"WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BORN LATER, THAT IS ALL. ONE OR TWO HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW THE WORLD WOULD REJOICE WITH US."1
EMILY is called in Amherts "the myth". She has not been out of her house for fifteen years ... She writes the strangest poems & very remarkable ones. She is in many respects a genius. She wears always white & has her hair arranged as was the fashion fifteen years ago when she went into retirement. She wanted me to come & to sing her, but she would not see me. She has frequently sent me flowers & poems, & we had a very pleasant friendship in that way. So last Sunday I went over there with Mr.[Austin] Dickinson. Miss Vinnie, the other sister, who does occasionally go out, told me that if I had been otherwise than a very agreeable person she would have been dreadfully tired of my name even, for she says all the members of her brother's family have so raved about me that ordinarly she would hate the sound of Mrs. Todd.
Mabel Loomis Todd's Journal,
September 15, 1882 2
EMILY viene chiamata ad Amherts "Il mito". Sono quindici anni che non esce di casa ... Scrive le poesie più strane e più straordinarie. Ella è per molti aspetti un genio. Veste sempre di bianco e ha i capelli raccolti come era di moda quindici anni fa, quando cominciò il suo ritiro. Voleva che andassi da lei a cantare, ma non mi vide mai. Mi ha spesso inviato dei fiori e delle poesie, e abbiamo goduto di una piacevole amicizia basata su queste cose. Così domenica scorsa mi recai da lei con Mr.[Austin] Dickinson. La signorina Vinnie, l'altra sorella, che occasionalmente esce di casa, mi ha detto che se non fossi stata una persona gradevole sarebbe stata terribilmente infastidita persino dall'udire il mio solo nome, ma, ella sostiene, tutti i membri della famiglia di suo fratello sono così entusiasti di me che sapeva non avrebbe potuto odiare la musica della signora Todd.•♥•*´¨`*•♥•♥•*´¨`*•♥•♥•*´¨`*•♥•
Mabel Loomis Todd Journal,
15 settembre 1882, 2
Non era davvero quel che si dice una gran bellezza, Mabel Loomis, anzi - gli occhi troppo grandi e prominenti, la bocca carnosa e leggermente storta e la bassa statura, poco rispettose delle dovute proporzioni le sue fattezze, sottraevano alla sua immagine grazia ed armonia - ma aveva tutto, davvero tutto per risultare carismatica e di buona compagnia; nata in una famiglia di modestissime origini il 10 novembre del 1856 ( anno in cui Austin, fratello maggiore di Emily Dickinson, & Susan Huntington Gilbert convolarono a nozze ) a Cambridge nel Massachusetts, ella trascorse buona parte della propria infanzia presso svariate boardinghouses, ossia case-alloggio per indigenti od orfanotrofi per i più poveri, ma alla estrema miseria alla quale era costretta a vivere la Natura sembrò trovare compensazione nel dotarla di numerose inclinazioni artistiche: ella imparò ancora ragazzina a suonare mirabilmente il pianoforte, si diceva cantasse con una voce da soprano in modo divino, dipingeva abilmente ( quando si trovò presso la boardinghouse di Boston prese lezioni da Abigail May Alcott, soprattutto per affinare la sua capacità nel disegno botanico ), sapeva scrivere racconti e poesie perché si era fatta una propria cultura che le consentirà, da adulta, di frequentare ambienti anche medio ed alto borghesi di una certa levatura e soprattutto, raggiunta la maggiore età, Mabel si considerava alfine pienamente soddisfatta di sé, della donna che era divenuta e del successo che otteneva in società, laddove era molto ricercata nei salotti e corteggiata ...
anzi, la sua era vera compiacenza ...
[...] Dipingeva ad olio e con gli acquerelli su tela, carta, legno e porcellana; suonava il pianoforte con giudizio e molto bene, e cantava con una bella voce da soprano ben esercitata. Era una buona lettrice, aveva ambizioni come autore, e pubblicò numerosi saggi prima ancora di divenire adulta. Lungi dal nascondere le sue abilità, aveva un modo di porsi affascinante e spavaldo che le permetteva di attirare l'attenzione delle persone radunate in ogni stanza in cui faceva ingresso. In realtà ella traeva gran diletto dal sentirsi gli occhi di tutti puntati addosso, e non risparmiava davvero il suo talento per suscitare ammirazione e guadagnare lodi. 3
1883, ritratto di Mabel del Lovell Studio, Amherst,
The Todd-Bingham Picture Collection Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University.
Copyright sconosciuto
Mabel a quanto pare era pronta per il matrimonio. Quasi diciannove la sua vincente graziosità e la sua intelligenza vivace ne facevano il punto d'interesse di ogni incontro ed era proprio lì che ella maggiormente gradiva trovarsi. 4
La madre aveva cercato di crescerla una buona donna di casa, capace nelle faccende di tutti i giorni e nel confezionarsi gli abiti da sé, cosa alquanto diffusa al tempo presso i ceti meno abbienti, trasmettendole tutta la propria maestria, ma Mable era ferma nei propri propositi già all'età di sedici anni ...
"[...] La moda cambia, gli abiti si logorano, ma le acquisizioni della mente sono imperiture come l'eternità."5
Destino volle che un giorno incontrasse David Todd, insigne matematico e studioso di astronomia che s'invaghì di lei
Ritratto ufficiale del fidanzamento di David e Mabel Gallery by Bowdoin's Gallery, Washington DC, 1878. Fotografia di dominio pubblico da The Todd-Bingham Picture Collection Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University.
e la condusse all'altare anche se il carattere di Mabel non mutò nel modo più assoluto dopo il matrimonio, ma Dave si sentiva lusingato dall'avere una moglie corteggiata praticamente da chiunque la conoscesse !
