My Wars Are Laid Away in Books

by Alfred Habegger

  *172. In 1903, traveling in Europe with Sue, Martha married Captain Alexander E. Bianchi, supposedly of the Imperial Horse Guard of St. Petersburg. The captain accompanied his bride to America, ran through her money, cooled his heels in a New York jail, and vanished. After this costly misadventure, Martha took a keen interest in the royalties to be made from her aunt.

  *173. Mabel Loomis Todd’s diary for that day notes that “Mattie & her mother were very very full of life” after getting home.

  *174. Two years later, when William Dean Howells brought out his most ambitious novel to date, The Rise of Silas Lapham, Austin read the serial version. When he reached the July 1885 installment, where the rough-hewn paint magnate turns down a dirty financial offer that would save him from bankruptcy, the reader “was so disgusted with it I would like to have thrown it at Howells’ head.”

  *175. James’s novel The Ambassadors, written about a decade later, is premised precisely on a cultivated New Englander’s capacity for denial. Unable to accept the fact of young Chad Newsome’s affair with an aristocratic Frenchwoman, Lambert Strether persists in believing “such a high fine friendship . . . can’t be vulgar or coarse” (Chapter 15), until he encounters the couple enjoying an overnight holiday in the country.

  *176. Mind, in other versions. Fr1616A, Fr1627B.

  *177. On his birthday two months earlier, as Martha later recalled, Gib “had a party with drums and cocked hats, horns, a procession that marched over toward the Mansion and around the garden beds—all the neighbors cheering and Aunt Emily waving applause from the window.”

  *178. Twice before, Dickinson turned to this story, first about 1860 in “A little over Jordan” (Fr145). About 1879 she carefully wrote on good stationery, “‘Let me go for the Day breaketh,’” later using the reverse to draft “‘Secrets’ is a daily word” (Fr1494).

  *179. Dr. Bigelow supposedly complained that the only way he was allowed to examine Dickinson was by watching her “walk by the open door of a room in which I was seated.” One obvious problem with this much-loved story is that a patient who is often unconscious can easily be examined. Another is that Leyda, who first recorded it, failed to identify his source (his interview of Bigelow’s descendants in the 1950s?). The story should probably not be taken seriously.

  *180. “A New Kodak Moment with Emily Dickinson,” New Yorker, 5-22-2000, p. 30. I am grateful to Professor Gura for information and suggestions.

  *181. Joan Severa to Philip F. Gura, 5-8-2000, e-mail; Nancy Rexford to Gura, 8-29-2000, e-mail.

  *182. Let 299.

  *183. Nicholas P. Herrmann, M.A., and Richard L. Jantz, Ph.D., to Philip F. Gura, 10-21-2000.

  *184. Home 174; “Root” 31. See Chap. 12, pp. 261–63.

  *185. Let 262, 269; Chris Steele & Ronald Polito, A Directory of Massachusetts Photographers 1839–1900 (Camden, Maine: Picton, 1993).

  *186. Let 411.

  *187. Let 396.

  *188. Buckingham 473.

  *189. Let 745.

  *190. Charles H. Clark to Lavinia Dickinson, 1-14-1892, ED Todd315 A.

  *191. Springfield Union 3-18-1915; New York Times 4-10-1915.

  *192. See James D. Clark to Jonathan Pearson, 4-17-1882, Schaffer Library Special Collections, Union College.

  *193. Hampshire Gazette 6-8-1937.

  *194. Middlesex Co. RD 1878:145, 1879:563; Concord Historical Commission, “Survey of Historical and Architectural Resources” (Concord, 1994) vol. 3, #117, Concord Free Public Library.

  *195. Hampshire Co. RD 249:189, 425:305; SR 3-18-1915; Eleanor Terry Lincoln and John Abel Pinto, This, the House We Live in: The Smith College Campus from 1871 to 1982 (Northampton: Smith College, 1983) 50.

