Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds Paperback – May 31, 2011

Reading the reviews below reminds me that there are no feuds as acrimonious and petty as academic ones. Apparently, a disagreement between Lyndall Gordon and other Dickinson biographers regarding whether Dickinson had epilepsy has inspired those dissenting biographers to trash her book on Amazon.com. Did Gordon have the temerity to disregard their advice? Well, we'll have none of that; in the interests of scholarship (yeah, sure) we'll make sure that the world knows how right we were, and how wrong she was to ignore our criticism.Now -- the book. Lyndall Gordon has written a fascinating account of the feud between the Dickinsons and Mabel Loomis Todd, the extramarital lover of Dickinson's brother, that delayed the publication of much of Dickinson's work for over 50 years. Extending through two generations, and possibly a contributing factor in the deaths of some of the players, the feud began when Dickinson's brother, Austin, embarked on a mid-life, adulterous romance with Todd, the young wife of an Amherst science professor. As Dickinson's poems and letters lay hidden away in the pages of books, locked trunks, and dust-filled boxes, the protagonists of this extraordinary tale battled for recognition and vindication and -- not incidentally -- to destroy one another's claims to Emily Dickinson's affectionsGordon describes, not merely the feud, but also the way in which the competing narratives spun by the adversaries -- including the putative "editors" of Dickinson's work, her betrayed sister-in-law, Susan and her sister, Lavinia, and the actual editor, Mabel Todd -- misrepresented their own characters and motives, and also those of the poet herself, who had an emotional vitality and network of relationship that belied the myth of the frail recluse of Amherst. Public attitudes, Gordon demonstrates, played an active role in such dramas, eagerly embracing the myth of the "frail" and emotionally chaste Dickinson and, during a trial in Amherst in the years after Dickinson's death, thwarting the adulterous Mabel Todd's attempts to have her rights to a portion of Dickinson land validated. Gordon shows that, in life as in literature, there is no "binary right or wrong, guilty or not guilty," (p. 312), and that truth is elusive and must be approached inclusively, taking into account the stories that individuals tell, and often believe, about themselves and one another.Perhaps that is the lesson that those who criticize Gordon's scholarship might learn. True, Dickinson may not have been an epileptic. Taking all the factors that Gordon describes into account, however, some sort of seizure disorder might have been included among her ailments. Certainly, the theory is plausible, and provides readers (including this one) with an additional, intriguing interpretation of Dickinson's poems. Yet the nature of Dickinson's illness is not what this book is about. Instead, the book is about the enduring power of art, emotion, and need: a great poet's work is nearly swallowed up by, but survives, a love that is so powerful that it gives rise to an everlasting hatred -- a hatred so powerful that it creates a perverse kind of art -- narratives -- of its own.As a college instructor and a practicing attorney, I found this work on Dickinson enjoyable on many levels, and give it "five stars." How ironic that a book about a feud should spark antagonisms that, in their own way, prove the author's points.

A few years before Emily Dickinson died, her married brother Austin, a character out of Hawthorne, began an adulterous affair with an Amherst College faculty wife many years his junior, Mabel Loomis Todd, who herself would be comfortable in the pages of Edith Wharton. This affair is really the crux of this exciting biography. The affair split apart the Dickinson family in unexpected ways, and the repercussions have shadowed Dickinson, as a poet and as a human being, to this day. This is Lyndall Gordon's story, and she tells it brilliantly. How exciting can a book about a reclusive lady poet be? You have no idea.The first half of the book is a biography of Emily Dickinson, very smartly written. The gauzy veils of eccentricity are pretty much stripped away, and we see a much more nuanced view of the poet. She was stronger than her reputation allows; her isolation seems to be due to epilepsy, hidden away, like "the madwoman in the attic." But Emily Dickinson wasn't crazy. She was one of the two great American 19th century poets (Whitman being the other). Gordon uses with wisdom the poems themselves, gnomic as they are, to cast light on shadowed parts of Dickinson's life, her affections and her lovers, imagined or not.The second half of the book follow's Dicknson's works, manuscripts, and reputation, all distorted by a feud of cosmic proportions between The Mistress and The Wife, their families, their descendants, even scholars taking one side or the other. Both sides told enormous whoppers about the other side, and they each constructed a fake "Emily" from behind which Emily and her poetry have struggled to emerge.Part of Gordon's genius is to be seen in her portrait of the mistress, Mabel Loomis Todd. In addition to being shockingly open about her sexual desires, she also happened to be a very good editor;: her work on the poems prior to publication made Dickinson publishable. Gordon's portrait of Mabel is as rich as her view of Emily.The book isn't perfect. It is grating to come across Gordon's occasional linguistic infelicities, especially as she is usually a clear and confident writes. There is certainly nothing to be gained by the opinions of Dickinson uttered by such terminal lightweights as Pete Doherty (!) and Joyce Carol Oates.Still, this is a riveting account of an exceptional life. It's a little like "The Aspern Papers, " but the papers survive; or like Lizzie Borden without the ax. Emily Dickinson's poems draw us inwards; they are sharp and aflame. Now we see why. And how.

