Emily Dickinson's Gardens

Book Description

A beautifully illustrated gift book exploring the flowers and poems of the beloved "Belle of Amherst"

A woman who found great solace in gardens, Emily Dickinson filled her poetry with references to her flowers. Now, in Emily Dickinson's Gardens, author Marta McDowell invites poetry and gardening lovers alike to explore the words and wildflowers of one of America's best-loved poets.

Each chapter of this illustrated book follows a different season in the gardens, conservatories, and Amherst environs where the poet tended, collected, and drew inspiration from flowers.

"Here is a brighter garden" where you will discover:

Excerpts from Dickinson's poetry and letters
Historical details about the poet's life, emphasizing her horticultural interests
Plus: Instructions on how to create an Emily Dickinson garden of your own, including plans, design ideas, plant sources, and growing tips

Download Description

A woman who found great solace in gardens, Emily Dickinson filled her poetry with references to her flowers. In the beautifully illustrated "Emily Dickinson's Gardens," author Marta McDowell invites poetry and gardening lovers to explore the words and wildflowers of one of America's best-loved poets. Also included are excerpts from her poetry and letters, historical details about her life and instructions on how to create an Emily Dickinson garden.

Customer Reviews:

A Charming Gardening Companion.......2006-10-23

Ms. McDowell is a delightful writer. Her book on Emily Dickinson's Gardens kept me reassuring company this spring as I worried my way through my first seed growing experiments. I kept it next to my seed growing trays by my computer where I sat and worked everyday. Her conversational style was reassuring, informative and entertaining. Somehow her book managed to say the right thing at the moment when I needed to read it.

A Celebration Indeed!.......2005-01-10

The wonder of this book is that the author has done a fabulous job of conmbining biography, poetry and gardening into one terrific volume.

The descriptions of Dickinson's life are intimate and homey; reading it, you feel like you're spending a few hours with a friend.

And McDowell does a great job of helping us understand the role that gardening played in both Emily's life and her poetry by providing a lot of specific details that bring Emily and her home to life.

As a gardener myself, I was extremely impressed with McDowell's gardening knowledge. She's included a number of tips and techniques that will be useful to both novice and experienced gardeners.

Bottom line: this is just a wonderful book, and one that I'll be giving to many of my poetry and gardening friends.

Average customer rating:

This book is a great disappointment!!!!!!!!
Understanding Emily
This was great, and I am acting it in Speech Tournament.
Memorable
Play charms all ages

The Belle of Amherst
William Luce
Manufacturer: Samuel French Inc Plays
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

United States | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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The Belle of Amherst

ASIN: 057363033X

Customer Reviews:

This book is a great disappointment!!!!!!!!.......2002-07-02

I don't like this book at all. The author has made this play so confusing. I was confused trying to figure out who is speaking. The author also included so many poems that makes it hard to try find out what the character meant or thinking. I don't think dis is a very good book. I regret my decision of buying this book.

Understanding Emily.......2000-05-06

Always my favorite poet, this play took me to the heart of the Person. For people who don't care for poetry as well as those who want to know Emily! I have read nothing better about this Beautiful woman, and her thoughts!

This was great, and I am acting it in Speech Tournament........1999-10-23

I really enjoyed this play. I was auditioning for a part to perform this and I am performing in it. It is so witty and gives a great, true view of Emily's life.

Memorable.......1999-10-08

I was shocked to see that I could actually get this play in print. When I was a freshman in junior high school in 1979, our library had on the old 33 RPM records this play performed by the imcomparable Julie Harris. I listened to it probably 15 or 20 times in its entirety during the course of that school year and had it almost memorized. That was the year I discovered Emily Dickenson and became fascinated by her life and work. This play is a masterpiece in which Ms. Dickenson herself would be proud.