  *196. Review of Ninth Report of Births, Marriages and Deaths, in Massachusetts, in Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 45 (1–21-1852) 515; “Pulmonary Consumption,” Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 50 (2-8-1854) 44.

  *197. Bernhard 375.

  *198. Leyda 1:1xvi.

  *199. Smith 309.

  *200. Desc 206; END’s Bible.

  *201. MVR-Deaths 112:1.

  *202. Leyda 2:33.

  *203. MVR-Deaths 156:226; Joel W. Norcross, “The History and Genealogy of the Norcross Family,” 1:126, NEHGS.

  *204. Genealogical records assembled by Priscilla Chatfield.

  *205. AVR; Desc 483; Amherst directories for 1869 and 1873.

  *206. Leyda 2:159, 166.

  *207. Alfred E. Stearns, An Amherst Boyhood (Amherst: The College, 1946) 47–48.

  *208. AVR; 1870 federal census, Amherst, family 281.

  *209. The Houghton Library’s reclassification of the Dickinson Family Papers was still in process when this book was completed, making it impossible to give box and folder numbers for cited manuscripts.

  *210. This essay, introduced by Clara Newman Pearl, is printed in part in Sewall 265–75, where it is mistakenly credited to J. A typescript containing the introduction and an insert on ED’s domestic habits (the latter omitted by Sewall) is in the MTB Papers 101:565. Another version of Pearl’s introduction is in the possession of Mary Pearl.

  Notes

  Introduction

  groundbreaking 1975 article: Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, “The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America,” Signs 1.1 (1975) 1–29.

  “At certain levels”: George Steiner, On Difficulty and Other Essays (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978) 45.

  invites and deflects such intimacy: See Suzanne Juhasz, “The Big Tease,” in Comic Power.

  “a chronology of composition,” “her art did not change”: David Porter, Dickinson: The Modern Idiom (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981) 9, 5. Porter’s second statement presupposes the chronology whose possibility the first statement denies. Another who believes ED’s verse “continues to resist narratives of chronological development” is Shira Wolosky, “Emily Dickinson’s Manuscript Body: History/Textuality/Gender,” EDJ 8.2 (1999) 89. Among the relatively few critics who make a case for development is James McIntosh in his admirable Nimble Believing: Dickinson and the Unknown (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000) 36–37.

  set it up in type: On the debate over typographic representation, see in particular Rowing, chapter 2, and Mitchell, chapter 7.

  footnote 1: MLT Papers, boxes 68–69.

  Chapter 1

  parish of Billingborough: Clifford L. Stott, “The Correct English Origins of Nathaniel Dickinson and William Gull, Settlers of Wethersfield and Hadley,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register 152 (April 1998) 159–78. Before this article appeared, it was assumed Nathaniel migrated in 1630.

  smallpox-infected blankets: Francis Parkman, The Conspiracy of Pontiac (Boston: Little, Brown, 1906) 2:45.

  Dickinson grit: Cooke 20.

  Dickinson reunion: Reunion 54, 55, 5.

  father’s toast: Celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of . . . Hadley (Northampton: Bridgman & Childs, 1859) 77–79.

  poems in 1862: Var 1533.

  “the land of the fathers”: Charles Hammond to SCB, 11-11-1850, SCB Papers 4:98.

  After graduating from Dartmouth: SFD to Tilton Eastman, 5-1-1797, Ms. 797301, D; Reunion 172; Hist Amh Coll 119. The last source may have begun the story that SFD’s religious teacher was the Reverend Timothy Dickinson, an older brother. SFD still had “a debility of body” on 7-4-1897 (SFD, An Oration in Celebration of American Independence [Northampton: Butler, 1797] 5).

  footnote 1: The Works of Nathanael Emmons, Jacob Ide, ed. (Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1842) 1:lxxvii–lxxviii.

  “for entering the world”: SFD to Tilton Eastman, 5-1-1797, D.