"Non riesco a spiegarlo, ma sento in me una forte e seducente potenza, e magnetismo abbastanza per affascinare una stanza piena di gente - cosa che ho già fatto, in realtà ... Ho flirtato scandalosamente con tutti gli uomini che ho visto - ma nel modo in cui David ama che lo faccia. Ho semplicemente sentito come se potessi attirare ogni uomo di qualsiasi portata. Se tale potenza rimane completamente imbottigliata mi sento inquieta e febbricitante come un'aquila in gabbia, ma se la uso nel modo innocente in cui sono solita fare sono soddisfatta - anche se ambirei a qualche parola in più per conquistare ". 6
David era nato il 19 di marzo del 1855 in una fattoria a Lake Ridge, vicino New York da una famiglia di tradizioni contadine, ma di idee progressiste, tanto che il padre lo volle a frequentare nel 1873 la scuola superiore di Amherts per comprendere quale delle due passioni che lo animavano coltivare principalmente, se quella per l'astronomia o quella per l'organo, ed il fatto di poter utilizzare il telescopio nel laboratorio della scuola fece nascere in lui l'interesse e la curiosità per lo studio dei satelliti di Giove, studio che lo tenne impegnato per i seguenti dodici anni durante i quali il pianeta continuò ad orbitare intorno al sole.
Il 2 di marzo del 1879, tre giorni prima del suo matrimonio, leggiamo nel diario di Mabel:
"La mia adolescenza è stata brillante al massimo, e dopo due inverni trascorsi in allegria e 'fuori dai gangheri', è il momento giusto per sposarsi. E ho anche visto gran parte del mondo ... e tutti mi conoscono, e sono la preferita, e il mio matrimonio è di interesse personale per un centinaio di cari amici ... non ho mai saputo che cosa in me, induca la gente ad amarmi così tanto -. ma è così. "7
Costoro si trasferirono ad Amherst proprio in occasione della celebrazione del 25° anniversario di matrimonio di Austin& Susan Dickinson e nel giugno del 1881 a David Todd, già docente di Astronomia, venne offerto il posto di direttore dell'osservatorio astronomico della citta del Massachusset.
Frattanto era già nata una bimba dalla loro unione, Millicent, il 5 febbraio del 1880, che, data la scarsa propensione per la maternità da parte di Mabel - che ben comprendiamo - la quale faceva ogni conto possibile per aver rapporti con il marito nei periodi di maggior sterilità secondo quanto insegnavano la pratica e le conoscenze mediche del tempo, venne affidata alle cure della nonna materna, Molly Loomis, che la crebbe come fosse sua.
Molly Loomis, la piccola Millicent, Nonna Loomis e Mabel.
Ad Amherst i Todd trovarono dimora nella zona 'bene' della città proprio di fronte agli Evergreens ( residenza costruita nel 1857 sulla proprietà dei Dickinson per alloggiare Austin & Susan ), dalla parte opposta di Main Street, in quello che nominarono Queen Anne Cottage o the Dell
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e Mabel non mancò, già da subito, di rubare il cuore del diciassettenne Ned Dickinson, il figlio maggiore di Austin e di Susan: si conobbero alla festa di compleanno della sorella Mattie e fu così che Mabel cominciò con il frequentare questa famiglia tra le più stimate della città; la sua ambizione non poteva guidarla altrove, ma nessuno avrebbe mai immaginato che sarebbe nata una relazione così tanto intensa con il fratello della poetessa, al tempo ancora non famosa, una relazione che durò ininterrottamente per tredici anni - iniziò l'11 settembre del 1882 e si concluse solamente con la morte di Austin ...
Fotografia tratta dal testo di Polly Longsworth, Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd, University of Massachusetts Press, 1999, in cui si vedono, a partire dalla sinistra, il Queen Anne Cottage, di fronte l'edificio degli Evergreens e sullo sfondo la Homestead dei Dickinsons
e Mabel non mancò, già da subito, di rubare il cuore del diciassettenne Ned Dickinson, il figlio maggiore di Austin e di Susan: si conobbero alla festa di compleanno della sorella Mattie e fu così che Mabel cominciò con il frequentare questa famiglia tra le più stimate della città; la sua ambizione non poteva guidarla altrove, ma nessuno avrebbe mai immaginato che sarebbe nata una relazione così tanto intensa con il fratello della poetessa, al tempo ancora non famosa, una relazione che durò ininterrottamente per tredici anni - iniziò l'11 settembre del 1882 e si concluse solamente con la morte di Austin ...
Decine di pensieri scritti e piccoli doni scambiati durante i successivi tre anni e mezzo attestano che Emily e Mabel provassero affetto reciproco, ma del legame che li univa più intimamente - il loro amore per Austin - non è mai stato fatto cenno. L'Homestead divenne il posto più sicuro per Mabel ed Austin, dato che dal 1882 Sue raramente vi ci si recò. Emily, pienamente consapevole di ciò che accadeva nella sua casa, gioiva della rinnovata felicità di Austin e della sua presenza più frequente, e si rallegrava indirettamente dell'allegria e della spontaneità che Mabel recava alla Homstead. 8
L'Homestead, probabilmente la prima casa di mattoni costruita Amherst, Massachusetts, in una fotografia di fine ottocento. Essa venne edificata intorno al 1813 per Samuel Fowler Dickinson e Lucretia Gunn Dickinson, nonni di Emily, la quale vi nacque nel 1830.
