Lives Like Loaded Guns Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds

by Gordon, Lyndall

• ISBN13: 9780143119142
• ISBN10: 0143119141
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-31
• Publisher: Penguin Books

Summary

" Lives Like Loaded Guns...reads like a fabulous detective story...[Gordon] takes us into undiscovered territory." -- The Washington Post In 1882, Emily Dickinson's brother, Austin, began an adulterous love affair with the accomplished and ravishing Mabel Todd, setting in motion a series of events that would forever change the lives of the Dickinson family. Award-winning biographer Lyndall Gordon tells the story of the feud that erupted-and that still continues today. Making unprecedented use of letters, diaries, and legal documents, Gordon proposes a groundbreaking new solution to the secret behind the poet's insistent seclusion, presenting a woman beyond her time who found love, spirituality, and immortality all on her own terms. The first major biography of Dickinson in nearly ten years, Lives Like Loaded Gunsis a highly acclaimed story of creative genius, illicit passion, and betrayal that will forever change the way we view one of America's most important literary figures.

Table of Contents

A Poet Next Door	p. 1
'A Still - Volcano - Life'
The First Family	p. 21
A Scientific Education	p. 39
Sister	p. 61
'Wife Without the Sign'	p. 93
'Snarl in the Brain'	p. 114
Telling	p. 137
Romancing Judge Lord	p. 156
Split in the Family	p. 169
Mabel's Reign
Emily's Stand	p. 197
Lady Macbeth of Amherst	p. 231
Mabel in Excelsis	p. 250
The War Between the Houses
Lavinia's Stand	p. 279
The Trial	p. 299
Defeats of the First Generation	p. 313
Two Daughters	p. 326
The Battle of the Daughters	p. 345
Posthumous Campaigns	p. 369
Outliving the Legend	p. 399
Sources	p. 407
Notes	p. 425
Acknowledgements	p. 471
Index	p. 475
Index of First Lines	p. 490
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