ed., Essays in Amherst History (Amherst, MA: Vista Trust, 1978), 152.

  19.Springfield Republican, 17 August, 1895.

  20.MTB, “Diary,” 19 August 1895, MTBP, VII, 132–42–43.

  21.Austin and Mabel, 399–400.

  22.MLT, “Journal,” 19 August 1895, MLTP, III, 47, reel 9.

  23.Ibid.

  24.Ibid., 15 November 1895.

  25.MTB, “Diary,” 17 August 1895, MTBP, VII, 132–42–43.

  26.MLT, “Journal,” 19 August 1895; 15 November 1895, MLTP, III, 47, reel 9. Note: Perhaps giving further credibility to Mabel’s belief that Austin had somehow arranged to have the bicycle sent to her is the fact that in the 1890s, Columbia bicycles were quite expensive, about ninety dollars, which is equivalent to $2,500.50 in 2018, http://www.in2013dollars.com/1895-dollars-in-2018?amount=90.

  27.MLT, “Journal,” 19 September 1895; MLT, “Diary,” 3 December 1895, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  28.MLT, “Journal,” 20 October 1895, MLTP, III, 47, reel 9.

  29.Ibid., 13 March 1896.

  30.Ibid., 16 September 1896.

  31.Ibid., 13 December 1895.

  32.Emily Dickinson, Poem II (“Time and Eternity”), in Poems, Third Series, ed. Mabel Loomis Todd (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1896), 140. [Note: This poem is now known by its first line, “We learn in the Retreating” (poem 1083 in the Thomas Johnson edition).]; MLT, “Journal,” 30 January 1896, MLTP, III, 47, reel 9.

  33.MLT, “Journal,” 28 April 1897, MLTP, III, 47, reel 9.

  34.Ibid., 2
1 October 1895; 15 November 1895; 22 February 1896.

  35.Ibid., 31 December 1899.

  36.Ibid., 5 August 1903, MLTP, III, 48, reel 9.

  37.Ibid., 14 May 1896, MLTP, III, 47, reel 9.

  38.Mabel Loomis Todd, Corona and Coronet (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1898), 9–10.

  39.MLT, “Journal,” 8 April 1896, MLTP, III, 47, reel 9.

  40.Ibid., 12 April 1896.

  41.Ibid., 18 May 1896.

  42.Ibid., 16 May 1896.

  43.Todd, Corona and Coronet, 9, 324–25.

  44.MLT, “Journal,” 3 August 1896, MLTP, III, 47, reel 9.

  45.Todd, Corona and Coronet, 9, 324–25.

  46.MLT, “Journal,” 3 October 1896; 12 October 1896, MLTP, III, 47, reel 9.

  47.Ibid.

  48.Ancestors’ Brocades, 347.

  CHAPTER 8: SUING THE “QUEEN OF AMHERST”

  1.Hartford Courant, 2 March, 1898; New York Times, February 27, 1898.

  2.Hartford Courant, 2 March, 1898.

  3.WAD to MLT, November 1887, MLTP, VII, 102–249.

  4.James R. Guthrie, A Kiss from Thermopylae (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2015), 89.

  5.MLT, “Diary,” 6 October 1896, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  6.Austin and Mabel, 403.

  7.MLT, “Mabel Loomis Todd Speaks,” n.d., MLTP, VII, 101–242.

  8.MLT, “Diary,” 7 February 1896, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  9.Austin and Mabel, 406.

  10.Note: Interestingly, Maggie’s testimony was so powerful in its insinuations about Mabel and Austin’s relationship—and so upsetting to members of the Dickinson family—that Mattie apparently ripped it out of the materials she kept about the trial. The pages are clearly torn out and missing from the Martha Dickinson Bianchi collection; MDB, 220.

  11.Austin and Mabel, 414. Note: Longsworth also suggests that Judge Bumpus had at one time evinced more than a professional interest in Mabel, and that his decision to remove himself from her legal team might have occurred for multiple reasons.

  12.MLT, “Diary,” 3 June 1897, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  13.Ancestors’ Brocades, 351–52.

  14.MLT, “Diary,” 4 May 1897, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  15.Ibid., 23 February 1898.

  16.L. N. Dickinson, “Deposition,” Lavinia N. Dickinson v. Mabel Loomis Todd et al., The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Hampshire County Superior Court, 1897.

  17.MLT, “Diary,” 1 March 1898, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  18.Ancestors’ Brocades, 353.

  19.MLT, “Diary,” 1 March 1898, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  20.MLT, “Cross-examination,” Lavinia N. Dickinson v. Mabel Loomis Todd et al., The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Hampshire County Superior Court, 1897, 29.