Play charms all ages.......1999-05-11

I have performed this play a dozen times to audiences of all ages and I am amazed at how people love it. Emily has an appeal that is widespread and this play brings it out. It is humorous, touching and thought-provoking. I am still booking performances to schools and organizations in the Albany area after a year and half. Highly recommended.

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You'll wish the book was longer
The Definitive Young Adult Biography

Emily Dickinson: A Biography
Connie Ann Kirk
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0313322066

Book Description

Emily Dickinson saw fewer than a dozen of her poems published in her lifetime, but she has since become one of the most revered and beloved of all American poets. As a shy woman living in 19th century New England, Dickinson wrote about large subjects through close observation of small, everyday details. After her death, her sister found more than 1,775 poems and solicited help in seeing them into print. Dickinson preferred to live most of her life at home among those she loved, but over time, some of the more unusual facts of her life became mythologized and distorted. Using updated scholarship and never before published primary research, this new biography peels away the myths surrounding Emily Dickinson and takes a fresh look at the complex and busy life of this genius of American letters. As a research tool, the volume is also useful for its explanation of current nomenclature for the poems, mysteries and controversies, and the poet's influence on American poetry and culture. A chronology is set alongside significant historical and cultural events of the period. Also included are locations of major holdings for Dickinson study, a listing of poems published in her lifetime, and a full bibliography of primary and secondary sources.

Customer Reviews:

You'll wish the book was longer.......2006-07-15

Kirk states that this is a book written for beginners, when it comes to Emily Dickinson. If you're a beginner, you couldn't ask for a better introduction. She helps the reader understand why a poem by Dickinson is printed in various ways using different words and punctuation. Kirk writes just enough about Dickinson's life to ruin your delight when reading pre-2005 biographies. I had no success reaching the website Kirk gives to find photographic copies of Dickinson's originals. But she's upped my interest and I'm still searching.

The Definitive Young Adult Biography .......2004-08-17

This book is for young adults of the early 21st century what the National Book Award-winning Richard B. Sewall account was for adults 30 years ago--the definitive biography of the poet's life, including updated and new research that dispels many long-held Dickinson myths. Emily Dickinson sought advice on her writing and even collaborated with a close friend on at least one poem; she traveled; she had a circle of friends and family who meant a great deal to her and who received hundreds of letters from her; she loved her dog and hated housecleaning. She was not only aware of the Civil War during her most prolific years, but she also wrote poems about the war's soldiers and suffering. This is the living, breathing Emily Dickinson as a woman young people of today need to read about and think about in relation to her extraordinary poetry. Adults wishing to read a shorter account will also find much fresh and well-researched information here about a great American poet.

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Dis-spiriting
Funny . . . On my visits to the Dickinson homestead
"Called Back" from Harvard

The Dickinsons of Amherst

Manufacturer: University Press of New England
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1584650680

Book Description

Jerome Liebling, one of our foremost documentary photographers, has created a remarkable photographic record of the domestic environment of Emily Dickinson. As a fellow resident of Amherst, Massachusetts, Liebling was naturally drawn to the Homestead, the house in which Dickinson lived and worked. But more remarkably, Liebling had the opportunity to document the opening of the Homestead's dark sister, the Evergreens -- an Italianate villa built for Emily's brother, Austin, which until recently was still inhabited but which had been preserved almost as a time capsule of the era of Emily and Austin.

Though Dickinson lived as a recluse in the Homestead, she did not live in the utter isolation that has been popularly imagined. Her life was intimately bound up with the affairs of her friends and family, and the domestic situation at the Evergreens inevitably contributed to the environment in which she wrote her poems. Austin Dickinson's troubled marriage and his affair with Mabel Loomis Todd eventually gave rise to the bitter disputes over the disposition of property and the guardianship of Emily's poetic legacy that erupted after his death. In Liebling's evocative photographs, the stark austerity of the Homestead and the decaying opulence of the Evergreens offer new insights into the home life that shaped a poet.

