Customer Reviews

Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson

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This collection of letters is essential to Dickinson studies and to anyone interested in the poet. Grouping Emily Dickinson's letters to her sister-in-law, Sue, who was also her best friend and only trusted editor, shows not only how close they were but also makes clear that they were intellectual peers. That is significant because so many of ED's peers did not understand her or did not recognize her importance as an intellectual and as a writer. Sue was fully appreciative of both and was able to engage in written conversation with ED about everything, including poetic advice. ED listened to advice from no one except Sue. The letters are printed as they appear on the written page without any editorial changes. This, too, is significant because it forces us to reread the letters--we have come to know the letters through the editorial work of T.H. Johnson and T. Ward, who regularized sentences and restructured paragraphs. Smith and Hart have wisely left the structure untouched so the effect for us is the same as it was for Sue all those years ago.

The editors are also co-editors of the Dickinson Electronic Archive, in which further evidence of Susan's intellect is available. Their work is just the beginning of a reassessment of Dickinson and her creative process but this work is important and this book is a must for anyone who claims to have an interest in Dickinson, no matter how slight.

This careful collection of amazing letters, and its informative introductions to each section, as well as its coda and notes, reinforces several things that fans of Dickinson likely already believe. Emily Dickinson's reputation was in many ways greatly distorted posthumously by her contemporary Mabel Loomis Todd, late-arriving dragon lady of the Dickinson menage (and eventual mistress of her brother Austin Dickinson, Susan's husband) and originator of "many of the fallacies that have since become Dickinson legend." (p.204) Emily Dickinson was capable of deep and durable friendship. She treasured her own company, and also that of a few close friends. She adored her brother's wife, Susan Huntington Dickinson, who lived next-door in Amherst. The feeling was mutual. They were attached to one another, and utterly loyal. There were no telephones then. Dickinson needed to 'talk' or at least - to write. Some of the letters - mere bits of writing - were on homely topics. I can guess with certainty that were they alive today, they would have thought nothing of communicating throughout the day via email. So we are all of us in good company.

My only mild gripe about this book is the use of the word "intimate" in the subtitle, and the unsubtle choice of the (chaste yet suggestive) photograph by Imogen Cunningham for the cover. This material probably doesn't need to be marketed that way. Dickinson devotees will read this book without the implied promise of sex, and those who don't read Dickinson will be disappointed if they are expecting heated-up correspondence, or in any way sexualized letters from Emily Dickinson to her best friend. These letters are passionate, sometimes playful, and sometimes pedestrian. One reads them for a window on the writer - who was "intimate" with life.

A thoroughly worthwhile read.

The authors are faithful to Emily Dickinson's life, not to a contrived history. Their gentle and sensitive handling of the letters and poems Emily shared with Susan Huntington Dickinson, give the reader insight into Emily's mind and heart. Where we once thought her reclusive, we now know she was exclusive. Because we don't have Susan's letters to Emily, we can never fully know the extent of their love. Still, with what we are given, it is obvious the sensitivity found in Emily was also alive in Susan, and theirs was a mutual love. It is right Susan be given credit for her role in Emily's life. Previous biographers have shied away from telling us that without Susan, we might not have Emily. I believe Susan was not only her editor, but her muse, the person who inspired her words, recognized her brilliance, and supported her work. This book is going to forever change the way we see Emily Dickinson.

The best thing about this book is that it gives us Dickinson's poems to her best friend, Sue, in the form they actually appear on the page. For most people, seeing the manuscripts of her poems is something that will never happen so Smith and Hart do their best to give us an idea of what Sue would have seen when she opened the envelopes. The review from the reader in the desert southwest has not read this book as it was meant to be read--as another way of reading and seeing. Hart and Smith do not suggest that theirs is the only way to read the letters/poems, they suggest that there's another way to read them that has not been the tradtional way of reading. My graduate students loved this book, as do I, because it offers a fresh perspective. Few Dickinson books in the last 10 years have been truly original and different. Anyone with a true interest in Dickinson, not the passing interest some reviews here suggest, will read this book in conjunction with other Dickinson studies and will achieve her/his own perspective of the poet. Smith and Hart give us some wonderful ideas to ponder, whether or not we agree with them is not the point. The point is that we exercise our intellect and think.

