Belle of Amherst

Just came across an interesting little piece in the New York Times, "My Hero, the Outlaw of Amherst," by Holland Cotter.  It's just a reflection on what Emily Dickinson meant to the author, and a little about how she had been perceived / written about over the years and in different books.  It was nice timing because earlier today I checked out from Widener Emily Dickinson: A Biography, by Connie Ann Kirk (2004), as a start to a semi-planned Dickinson investigation.  I decided a while ago that I really know much too little about her, given what an important (canonically, at least) poet she is, and given the Amherst connection.  I don't do well with a lot of poetry, but she is an Amherstian, Carlin Barton likes her, and she is (I think) somewhat connected to "my" family (the Porter-Phelps-Huntington clan of my honors thesis), so I should be more familiar with her even if I never become a fan.  And even if I never get really into the poetry, the whole life & times bit seems potentially fascinating.  I actually avoided her for a while in part because it was a little overwhelming actually in Amherst (she's everywhere), but now that just benefits as far as the nostalgia factor.  The whole sexuality deal was also sort of a burn-out kind of roadblock for me, since it, too, was just SO constantly front and center in every aspect of scholastic life in the Valley, but I think I can handle it now :) 

So, I am going to start with the Kirk biography because it is recent (and so hopefully not totally bound up in crazy "no, really, she was the epitome of proper Victorian womanhood" thing in the older books, but also past the 1970s, '80s, and '90s "let make her a poster girl for X" enthusiasm), and super skinny & easily available.  I'll start digging in more after that.  If I get bored, a Secret Life of Emily Dickinson by Jerome Charyn was published recently, which looks and sounds (based on the cover and title, I mean, and a super brief reference in the Cotter essay) totally frothy and ridiculous, so that might be good to gear me back up if the lit crit stuff gets too much.  A new biography, Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds, by Lyndall Gordon, is coming out next month, and according to Cotter it's something of a soap opera, so that should be fun.  Title is awesome, anyways!

Not sure how this all is going to play out, but I am looking forward to it...