My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson (review)

Habegger, Alfred. My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson. New York: Random House, 2001.

Alfred Habegger, in choosing My Wars Are Laid Away in Books as the title of his superior biography of Emily Dickinson, leaves to the poet herself the revelation that her existential contests are consigned to her oeuvre. Acknowledging that Dickinson is a "profoundly one-of-a-kind writer," Habegger is obviously aware that her poetic magnetism is contagious to both specialists and a much wider public. He has written a remarkable Life of one whose anonymity burgeoned into spectacular recognition.

Having taken her place as a brilliant poet, Emily Dickinson has never escaped her enigmatic role as a genius. Her art has not been confined to her almost 1800 poems, but encompasses her more than a thousand extant letters as well. Her possessive emotionalism, her dependent independence, her penchant for a privacy marking her as a recluse delineates a poet who has left the world bewildered by the magnitude of her creative energy.

Habegger, in a career that has included teaching 19^th Century American literature on the faculty of the University of Kansas for thirty years and writing a highly praised biography, The Father: A Life of Henry James, Sr., chose early retirement in 1994 to undertake far-reaching research in preparation for his penetrating new biographical study of Emily Dickinson. He was convinced that much remained unexplored in the fabric of her life in relation to her work. With this in mind, he traveled extensively, ferreting out and reading all known and, at times, unknown original documents relevant to the poet for a uniquely solid factual foundation. Thoroughly knowledgeable in all areas of the most recent scholarship, he plunged into his research and writing independently, not allying himself with any contemporary theorists. He has mastered his material with cool insight in My Wars despite his definitive judgments focusing on scholarly questions relating to Dickinson and her canon.

Although Cynthia Griffin Wolff's noted biography was published in 1986, it is Richard B. Sewall's impressive 1974 Life in two volumes (now in one) that has continued to be a primary Dickinson bible for scholars and the reading public. With its searching, lucid, contemporary perspective, Habegger's My Wars will no doubt now move into the first rank.

Major differences between the Habegger and Sewall books involve viewpoint and organization. While Habegger has had the freedom to view Dickinson's life objectively, Sewall's vision has been narrowed subjectively by the circumstances under which he wrote his biography. He was given access to the papers of Mabel Loomis Todd, one of the first editors of Dickinson's poems and letters by her daughter, Millicent Todd Bingham. These papers contained the then sensational revelation of Todd's liaison with Austin Dickinson. Bingham made clear to Sewall that she wanted her mother's role written into "the larger story" of Emily Dickinson. This Sewall has done.

Within the framework of his book, Sewall has dealt in individual chapters with family and others close to the poet. Though the Austin-Mabel affair evolved in the last years of Dickinson's life, he has made it a biographical rallying point before the end of Volume I; thus Mabel Loomis Todd is placed in the Dickinson pantheon.

In contrast, reference to Mrs. Todd in My Wars is primarily as an editor of the poems and letters, yet she does not become fully visible until the final chapter in the proper time sequence. This adds clarity to Todd's role and brings into balance the fact that she had a peripheral relationship to the poet, corresponding with her on occasion, but never actually meeting her. It is evident that Sewall has made Mabel Loomis Todd a sensational force in his Life, whereas Habegger has not relied upon Todd to dramatize the life Dickinson...