05/28/2018
Tufts University professor Dobrow chronicles the lives of two of Emily Dickinson’s earliest champions and editors, the mother-daughter team of Mabel Loomis Todd and Millicent Todd Bingham, shining a light on how they shaped “the contours of poetry as we know it today.” Mabel, an author, was also the longtime lover of Dickinson’s brother, Austin, bringing her into conflict with Austin’s wife, Sue, and Emily’s sister, Lavinia. These feuds frequently stalled publication of Dickinson’s work and, as Mabel neared the end of her life, she implored Millicent to continue working on the poet’s as-yet unpublished output. Dobrow authoritatively traces the tortuous editorial and publication process that first brought Dickinson’s work to public attention, and sensitively explores her subjects’ interior lives, showing how Mabel suffered from being the other woman in Austin’s life and how Millicent struggled growing up in her charismatic mother’s shadow. Quotes from Mabel’s diary demonstrate her intuitive understanding of Dickinson’s greatness, such as when she declared that the poems “seemed to open the door into a wider universe.” Impeccably researched using more than 700 boxes of the Todds’ personal documents, Dobrow’s narrative gives a fascinating glimpse into the lives of two tireless advocates for Dickinson’s work, demonstrating how poet and editors alike were “all women pushing up against the boundaries of their times.” (Nov.)
After Emily: Two Remarkable Women and the Legacy of America's Greatest Poet
Narrated by Andrea Gallo
Julie DobrowUnabridged — 17 hours, 9 minutes
After Emily: Two Remarkable Women and the Legacy of America's Greatest Poet
Narrated by Andrea Gallo
Julie DobrowUnabridged — 17 hours, 9 minutes
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Editorial Reviews
"Julie Dobrow has grabbed a tiger by the tail in her skillful reanalysis of Mabel Loomis Todd’s role in recognizing, preserving, publishing, and promoting Emily Dickinson’s powerful poetry…Dobrow weaves the vitality of the personal into her scholarship, surprising and enlightening readers about one of America’s greatest literary rescues."
"The entire nuanced and complicated story of Mabel Loomis Todd, Millicent Todd Bingham, and Emily Dickinson is ours at last in this diligently sourced and compellingly written history."
"An extraordinary feat in rendering a tale of almost dizzying intrigue."
"Dobrow has succeeded in illuminating more fully than ever before the intricate net of desires, both conscious and unconscious, that led Mabel Loomis Todd and Millicent Todd Bingham to undertake the editing of Emily Dickinson’s writings. In Dobrow’s rendering, biography fuses with American tragedy. After Emily is a book for and of our time: a meditation on the nature of agency and the role of affect in women’s lives and writing."
"Elegantly and movingly told.… [Dobrow] has done an admirable job sifting through the detritus to distill the essence of these women, their work and the world they inhabited."
"Long overdue.…At the end of her book, Ms. Dobrow wonders what Mabel and Millicent would think of her good work. Doubtless, they’d be very pleased."
"Provocative.… [After Emily] aims a spotlight into a shadowy, scandal-laced corner of Amherst in the late 19th century, adding valuable, and fraught, backstory to how Dickinson’s poetry… got published and marketed."
"Mesmerizing... If you’re interested in [Emily Dickinson], intellectual property issues, or juicy behind-the-scenes literary history, After Emily is your book."
"After Emily is an essential contribution not just to Dickinsonian scholarship but to understanding the forces of a hundred years of American history.… Dobrow’s beautiful prose is a joy to the ear, her thoughtful relationship to her subjects is delightfully captured, and the peeks throughout into the mind of Emily Dickinson are a revelation, even as her exploration of her two main characters is a valuable addition to women’s biography that will offer much to scholars and pleasure readers alike."
"An honest, sometimes searing portrait of the two idiosyncratic women, mother and daughter, who between them delivered Emily Dickinson’s 'letter to the World'— rescuing this genius hermit from obscurity by deciphering and publishing her sheaves of high voltage poetry…Riveting, unblinkered, sad, and brave, After Emily makes the case for these two posthumous amanuenses as urgent agents of critical work we came so near to losing."
"[Dobrow] serves as a kind of fiercely clever detective in stitching together Todd’s remarkable influence and all the other little intrigues behind the marketing of Dickinson and her legacy."
"[Dobrow] serves as a kind of fiercely clever detective in stitching together Todd’s remarkable influence and all the other little intrigues behind the marketing of Dickinson and her legacy."
"[Julie] Dobrow’s intimate account reveals how decisively [Mabel and Millicent’s] efforts shaped perceptions of the white-clad recluse and her visionary poems. Scandal and pathos abound."
"After Emily situates the Todds in a richly documented, beautifully written, and persuasive family romance."
"[Dobrow] serves as a kind of fiercely clever detective in stitching together Todd’s remarkable influence and all the other little intrigues behind the marketing of Dickinson and her legacy."
★ 2018-06-27
An elegant recovery of the two women without whom "Because I could not stop for Death" likely wouldn't be required reading for American high school students.During her lifetime, Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) didn't publish much, but after she died, her brother's mistress took up the cause of Dickinson's verse. Mabel Loomis Todd is one of the stock characters of the Dickinson story. Dobrow (Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies/Tufts Univ.) spent years in the massive Todd archives—Yale's Sterling Library holds more than 700 boxes of diaries, journals, and notes about psychiatric sessions—in order to recount, with sympathy and nuance, Todd's near-obsession with editing Dickinson, securing a publisher, and publicizing the poet on the lecture circuit. While telling Todd's story, the author sensitively explores the (much-criticized) editorial choices Todd made and the question of who was responsible for the "legend" of Emily-the-recluse-in-white. Less well known than Todd is her daughter, Millicent Todd Bingham, who completes Dobrow's twinned biography. Bingham grew up immersed in her mother's obsession with Dickinson: "Initiation into the vagaries of Emily's handwriting is one of the earliest rites I can recall," she once said. As an adult, she took over the work, publishing yet-unseen poems and letters and delving into arguments about copyright and archive battles. (Dobrow manages to make wrangling between university libraries fascinating.) The author reduces neither woman to her devotion to Dickinson. She attends to their professional accomplishments, world travels, marriages, and passion for conservation. The book, then, is about the Belle of Amherst, but it is also about being a working woman, a mother, and a daughter.All entries in the voluminous literature on Dickinson are controversial—some will bristle at such a positive depiction of Todd or suggest that some of Dickinson's relatives deserve more charity or credit. One hopes the controversy will simply bring increased attention to Dobrow's fresh, remarkable account.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940171084974 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Recorded Books, LLC |
| Publication date: | 10/30/2018 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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