  But Squire Dickinson: Reunion 174; Card index of legislators, MA State Lib; Journal of the MA Senate 48 (May 1827–March 1828) 123, 284, 288, 304, 359, MA State Lib; NEI 10-30-1828; Hampshire Gazette 10-29-1828; Greenfield Gazette and Franklin Herald 10-21-, 11-4-, 11-11-1828; SFD, An Address Delivered at Northampton, before the Hampshire, Hampde
n and Franklin, Agricultural Society (Amherst: Adams, 1831); CDS to EdD, 5-12-1835, H. Wolff 25 makes the impossible claim that SFD ran for the U.S. Senate.

  woman Samuel married: For the date of the marriage, see END’s Bible. Desc 206 and some other sources have 3-31-1802.

  Lucretia Gunn: CDS to EdD, 5-12-1835, LGD to EdD, 12-5-, 7-8-1820, H; First #1, 5; FF 87–88 (but MDB’s vivid claims are not always veracious). SFD was twenty-two when he joined Amherst’s First Church in June 1798, according to a copy of an early list of members (MS:Boltwood, LM–Amherst Vital Records–Notebook, loose sheets, etc., J). That means he could not have been a deacon at twenty-one, as claimed since 1873 (Hist Amh Coll 119).

  Toward his children: SFD to EdD, 12-17-1819, 1-2-1820, 4-10-, 4-11-1823, H.

  By 1813 Samuel had: HSR; LDB to EdD, June 1821, 1-15-1823, H.

  In 1817, well before: Hampshire Co. RD 40:463. Since the mortgage, dated 4-16-1817, preceded the 11-18-1817 meeting at which academy trustees approved the initial fund-raising campaign, the tradition that SFD went broke because of his philanthropy seems questionable.

  Second Great Awakening: See William G. McLoughlin, Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform: An Essay on Religion and Social Change in America, 1607–1977 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978); Nancy A. Hewitt, Women’s Activism and Social Change: Rochester, New York, 1822–1872 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984).

  “We have seen error”: Noah Webster, A Plea for a Miserable World (Boston: Lincoln, 1820) 32.

  organized Amherst Academy: Amh Acad 11–12.

  a fellow enthusiast: For Samuel and Graves as founders, see Remin 5; Hist Amh Coll 115, 120.

  “wide-spread defection”: quoted in Hist Amh Coll 117.

  subscription drive and guaranty bond: The 1818 bond is often confused with the raising of a similar sum in 1824, when a legislative committee inspected the books. Hitchcock (Remin 121) seems responsible for this confusion, which reappears in Theodore Baird, “A Dry and Thirsty Land,” Essays on Amherst’s History (Amherst: Vista Trust, 1978) 117. The account of the 1824 episode in Wolff 20 is not trustworthy: trustee Sampson Wilder alone backed dubious pledges with hard cash (Endow 30–32), and SFD did not join in the substitute subscription, his financial situation having become far too desperate. The best documentary sources on early capital campaigns are in Early History Collection—Amherst College Inception, A: “Copy of Noah Webster’s notes for the history of Amherst Academy / Amherst College,” pp. 3–29, 58, 1:1, and “Charity Fund of Amherst College,” pp. 20–22, 3:3. See also Heman Humphrey, Sketches of the Early History of Amherst College (Northampton [1905]) 3–7, 25–27, 32; Hist Amh Coll 649–56.

  When South College: Hist Amh Coll 62, 121; LGD and LDB to EdD, 12-5-1820, H. The bank in question was probably the Sunderland Bank, whose founder and president was Nathaniel Smith (Endow 29).

  footnote 3: SFD, Address Delivered, 36–37.

  Zeal also tends: Remin 119–20; LDB to EdD, June 1821, H; Hist Amh Coll 74; Hezekiah Wright Strong, 1822 Account Book, 5-30, 5-31, 6-6, Boltwood Collection, J.

