Lives Like Loaded Guns
VIKING
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First American edition
Published in 2010 by Viking Penguin,
a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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Copyright Lyndall Gordon, 2010
All rights reserved
Pages viii-x and 474 constitute an extension of this copyright page.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Gordon, Lyndall.
Lives like loaded guns: Emily Dickinson and her familys feuds / Lyndall Gordon.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
EISBN: 9781101190197
1. Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886Family. 2. Poets, American19th centuryFamily relationships. 3. Amherst (Mass.)Intellectual life19th century. I. Title.
PS1541.Z5G66 2010
811.4dc22
[B]
2009046311
Printed in the United States of America
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Lives Like Loaded Guns
EMILY DICKINSON
AND HER FAMILYS FEUDS
LYNDALL GORDON
VIKING
Also by Lyndall Gordon
T. S. ELIOT: AN IMPERFECT LIFE
VIRGINIA WOOLF: A WRITERS LIFE
SHARED LIVES (A MEMOIR)
CHARLOTTE BRONT: A PASSIONATE LIFE
A PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY JAMES: TWO WOMEN AND HIS ART
VINDICATION: A LIFE OF MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT
My Life has stood a Loaded Gun
EMILY DICKINSON
It was a devilish situation for everyone concerned
MILLICENT TODD BINGHAM
In memory of
Diane Middlebrook,
biographer and friend
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Endpapers | Manuscript of My Life had stood a Loaded Gun : by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University |
Map of Amherst: from A Topographical Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, 1856 |
Figures from Edward Hitchcocks Elementary Geology. Amherst College Archives and Special Collections |
Floor plan of the Dickinson Homestead. Amherst College Archives and Special Collections |
Mabel Todds painting of Indian Pipes: Amherst College Archives and Special Collections |
Gilbert Montague: Montague-Collier Family Papers. Manuscripts and Archives Division. The New York Public Library. |
PLATE SECTION ONE
Portrait of the Dickinson children: by Otis A. Bullard. Dickinson Room, by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University
Edward Dickinson: MS Am 1118.99b (16), by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University
Mrs Dickinson: Monson Free Library
Dickinson family home (1840-55): MS Am 1118.99b (89), by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University
Daguerreotype of Emily Dickinson, c. 1847: Amherst College Archives and Special Collections
Mary Lyon: by Joseph Goodhue Chandler (American, 181384), oil on canvas, not dated, probably after 1849. Source and date of acquisition unknown. Mount Holyoke Art Museum, South Hadley, Massachusetts
Professor Edward Hitchcock: from W. S. Tylers History of Amherst College. Amherst College Archives and Special Collections
Austin Dickinson: Todd-Bingham Picture Collection (MS 496E). Manuscripts and Archives. Yale University Library
Susan Gilbert: 2001 Barton Levi St Armand
The Dickinson Homestead: lithograph by John Bachelder, 1858. Jones Library Inc., Amherst
The Evergreens: Jones Library Inc., Amherst
James Jackson: Harvard Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
Emily Dickinsons conservatory: Jones Library Inc., Amherst
The poets writing table: photograph by Jerome Liebling, from Liebling et al, The Dickinsons of Amherst
Lavinia Dickinson: Amherst College Archives and Special Collections
PLATE SECTION TWO
Mabel Loomis Todd: Todd-Bingham Picture Collection (MS 496E). Manuscripts and Archives. Yale University Library
David Peck Todd: Todd-Bingham Picture Collection (MS 496E). Manuscripts and Archives. Yale University Library
Austin Dickinson: Brown University Library
Mabel Todd with Ned and Mattie Dickinson: Todd-Bingham Picture Collection (MS 496E). Manuscripts and Archives. Yale University Library
Gib Dickinson: Todd-Bingham Picture Collection (MS 496E). Manuscripts and Archives. Yale University Library
Kate Scott Turner: from Richard B. Sewall, The Life of Emily Dickinson
Samuel Bowles: MS Am 1118.99b (6), by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University
Otis P. Lord: MS Am 1118.99b (55), by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University
Mary Bowles: MS Am 1118.99b (5), by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University
Maria Whitney: Historic Northampton
Elizabeth Holland: Amherst College Archives and Special Collections
Dr Josiah Holland: Amherst College Archives and Special Collections
Thomas Wentworth Higginson: MS Am 1118.99b (45), by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University
Helen Hunt Jackson: Getty Images
Thomas Niles: Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association
Mabel Loomis Todd: Todd-Bingham Picture Collection (MS 496E). Manuscripts and Archives. Yale University Library
The Dickinson servants: Jones Library Inc., Amherst
Lavinia Dickinson: Todd-Bingham Picture Collection (MS 496E). Manuscripts and Archives. Yale University Library
Ned Dickinson: Brown University Library
Millicent Todd with Mabel: Todd-Bingham Picture Collection (MS 496E). Manuscripts and Archives. Yale University Library
Millicent Todd: Todd-Bingham Picture Collection (MS 496E). Manuscripts and Archives. Yale University Library
Mattie Dickinson: Brown University Library
Emily Dickinson daguerreotypes: MS Am 1118.99b (23), by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University
Brittle Heaven: photograph courtesy of Bodleian Library, Oxford University
Poems: photograph by Julie Ainsworth. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC