book

A few Dickinson news items have drawn our attention, and might warrant yours:

• Guy Noir sings Emily Dickinson?: the Amherst Bulletin notes that Emily Dickinson was the butt of an extended joke on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion last week, with the erstwhile P.I. Guy Noir auditioning for a role in “Stop for Death,” a Dickinson musical. Of course, this is the same Keillor whose latest CD is called “English Majors” and who holds sonnet contests, so I’m sure the joke was in good fun (Cub Scout activities kept me from hearing the show myself, alas). I seem to remember an amusing riff a few months ago that involved Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, and wood ticks; Keillor is certainly one to monitor . . .
• Dickinson Marathon in St. Paul: another story with a Minnesota connection: St. Thomas University will hold a Dickinson marathon on April 25, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, in the O’Shaughnessy Room of O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library Center. “The goal: To read aloud all of Dickinson’s poems — from #1 to #1,789 — between 8 a.m. and midnight. Readers can come and go as they please; stay for a half-hour or make a day of it. Participants will sit in a circle and take turns reading; listeners are welcome too.” Common Good Books–Garrison Keillor’s bookstore–has provided copies of Franklin’s edition of Dickinson; this seems like a conspiracy . . .
• Wild Nights! reviews are all around us this Spring: the Minneapolis Star Tribune weighs in (will these Minnesotans not leave poor Dickinson be?), as does the New York Times Book Review. According to the Book Review’s podcast, the NYT reviewer Brenda Wineapple has a book about Dickinson and Higginson hitting the shelves this August.
• A Summer of Hummingbirds by Christopher Benfey is the next Dickinson-related book to watch: a fascinating look into the intersections of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, and Martin Johnson Heade, a naturalist and artist who specialized in hummingbirds, a creature which frequently inhabits Dickinson’s poems.
• Fleda Brown discusses “I heard a fly buzz” in her ongoing series for National Poetry Month (and you thought April was just about fools and taxes . . .)
• Finally, we hope that the “Daily” aspect of “Daily Dickinson” will return this week, with several non-poetic things coming under control here at DailyDickionson World Headquarters; stay tuned!

Death sets a thing significant
The eye had hurried by,
Except a perished creature
Entreat us tenderly

To ponder little workmanships
In crayon or in wool,
With “This was last her fingers did,”
Industrious until

The thimble weighed too heavy,
The stitches stopped themselves,
And then ‘t was put among the dust
Upon the closet shelves.

A book I have, a friend gave,
Whose pencil, here and there,
Had notched the place that pleased him, –
At rest his fingers are.

Now, when I read, I read not,
For interrupting tears
Obliterate the etchings
Too costly for repairs.

I am glad there are Books. They are better than Heaven, for that is unavoidable, while one may miss these.

– Emily Dickinson to Frank Sanborn, 1873

The Emily Dickinson Museum has started on an ambitious and interesting project: to restore the Dickinson homes’ libraries to their condition when Emily was in residence.

Most of the books that were in the Dickinson homes–both the Homestead, where Emily lived, and the Evergreens, her brother Austin’s home–are at Harvard or Brown. Though a boon to scholars–knowing what a poet was reading can be very helpful in understanding what she was writing, especially if there are scribbles in the margins–this makes the shelves at the Dickinson homes much barer than they should be.

The Dickinson Museum is looking for in-kind and cash donations to fill the shelves; each book’s donor will be named on a book plate in the volume placed on the shelf. They have a list, but it hasn’t been updated on the web site since January 9, 2008; if you’re interested in contributing in-kind (and by “in-kind”, they mean the exact edition: not just any Jane Eyre, but the 1864 Harper’s & Bros. with the Currer Bell pseudonym), check with the folks on the Replenishing the Shelves project before you send anything.

Cash, no doubt, is a much preferred and flexible contribution.