Courtesy of Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and the Evergreens
Courtesy of Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and the Evergreens
Per costruire l'edificio degli Evergreens, la prima dimora cui fu dato un nome ad Amherst, posta a fianco della Homestead dei Dickinsons e sul medesimo prato, furono necessari due anni, dall'ottobre del 1885, quando Austin si dichiarò per iscritto a Susan, fino al 1887, ed una volta portato a termine fu, proprio per quest'ultima, un sogno che si era realizzato:
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Entrance Hall degli Evergreens
Susan era un'abilissima ed orgogliosa padrona di casa
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e del suo matrimonio ci è dato di sapere ben poco - nulla di scritto è giunto a noi - se non che, dopo che Austin si dichiarò per lettera, ella rimase titubante sul da farsi circa il proprio destino per più di venti mesi; sappiamo inoltre che ella più volte abortì e tentò, inutilmente, di abortire anche quando era in attesa del loro figlio primogenito Ned, cosa che lo rese un invalido per tutta la sua vita, che la sua unione con Austin durò 26 anni, ovvero finché non s'insinuò tra le loro vite la figura della brillante Mabel Loomis Todd, e anche se Susan era ben consapevole della relazione che ella aveva con il marito, mai la famiglia Austin Dickinsons si separò, un po' per riguardo alle apparenze, un po' per amore dei figli, così almeno sosteneva Mabel che giunse a ritenersi e a definirsi la vera moglie del suo amante, le mancava solamente di portarne il cognome !
Nel 1893 Sue scrisse un lungo saggio (un "piccolo diario" ella lo chiamava) dal titolo "Annals of the Evergreens" che riepilogava i momenti più brillanti del suo matrimonio: la sua memoria per il colore, per i gesti, il sapore, l'odore, il suono, e le temperature ci rivela una Sue vivacemente sensuale, capace di creare agli Evergreens un ambiente accattivante per amici rari ed ospiti affascinanti da intrattenere al tavolo della cena o da illuminare fino a tarda sera davanti il fuoco della biblioteca. Ella intratteneva orgogliosamente personaggi del calibro di Ralph Waldo Emerson, Wendell Philliphs, Frederick Law Olmsted, Henry Ward Beecher, governatore dello stato, il più conviviale degli amministratori del college, e intimi eccellenti come Samuel Bowles, che fu per lei il "creatore di prospettive infinite.". 9
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E mentre Susan viveva giorni sereni identificandosi nella propria splendida lussuosa dimora, decorandola quotidianamente con composizioni floreali che ella stessa creava con i fiori del proprio giardino, Mabel, con l'anno 1887, sposterà la propria fede dall'anulare della mano sinistra a quello della mano destra e si considererà sempre più la vera, autentica, sola moglie di Austin.
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Eppure Austin aveva amato Susan, questa donna dal carattere così complesso, così introverso ed aperto solo verso coloro che reputava degni della sua stima ...
... Austin e Sue sembrano essere stati per Emily i più grandi aspetti della propria personalità, le proiezioni della piccola, limitata Emily, che si sentiva più coraggiosa e potente a stare in casa per esplorare il mondo. In retrospettiva, i tre insieme - Austin Sue ed Emily - erano una sorta di triumvirato uniti in quel periodo da legami inspiegabili forgiati da Emily e apparentemente sintonizzati su una certa frequenza interiore speciale, tale che anche la bella, socievole Vinnie e la timida, ritrosa Mattie, che circolava spesso nel prato, non l'avvertivano. Austin e Sue erano gli Eletti di Emily. 11
... Forse era proprio Emily a tenerli uniti e fu la sua dipartita, occorsa il 15 maggio dell'anno 1886, ad allontanarli definitivamente l'uno dall'altra, chissà ...![]()
dal canto suo Vinnie non solo non concordava con tutto ciò, ma pretendeva, oltre i $200 che Mabel le aveva anticipato quali diritti, almeno qualche riga di riconoscimento per aver recuperato tutti i manoscritti lirici e la corrispondenza che Mabel aveva organizzato in volumi e pubblicato con l'aiuto ( parziale ) di Thomas Wentworth Higginson, al quale la stessa Vinnie in quell'occasione si appoggiò.
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E se la relazione amorosa intercorsa per 13 anni passò del tutto inosservata agli occhi della seppur contenuta popolazione del piccolo centro di Amherst, questo contenzioso TODD-DICKINSON fu al centro delle 'cronache' del villaggio per un lungo periodo, ossia finché tutto non si risolse come per legge.
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Grazie come sempre per la vostra attenzione, carissimi, e che la gioia e la serenità d'animo siano sempre con voi,
a presto 💕
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BIBLIOGRAFIA:
Polly Longsworth, Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd, University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.
CITAZIONI:
1 - Polly Longsworth, Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd, University of Massachusetts Press, 1999,
INTRODUCTION, pag. 8;
2 - op. cit., INTRODUCTION, pag. 3;
3 - ivi, pag. 9;
4 - ivi, pag. 34;
5 - ivi, pag. 24;
6 - ivi, pag. 58;
7 - ivi, pag. 50;
8 - ivi, pag. 64, nota a piè pagina;
9 - ivi, pag. 112;
10 - ivi, pag. 120;
11 - ivi, pag. 93;
12 - ivi, pag. 374.
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- picture 1 - Austin Dickinson & Mabel Loomis Todd
- picture 2 on the left - It was not really what is named a great beauty, Mabel Loomis, indeed - her too large and prominent eyes, her full and slightly crooked mouth and her short stature, little respectful of the due proportions her features, took away grace and harmony by her image - but she had everything, really everything to be charismatic and of good company; born in a modest family on November 10th, 1856 ( the year when Austin, Emily Dickinson's older brother &Susan Huntington Gilbert got married ) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she spent much of her childhood in various boardinghouses, but the to extreme poverty which she was forced to live in, the Nature seemed to wanted to compensate her gifting her with numerous artistic inclinations: she learned to play the piano admirably yet as a young girl, it was said that she sang with a soprano voice in a divine way, she painted so cleverly ( when she found herself at the boardinghouse in Boston, she took lessons from Abigail May Alcott, especially to hone her skills in botanical watercolor), she knew how to write stories and poems because she made a own culture by herself which will allow her, as an adult, to attend also environments of the middle and upper classes of a certain prosperity and above all, come of age, Mabel considered at last herself fully satisfied for the woman who she had become, and for the success that she obtained in the society, since she was much sought after and romanced in the gatherings she joined ...
indeed, hers was true complaisance ...