  The idea behind: Joseph Hardy Neesima, My Younger Days (Kyoto: Doshisha Alumni Association, 1934); Hist Amh Coll 120.

  Yale vs. Amherst: Three key sources in this section, all at Y-MSSA, are Yale’s annual catalogs from 1819 to 1823; the “Book of Averages” (grades) for the class entering in 1819; Bursar’s Records, Yale Coll. Student Accounts, Term bill charges 1818–1836, GN YRG 5-B, Ser II, 64:68. The last of these, not consulted by previous biographers, clears up the confusion as to which terms EdD spent at Yale.

  When Edward left for Yale: William L. Kingsley, ed., Yale College: A Sketch of Its History (New York: Holt, 1879) 1:134, 135; The Laws of Yale College (New Haven: Journal Office, 1817) 11, 26–27, 29; SFD to EdD, 12-17-1819, H.

  But Friend Dick: SFD to EdD, 12-17-1819, 1-2-1820, George Hanners to EdD, 4-3-1820, H; Catalogue of the Faculty and Students of Yale College, November, 1819 13–14.

  an historic revival: Nettleton 85; Professor Goodrich, “Narrative of Revivals of Religion in Yale College,” American Quarterly Register 10 (Feb. 1838) 304–305; Hanners to EdD, 4-3-1820, H; “The Ringleader,” Tracts, vol. 10, no. 355; Brooks Mather Kelley, Yale: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974) 145; David Greene, A Sermon at the Funeral of the Rev. Daniel Crosby (Boston, 1843) 7, 34; SFD to EdD, 2-9-1821, H.

  footnote 4: SFD to EdD, 2-10-1823, H.

  “necessity,” “take a room”: SFD to EdD, 9-4-, 7-22-1821, H.

  his debating society: For EdD’s membership in Brothers, see his lists of expenses, first terms of sophomore and senior years, H.

  “would not be beneficial”: Kingsley, Yale College 1:319.

  “to leave an institution”: Osmyn Baker to EdD, 11-24-1821, H.

  Edward’s next-younger: William Dickinson to EdD, 9-25-1821, H.

  footnote 5: Worcester Evening Gazette 9-7-1887; Leyda 2:138.

  Although Edward was already: Amh Acad 72; Hist Amh Coll 101; S. H. Riddel to EdD, 12-23-[1822 (EdD’s probable mistake for 1821)], Baker to EdD, 11-24-1821, H. Riddel was a roommate in summer 1820 (Bursar’s Records, term bills, 9-13-1820, Y-MSSA).

  The final humiliation: Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Yale College, November, 1822 4; SFD to EdD, 11-17-1822, Baker to EdD, 11-16-1822, H; Bursar’s Records, Term bills, 1-7-, 4-30-, 9-8-1823, folio box 1, fd 2, Y-MSSA.

  Academically, Edward: Book of Averages, 1819, Y-MSSA; SFD to EdD, 11-17-1822, H; List of appointments for 1823 Yale Commencement, H. The myth that EdD “graduated with the highest honor,” begun by Amh Rec 10-11-1871, reappeared in a 6-17-1874 obituary in the Boston Morning Journal and from there made its way into twentieth-century scholarship. The story was discredited in 1974 by Sewall (46), whose account of EdD’s education was in other respects misleading (e.g., overlooking the junior year in Amherst). Ignoring Sewall, Wolff reinstated the valedictorian myth in 1988 (23).

  footnote 6: Wolff 21, 22.

  real estate transactions: Hampshire Co. RD 51:628, 90; 53:642, 54:115, 438; “Lost Homes” 166–72.

  There is no doubt: Peter J. Coleman, Debtors and Creditors in America: Insolvency, Imprisonment for Debt, and Bankruptcy, 1607–1900 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1974) 48–50; Massachusetts, An Act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors, and for the More Equal Distribution of Their Effects, Statutes (1838) chap. 163. In 1827–1828 Lucinda and her children left Amherst to join the household of a married daughter in Knoxville, Tennessee; by 1837 Oliver’s assessed Hadley real estate had a fourth of its 1826 value (“Lost Homes” 172–73, 194).