He ate and drank the precious words,
His spirit grew robust;
He knew no more that he was poor,
Nor that his frame was dust.
He danced along the dingy days,
And this bequest of wings
Was but a book. What liberty
A loosened spirit brings!

A BOOK

Cambridge, Massachusetts, poet and visual artist Irene Koronas has released a book, “self portrait drawn from many,” consisting of portraits (in words and pictures) of people ranging from Arthur Rimbaud to Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Chaplin to Emily Dickinson. Subtitled “65 poems for 65 years”, the poems offer both insight into their subjects and, collectively, a portrait of a life of reading, writing, and thinking.

The Ibbetson Street Press publication is available at Lulu; a Koronas piece on Emily Dickinson also appears in the online journal Istanbul Literary Review. Interviews from the Boston Globe and Cervena Barva Press offer more insight.

Koronas is also the poetry editor of Wilderness House Literary Review, a quarterly online journal. There are so many wonderful online journals springing up–my own favorites include The Barcelona Review, failbetter, and JMWW–that it’s hard to keep up; WHL is certainly worth a look.

Dickinson fans in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, should note Tuesday, December 18th, on their calendars: the Mead Public Library’s Great Books Club will be discussing the poetry of Emily Dickinson at 6:30 p.m.

The official Daily Dickinson 2008 Calendar is available, featuring poems and pictures that have been featured on this site.

Daily Dickinson fans who find themselves in Sag Harbor, NY, today should make a point of dropping by Canio’s Books, 290 Main St., between 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM, for free tea and gingerbread. And while you’re there, be sure to browse the “[s]helves … crammed with books worth reading” and pester their “knowledgeable staff … eager to make recommendations.”

Emily Dickinson’s 177th birthday arrives next Monday, December 10 (and she looks hardly a day over 150 . . .). Celebratory events are gearing up; we’ve already mentioned the reading and discussion at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, on Monday evening.

Closer to home (at least, to Dickinson’s home), the Emily Dickinson Museum has a few events planned:

• “my Verse is alive”, an exhibit that “explores the tangled private and public motives of several figures closely associated with Emily Dickinson,” closes on December 8.
• Emily Dickinson Birthday Lecture, at 4:00 PM today, Thursday, December 6, given by scholar and biographer Polly Longsworth; the title for her lecture is given as “‘Nothing but a Sword’: Austin and Mabel and the Publication of Emily Dickinson’s Poems.”
• Birthday Open House, 1:00 – 4:00 PM on Saturday, December 8; “the first 177 visitors will receive a rose, courtesy of an anonymous donor.”

The Amherst Bulletin lists some of the many entertainments to expect at the open house, including music, crafts, and a book signing by Barbara Dana and Cindy MacKenzie. If you find yourself in Amherst on Saturday, this is a must-see event!

‘Tis the busy holiday buying season, all a-glitter and a-dazzle with things that blink and beep and demand our attention. There are still a few quiet corners of commerce, though, and some of them feature items that might delight a Dickinson lover.

At Shakespeare’s Den, find a silk scarf with Emily Dickinson poems printed on it. (Found by way of Cheryl Rainfield; she lists quite a few other items that book lovers would love to find in their stockings.)

littlebuttons offers an Emily Dickinson tote bag at Etsy.

Also at Etsy, papermenagerie offers several Gocco-print cards featuring Dickinson verse and Victorian engravings.

Here’s a lovely little necklace featuring the first two lines of “Hope is the thing with feathers”, at the Signals shop (the Public Broadcasting catalog spinoff).

letterarypress offers poetic letterpress cards.

Inspired by La Pulcina and the Clothespin Repertory Theatre? Start casting your own miniature Amherst opera with a magnetic Emily Dickinson finger puppet.

The Emily Dickinson Museum offers a lovely poster by Penelope Dullaghan.

The official Daily Dickinson 2008 Calendar is available, featuring poems and pictures that have been featured on this site.

And, of course, there are the Daily Dickinson note cards, featuring photos from this site and the words of Emily Dickinson.