  21.DPT, “Deposition,” Lavinia N. Dickinson v. Mabel Loomis Todd et al., The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Hampshire County Superior Court, 1897.

  22.Springfield Republican, 1 March 1898.

  23.T. G. Spaulding, “Deposition,” Lavinia N. Dickinson v. Mabel Loomis Todd et al., The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Hampshire County Superior Court, 1897.

  24.Ancestors’ Brocades, 357.

  25.MLT, “Diary,” 3 March 1898, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  26.S. S. Taft, “Transcript,” Lavinia N. Dickinson v. Mabel Loomis Todd et al., The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Hampshire County Superior Court, 1897.

  27.Springfield Republican, 5 March 1898.

  28.Hartford Courant, 2 March 1898.

  29.Mary A. Jordan, in Ancestors’ Brocades, 359.

  30.Life, 150.

  31.Horan, “Spoils of the Dickinson Legacy,” 77.

  32.MLT, “Diary,” 15 April 1898, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  33.Ancestors’ Brocades, 365.

  34.Massachusetts Reports: Decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court, Volume 172, November 21, 1898.

  35.MLT, “Diary,” 21 November 1898, MLTP, III, 41, reel 3.

  36.MLT, “Mabel Loomis Todd Speaks,” n.d., MLTP, VII, 101–242.

  37.MLT, “Journal,” 31 December 1898, MLTP, III, 47, reel 9.

  38.MLT, “MLT Speaks,” October 10, 1931, MLTP, VII, 101–242.

  39.Ancestors’ Brocades, 347.

  CHAPTER 9: TRAVELING AND TRAVAILS

  1.MTB, “Diary,” 1 January 1900, MTBP, VII, 133–46.

  2.MLT, “Journal,” 10 November 1899, MLTP, III, 47, reel 9.

  3.MLT, Tripoli, 7.

  4.MLT, “Journal,” 31 December 1900, MLTP, III, 47, reel 9.

  5.MTB, “Journal,” March 1901, MTBP, VII, 129, 17.

  6.MLT, “Diary,” August 16, 1904, MLTP, III, 42, reel 4.

  7.MLT, Tripoli, 7.

  8.Millicent Todd Bingham, Peru: A Land of Contrasts (Boston: Little, Brown, 1918), 7–8.

  9.MTB, “Diary,” August 16, 1908, MTBP, VII, 128–11–12.

  10.MLT, “Journal,” July 22, 1910, MLTP, 43, reel 5.

  11.MLT, “Diary,” September 20, 1910, MLTP, III, 43, reel 5.

  12.Ibid.; MLT, “Journal,” November 30, 1912, MLTP, III, 48, reel 9.

  13.MLT, “Journal,” January 4, 1919, MLTP, III, 48, reel 9.

  14.MTB, “The Story of Hog Island,” n.d., MTBP, VI, 118, 71–72.

  15.MLT, “Journal,” November 26, 1911, MLTP, III, 48, reel 9.

  16.MLT, “Scurrilous but True,” n.d., MLTP, VII, 116–456.

  17.MLT, “Diary,” May 13, 1913, MLTP, III, 44, reel 6.

  18.MTB, interview with Sutherland, 1959, MTBP, II, 46–11–12, 88.

  19.MLT, “Scurrilous but True,” n.d., MLTP, VII, 116–456.

  20.MTB, interview with Sutherland, 1959, MTBP, II, 46–11–12, 42.

  21.MTB, “Journal,” November 11, 1961, MTBP, VII, 130–27.

  22.Ibid., January 17, 1919, MLTP, III, 48, reel 9; MLT, “Scurillous but True,” n.d., MLTP, VII, 116–456.

  23.MLT, “Diary,” April 7, 1913, MLTP, III, 44, reel 6.

  24.MTB, “Journal,” February 15, 1916, MTBP, VII, 129–15–16.

  25.Ibid., February 15, 1914, MTBP, VII, 130–29, 10.

  26.Ibid., 50.

  27.MTB, interview with Sutherland, 1959, MTBP, II, 46–11–12, 46–47. For more information on this expedition, see Julie Dobrow, “The Star-Crossed Astronomer,” Amherst Magazine, Summer 2017.

  28.Charles J. Hudson, “Tribute to David Peck Todd,” 1939, http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1939PA....47..472H/0000472.000.html.

  29.MTB, “Journal,” May 13, 1917, MTBP, VII, 129–15–16.

  30.MTB, “Reminiscences,” May 12, 1959, MTBP, II, 44–8.

  CHAPTER 10: “SINCERELY, JOE THOMAS”

  1.MTB, interview with Sutherland, 1959, MTBP, II, 46–11–12, 49.

  2.MTB, “Journal,” April 19, 1918, MTBP, VII, 129–17.