Three of the foremost scholars of Dickinson's life and work have contributed essays that explore the history and legacy of these two dwellings. Polly Longsworth, who wrote the definitive account of Austin's affair with Mabel Loomis Todd and who is at work on a major new biography of the poet, reveals some of the information her researches have brought to light -- including a new recognition that Dickinson's anxiety problems were a real and integral condition of her existence, an understanding that demystifies some of the more enigmatic aspects of her life, including her refusal to publish. Barton Levi St. Armand, meanwhile, shares the remarkable and previously untold inside story of Mary Hampson, the last resident of the Evergreens, and of the lives connected with the house over the last century; it was through the efforts of Hampson -- the heir of Austin's daughter -- that the Evergreens was saved from destruction and is now (like the Homestead) open to the public. Finally, Christopher Benfey offers an insightful appreciation of Liebling's photographs and the light they shed on Dickinson and her work; he teases out surprising but convincing affinities between the poems and the art of photography.

The heart of this book is the one hundred plus photographs through which Jerome Liebling expands our understanding of Emily Dickinson's world and life. "You might say that the three essays are extended captions," says Benfey in his introduction, "taking their prompting and provocation from the images."

Customer Reviews:

Dis-spiriting.......2005-11-13

This book is so frustrating, I almost don't want to review it, but here's my 60 second review: anyone who loves Emily Dickinson's mind-her temperament, her cognitive style, her insights, her ironical sensibility-will likely find this book wrongheaded-or extraneous. For brevity and to illustrate the objectionable spirit of the book, I'll confine my critique to Barton Levi St. Armand's essay, which is really its heart.

St. Armand begins wooing (his own metaphor) the aged Mary Hampson, latter-day Miss Havisham and final inhabitant of The Evergreens, Austin Dickinson's home. Hampson is not related to the Dickinsons and came into ownership of the home under bizarre and slightly dubious circumstances; clearly she's suffering from paranoid delusions, and her passion for Martha Dickinson Bianchi and against Mabel Todd reflects perhaps a combination of psychosexual obsession, egotism, need for a cause. (I find it ironic that essayist Polly Longsworth goes to the effort of diagnosing Emily Dickinson with avoidant personality disorder and various anxiety disorders, something I'd dispute or at least find in poor taste; but then this obvious nut, Mary Hampson, is portrayed as a grand dame, an artiste.)

In any event, you can imagine the details: she invites and repels various academics; if they please her, they get to plunder her literary treasures. St. Armand wins the courtship, gets the keys to the house, serves as head trustee for the newly formed Martha Dickinson Bianchi trust, and in the process loses any sense of objective vision or irony; he's won the courtship and won't admit the bride is ugly. (This in itself is ironic, since the essay discusses opthamological imagery: strabismus, exophoria, exotropia relative to E.D.) St. Armand is lost! He digs up swamp magnolias to transplant to his garden, seems to think it's charming when Mary Hampson habitually kicks Richard Sewall's (to my thinking subtle, excellent) volumes of biography.

And who is Mary Hampson? "I recall my mother joining me once, and Mary saying to her, `You don't care a damn about Emily Dickinson, do you!' This was a mark of approval rather than of disdain..." he writes. On another occasion, Hampson says, "For me Martha is the greater poet-because I knew her." Then, "...it has suddenly occurred to me that there could be another reason why Sue did not finish the work she had started on Emily. All these pseudoscholars never seem to realize that Susan and Martha had lives of their own' and so could not waste all their time `just sitting around here-a couple of Emily shadows.'" (Ahem-irony there.) I just want to clarify that the final occupant of The Evergreens actually seems contemptuous of Emily Dickinson. She's for the "Dickinsons of the Evergreens."

