In March 1853, Austin Dickinson had traveled to Boston, and Emily Dickinson’s friend Susan Gilbert was in New Hampshire visiting relatives. Before returning to Amherst, Susan stopped by Boston to see Austin, and it was then and there that Austin proposed to her.
Yesterday (HERE) I mentioned a letter dated March 23, 1853, that Emily Dickinson wrote to her brother to congratulate him on his engagement.
That letter (HERE) opens, “Oh my dear ‘Oliver,’ how chipper you must be since any of us have seen you?”and in her book The Letters of Emily Dickinson, editor Cristanne Miller noted, “‘Oliver’ may allude to the young lover in ‘As You Like It,’ suggesting ED’s part as a go-between in Austin and Susan’s courtship” (and I spoke about that yesterday too).
Interestingly, five days earlier, before Austin Dickinson proposed to Susan at the Revere House Hotel in Boston, Emily Dickinson sent another letter to her brother, HERE, and Dickinson scholar and editor of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Thomas Johnson, made this note, “An attempt has been made at some time to erase the words ‘and Sue’ in the first paragraph.” The full sentence with the erasure reads, “Your letters are very funny indeed - about the only jokes we have, now you and Sue are gone, and I hope you will send us one as often as you can.”
Who was it that tried to erase “Sue”?
Most current research points the finger at Mabel Loomis Todd, the first editor of Dickinson’s posthumous publication of Poems.
From 1882 until Austin's death in 1895, Mabel Loomis Todd and Austin Dickinson had an extramarital affair, and most believe that Todd made efforts to suppress Susan Gilbert Dickinson's name from Dickinson's letters and poetry, particularly in the context of romantic or passionate references.
Todd was involved with the affair and in conflict with Austin’s wife, Susan, at the time of her editing work of Dickinson’s poetry and letters. However, some believe that Austin, too, might have had a hand in some of the erasures as well.
Some scholars argue that Todd's editing aimed to create a specific image of Dickinson as a solitary, perhaps asexual poet, rather than a woman with intimate, potentially romantic relationships with another woman (which certainly wasn't considered marketable in the 1890s).
Of course, that might be so – but why an erasure like the one in a sentence to her brother that reads, “Your letters are very funny indeed - about the only jokes we have, now you and Sue are gone"? An erasure like this sounds a bit more bitter and vengeful.
What do you think?
Yesterday (HERE) I mentioned a letter dated March 23, 1853, that Emily Dickinson wrote to her brother to congratulate him on his engagement.
That letter (HERE) opens, “Oh my dear ‘Oliver,’ how chipper you must be since any of us have seen you?”and in her book The Letters of Emily Dickinson, editor Cristanne Miller noted, “‘Oliver’ may allude to the young lover in ‘As You Like It,’ suggesting ED’s part as a go-between in Austin and Susan’s courtship” (and I spoke about that yesterday too).
Interestingly, five days earlier, before Austin Dickinson proposed to Susan at the Revere House Hotel in Boston, Emily Dickinson sent another letter to her brother, HERE, and Dickinson scholar and editor of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Thomas Johnson, made this note, “An attempt has been made at some time to erase the words ‘and Sue’ in the first paragraph.” The full sentence with the erasure reads, “Your letters are very funny indeed - about the only jokes we have, now you and Sue are gone, and I hope you will send us one as often as you can.”
Who was it that tried to erase “Sue”?
Most current research points the finger at Mabel Loomis Todd, the first editor of Dickinson’s posthumous publication of Poems.
From 1882 until Austin's death in 1895, Mabel Loomis Todd and Austin Dickinson had an extramarital affair, and most believe that Todd made efforts to suppress Susan Gilbert Dickinson's name from Dickinson's letters and poetry, particularly in the context of romantic or passionate references.
Todd was involved with the affair and in conflict with Austin’s wife, Susan, at the time of her editing work of Dickinson’s poetry and letters. However, some believe that Austin, too, might have had a hand in some of the erasures as well.
Some scholars argue that Todd's editing aimed to create a specific image of Dickinson as a solitary, perhaps asexual poet, rather than a woman with intimate, potentially romantic relationships with another woman (which certainly wasn't considered marketable in the 1890s).
Of course, that might be so – but why an erasure like the one in a sentence to her brother that reads, “Your letters are very funny indeed - about the only jokes we have, now you and Sue are gone"? An erasure like this sounds a bit more bitter and vengeful.
What do you think?
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