The World of Emily Dickinson [Paperback]

Polly Longsworth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 1997

A beautiful, visual biography of America's greatest woman poet, containing over 275 photographs and illustrations.

Emily Dickinson left an enduring literary legacy—nearly 2,000 poems—yet she was so intensely private that her life is sometimes seen as one of solitary devotion to the muse. The portraits, engravings, maps, and other illustrations in The World of Emily Dickinson attest to a much broader life than is commonly thought. Polly Longsworth's graceful introductory essay portrays a young woman of unusual intelligence and wit meeting the world on her own terms, engaging with people, ideas, natural phenomena, and her nineteenth-century culture, while choosing to keep her distance from the public eye. The pictures and captions build on that essay, exploring Dickinson's immediate surroundings, the Dickinson family's active and influential public life, as well as close friends and relatives, the growing town of Amherst, and the intellectual life of the time. Over 275 photographs and illustrations

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The first of its kind, this collection of photographs, drawings, and maps visually documents the life of the noted poet. It depicts all of the important people and places in Dickinson's life--Amherst, her family and friends--and includes a chronology of events as well. In her short introductory essay, literary biographer Longsworth ( Austin and Mabel , Farrar, 1984) suggests that the poet may have been more gregarious than is usually assumed, citing the large circle of friends and relatives with whom she corresponded. As an introduction to Dickinson's life and work, this picture book falls short; commentary is limited and examples of her poetry are few. It serves more appropriately to round out the collections of Dickinson enthusiasts.
- Nancy Ives, SUNY at Geneseo
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

An introductory essay, sensitively written and informative, examines the crucial elements in Emily Dickinson's life. . . . The first time that a comprehensive collection has been achieved in a single volume. (New England Quarterly )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (April 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393316564
• ISBN-13: 978-0393316568
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #870,930 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A picture truly is worth a thousand words, June 22, 2001

By 

"realbillie" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World of Emily Dickinson (Paperback)

I am a fan of old photographs, I pour over old family pictures with great zeal. The World of Emily Dickinson certainly feeds my passion. It is crammed full of wonderful pictures of the Dickinson family, their friends, and the changing and growing town of Amherst, Massachusetts. I learned more about the life of Emily Dickinson in just half an hour than I had ever known about her. It certainly shows that Dickinson wasn't the lonely recluse that I had always heard her to be. In addition to photographs, there are many facsimile reprints of letters written both by Emily Dickinson and to her. I believe this book will be very helpful to future biographers and historians.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book by one of the best ED scholars..., December 11, 2001

By 

William E. Adams (Midland, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The World of Emily Dickinson (Paperback)

You can never go wrong buying a book by Polly Longsworth. Especially if it is about enigmatic,obstinate Emily Dickinson. Ms. Longsworth knows her subject as well as, or better than, any other active ED author. She has a common-sense approach to the famous ED obscurities and mysteries, born of decades of study and the influence of Richard Benson Sewall, Yale professor and creator of the Pulitzer-prize winning "Life of Emily Dickinson" in l974. That's the best biography of the poet we have or are ever likely to have. Polly writes well and this book shows off the Amherst of ED's era in ways that nicely complement the text and the poetry. She's also a nice person, kind to other ED researchers, both professional and amateur. Not everyone in that specialty qualifies for such a compliment. As a person who has written a play about Emily's survivors and how they struggled to get her poems published, I have had reason to correspond with lots of Dickinson buffs over a 20-year period. Polly and Sewall and William Luce, author of the play "Belle of Amherst" made room in their lives for letters from an unknown. Many others did not. This book is inexpensive, fortunately, but it is a grand addition to the library of any fan of Emily's. The fact that its creator is also a decent sort is just frosting on the cake.