Why does this matter to the spirit of the book? Because St. Armand finally makes the (absurd) point of comparing, even equating, Mary Hampson's work in preserving the tattered, mildewing remnants of The Evergreens to Emily Dickinson's work as a poet. That the doors of The Evergreens were opened to Jerome Liebling to photograph, before the house finally decomposed or underwent renovation, seems an excellent idea, and many of the luminous photos--tattered Morris wallpaper in lurid tones--are lovely. But I object, finally, to the disingenuous manipulation of imagery in the book, the juxtaposition of tight, bright, white "Emily" photos and the tatters and shreds of the neighboring home. Even the captions are condescending and misleading: "A tear in the William Morris pattern: Susan Dickinson's damaged household"-as if we're beholding the paper she tore with her hands during a domestic argument. No bias here, nope. Finally, the family story of the Dickinsons is only interesting and relevant to the degree that it illuminates and expands meaning in ED's poems, and I think it takes a subtler hand, a slower accretion of detail to accomplish that.

Funny . . . On my visits to the Dickinson homestead.......2005-04-12

. . . I never once got the impression I was seeing mere replicas of Miss Emily's possessions. On the contrary, the room at the head of the stairs was "full" of her--one could sense her presence!--and we were told by the tour guide that the items of memorabilia were actually things used by her: the narrow bed, the small desk, and, most certainly, that ghostly white dress (her "white election") on the dressmaker's dummy in the corner. I don't know what the reviewer is referring to when he/she complains of Dickinson's artifacts being at Harvard and that the things featured in this marvelous book are merely copies. I have absolutely no doubt that the things I saw in Miss Dickinson's upstairs room, as well as all other things pointed out in the remainder of the house, bore evidence of her. And the the grounds made one feel as if she'd just lately left them... This book features all these beautifully and hauntingly. I have no reason to so much as suspect that I did not see the artifacts of Miss Dickinson's life, and I have no doubt but that those are indeed the very things photographed so lovingly in this gorgeous and haunting book. Perusing it is like visiting the Squire Dickinson house in Amherst all over again, even though I'm miles away from it and cannot now go back again. That makes the book all the more worthy of cherishing. Both photographs and essays come together in a lovely evocation of Miss Emily's life.

"Called Back" from Harvard.......2003-09-04

I've not yet read the essays, but the sleek pictures already lack something by way of authenticity, since most of Emily's things are reposited at Harvard and represented, if at all, by facsimiles in her room at the Homestead. I'm not sure why it should make a difference, but I think it does, and we are that much further from Emily's world when her treasured and accustomed artifacts have proxies in their place. So the pictures are nice, but what, really, are they pictures of?

Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd

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Steamy story behind the publication of Emily's poetry...

Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd
Austin Dickinson , and Mabel Loomis Todd
Manufacturer: Farrar Straus Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0374107165

Customer Reviews:

Steamy story behind the publication of Emily's poetry..........2001-12-08

Emily Dickinson is often a religious poet, and more often than many think, an erotic one. She is famous for her mysteries and contradictions and elusiveness. She died and left more than l700 poems, many almost indecipherable, and a number of them "uncertainly finished." Her sister Vinnie wanted the works to see print, but could not persuade her brother Austin's wife Sue to get the job done, so she turned to Austin's mistress, Mabel, who was also married. This is the lovers' story, told through 13 years of self-justifying letters and diary entries. More importantly, it is the story of how Mabel took on the job of copying and editing the poems to please her lover, and perhaps to irritate her enemy, Sue. Emily became famous about five years after she died due to Mabel's efforts. Polly Longsworth did a fine job condensing love letters and diary entries to give us a picture of these tormented souls, whose relationships all ended badly. The actual love letters between Austin and Mabel clearly show that neither had Emily's literary talent, but both had her passion. Where Emily apparently suppressed carnality, her brother and his "other woman" reveled in it. If you are as fascinated by Emily's life as you are by her poetry, this part of the tale, while largely occurring after she died, is essential to know. A very worthwhile addition to the saga of Emily Dickinson.