Fascinating tale of Emily Dickinson and family. Much of the book is a discussion of how Mabel Loomis Todd insinuated herself into the Dickinson family and became Austin Dickinson's (Emily's brother) mistress. Emily refused to see her face to face although she sent a few cryptic messages to her. Following Emily's death, she managed to get her hands on many Dickinson poems by way of Lavinia, Emily's sister and. to this day. editions of the poems are listed as edited by Mabel Todd.

This is the best and most readable biography that I have read in recent years apart from "Hunting the Unicorn" by Don King which describes the life of that should have been 20th Century poet laureate Ruth Pitter.Emily's probable epilepsy is well delineated and the character of her work, reclusiveness and intensity all point to that diagnosis. The daggers drawn feuds must have been intensified by her isolation, her preference for white is also a mark of Emily's preoccupation with wholesomeness. However the possibility of an affair with Bowles is not out of the question though that can never be known at this distanceJust how far her brother's infidelity had an effect on Emily's writing, maybe it was a damper, is conjecture.For the lover of biography, this book is a must and far exceeds the tedious and instant characterisation of pop stars and politicians which are there to bore us.

book in excellent condition.thank you. r.l.

This book is extremely well researched and offers new insights into the work of the great American 19th-century poet, Emily Dickinson, and a re-appraisal of her life. For all those readers who, like me, found it difficult to buy into the myth of the 'Amherst recluse', supposedly faithful onto death to a mystery lover, this biography which may not contain all the answers, propounds a fresh theory of the poet having become a recluse through ill-health - epilepsy, is Lyndall Gordon's conclusion - a disease which the 19th century medical profession could do nothing about, which entailed a good deal of social opprobrium, especially for a woman, who would be discouraged to marry and have children. Lyndall Gordon goes to great lengths to remind us that she has no actual 'proofs' for her epilepsy diagnostic, yet she makes a powerful and convincing case for it: the secrecy about Dickinson's baffling recurring aliments, the eye condition which - officially - required months of treatment away from home for someone who never wore glasses; the well-documented way of life of a lady working during the hours of darkness and going to bed during the day - epileptics shun bright lights - her father and younger sister accepting this strange way of life and colluding to free her from domestic chores at a time when well-to-do New England ladies, in accordance with their Puritan ethos saw it as normal to work alongside their domestic servants in the run of the household; the strange remedy used at the time for the specific 'treatment/containment' of epilepsy which is never purchased from the perfectly good chemist in Amherst, but procured discreetly via the poet's brother in Boston etc etc... No proof, but a very convincing theory and much more in character with what we otherwise know of a remarkably gifted woman who, many years before another troubled soul, found 'a room of one's own' within the confines of the Amherst Homestead.The book goes on in great details about the two feuding factions of family and friends who battled for years over the ownership and copyright of Emily's impressive body of work. Some readers might be tempted to pass on that but I think it is worth staying with it, if nothing else but for the contrast offered by the pure voice of the poet, compared with the conduct of the contemporaries who survived her and their descendants, who for all their love and admiration of Emily Dickinson and her work, their personal talents and dedication, managed to behave in less than inspiring ways!Some twenty years before her death, Emily Dickinson wrote:Publication — is the AuctionOf the Mind of Man —Poverty — be justifyingFor so foul a thingHow vindicated she would have felt in her low opinion of the published state had she seen the vultures fighting over her heart's breath.

First, on a technical level regarding the e-book, I was very irritated not to get any photographs. A major disappointment as the author refers to particular portraits repeatedly and it's always interesting to me to have illustrations of the actual locations and people involved. I ended up having to have my phone handy to google the various people involved.Now, to be honest, I felt many times like giving up on the book as, for me, the first part detailing Emily's life and work was often impenetrable. The writing style was as riddling as Dickinson's poetry. In addition, Dickinson came across - I'm sorry to say - as a strange and extremely irritating person. There were people she wrote letters to repeatedly who never wrote her back and I can see how they might not have wanted to encourage her. I felt her strangeness towards others was the reason for socially withdrawing - not the suggested illness, which wasn't thoroughly convincing. My hunch is she might have been causing a little embarrassment to the family in her youth, but less so later on when she was selective about society.The more gossipy second part of the book was much easier and more thrilling to read for obvious reasons. Plenty of plot twists and skullduggery. It was ultimately very sad to see the effect those two families had on each other. The Todds reminded me of the elegant and nasty Crawfords who cause moral havoc when the move in as new neighbours in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. Though order was restored in Austen, not so much in Amherst. Just devastation.Later, through the twentieth century, the shenanigans of the various parties fighting over control of the papers was fascinating. I loved in particular hearing the Irish maid's testimony about what was going on between Mabel and her master.Ultimately a wonderful book, thoroughly researched and fascinatingly detailed.