An Emily Dickinson Encyclopedia [Hardcover]

Jane D. Eberwein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0313297819 | ISBN-13: 978-0313297816 | Edition: annotated edition

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was a mystery in her own lifetime, and her poems continue to challenge their readers. For many, she remains a mythic recluse always dressed in white. Although factual knowledge has corrected that image, it was firmly established in Amherst long before the poet's death. Her works were largely neglected during her lifetime as most of her poems were published posthumously. Since Poems by Emily Dickinson appeared in 1890, readers have been raising questions about the poet, her world, and the works that have established her as a famous literary figure. An innovative writer who blurred the distinctions between poetry and prose, Dickinson is attracting a growing amount of scholarly attention. Critics have found her works elusive to interpret, and therefore, focus much research on her artistry and the practices of her editors.

Now that Emily Dickinson's poetry has taken its place at the heart of the American literary canon, readers continue to examine the poet herself, the environment that sustained and challenged her, her artistic choices, and the implications of her poems. This encyclopedia features several hundred entries on persons, places, and institutions connected with Dickinson; cultural influences affecting her; stylistic aspects of her poetry; editorial and publication history; reception of her poems; critical approaches to her art; and modern responses to her in other art forms as well as thoughtful commentaries on a representative selection of poems. Recommendations for further reading follow each entry, and the book includes a general bibliography of cited Dickinson scholarship. The volume also features a chronology, appendices, and a guide to centers for archival research.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Poems by Emily Dickinson appeared in 1890, and since that time, questions have emerged on the practices of her editors as well as the imagery and artistry of her poems. Intended as a starting point for further research, this encyclopedia gathers more than 300 entries related to Dickinson and her poetry. The editor is a founding board member of the Emily Dickinson International Society as well as a professor of English and a past committee member of the MLA Division on American Literature to 1880. Thus, she brings both considerable education and experience as well as personal interest in the poet to her role as editor.

Entries cover a wide range of topics, from people important in Dickinson's life to her stylistic traits. Rather than duplicate critical material available in the Joseph Duchac annotated guides (The Poems of Emily Dickinson: An Annotated Guide to Commentary Published in English, 1890^-1977 and 1978^-1989, both published by G. K. Hall), this volume has entries for only the 10 poems published in the poet's lifetime and those that regularly appear in anthologies. Other entries profile family members and friends, or consider the poet's use of circle imagery and capitalization, or discuss French responses to the poetry. There is an entry for Carlo, Dickinson's dog, and an entry on the Springfield Republican, a newspaper whose humorous sketches may have enhanced her comic sense.

The preface is followed by a chronology, from the marriage of Emily Dickinson's parents in 1828 to the 1986 Dickinson Centennial Celebration in the U.S., Canada, and Japan. Entries are arranged alphabetically and are generally less than a page in length, although some longer entries, such as those for Dickinson's father, Edward, and her mentor, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, cover nearly three pages. Most entries end with recommended readings, and all are signed. There are two appendixes, one consisting of the fascicles (the surviving manuscript books of poems as compiled by Dickinson) and one listing major archival collections. An extensive bibliography, an index of all poems cited, a general index, and a list of contributors complete the volume.

This reference work is easy to use, rich in text and search mechanisms, and useful for students, both formal and informal. It is a highly readable, interesting volume that can be savored, as well as a useful guide and reference tool. It should find a place in academic and larger public libraries. Given the frequency with which Dickinson appears in the curriculum, it might also be considered by high-school libraries.

Review

"This book should find a place in all college and university libraries. Since there are many, many Dickinson "fans"--admirers of America's greatest woman writer--scattered over the country, public libraries as well will want to include this book in their holdings. I myself am delighted to have my copy of it; I know I'll use it often."-Everett Emerson Alumni Distinguished Professor, Emeritus University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Greenwood; annotated edition edition (April 30, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0313297819
• ISBN-13: 978-0313297816
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,074,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Skimpy, squeaky-clean orthodox, and a big disappointment., June 21, 2001

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tepi "tepi" - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: An Emily Dickinson Encyclopedia (Hardcover)

Considering its high price and the fact that it calls itself an 'Encyclopedia,' and considering the incredible importance of Emily Dickinson's writings and the vast amount of research and criticism they have given rise to, one would have expected this book to have been a rather hefty and substantial volume.

One would have expected, for example, many interesting photographs, illustrations, useful tables, maps, genealogies, discussions of _many_ of her important poems, detailed and classified bibliographies of early editions, modern editions, biographies, criticism, etc. And one would have expected much more. After all, this book is supposed to be an 'Encyclopedia.'

Unfortunately we get very little of the above. What we get is a standard 8vo-size volume (6.5 by 9.5 inches) of just 395 pages of bare and unadorned text. After a brief Preface, a Chronology, and a list of Abbreviations, 312 pages of articles follow. The articles vary from paragraph to essay-length, and the book is rounded out with two Appendices, an 18-page Bibliography (of which 16 pages are devoted to Critical Books, Articles, and Dissertations), an Index of Poems Cited, and a General Index.

Interestingly, in a book already top-heavy with biographical entries, and that might have included so much else - I personally expected to find many more discussions of individual poems, for example - it concludes with 9 pages 'About the Contributors' - their affiliations, major publications, and interests.

The articles are arranged alphabetically. Here is the entire crop for 'A' : "A narrow Fellow in the Grass" (P986); "After great pain a formal feeling comes -" (P341); Aldrich, Thomas Bailey; Ambiguity; American Dictionary of the English Language; Amherst; Amherst Academy; Amherst College; Anthon, Catherine (Scott) Turner (1831-1917); Aphorism; "Apparently with no surprise" (P1624); Asian Responses to Dickinson; The Atlantic Monthly, A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics; Austin.

So much for the letter 'A.' To properly evaluate the scope of this book and the quality of its articles (some of which read quite well), one would of course have to be a Dickinson scholar, which I'm not. I do note, however, the absence under 'A' of an entry on 'Animals,' which in view of the many animals we find in Dickinson's poems seems very strange.

I also note, on turning to the entry for 'Carlo,' Emily Dickinson's pet dog, the following statement: "He is the only animal in her entire corpus given human emotion and intelligence" (p.41). This statement is utterly and completely false, and could easily be shown to be so, by, for example, an analysis of a poem such as "The waters chased him as he fled" (P1749). I've also run into other highly dubious statements in this book, particularly ones that seem determined at all costs to claim Dickinson for the Christian camp, whereas it seems perfectly evident to me that her mind was far too subtle to be contained by Christianity, or indeed by any official religion.

This book is very much a product of the official world of Dickinson scholarship. Its orientation is squeaky-clean orthodox, and it has either rejected or distorted much that isn't to its taste. It will prove a handy (though misleading) reference work for students, and the few ED cultists who stumble upon it will no doubt approve of it.

The book is bound in full cloth, stitched, and beautifully printed on excellent strong paper, but to me its contents came as a terrible disappointment. Gudrun Grabher's 'The Emily Dickinson Handbook' (1998) turned out to be a far better book, a superb collection of articles from which I feel that I'm actually learning something about Emily Dickinson. Some of its contributors are also found in the 'Encyclopedia,' but perhaps they weren't operating under quite the same constraints.