[...] She painted in oil and watercolors on canvas, paper, wood and china; she played the piano seriously and well, and sang in a lovely, trained soprano. She was well-read, had ambitions as an author, and had had several essays published while growing up. Far from being retiring about her abilities, she put herself forward with a vivaciuos charm which enabled her to attract the attention of the gathering in any room she entered. In fact she took intense pleasure in feeling all eyes turned toward her, and quite indulged her flair for arousing admiration and winning lavish praise. 3
- picture 3 - 1883, portrait of Mabel taken by the Lovell Studio, Amherst, Todd-Bingham Picture Collection Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University. Copyright unknown
Her mother tried to raise her a good housewife, able in the every-day homeworks and in sewing clothes for herself, something quite common at the time among the lower classes, and to teach her all her mastery, but Mabel was firm in her intentions already at the age of sixteen ...
"[...] Fashion change, robes wear out, but the acquisitions of the mind are imperishable as eternity." 5
Fate had it, one day she met David Todd, a distinguished mathematician and scholar of astronomy who fell in love with her
- picture 4 - David and Mabel's engagement portrait by Bowdoin's Gallery, Washington DC, 1878. Public domain photo from the Todd-Bingham Picture Collection Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University.
and led her to the altar even if the character of Mabel didn't change in any way after the wedding, but Dave felt flattered by having a wife wooed by virtually everyone who knew her!
"I cannot explain it, but I feel strenght & attractive power, & magnetism enough to fascinate a room full of people - which I have done, actually ... I have flirted outrageously with every man I have seen - but in a way which David likes to have me, too. I have simply felt as if I could attract any man of any amount. If the power is fully bottled up I get restless & feverish like a caged eagle, but if I exercise in the innocent way I do I am satisfied - only if I sight for more words to conquer." 6
David was born on March 19th, 1855 in a farm in Lake Ridge, near New York in a family of peasant traditions, but with progressive ideas, to the point that his father wanted him to attend the Amherst High School in 1873 to understand which of the two passions that animated him was bettere to cultivate mainly, if astronomy or to play the organ, but being able to use the telescope in the school laboratory gave birth to his interest and curiosity for the study of Jupiter's satellites, study that kept him busy for the following twelve years during which the planet will continue to orbit around the sun.
On March 2nd, 1879, three days before her wedding, Mabel diary reads:
"My young-girl life has been brilliant in the extreme, & after two winters' gaiety, & being 'out', [it] is about the right time to be married. And I have seen much of the world ... & everybody knows about me, & I'm a favorite, & my marriage is of personal interest for hundred dear friends ... I never did know what it is about me which causes people to love me so much - but there it is." 7
They moved to Amherst just when the celebration of Austin& Susan Dickinson' s 25th wedding anniversary was taking place and in June 1881 David Todd, former Professor of Astronomy, was offered to become director of the astronomical observatory of the little city of Massachusetts.
Meanwhile from their marriage it was already born a child, Millicent, on February 5th, 1880, whom, given Mabel's low propensity for motherhood - thing we do well understand - who did every possible account for having relations with her husband during the less fertile periods of the month, as the medical knowledge of the time teached, was entrusted to the care of her maternal grandmother, Molly Loomis, who raised her as if she were her daughter.
- picture 5 - Molly Loomis, the little Millicent, Grandma Loomis and Mabel.
In Amherst the Todds found a house in the 'well-to-do area' of the city right in front of the Evergreens (the residence built in 1857 on the Dickinson's property to house Austin Dickinson & Susan), just on the opposite side of Main Street, in what they named Queen Anne Cottage or the Dell
- picture 6 - Photograph from the book by Polly Longsworth, Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd, University of Massachusetts Press, 1999, in which we can see, from left to right, the Queen Anne Cottage, the building of the Evergreens facing it and the Homestead of the Dickinsons on the background.
and Mabel did not fail, already now, to steal the heart of the seventeen Ned Dickinson, Austin &Susan's eldest son: they met at Mattie's birthday party - Mattie was Ned's sister - and that was how Mabel began by attending this family which was among the most esteemed of the town; her ambition could not drive her anywhere else, but no one would have ever imagined that it would be born a relationship so intense with the brother of the poet, at the time not famous yet, a relationship that lasted continuously for thirteen years - it began on September 11th, 1882, and ended with Austin's departure ...
Dozens of notes and attentions exchanged during the next three and a half years attest to Emily and Mabel's mutual affection but the tie that bound them most intimately - their love for Austin - was never alluded to. The Homestead became the safest place for Mabel and Austin to meet, for by 1882 Sue rarely went there. Emily, fully aware of what was occuring in her home rejoiced in Austin's renewed happiness and his more frequent presence, and enjoyed indirectly the gaiety and spontaneity that Mabel brought to the quite mansion. 8
- picture 7 - The Homestead, probably the first brick house in Amherst, Massachusetts, in a photograph dating back to the end of the XIXth c. It was built around 1813 for Samuel Fowler Dickinson and Lucretia Gunn Dickinson, grandparents of Emily, who was born there in 1830. Courtesy of Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and the Evergreens
- picture 8 - The Homestead: the back garden
To build the Evergreens - next to the Homestead of Edward Dickinsons and lying on the same lawn - the first dwelling which was given a name in Amherst to, were necessary two years, since October 1885, when Austin declared his love in writing to Susan, until 1887, and once it was completed, it was, for the latter, a dream that had come true:
- picture 9 - The Evergreens, view from outside
- picture 10 -The Evergreens, view from outside, detail
- picture 11 - The Evergreens, Entrance Hall
- picture 12 - The Evergreens, Entrance Hall, detail
Susan was a skilled and proud hostess
- picture 13 - Portrait of Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson
and about her marriage is given us to know very little, nothing written has come to us, we just know that after Austin declared himself by letter she was hesitant about what to do with her own life for more than twenty months, we also know that she miscarried several times and tried, unsuccessfully, to have an abortion even when she was expecting their first born son Ned, thing that made him become a cripple for all his life, that her union with Austin lasted 26 years, or until they it crept between their lives the figure of the brilliant Mabel Loomis Todd, and although Susan was well aware of the relationship that she had with her husband, the Austin Dickinsons family never separated, maybe for respect of appearances, maybe for the sake of the children, the fact is that Mabel came to consider and define herself the real wife of her lover, she only missed to bear his surname !