  3.MT to MLT, April 15, 1918, MTB, VIII, 156–35.

  4.Ibid., April 12, 1918.

  5.Ibid., May 19, 1918.

  6.MT, “World War I Notes,” n.d., MTBP, VIII, 173–64.

  7.MTB, interview with Sutherland, 1959, MTBP, II, 46–11–12, 149–150.

  8.MT to MLT, June 26, 1918, MTBP, VIII, 156–35.

  9.MTB, “Diary,” July 1918, MTBP, 134, 51–54.

  10.MT to MLT, August 5, 1918, MTBP, VIII, 156–35.

  11.MTB, “Journal,” September 28, 1918, MTBP, VII, 129–17.

  12.http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/marriage/data/acs/Elliottetal PAA2012 paper.pdf.

  13.MTB, “Journal,” September 8, 1918, MTBP, VII, 129–17.

  14.MT, “World War I Notes,” n.d., MTBP, VIII, 173–64.

  15.MLT to MTB, April 24, 1918, MTBP, VIII, 156–35.

  16.MTB, “Diary,” October 17–18, 1918, MTBP, 134–51–54.

  17.Note: Millicent’s fear wasn’t groundless. By some estimates, there were almost half a million hospital admissions among British and Dominion troops because of venereal disease during the First World War. In France, alone, in 1918 there were over sixty thousand hospital admissions, http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/body-
and-mind/the-british-army’s-fight-against-venereal-disease-in-the-‘heroic-age-of-prostitution’/.

  18.MTB, “Journal,” October 19, 1918; November 21, 1918, MTBP, VII, 129–17.

  19.Ibid., October 9, 1918.

  20.Ibid., November 19, 1918, MTBP, VII, 134–51–54.

  21.MT to MLT, January 8, 1919, MTBP, VIII, 156–35.

  22.MTB, “Journal,” December 19, 1918, MTBP, VII, 129–17.

  23.U.S. Census, 1920.

  24.MTB, “Journal,” December 19, 1918, MTBP, VII, 12, 17.

  25.MTB, “Diary,” July 21, 1919, MTBP, 134–51–54.

  26.Ibid.

  27.Ibid., August 13, 1919.

  28.Ibid.

  29.MTB, interview with Sutherland, 1959, MTBP, II, 46–11–12, 56.

  30.Ibid.

  31.Emily Dickinson, “Bequest,” in Todd and Higginson, Poems by Emily Dickinson 44. [Note: This poem is now known as “You left me—Sire—two Legacies” (poem 644 in the Thomas Johnson edition).]

  32.MT to MLT, March 14, 1920, MTBP, VIII, 156–35.

  33.MTB, “Diary,” March 1, 1919, MTBP, VII.

  34.MTB, “Journal,” December 30, 1919, MTBP, VII, 129–17.

  CHAPTER 11: FIGHTING TO DEFINE EMILY DICKINSON

  1.MTB, “Scrapbook,” 1920, MTBP, VII, 152–126–127.

  2.Ibid.

  3.MTB, “Reminiscences,” May 24, 1959, MTBP, II, 44–8.

  4.MTB, interview with Sutherland, 1959, MTBP, II, 46, 11–12, 77.

  5.MTB, “Reminiscences,” May 24, 1959, MTBP, II, 44–8.

  6.MTB, “Journal,” January 11, 1921; February 22, 1921, MTBP, VII, 129–18.

  7.MTB, “Reminiscences,” 1963, MTBP, II, 44–8, 21.

  8.MTB, “Journal,” November 25, 1963, MTBP, VII, 130–28.

  9.Ibid., March 26, 1924.

  10.Ibid., December 31, 1938.

  11.MTB, “Ireland Journal,” n.d., MTBP, VII, 130–22–23.

  12.Kansas City Star, September 3, 1921.

  13.MTB, interview with Sutherland, 1959, MTBP, II, 4–11–12, 78.

  14.Ibid.

  15.MLT, “Journal,” September 14, 1920, MLTP, III, 48, reel 9.

  16.MTB, interview with Sutherland, 1959, MTBP, II, 46–11–12, 78.

  17.G. D. Olds to MTB, June 25, 1925, MTBP, VIII, 167–241–242; MTB, interview with Sutherland, 1959, MTBP, II, 46–11–1, 79.

  18.MTB, interview with Sutherland, 1959, MTBP, II, 46–11–1, 80.

  19.MTB, “Key West in the Summer of 1864,” Florida Historical Quarterly 43, no. 3 (1965): 262.

  20.Miami Herald, February 28, 1922.

  21.Howard Hilder to MLT, November 16, 1924, MLTP, II, 14–303–313; MLT, “Diary,” November 30, 1930, MLTP, III, 48, reel 9.