This collection has historic significance in Dickinson studies not only because it highlights the interesting and complex relationship between Emily Dickinson and Susan Dickinson, her sister-in-law, but also because of the way the letter-poems appear here in print. Hart and Smith took pains to present as best they could in print the original line breaks and other features of Dickinson's manuscripts, and this causes the poems to run down the page in long narrow columns, in many cases. Like Johnson's restoration of the dashes did in 1955, this edition of letter-poems to one correspondent changes the way we "see" a Dickinson poem physically on the page. The form presented here is as equally fascinating as the content of the letter-poems themselves. Superb!

As most of you know, the Sue-Mabel controversy began virtually at ED's death (Vinnie gave Sue first shot at editing ED's poems, then turned the job over to Mabel when Sue couldn't come through) and continues to this day, one of the most fascinating things in literary history. Sue and Mabel, and their respective daughters, were in a bitter competition to publish the ED poems in their control and to preserve their "place" in ED's history. In 1966, Sewall's ground-breaking ED biography primarily relied on the Mabel side for information, so a negative picture of Sue was created. The recent Habegger biography relied on the Sue side, and a more humane picture of Sue came out.

"Open Me Carefully" comes down firmly on the Sue side of the great divide, arguing for a much greater role in ED's life and work than heretofore granted Sue (though I don't think the author's views are quite as revolutionary as the authors claim). A lot of axes are ground here, and frankly, I disagreed with many of their conclusions. I don't think they took sufficient account of Sewall's point that ED presented a different "face" to each of her correspondents (though, as in so much else, Habegger disagrees), nor evaluated in a balanced way the similar or even greater passion ED brought in her correspondence to Bowles, Higginson, Lord, and others. There really is very little evidence that Sue (herself a rather mediocre poet) had any significant impact on ED's stunning style and insight.

Nonetheless, I gave it five stars for its presentation and its excellent explication of an argument that, while I don't agree with it, should be evaluated by all interested ED students.

The most passionate letters I have ever read. Picked it up in the library and started copying down the letters! I bought it from the bookstore several days later. I am not a historian, just an admirer, and while poetry is beautiful, her letters are more easily understood by the layman. Letters only make up a small portion of the book, but it is worth it if your heart is lonely and deep.

I still loved this book, and I think that reading her personal letters gave me more insight into her as a fellow human being, which in turn allowed me to take a new look at her poetry. This is one of the few books of letters I've read where I found that the footnotes were just as interesting as the letters themselves. There is so much information contained in this book that one would think it would be almost burdonsome (or boring) to read, but it's not. I have to say I prefer Dickinson's prose to her poetry. Her letters flow beautifully and are full of spirit and light and wit. I guess the short of it is that reading this book of letters helped me to better connect to her humanity. Of course, I have a passion for books of letters because there is something delicious about feeling as though you are a voyeur looking in on the most private parts of someone else's life. Somehow you can get a far more intimate and interesting view from someone's letters to another than you ever could by simply reading a biography.

Even if you aren't a fan of Dickinson, give this book a chance. Beauty is always worth a read.

Any Emily Dickinson historian or student will want this book. It contains the lost puzzle pieces, released by Sue's family, to the mysterious Emily Dickinson. Sue wanted this story told at the right time. The sheer talent in these writings is amazing. Here was a girl who spent her days as a recluse doing laundry and dishes and writing letters and carrying them around in her pockets. The pen and paper, written word, was what connected the lone Emily to her outside world, her loves, her friends, and now to the rest of us. A must have for any writer who studies her.

My only disappointment with this book lies with myself for not having the frame of reference inre the Bible, the classics and the news & literature of the day, to give the writing presented here the depth and flavor so tantalizingly near. Though some things transcend meanings, of course, I felt a lack of reference too in the language private and shared only between correspondents. There is, through no fault of the editors, a very noticeable mostly silence where one woman's voice surely rang, whispered, shouted, strode in over four decades of on-going intelligent and warm, in the warmest sense, and yet often distant interaction. It left me, the book, feeling like I'd stumbled upon a treasure box of letters in a sunny attic aching for the second companion box to tell the rest of the story.