An exciting new standard in Dickinson scholarship.
A newly expanded, annotated edition of the poet’s letters, the first in more than 60 years.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) is one of the most recognizable poets in history. Yet, as the editors note in the introduction, she “was a letter writer before she was a poet.” She was a prolific and passionate correspondent, and this new edition contains 1,304 of her letters, “as well as all of the extant letters that [she] received.” This extraordinary collection shows her to be a masterful prose writer, and, contrary to her popular image as a recluse, the letters reveal that “Dickinson was by no means an isolated, lonely, woman.” The editors include hundreds of new letters, redate many of the previously published ones based on careful research, and provide essential annotations. Additionally, where possible, they restore omissions by previous letter transcribers. In some cases, the restorations are critical to our ability to reevaluate who Dickinson was in relation to those in her correspondence. While her prose writing is noteworthy in itself, the editors also include many “letter-poems.” Dickinson frequently sent poems in her correspondence, often without an accompanying note. Included in this edition alongside her regular letters, they provide beautiful texture to the collection. Perhaps the most delightful materials, though, are the writing notes. Like many writers, Dickinson collected scraps of language and fragments of poems, which she may have used to draft both her letters and poems. Seeing them together shows how “a retained metaphor or sequence of language might serve as the germ of a letter, or it might linger in her workshop until a letter seemed just right to house it, just as a poem might begin with a resonant phrase.” The notes, in particular, provide illuminating insight into the mind and process of a truly brilliant writer.
An exciting new standard in Dickinson scholarship.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780674982970
Page Count: 960
Publisher: Belknap/Harvard Univ.
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
An engrossing, intense, and highly descriptive narrative chronicling the ghastly conditions three pregnant women suffered...
The incredible true story of three Jewish women who survived the Holocaust.
Priska, Rachel, and Anka were married Jewish women in their early 20s when the Nazis took control of Europe. Like millions of other Jews, they were forced to give up their normal lives, all of their belongings, and their homes. Shuttled into ghettos and then off to one of the most notorious camps, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, they suffered through the Nazis’ increasing atrocities. But these three women all held a secret: they were pregnant. They were moved from Auschwitz and ended up in Mauthausen, another notorious death camp. With facing the most horrible conditions imaginable, all three gave birth right before the Allies accepted Germany’s surrender. In this meticulously detailed account, Holden (Haatchi & Little B: The Inspiring True Story of One Boy and His Dog, 2014, etc.) compiles an enormous amount of information from interviews, letters, historical records, and personal visits to the sites where this story unfolded. The graphic history places readers in the moment and provides a sense of the enduring power of love that Priska, Rachel, and Anka had for their unborn children and for the husbands they so desperately hoped to see after the war. Even though it occurred more than 70 years ago, the story’s truth is so chillingly portrayed that it seems as if it could have happened recently. These three women and their infants survived in the face of death, and, Holden writes, “their babies went on to have babies of their own and create a second and then a third generation, all of whom continue to live their lives in defiance of Hitler’s plan to erase them from history and from memory.”
An engrossing, intense, and highly descriptive narrative chronicling the ghastly conditions three pregnant women suffered through at the hands of the Nazis.Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-237025-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2015
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