WE DICKINSONS: The Life of Emily Dickinson as Seen Through the Eyes of Her Brother Austin

A more accurate title would have been We Dickinsons; The Life of Emily Dickinson as Seen Through the Eyes of her Brother Austin as Imagined by Aileen Fisher and Olive Rabe. Poor Emily Dickinson; not only has the self-imposed solitude of her life been a favorite of prying eyes and imaginations, but here she has been turned into a fictional character in a weak attempt to improve on reality. Hopefully the readers will understand that this first person account isn't the real Austin Dickinson speaking (it's never really explained). Hopefully also they will look elsewhere (perhaps Polly Longsworth's Emily Dickinson: Her Letter to the World) for a more accurate assessment of her life. In this book she comes through mainly as a sweet suburban girl of a genial family background, who adored plants, animals and cooking. Rather a disappointment to the teenager who has always considered Emily Dickinson a romantically enigmatic figure.