These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson

by Martha Ackmann

Overview

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, this engaging, insightful portrayal of Emily Dickinson sheds new light on one of American literature’s most enigmatic figures.

On August 3, 1845, young Emily Dickinson declared, “All things are ready” and with this resolute statement, her life as a poet began. Despite spending her days almost entirely “at home” (the occupation listed on her death certificate), Dickinson’s interior world was extraordinary. She loved passionately, was hesitant about publication, embraced seclusion, and created 1,789 poems that she tucked into a dresser drawer.

In These Fevered Days, Martha Ackmann unravels the mysteries of Dickinson’s life through ten decisive episodes that distill her evolution as a poet. Ackmann follows Dickinson through her religious crisis while a student at Mount Holyoke, which prefigured her lifelong ambivalence toward organized religion and her deep, private spirituality. We see the poet through her exhilarating frenzy of composition, through which we come to understand her fiercely self-critical eye and her relationship with sister-in-law and first reader, Susan Dickinson. Contrary to her reputation as a recluse, Dickinson makes the startling decision to ask a famous editor for advice, writes anguished letters to an unidentified “Master,” and keeps up a lifelong friendship with writer Helen Hunt Jackson. At the peak of her literary productivity, she is seized with despair in confronting possible blindness.

Utilizing thousands of archival letters and poems as well as never-before-seen photos, These Fevered Days constructs a remarkable map of Emily Dickinson’s inner life. Together, these ten days provide new insights into her wildly original poetry and render an “enjoyable and absorbing” (Scott Bradfield, Washington Post) portrait of American literature’s most enigmatic figure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393867534
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/27/2021
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	676,693
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Martha Ackmann, author of These Fevered Days, Curveball, and The Mercury 13, writes about women who have changed America. The recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, Ackmann taught a popular seminar on Dickinson at Mount Holyoke College and lives in western Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xiii

1 All Things Are Ready 1

2 It Is Hard for Me to Give Up the World 26

3 I've Been in the Habit Myself of Writing Some Few Things 50

4 Decided to Be Distinguished 71

5 Taller Feet 92

6 Are Yon Too Deeply Occupied to Say If My Verse Is Alive? 116

7 Bulletins All Day from Immortality 133

8 You Were Not Aware That You Saved My Life 158

9 Success Is Counted Sweetest 181

10 Called Back 211

Acknowledgments 237

Illustration Credits 241

Permissions Credits 243

Notes 245

Index 273

Editorial Reviews

"Ackmann, a lifelong Dickinson scholar, has a deep empathy for Dickinson’s struggles, an expert’s knowledge of her poetry and an elegant writing style that will engage even those familiar with Dickinson’s story."

Seattle Times - Mary Ann Gwinn

"Highly readable.… By the end, you’ll be a believer, in part because of Ackmann’s grasp on her subject—both the mountains of scholarship on Dickinson as well as the poet’s historical and cultural milieu—and Ackmann’s own formidable gifts as a storyteller."

Associated Press - Ann Levin

"Martha Ackmann is a rare scholar. She is steeped in her subject’s work, but also fills her book with the light and sounds of Dickinson’s home. Dickinson is at once the most mysterious and yet most accessible of American poets, and she led what has been called the most remarkable unremarkable life in American letters. Ackmann does justice to this creative paradox in her warm and stirring book."

Cullen Murphy

"Reads like page-turning fiction.… [A] wonderful biography that illustrates the complexity of Dickinson’s life."

Christian Science Monitor - Elizabeth Lund

"Vivid [and] affectionate."

The New Yorker

"I quickly came to treasure Ackmann’s ample descriptions, her deep knowledge of the poet’s milieu.… [These Fevered Days is] thoroughly researched, and yet, with Ackmann’s energetic storytelling, alive."

Megan Marshall

"A lucid narrative grounded in solid research colored by appreciative warmth.… These Fevered Days makes Dickinson’s exploration of that wild terrain [of the mind] and that continent of language palpable, exciting, and accessible."

Boston Globe - Wendy Smith

★ 12/23/2019

Journalist Ackmann (Curveball), expanding on her Mount Holyoke seminar on Emily Dickinson, recounts 10 days in the poet’s life in this excellent literary study. Some of the days covered initially seem trivial—as when, on Aug. 3, 1845, 14-year-old Dickinson wrote a letter to her school friend Abiah—but Ackmann excels at revealing her subject’s passion and vibrant imagination even in innocuous moments. Others are more distinctly significant, such as Dickinson’s first meeting with longtime correspondent Thomas Wentworth Higginson on Aug. 16, 1870. (Fortunately, Higginson wrote down every detail he remembered, including Dickinson commenting “if I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”) Ackmann freely draws from historical records, poems, and letters, sampling some of Dickinson’s best bon mots, as when, complaining about her chores, she implores, “God keep me from what they call households.” Though far from comprehensive, Ackmann’s account gets to the core of her subject with remarkable clarity. Though the book’s Dickinson can be odd, ethereal, and contradictory, other qualities emerge as well—her humor, charm, and unwavering confidence in her own work. The result is a remarkably refreshing account of one of America’s finest poets. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"A lucid narrative grounded in solid research colored by appreciative warmth...These Fevered Days makes Dickinson’s exploration of that wild terrain [of the mind] and that continent of language palpable, exciting, and accessible."