  “I know well”: Baker to EdD, 4-24-1824, H.

  A further complication: Reunion 175; SFD to EdD, 1-24-1824, H.

  For troubles with Clark, see George Shepard, “Biographical Sketch,” in Daniel A. Clark, Complete Works (New York: Baker & Scribner, 1846) 1:xlv; First #1, 79-80; folders “Material on case against Rev. Daniel A. Clark” and “Remarks in re Mr Clark,” H; Hist Amh Coll 110. Ashmun to EdD, postmarked 3-4-[1824], H, calls Clark’s acquittal a “misfortune.” The minister presently accepted a call from Bennington, Vermont.

  For SFD’s troubles with Strong, see Reunion 173; Hampshire County Court of Common Pleas, Record Book no. 22, folios 123, 124, MA Arch; Hampshire Co. RD 53:521-22; Hampshire Co. RP, Estate of Hezekiah W. Strong, 144:6 1/2; Folder on Amherst Postmastership, H.

  brothers left Amherst: Wolff’s view that EdD alone stood by his father as the other sons “deserted” him (24–25) distorts the motives and actions of all concerned. Wolff quotes SFD Jr’s letter to EdD from Macon, GA, 2-23-1831, H (“a cursed fool if I had stayed in Amherst”) as evidence of a wish to distance himself from his father’s failure. But the same letter shows that SFD Jr had been humiliated by his own experience with Erastus Graves and hoped to reestablish his reputation for business acumen before coming home. (According to John Montague Smith, History of the Town of Sunderland [Greenfield, Mass.: Hall, 1899] 365, Erastus Graves “failed in business, rem[
oved]. to Macon, Ga.”) As for brother William, in 1827 he reportedly wished to return to Amherst so that he and EdD could “gratify the wishes of our family & friends by settling ourselves in business, at home” (PP 102). EdD’s own persistence in seeking an opening away from Amherst may be estimated from the many discouraging letters he received (e.g., Fr. B. Stebbins to EdD, 4-28-1826, H).

  There was a definite military: Let 254, 470; EdD’s commission, H; 10-4-1824, George Dickinson to EdD, 9-1-, 9-12-, Sept. 1825, Hollis Witt to EdD, 9-23-1825, H; EdD’s signed issues of Boston Courier, 6-24-1830, 8-17-1835, and Greenfield Gazette and Mercury, 1-30-1838, box labeled “Dickinson Library. Misc. Pamphlets, Articles, & Lists,” H; Solomon Warriner, Jr., to EdD, 2-27-, 3-27-1827, H; EdD, training-day speech at Amh 9-30-1828 [looks like 1838], H. Two articles on militia reform in NEI, 2-2-, 10-19-1827, may be by EdD.

  Early in 1826 Major: Warriner to EdD, 1-17-1827, H; EdD, Complaint, H; Henry Chapin, Order to arrest, H; Discourses 19.

  “the Intellectual Powers”: “Order of Exercises at the First Anniversary of the Collegiate Charity Institution, Amherst, August 28, 1822” (Northampton, 1822), A; EdD, “A Colloquy on a comparative view of the intellectual powers of the sexes,” H.

  Chapter 2

  local property tax list: Myra Moulton, comp., “County and Town Tax for 1834,” M.

  The figure for Joel: Hampden County Probate Court, Estate of JN, Case 8347, inventory; Bernhard 366; JN, daybook no. 11, Monson Historical Society.

  Joel was also a pillar: History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts (Philadelphia: Everts, 1879) 2:1021; “Records of the Union Charitable Society,” 5-17-1818, Monson Ch; Record book 2 (“Congregational Church 1806–1864”) 84, Monson Ch.