The Union: an address by the Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson, delivered before the literary societies of Amherst College, July 10th, 1861

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The Union: an address by the Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson, delivered before the literary societies of Amherst College, July 10th, 1861
Daniel S. (Daniel Stevens) Dickinson
Manufacturer: Cornell University Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

This volume is produced from digital images from the Cornell University Library Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection

Splendors of the Universe: A Practical Guide to Photographing the Night Sky

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My first step on astrophotography
Practical "real-world" advice and great pictures
Typo
This Is A Coffee Table Book Not An Astrophotography Manual.
FANTASTIC, IS THE BEST WAY TO SUM IT UP

Splendors of the Universe: A Practical Guide to Photographing the Night Sky
Terence Dickinson , and Jack Newton
Manufacturer: Firefly Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1552091414

Product Description

Capture celestial sights on film with commercial equipment and the techniques in Splendors of the Universe. From the Milky Way to the farthest galaxies, this book shows the wonder of astrophotography to backyard astronomers.

Customer Reviews:

My first step on astrophotography.......2001-02-27

For the very beginner in astrophotography( like me) it is all you need( at least for a while).Dickinson and Newton used a clear text adding their expereance. The book begins talking about the universe, then goes to the basic camera on tripod( comets, moon and Earth shine, star trails, etc). To follow the Earth's movment(for those 10 minutes exposures), I learned and built my on Star Tracker - It is very precise and useful because I could find the south celestial pole in my first try as I learned from page 70. As I still didn't buy my own "good telescope", I am not the best person to say about Part 3: Probing Deeper- through the telescope; but it covers all the inicial steps,adaptation, films and filters for lunar /solar photos.The last part tell us how to use the CCD tecnology:choosing a CCD camera,how to color the image and to process it.For the one who want more detail on digital imaging, this is not your book. Bad points are: it does not teach you where(all) the "subjects" are ,missing on CCD shoftware; almost anything on Southern emisfere sky. Good point: a lot of amateurs photos, showing that you can do it. Finally, this is a very good inicial book FOR THE BEGINNER ASTROPHOTOGRAPHER.

Practical "real-world" advice and great pictures.......1999-10-23

I really like everything about this book. It offers great, practical advice on learning how to take "astro"photos. Many beautiful pictures also. I am currently building my own camera mount based on guidelines in book. Anyone interested in astronomy and/or photography should get it!

Typo.......1999-09-03

The book is great. Terry and Jack did a wonderful job. By the way I am on page 64 with the camera tracker. I noticed a typo on this web page under table of contents. You have Sides versus prints and should be SLIDES verses prints.

Clear skies Gary Boyle Observer's Group Chairman Ottawa Centre, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada

This Is A Coffee Table Book Not An Astrophotography Manual........1999-05-24

The photograghs of the deep sky objects in this book are as amazing as they are gorgeous. Especially, when one relalizes that the photos were done by "amateur" astronomers. But this is NOT a practical guide to astrophotography. This is a coffee table book which is why it is so deeply discounted.

FANTASTIC, IS THE BEST WAY TO SUM IT UP.......1999-03-05

NEVER BEFORE HAVE I SEEN A BOOK SO WELL THOUGHT THRU AND SO WELL WRITTEN MR DICKINSON HAS SHOWN US AGAIN HOW WELL HE WRITES. I RECIEVED THIS BOOK AS A CHRISTMAS GIFT FROM MY PARENTS, AND I LOVE IT. IT SHOWS WONDERFUL DIAGRAMS AND EVERYTHING YOU WOULD NEED TO KNOW. THANK YOU GEOFF NASH

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The Mouse and "the Myth".....
An engaging tale
An engaging and memorable tale
The Mouse of Amherst
A Well-Crafted, Rich Story

The Mouse of Amherst
Elizabeth Spires
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0374350833