In 1893 Sue wrote a long essay ( a "little journal" she called it) entitled "Annals of the Evergreens" which ricapitulated the brightest moments of her marriage: her memory for color, gesture, flavor, smell, sound, and temperature reveals Sue to have been a lively sensualist, providing at the Evergreens an appealing setting for rare friends and magnetic guests to gather at the dining table or shine far into the night before the library fire. She proudly entertained such notables as Ralph waldo Emerson, Wendell Philliphs, Frederick Law Olmsted, Henry Ward Beecher, the governor of the state, the most convivial of the college trustees, and royal intimates like Samuel Bowles, who was for her the "creator of endless perspectives." 9
- picture 14 - Parlor of the Evergreens
- picture 15 - Parlor of the Evergreens
And while Susan lived peaceful days identifying herself in her beautiful, luxurious home, decorating it every day with the flowers that she herself picked up in her garden, Mabel, with the year 1887, will shift her 'fede ring' from her left hand to her right hand and will always consider herself as the true, authentic, only wife of Austin.
By 1887 Mabel wore her wedding ring on her right hand, and during 1888 they attempted to conceive a child, an effort referred to between them as 'the experiment.' Austin's expedition to Kansas and New Orleans in 1887 may have been, at least in part, a scouting trip to see how life together in the west would work, for Mabel's diary indicates that she and Austin seriously contemplating leaving Amherst ( with or without David Todd is not clear ). 10
- picture 16 on the left - And yet Austin had loved Susan, this woman with such a complex personality, so introverted and open only to those deemed worthy of her esteem ...
... Austin and Sue seem to have been for Emily larger aspects of her own personality, projections of the small, restricted Emily, who felt bravest and most powerful staying at home to explore the world. In retrospection, the three together - Austin Sue and Emily - were a triumvirate united at this period by inexplicable bonds of Emily's forging and seemingly tuned to some special inner frequency, that even the pretty, social Vinnie and the shy, retiring Mattie, who circulated through their field, were not sensitive to. Austin and Sue were Emily's Elect. 11
... Maybe it was just Emily to keep them together and it was her departure, on May 15th, 1886, which definitively separated them, heaven knows ...
The year 1890 was crucial for Mabel for it saw her often active as a protagonist of many conferences held in various locations in order to propagate the texts written by her husband, his latest, new discoveries in astronomy and the extraordinary poetry of the Emily Dickinson she had loved and whom was discovering thanks to the poems which Vinnie had found in the drawer of the poet's room.
During the following three years, in fact we see her engaged in composing and giving to the press the first volumes containing the poetic production of the myth of Amherst and organizing her correspondence in a collection of letters, and that's why it was necessary the collaboration, active and lively, of Vinnie who tried to procure her as many letters as possible asking to friends, relatives, acquaintances (she had received provisions from her sister to destroy every letter of hers in their house).
- picture 17 on the right - Photographic portrait of American writer Mabel Loomis Todd from American Women-Fifteen Hundred Biographies with Over 1,400 Portraits, Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore, editors. Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick, 1897
Meanwhile, the first volume of Emily Dickinson's poems was published at the end of 1890 and, alas, it bore many alterations made by the same Mabel. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, author, politician and American patriot, who had argued Emily throughout her poetical production and was friendly by her side with a jovial correspondence, something like a Emily's friend pen, collaborated with Mabel during the publishing of these manuscripts but didn't agree with the changes to the original texts she had made by her own hand; the second volume was published the following year, however, less and less convinced by how Mabel ran the job, Higginson retired from further publishing collaborations.
The letters were put in order by Mabel after November 9th, 1891 when the second volume of poems was published ...
By the time she pocketed a hard-earned $150, Mabel knew she much preferred to earn her income by lecturing, for the same amount was hers by way of nine talks she gave during 1892 and six more in 1893, half of them about Emily Dickinson and half about Japan. Most of her lectures were in women's clubs and church groups, but one memorable on Emily Dickinson was given in Amherst College on June 2, 1892, before 110 faculty and other townspeople, with President Gates introducing her. More than money, she dearly loved the overwhelming appreciation that was showered upon her after each performance.12
On August 16th, 1895 Mabel lost her companion who died at the age of 66 years, and this deep pain, since she considered herself the authentical widow of Austin and will wear mourning for a long time, was accompanied by a dispute with Lavinia, Vinnie, the younger sister of Emily Dickinson, who did not fail to lead them even in court for as Austin's widow Mabel demanded all what he had inherited from his father and everything that belonged to him, except for the Evergreens, which would have remained to Susan and the boys - this, she claimed, were Austin's promises and she even remembered that had signed a paper, that never was found, in which the same Austin also promised her as a reward for what she was doing for Emily's poems, a strip of a lawn of theirs to the border with the Dell where he had planted trees and flowering bushes which her beloved liked so much;
- picture 18 - Mabel in the eraly XXth c. still mourning Austin
for her part, Vinnie not only did not agree with everything, but demanded, besides the $ 200 that Mabel had anticipated her such rights, at least a few lines of recognition for retrieving all the manuscripts and the correspondence that Mabel had organized into volumes and published with the help ( partial ) of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, to whom the same Vinnie leaned in this case.
