Description:
"Emily Dickinson springs to life in this remarkable, long-out-of-print biography written by her niece . . . Though millions of pages have been written about Dickinson . . . few have provided such a thrilling close-up portrait. Readers will be rapt from the first page." --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
What would it be like to have Emily Dickinson as your babysitter? In this astonishing memoir, out of print for almost a century, Martha "Matty" Dickinson describes the childhood she spent next door to--and often in the care of--her Aunt Emily. We see Matty as a little girl, hiding from the other grownups in Emily's upstairs rooms, helping Emily in the kitchen, venturing with her into the cellar for the gingerpead she wasn't supposed to have. As Matty becomes a teenager, she finds a confidante in her aunt, who is fascinated by the latest youth fads, school gossip, and the recurring question of what to wear to a party ("her 'vote' was for my highest-heeled red slippers")--not to mention the music, novels, and poems she and Matty both love. From an early age, Emily teaches Matty the joys of solitude and independence: "No one," Emily said, "could ever punish a Dickinson by shutting her up alone." First published in 1932, this is the most intimate record we have of Emily Dickinson, whose death sparked a long family struggle over her work and her image. In a foreword to this new edition, the poet and critic Anthony Madrid provides a biographical frame for Matty's recollections, and explains how such a remarkable document could spend so long out of sight.
Brief description: Anthony Madrid's criticism has appeared in the Paris Review Daily and Harriet. His two poetry collections are I Am Your Slave Now Do What I Say and Try Never.
Review Quotes:
"Here, the famously reclusive poet is depicted in her most intimate light--a treasured relative of an awestruck niece. Though written when Bianchi (1866-1943) was in her 60s, the author's recollections remain fresh with whimsy . . . Emily Dickinson appears here as an almost mythical, magical figure in her niece's life."
--Angelina Torre, The Wall Street Journal
"Emily Dickinson springs to life in this remarkable, long-out-of-print biography written by her niece. The daughter of Dickinson's older brother, Bianchi enchants immediately with anecdotes about being babysat by the poet on Sunday mornings when the rest of the household was in church . . . Though millions of pages have been written about Dickinson, as poet Anthony Madrid notes in the book's foreword, few have provided such a thrilling close-up portrait. Readers will be rapt from the first page."
--Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Written by Emily Dickinson's niece, this memoir -- out of print for nearly a century -- offers a more intimate side of the poet, from anecdotes detailing her secretly handing out sweets to her interest in the latest gossip, fashions and books."
--The New York Times Book Review
"For Bianchi, Dickinson was not merely a magical and beloved aunt but also a metric for her own evolution. She assessed her maturation by the nuance with which she perceives the poet . . . Her affectionate proximity to Dickinson--a proximity Todd did not share--must influence one's reading of Emily Dickinson Face to Face. If Bianchi, too, mythologized her aunt, it is nonetheless a mythology spun from lived interactions with the woman at their center."
--Rachel Vorona Cote, Poetry
"A wonderful example of how biography can illuminate the life and work of an artist even when the artist's work is not directly addressed, or made the subject of literary criticism. Martha Dickinson Bianchi's portrayal of her aunt has the same quality of furtive, elusive, and yet revelatory promise that distinguishes Emily Dickinson's poetry . . . A memoir that is complete and satisfying in itself."
--Carl Rollyson, The New York Sun
"What makes this little memoir extraordinary, even unique, in all the millions of pages written about Dickinson is its intimacy . . . Say the memoirist, later known as Martha Dickinson Bianchi (we'll call her Mattie), was four and Emily Dickinson (ED) was forty, that means Mattie knew ED, more or less continuously, through the last fifteen years of ED's life. 'Knew'? She probably cuddled with her. Gotta be only six or seven people in the history of the universe who cuddled with Emily Dickinson, and only one who gives us a child's-eye view of ED with other grownups."
--Anthony Madrid, from the Foreword