Amazon.com

That is, until Emmaline the mouse takes up residence in the wall of 19th-century poet Emily Dickinson's room in Amherst, Massachusetts. Emmaline spends her days happily observing the reclusive poet: "She seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at once, fluttering through the house like a ghost, stirring up a batch of gingerbread in the kitchen, or walking in the garden, lost in a reverie." The mouse's life changes when a gust of wind blows one of Emily's poems her way. She blushes as she reads Emily's evocative words that so aptly capture her own feelings, and from then on is determined to be a poet herself. The exchange of poems between the two species of poet is truly marvelous, as eight of Emily Dickinson's poems are answered by seven of author Elizabeth Spires's (an award-winning poet herself). "I'm Nobody! Who are you? / Are you--Nobody--too? / Then there's a pair of us! / Don't tell! they'd banish us--you know!" is followed by Emmaline's "It matters what we think, / What words we put in ink, / It matters what we feel / What feelings we conceal." A near miss with the family cat, an unpleasant interlude with a thick-headed editor, and even a threatening stoat keep the story moving, but the real excitement lies in the deepening friendship between Emily and Emmaline... and in Spires's inventive portrayal of the process of self-expression and the power of words. Along the way, illustrator Claire A. Nivola's sweetly skritchy sketches reflect the shy demeanor of both Emily and Emmaline. A brief portrait of Emily Dickinson concludes the book, but readers will come away with a glimpse of the poet and her work that no biography could ever communicate. (Ages 9 and older) --Karin Snelson

Book Description

A mouse's-eye-view of Emily Dickinson

When a mouse named Emmaline takes up residence behind the wainscoting of Emily Dickinson's bedroom, she wonders what it is that keeps Emily scribbling at her writing table throughout the day and into the night. Emmaline sneaks a look, and finds that it's poetry! Inspired, Emmaline writes her own first poem and secretly deposits it on Emily's desk. Emily answers with another poem, and a lively exchange begins. In this charming and fanciful introduction to Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Spires demonstrates the power of poetry to express our deepest feelings, while Claire A. Nivola's delicate pencil drawings capture the intricacies of life in Emily's world. Included are eight of Dickinson's most loved poems, with seven corresponding poems by Emmaline that are sure to bring out the poet in any child.

Customer Reviews:

The Mouse and "the Myth"............2002-04-15

"I am a mouse, a white mouse. My name is Emmaline. Before I met Emily, the great poet of Amherst, I was nothing more than a crumb gatherer, a cheese nibbler, a mouse-of-little-purpose. There was an emptiness in my life that nothing seemed to fill. All that changed the day I moved into the Dickinson residence on Main Street..." Emmaline moves into the simple, quiet, sunny upstairs bedroom, and begins her new life in the wainscoting of Emily's room. She observes the Dickinson family, and is most fascinated by her new roommate, Emily. "She always wore white. She seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at once, fluttering through the house like a ghost, stirring up a batch of gingerbread in the kitchen, or walking in the garden, lost in reverie..." Emily is always sitting at her little desk in deep concentration, writing and scribbling on small scraps of paper, and this intrigues the little mouse. When a small scrap finally lands on the floor near Emmaline's door, she snatches it up and begins reading. "Imagine my surprise when I realized I was holding a poem! The words spoke to me. These were my feelings exactly, but ones I had always kept hidden for fear the world would think me a sentimental fool..." Emmaline turns the paper over and words begin to pour out of her; a poem of her own. Then she returns the scrap with her new poem on the back to Emily's desk. That night while Emmaline slept, Emily read her poem and wrote back, slipping the note paper under her little mouse door. "I'm Nobody! Who are you?/Are you-Nobody-too/Then there's a pair of us!/Don't tell! they'd banish us-you know!..." And that, as they say, was the beginning of a beautiful friendship..... Elizabeth Spires has written an engaging, gentle, and evocative introduction to the great poet, Emily Dickinson. Her charming and creative story, told often in poems passed back and forth between mouse and Myth, is sometimes poignant, often humorous, and always enlightening. Claire Nivola's black and white sketches complement the text beautifully, and together word and art paint a lovely portrait of the elusive and reclusive Dickinson and her genius, with great insight. Perfect for youngsters 9-12, The Mouse Of Amherst makes an even better read aloud book the entire family can share, and includes an Author's note about Emily Dickinson's life and her poetry to augment and enhance the story and open interesting discussions. This sweet little treasure is sure to whet the appetite of both young and old, and send kids out looking for more. It works well as a companion book to Jeanette Winter's Emily Dickinson's Letters To The World, and Michael Bedard's Emily.