- picture 19 - Lavinia Norcross Dickinson, 'Vinnie', Emily's younger sister
And if the loving relationship lasting 13 years passed entirely unnoticed by the albeit limited population of the small village of Amherst, this litigation TODD-DICKINSON was at the center of the 'news' of the town for a long time, that is until everything ended by law.
- picture 20 - The whole collection of Emily Dickinson's poems
The third volume of Emily Dickinson's poems was published in 1896 and according to Brenda Wineapple, a scholar of the poetic production of 'ours', this was the volume with the "most purged" texts, given the absence of Higginson who it was advisable to keep everything unchanged and to simply transcribe it: now in many had come in contact with her personality, complex and fascinating at the same time, reflected by her poetry without equal thanks to the lectures smitten with passion by Mabel: if all this was largely due to the self-respect of this author and rampant publisher, self-respect which was further increased by the events of those years, we owe to thank her for all she has given to the history of the entire world literature ... and to our hearts.
- picture 21
- picture 22
Thanks as always for your attention, dear ones, and that the joy and the peace of mind may always be with you,
see you soon 💕
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BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Polly Longsworth, Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd, University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.
QUOTATIONS:
1 - Polly Longsworth, Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd, University of Massachusetts Press, 1999,
INTRODUCTION, pg. 8;
2 - op. cit., INTRODUCTION, pg. 3;
3 - ivi, pg. 9;
4 - ivi, pg. 34;
5 - ivi, pg. 24;
6 - ivi, pg. 58;
7 - ivi, pg. 50;
8 - ivi, pg. 64, note at the foot of the page;
9 - ivi, pg. 112;
10 - ivi, pg. 120;
11 - ivi, pg. 93;
12 - ivi, pg. 374.
e del suo matrimonio ci è dato di sapere ben poco - nulla di scritto è giunto a noi - se non che, dopo che Austin si dichiarò per lettera, ella rimase titubante sul da farsi circa il proprio destino per più di venti mesi; sappiamo inoltre che ella più volte abortì e tentò, inutilmente, di abortire anche quando era in attesa del loro figlio primogenito Ned, cosa che lo rese un invalido per tutta la sua vita, che la sua unione con Austin durò 26 anni, ovvero finché non s'insinuò tra le loro vite la figura della brillante Mabel Loomis Todd, e anche se Susan era ben consapevole della relazione che ella aveva con il marito, mai la famiglia Austin Dickinsons si separò, un po' per riguardo alle apparenze, un po' per amore dei figli, così almeno sosteneva Mabel che giunse a ritenersi e a definirsi la vera moglie del suo amante, le mancava solamente di portarne il cognome !
Nel 1893 Sue scrisse un lungo saggio (un "piccolo diario" ella lo chiamava) dal titolo "Annals of the Evergreens" che riepilogava i momenti più brillanti del suo matrimonio: la sua memoria per il colore, per i gesti, il sapore, l'odore, il suono, e le temperature ci rivela una Sue vivacemente sensuale, capace di creare agli Evergreens un ambiente accattivante per amici rari ed ospiti affascinanti da intrattenere al tavolo della cena o da illuminare fino a tarda sera davanti il fuoco della biblioteca. Ella intratteneva orgogliosamente personaggi del calibro di Ralph Waldo Emerson, Wendell Philliphs, Frederick Law Olmsted, Henry Ward Beecher, governatore dello stato, il più conviviale degli amministratori del college, e intimi eccellenti come Samuel Bowles, che fu per lei il "creatore di prospettive infinite.". 9
Salotto degli Evergreens.
E mentre Susan viveva giorni sereni identificandosi nella propria splendida lussuosa dimora, decorandola quotidianamente con composizioni floreali che ella stessa creava con i fiori del proprio giardino, Mabel, con l'anno 1887, sposterà la propria fede dall'anulare della mano sinistra a quello della mano destra e si considererà sempre più la vera, autentica, sola moglie di Austin.
Con l'anno 1887 Mabel spostò la sua fede alla mano destra, e durante il 1888 lei ed Austin tentarono di concepire un figlio, un impegno che definirono 'l'esperimento.' La spedizione di Austin nel Kansas e a New Orleans nel 1887 potrebbe essere stato, almeno in parte, un viaggio di prova per vedere come la vita insieme ad ovest avrebbe potuto funzionare, poiché il diario di Mabel indica che lei e Austin seriamente abbracciavano il progetto di lasciare Amherst (con o senza David Todd non è chiaro ). 10
... Austin e Sue sembrano essere stati per Emily i più grandi aspetti della propria personalità, le proiezioni della piccola, limitata Emily, che si sentiva più coraggiosa e potente a stare in casa per esplorare il mondo. In retrospettiva, i tre insieme - Austin Sue ed Emily - erano una sorta di triumvirato uniti in quel periodo da legami inspiegabili forgiati da Emily e apparentemente sintonizzati su una certa frequenza interiore speciale, tale che anche la bella, socievole Vinnie e la timida, ritrosa Mattie, che circolava spesso nel prato, non l'avvertivano. Austin e Sue erano gli Eletti di Emily. 11
... Forse era proprio Emily a tenerli uniti e fu la sua dipartita, occorsa il 15 maggio dell'anno 1886, ad allontanarli definitivamente l'uno dall'altra, chissà ...
L'anno 1890 fu cruciale per Mabel poichè la vide spesso attiva sul piano sociale come protagonista di numerose conferenze, tenute nei più disparati luoghi, allo scopo di propagandare i testi scritti dal marito, le sue ultime, nuove scoperte in campo astronomico e le straordinarie doti poetiche della Emily Dickinson che aveva amato e che andava scoprendo grazie alle poesie che per caso Vinnie aveva rinvenuto nel cassettone della stanza della poetessa e che le aveva consegnato.