Boston Globe

"Gifted storyteller Martha Ackmann deciphers with fresh and compelling insights ten transformational moments in the development of Emily Dickinson's mind. These Fevered Days invites us into the experiences that led Dickinson to assert her ambitions as an artist and decisions as a poet with a vivid immediacy rare among biographical works."

Jane Wald

"These Fevered Days is a contemplative, sometimes lyrical effort to unlock several of the most important moments of Emily Dickinson’s mysterious life. The book brings readers deeply into Emily’s world: the sights she sees from the window of her room, the people with whom she corresponds, the sounds of daily life on the streets of nineteenth-century Amherst. Weaving together numerous sources, Ackmann’s narrative provides thoughtful insights into both the poet and her craft."

Julie Dobrow

"Using an ingenious device to capture the whole of Emily Dickinson’s life by presenting it in ten distinct tableaux, Martha Ackmann illuminates the poet from her first word as a toddler, ‘music,’ to her final written ones, ‘called back.’ In These Fevered Days, the author describes a gift from Dickinson to a friend as ‘exquisite, tender, and intimate,’ words that aptly describe Ackmann’s latest triumph."

Madeleine Blais

"Enjoyable and absorbing...Dickinson—a poet of those small, insignificant moments that suddenly blossom into wide, disturbing vistas of significance—fits Ackmann’s model neatly."

Washington Post - Scott Bradfield

"This utterly enchanting book invites us into the world Emily Dickinson inhabited and made. With exquisite sensitivity to poet and place, Martha Ackmann illuminates a life simple and complex. Treasures abound on every page."

Ellen Fitzpatrick

01/01/2020

At age 14, Emily Dickinson (1830–86) committed herself to the writing life, beginning her journey as a poet who would challenge and ultimately alter the ethos of America. Ackmann (Curveball) posits that decisive episodes in Dickinson's life contributed to her evolution as a strikingly singular voice in American poetry. The author probes Dickinson's legacy by focusing on her unsparing ambition, her refusal to commit to mainstream religion, her meticulous process of revision and belief in the sustaining power of art, and her reclusiveness as she aged. Also touched on are Dickinson's close family relationships, her friendship with author Helen Hunt Jackson, and key figures instrumental to the development of her poems, including the mysterious "Master," to whom Dickinson addressed dozens of letters. The book closes with the poet's death at 56 and the discovery of nearly 2,000 poems hidden away in a dresser drawer. VERDICT The compelling, eminently readable, novel-like style of Ackmann's writing makes this new take on the poet's artistic and personal growth highly recommended for both scholars and casual readers long captivated by the "Belle of Amherst."—Denise J. Stankovics, Vernon, CT

Library Journal

★ 2019-10-23
The reclusive American poet emerges vividly in an imaginative examination of her life.

The subject of many biographies, critical studies, and a one-woman show, as well as the protagonist of several novels, Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) has remained an enigmatic figure: a shy wraith, dressed in white, refusing to allow publication of her poems—nearly 2,000, discovered after her death. Guggenheim fellow Ackmann (Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone, 2010, etc.), who has taught a Dickinson seminar at Mount Holyoke College, persuasively counters that view with a fresh approach to Dickinson's life and work. Focusing on 10 turning points, she creates in each chapter "a snapshot" of that moment "with the past in dissolve like a multiple exposure." Drawing largely on Dickinson's poems and letters, the author portrays the young Emily, surrounded by family, corresponding with friends, growing into self-awareness of her creativity. "She wanted to understand the particles of moments that others could not see or grasped with a faith she found too easy," writes Ackmann. When she was pressed about her religious conviction, Dickinson admitted doubt: "I both believe and disbelieve a hundred times an Hour." Her poetry, though, probed the ineffable, aiming for "evanescence like the brilliance of lightning, the flash of truth, or a transport so swift it felt like flight." By the time Dickinson boldly sent four poems to Atlantic editor Thomas Wentworth Higginson, she was composing nearly a verse a day: "My business is to sing," she announced. Even more than her sister-in-law, among the few with whom Dickinson shared her poems, Higginson recognized, admired, and nurtured Dickinson's "strange power." Perhaps, he wrote to her, "if I could once take you by the hand I might be something to you." After eight years of corresponding, when they finally met, Dickinson effusively confided in him intimate details about her family, poetry, and dreams. Afterward, she felt "elated, emboldened, and slightly off-kilter." As for Higginson, her intellectual intensity exhausted him.

Radiant prose, palpable descriptions, and deep empathy for the poet's sensibility make this biography extraordinary.

Kirkus Reviews