An engaging tale.......2001-09-05

Emmaline is a mouse who lives in a house in Emily Dickinson's room. They become friends very quickly and write poems together.

This was an excellent book, and I recommend it to everyone.

An engaging and memorable tale.......2001-05-30

Emmaline is a mouse who lives behind the wainscoting of Emily Dickinson's bedroom and is a small, but courageous writer. The Mouse Of Amherst is a unique and effective little story for young children that aptly introduces wonderful poetry woven into the warm and superbly crafted story. Illustrations by Claire A. Nivola are perfect augmentations to Elizabeth Spires's engaging and memorable tale.

The Mouse of Amherst.......2001-04-11

I RECOMMEND THE MOUSE OF AMHERST, ESPECIALLY IF YOU LIKE POEMS. IT IS ABOUT A MOUSE NAMED, EMMALINE WHO GOES TO LIVE IN THE SAME HOUSE AS A POET NAMED ELIZABETH. THEY WRITE POEMS TO TELL EACH OTHER THINGS. ONE DAY THE MOUSE TRAPPER COMES . WILL EMMALINE BE OK? READ THIS BOOK TO FIND OUT!

A Well-Crafted, Rich Story.......2000-05-16

I am a librarian who loves children's literature. I have always been a huge fan of Emily Dickinson. When I bought this book, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I am now in the process of analyzing it for my college classes, and I find it is even richer than I originally thought. The child who is lucky enough to read this book will come away with the idea that the written word is important, and so is to find one's own talents in life,to find what excites a child to feel that a "whirligig is spinning in my brain." The child will find the importance of friendship in this small volume, and will become introduced in an easy way to poetry and Emily Dickinson. It is a timeless piece which can be used in elementary school as well as high school, where a teacher could truly concentrate on the rich imagery and symbolism. Emmaline will touch a child's heart.

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"Beauty crowds me till I die"
Another Tour de Force from Judith Farr

The Gardens of Emily Dickinson
Judith Farr
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0674012933

Book Description

In this first substantial study of Emily Dickinson's devotion to flowers and gardening, Judith Farr seeks to join both poet and gardener in one creative personality. She casts new light on Dickinson's temperament, her aesthetic sensibility, and her vision of the relationship between art and nature, revealing that the successful gardener's intimate understanding of horticulture helped shape the poet's choice of metaphors for every experience: love and hate, wickedness and virtue, death and immortality.

Gardening, Farr demonstrates, was Dickinson's other vocation, more public than the making of poems but analogous and closely related to it. Over a third of Dickinson's poems and nearly half of her letters allude with passionate intensity to her favorite wildflowers, to traditional blooms like the daisy or gentian, and to the exotic gardenias and jasmines of her conservatory. Each flower was assigned specific connotations by the nineteenth century floral dictionaries she knew; thus, Dickinson's association of various flowers with friends, family, and lovers, like the tropes and scenarios presented in her poems, establishes her participation in the literary and painterly culture of her day. A chapter, "Gardening with Emily Dickinson" by Louise Carter, cites family letters and memoirs to conjecture the kinds of flowers contained in the poet's indoor and outdoor gardens. Carter hypothesizes Dickinson's methods of gardening, explaining how one might grow her flowers today.

Beautifully illustrated and written with verve, The Gardens of Emily Dickinson will provide pleasure and insight to a wide audience of scholars, admirers of Dickinson's poetry, and garden lovers everywhere.