Nei tre anni successivi infatti la vediamo impegnata nel comporre e nel dare alle stampe i primi volumi contenenti la produzione poetica del mito di Amherst e nell'organizzare la sua corrispondenza in un epistolario, e per questo le fu necessaria la collaborazione, attiva e presente, di Vinnie la quale cercò di procurarle quante più lettere possibili chiedendole ad amici, parenti, conoscenti ( ella aveva ricevuto disposizioni dalla sorella di distruggere ogni sua lettera presente in casa e da lei conservata ).
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Frattanto il primo volume delle poesie di Emily Dickinson era stato pubblicato alla fine del 1890 e, ahimè, recava molte alterazioni apportate dalla stessa Mabel. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, autore, politico e patriota statunitense, una sorta di 'amico di penna' di Emily, il quale l'aveva sostenuta durante tutta la sua produzione poetica e le fu accanto come corrispondente amichevole e gioviale, collaborò con Mabel per pubblicare tali manoscritti ma non condivideva le modifiche che ella aveva di suo pugno apportate ai testi originali; il secondo volume venne pubblicato l'anno successivo, però, sempre meno convinto da come Mabel gestiva il lavoro, Higginson si ritirò da un'ulteriore collaborazione editoriale.
Le lettere vennero messe in ordine da Mabel solo dopo il 9 Novembre del 1891 quando anche il secondo volume delle poesie venne pubblicato ...
Fino ad allora ella aveva intascato la cifra di $ 150, duramente guadagnati, ma Mabel era consapevole di preferire di gran lunga guadagnare dalle conferenze, poiché lo stesso importo corrispondeva a nove simposi che ella tenne durante il 1892 e altri sei nel 1893, la metà dei quali su Emily Dickinson, l'altra metà sul Giappone. La maggior parte dei suoi comizi si tenevano in clubs femminili e in gruppi riuniti nelle chiese, ma fu memorabile quello che si tenne all'Amherst College il 2 giugno del 1892 su Emily Dickinson, di fronte a 110 docenti e altri cittadini, con il presidente Gates che introdusse il discorso. Più del denaro ella caramente amava l'apprezzamento schiacciante da cui veniva inondata dopo ogni performance.12
Il 16 agosto del 1895 Mabel perse il suo compagno che si spense all'età di 66 anni, e a questo dolore profondo, da che ella si considerava autenticamente vedova e vestirà il lutto per moltissimo tempo, si accompagnò una diatriba con Lavinia, Vinnie, la sorella minore di Emily Dickinson, che non mancò di condurle persino in tribunale: quale 'vedova' di Austin, Mabel pretendeva tutto quanto egli aveva ricevuto in eredità dal padre e tutto quanto gli era appartenuto, meno la residenza degli Evergreens che sarebbe rimasta a Susan ed ai ragazzi - questo, ella sosteneva, le era stato promesso dallo stesso Austin e ricordava persino di aver firmato un foglio che mai fu ritrovato, in cui Austin stesso le prometteva inoltre quale ricompensa per quello che stava facendo per Emily, una striscia di un loro prato a confine con il Dell in cui egli aveva piantato gli alberi ed i cespugli da fiore che più la sua amata gradiva;
Fino ad allora ella aveva intascato la cifra di $ 150, duramente guadagnati, ma Mabel era consapevole di preferire di gran lunga guadagnare dalle conferenze, poiché lo stesso importo corrispondeva a nove simposi che ella tenne durante il 1892 e altri sei nel 1893, la metà dei quali su Emily Dickinson, l'altra metà sul Giappone. La maggior parte dei suoi comizi si tenevano in clubs femminili e in gruppi riuniti nelle chiese, ma fu memorabile quello che si tenne all'Amherst College il 2 giugno del 1892 su Emily Dickinson, di fronte a 110 docenti e altri cittadini, con il presidente Gates che introdusse il discorso. Più del denaro ella caramente amava l'apprezzamento schiacciante da cui veniva inondata dopo ogni performance.12
Il 16 agosto del 1895 Mabel perse il suo compagno che si spense all'età di 66 anni, e a questo dolore profondo, da che ella si considerava autenticamente vedova e vestirà il lutto per moltissimo tempo, si accompagnò una diatriba con Lavinia, Vinnie, la sorella minore di Emily Dickinson, che non mancò di condurle persino in tribunale: quale 'vedova' di Austin, Mabel pretendeva tutto quanto egli aveva ricevuto in eredità dal padre e tutto quanto gli era appartenuto, meno la residenza degli Evergreens che sarebbe rimasta a Susan ed ai ragazzi - questo, ella sosteneva, le era stato promesso dallo stesso Austin e ricordava persino di aver firmato un foglio che mai fu ritrovato, in cui Austin stesso le prometteva inoltre quale ricompensa per quello che stava facendo per Emily, una striscia di un loro prato a confine con il Dell in cui egli aveva piantato gli alberi ed i cespugli da fiore che più la sua amata gradiva;
Mabel agli inizi del XX° secolo ancora in lutto per Austin
dal canto suo Vinnie non solo non concordava con tutto ciò, ma pretendeva, oltre i $200 che Mabel le aveva anticipato quali diritti, almeno qualche riga di riconoscimento per aver recuperato tutti i manoscritti lirici e la corrispondenza che Mabel aveva organizzato in volumi e pubblicato con l'aiuto ( parziale ) di Thomas Wentworth Higginson, al quale la stessa Vinnie in quell'occasione si appoggiò.
Lavinia Norcross Dickinson, 'Vinnie', la sorella minore di Emily
E se la relazione amorosa intercorsa per 13 anni passò del tutto inosservata agli occhi della seppur contenuta popolazione del piccolo centro di Amherst, questo contenzioso TODD-DICKINSON fu al centro delle 'cronache' del villaggio per un lungo periodo, ossia finché tutto non si risolse come per legge.
