Who taught Emily Dickinson to read? Well, it was probably a combination of a bit of homeschooling by her parents and the district primary school that it seems most likely the Dickinson children attended as youngsters (built on land that had belonged to their grandfather, Samuel Dickinson).
At age ten in 1840, Dickinson entered Amherst Academy, and she stayed there through 1847. Further education included one year at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.
More information about her schooling can be found HERE.
That link includes this line, “It seems clear that Dickinson was an eager and inventive student, and that in some ways the very laxness of the school’s structure gave her valuable freedom.”
At age ten in 1840, Dickinson entered Amherst Academy, and she stayed there through 1847. Further education included one year at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.
More information about her schooling can be found HERE.
That link includes this line, “It seems clear that Dickinson was an eager and inventive student, and that in some ways the very laxness of the school’s structure gave her valuable freedom.”
| And then there’s this, from a letter by Amherst College alum (class of 1869) Reverend Dr. E. Winchester Donald to Mabel Loomis Todd in 1890 soon after Todd’s first publication of Dickinson’s poetry: “My Dear Mrs Todd – I opened the ‘Poems’ this evening at ten o’clock: it is now long past midnight: I have read them, every one, and I shall read some of them again before I sleep. I own that you had roused my curiosity and, by one or two quotations, raised my expectations, but who could have imagined – never having known her, or for that matter having known her – that, all unknown to the thousands who have passed her silent house eager only not to miss a train, there was a mind and imagination that could tell them more of nature and the mysteries of life than the combined wisdom of the College.” More from Rev. Dr. Donald’s letter tomorrow. |  Above: Rev. Dr. E. Winchester Donald |
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Yesterday I shared a portion of Reverend Dr. E. Winchester Donald’s 1890 letter to Mabel Loomis Todd after the publication of the first book of poems by Emily Dickinson. In that letter, Donald mentioned, “there was a mind and imagination that could tell them (i.e., anyone and everyone who passed Dickinson’s home in Amherst) more of nature and the mysteries of life than the combined wisdom of the College (i.e., Amherst College).”
Later in the letter, I found one passage to be a bit surprising – his lines about the preface to the book written by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Dickinson’s friend and mentor and Mabel Loomis Todd’s co-editor with the first edition.
Dr. Donald wrote this about Higginson’s introduction:
“Mr. Higginson figures badly, in my judgment: his preface is a bit of brutal impertinence. I shall tear it out of a copy I mean to put into the hand of a dear friend. Beside his clumsy pedantry, how gentle, pathetic, tender, and sufficient is her own ‘Prelude.’”
“Her own ‘Prelude,’” by the way, was the poem “This is my letter to the world,” the lines Todd and Higginson chose to open the book of 115 of Dickinson’s poems.
Yesterday I shared a portion of Reverend Dr. E. Winchester Donald’s 1890 letter to Mabel Loomis Todd after the publication of the first book of poems by Emily Dickinson. In that letter, Donald mentioned, “there was a mind and imagination that could tell them (i.e., anyone and everyone who passed Dickinson’s home in Amherst) more of nature and the mysteries of life than the combined wisdom of the College (i.e., Amherst College).”
Later in the letter, I found one passage to be a bit surprising – his lines about the preface to the book written by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Dickinson’s friend and mentor and Mabel Loomis Todd’s co-editor with the first edition.
Dr. Donald wrote this about Higginson’s introduction:
“Mr. Higginson figures badly, in my judgment: his preface is a bit of brutal impertinence. I shall tear it out of a copy I mean to put into the hand of a dear friend. Beside his clumsy pedantry, how gentle, pathetic, tender, and sufficient is her own ‘Prelude.’”
“Her own ‘Prelude,’” by the way, was the poem “This is my letter to the world,” the lines Todd and Higginson chose to open the book of 115 of Dickinson’s poems.
 | Dr. Donald finished this section of his letter by stating, “My God! What a bloodless tragedy must have been enacted behind those doors – that innocent hedge,” and he wrote these lines: A fever in these pages burns Beneath the calm they feign; A wounded human spirit turns Here, on its bed of pain. I’ll share one last bit of Donald’s letter tomorrow. Oh, if you want to read Higginson’s “Preface” yourself to see if you agree with Donald’s assessment of it, see below -- or click HERE. |
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Emily Dickinson died in May 1886. Four years later, at the request of the poet’s sister Lavinia, co-editors Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson published the first collection of Dickinson’s poems.
Before the year was out, Todd received a highly enthusiastic letter from Amherst College alum (class of 1869) Reverend Dr. E. Winchester Donald.
“I opened the ‘Poems’ this evening at ten o’clock: it is now long past midnight: I have read them, every one,” wrote Donald, “and I shall read some of them again before I sleep.”
Donald was highly critical, though, of Higginson’s preface to the book.
“I shall tear it out of a copy I mean to put into the hand of a dear friend,” he proclaimed.
Higginson had, in fact, praised Dickinson’s “flashes of wholly original and profound insight”; however, instead of applauding Dickinson’s inventiveness and originality, he stuck too safely to the side of “enforced conformity” and the “accepted ways” by noting Dickinson’s efforts were “often set in a seemingly whimsical or even rugged frame.”
Later in his letter Donald weighed in on this again: “I wonder what these poems will effect – I don’t care what is said of them by the wise or the foolish – Higginson’s screed is not promising, is it?”
Donald closed his letter by wondering if “the inexorable cost of all this illumination” was her “seclusion and ache?”
“Her ‘Calvaries of Love’ surely have brought, ere this, the grand recompense to her poor, rich, suffering, victorious soul”; he then quotes the first four lines of this poem:
Emily Dickinson died in May 1886. Four years later, at the request of the poet’s sister Lavinia, co-editors Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson published the first collection of Dickinson’s poems.
Before the year was out, Todd received a highly enthusiastic letter from Amherst College alum (class of 1869) Reverend Dr. E. Winchester Donald.
“I opened the ‘Poems’ this evening at ten o’clock: it is now long past midnight: I have read them, every one,” wrote Donald, “and I shall read some of them again before I sleep.”
Donald was highly critical, though, of Higginson’s preface to the book.
“I shall tear it out of a copy I mean to put into the hand of a dear friend,” he proclaimed.
Higginson had, in fact, praised Dickinson’s “flashes of wholly original and profound insight”; however, instead of applauding Dickinson’s inventiveness and originality, he stuck too safely to the side of “enforced conformity” and the “accepted ways” by noting Dickinson’s efforts were “often set in a seemingly whimsical or even rugged frame.”
Later in his letter Donald weighed in on this again: “I wonder what these poems will effect – I don’t care what is said of them by the wise or the foolish – Higginson’s screed is not promising, is it?”
Donald closed his letter by wondering if “the inexorable cost of all this illumination” was her “seclusion and ache?”
“Her ‘Calvaries of Love’ surely have brought, ere this, the grand recompense to her poor, rich, suffering, victorious soul”; he then quotes the first four lines of this poem:
| If I can stop one heart from breaking I shall not live in vain If I can ease one life the aching Or cool one pain. “I testify that she did not ‘live in vain,’” wrote Donald. |  |
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