Customer Reviews:

"Beauty crowds me till I die".......2004-06-28

Emily Dickinson continues to fascinate the literary world, not only because of her unique, eerily beautiful poetry, but also because of the delicious mystery that cocoons her life well over one hundred years after her death. Some have painted her as a looney eccentric, some as a recluse shrouded in sexual ecstasy: she has been seen on theatre stages throughout the world as the Belle of Amherst, and her works have been incorporated into songs and symphonies - the most poignant being John Adams' "Harmonium".

Yet few investigators have the quaint, informed pique as the highly admired Dickinson scholar, Judith Farr. This book THE GARDENS OF EMILY DICKINSON maintains the level of biographic study that began with her THE PASSION OF EMILY DICKINSON in 1994 and continued with the elegant, aptly eccentric epistolary novel I NEVER CAME TO YOU IN WHITE in 1996. Like the previous books, Farr does not confine her writing to academia (though she obviously has consumed every bit of available information on her subject and footnoted these books extensively): Farr prefers to open doors and windows of imagination to make the factual data supplied have a semblance to the radiance of Dickinson's gifts to posterity.

During Emily Dickinson's lifetime (1830 - 1886) the poet was better know for her commitment to the oh-so-proper Victorian art of gardening. Books on Botany from that period held dominion over reading tables and bookshelves and Dickinson was as astute a garden scholar as the best of them. Flowers are frequently referenced in her poetry, her letters, her life, and Farr has used this other half of Dickinson's life as a means to explore the meanings of her poems. 'Flowers - Well - if anybody/Can extasy define -/Half a transport - half a trouble -/With which flowers humble men:...' She divides her writings into chapters 'Gardening in Eden' (the more spiritual aspect of the garden), 'The Woodland Garden' (the exploration of her natural garden on the grounds of the Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts), 'The Enclosed Garden' (the conservatory where exotic looms were coddled), and 'The Garden in the Brain'. In each of these chapters Farr takes almost every reference to flowers in Dickinson's poems and discusses their significance both herbally and philosophically and passionately. The characters that played significant roles in Dickinson's odd life are all addressed (Susan Dickinson, Bowles, Higginson, etc) by referencing letters to and poems about each , and each bit of evidence breathes floral dimensions. Almost as an intermission to this theatrical diversion, Farr has placed a chapter by Louise Carter "Gardening with Emily Dickinson" which is well written and serves to ground the ongoing growing tales of the Belle of Amherst with a sophisticated diversion on the techniques of the Victorian Gardener - a chapter which could easily find its way into all Garden books! And aptly, in a manner that would no doubt find Dickinson's approval, Farr ends her book with an Epilogue, which indeed places all of her information in perspective and is enlightening to both the scholar and the occasional reader of the Poetry of Emily Dickinson. Judith Farr is a solid scholar, a fine writer, and if at times she cannot resist the tendency to 'personalize' her data, then that is merely her style and for this reader is only additive. The preface page of her book quotes the words of Thomas Wentworth Higginson: "There is no conceivable/beauty of blossom/so beautiful as words -/none so graceful,/none so perfumed." This lovely thought is a fitting introduction to the writing of Judith Farr, too. I wonder which aspect of Emily Dickinson she will explore next....

Another Tour de Force from Judith Farr.......2004-04-03

Judith Farr is the preeminent Emily Dickson scholar alive today. This is a worthy companion to The Passion of Emily Dickson, also published by Harvard Press. If you are unfamiliar with Farr's work and love Emily Dickinson, you owe it to yourself to read both works. Farr's insights are bold, well-defended and entirely convincing. Her writing is crisp, direct and immensely readable. Also, this is without a doubt one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen in presentation. The color plates are worth the price of the book alone. Better than 5 stars.

The Belle of Amherst..a Play Based on the Life of Emily Dickinson

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The Belle of Amherst..a Play Based on the Life of Emily Dickinson
William Luce
Manufacturer: Houghlin Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JK3SDW

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