Il terzo volume delle poesie di Emily Dickinson venne pubblicato nel 1896 e secondo Brenda Wineapple, studiosa della produzione poetica della nostra, fu questo il volume con i testi "più purgati", data l'assenza di Higginson che si raccomandava sul mantenere il tutto inalterato e semplicemente di trascriverlo: ormai in molti erano entrati in contatto con la sua personalità, complessa ed al contempo affascinante, riflessa dalla sua poetica senza eguali grazie alle conferenze tenute con infervorata passione da Mabel: se tutto questo fu in gran parte dovuto all'amor proprio di questa autrice ed editrice rampante, amor proprio che fu ulteriormente accresciuto dagli eventi di quegli anni, a noi sta il doverla comunque ringraziare per quanto ha donato alla storia della letteratura del mondo intero ... ed ai nostri cuori.
Grazie come sempre per la vostra attenzione, carissimi, e che la gioia e la serenità d'animo siano sempre con voi,
a presto 💕
BIBLIOGRAFIA:
Polly Longsworth, Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd, University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.
CITAZIONI:
1 - Polly Longsworth, Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd, University of Massachusetts Press, 1999,
INTRODUCTION, pag. 8;
2 - op. cit., INTRODUCTION, pag. 3;
3 - ivi, pag. 9;
4 - ivi, pag. 34;
5 - ivi, pag. 24;
6 - ivi, pag. 58;
7 - ivi, pag. 50;
8 - ivi, pag. 64, nota a piè pagina;
9 - ivi, pag. 112;
10 - ivi, pag. 120;
11 - ivi, pag. 93;
12 - ivi, pag. 374.
"WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BORN LATER, THAT IS ALL. ONE OR TWO HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW THE WORLD WOULD REJOICE WITH US." 1,
- picture 1 - Austin Dickinson & Mabel Loomis Todd
EMILY is called in Amherts "the myth". She has not been out of her house for fifteen years ... She writes the strangest poems & very remarkable ones. She is in many respects a genius. She wears always white & has her hair arranged as was the fashion fifteen years ago when she went into retirement. She wanted me to come & to sing her, but she would not see me. She has frequently sent me flowers & poems, & we had a very pleasant friendship in that way. So last Sunday I went over there with Mr.[Austin] Dickinson. Miss Vinnie, the other sister, who does occasionally go out, told me that if I had been otherwise than a very agreeable person she would have been dreadfully tired of my name even, for she says all the members of her brother's family have so raved about me that ordinarly she would hate the sound of Mrs. Todd.
Mabel Loomis Todd's Journal,
September 15, 1882 2
September 15, 1882 2
- picture 2 on the left - It was not really what is named a great beauty, Mabel Loomis, indeed - her too large and prominent eyes, her full and slightly crooked mouth and her short stature, little respectful of the due proportions her features, took away grace and harmony by her image - but she had everything, really everything to be charismatic and of good company; born in a modest family on November 10th, 1856 ( the year when Austin, Emily Dickinson's older brother &Susan Huntington Gilbert got married ) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she spent much of her childhood in various boardinghouses, but the to extreme poverty which she was forced to live in, the Nature seemed to wanted to compensate her gifting her with numerous artistic inclinations: she learned to play the piano admirably yet as a young girl, it was said that she sang with a soprano voice in a divine way, she painted so cleverly ( when she found herself at the boardinghouse in Boston, she took lessons from Abigail May Alcott, especially to hone her skills in botanical watercolor), she knew how to write stories and poems because she made a own culture by herself which will allow her, as an adult, to attend also environments of the middle and upper classes of a certain prosperity and above all, come of age, Mabel considered at last herself fully satisfied for the woman who she had become, and for the success that she obtained in the society, since she was much sought after and romanced in the gatherings she joined ...
indeed, hers was true complaisance ...
- picture 3 - 1883, portrait of Mabel taken by the Lovell Studio, Amherst, Todd-Bingham Picture Collection Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University. Copyright unknown
Mabel apparently was eligible for marriage. Almost nineteen her winning prettiness and spirited intelligence made her the natural center of any gathering and that was exactly where she most enjoyed being. 4
Her mother tried to raise her a good housewife, able in the every-day homeworks and in sewing clothes for herself, something quite common at the time among the lower classes, and to teach her all her mastery, but Mabel was firm in her intentions already at the age of sixteen ...
"[...] Fashion change, robes wear out, but the acquisitions of the mind are imperishable as eternity." 5
Fate had it, one day she met David Todd, a distinguished mathematician and scholar of astronomy who fell in love with her
- picture 4 - David and Mabel's engagement portrait by Bowdoin's Gallery, Washington DC, 1878. Public domain photo from the Todd-Bingham Picture Collection Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University.
and led her to the altar even if the character of Mabel didn't change in any way after the wedding, but Dave felt flattered by having a wife wooed by virtually everyone who knew her!
"I cannot explain it, but I feel strenght & attractive power, & magnetism enough to fascinate a room full of people - which I have done, actually ... I have flirted outrageously with every man I have seen - but in a way which David likes to have me, too. I have simply felt as if I could attract any man of any amount. If the power is fully bottled up I get restless & feverish like a caged eagle, but if I exercise in the innocent way I do I am satisfied - only if I sight for more words to conquer." 6
David was born on March 19th, 1855 in a farm in Lake Ridge, near New York in a family of peasant traditions, but with progressive ideas, to the point that his father wanted him to attend the Amherst High School in 1873 to understand which of the two passions that animated him was bettere to cultivate mainly, if astronomy or to play the organ, but being able to use the telescope in the school laboratory gave birth to his interest and curiosity for the study of Jupiter's satellites, study that kept him busy for the following twelve years during which the planet will continue to orbit around the sun.
On March 2nd, 1879, three days before her wedding, Mabel diary reads:
"My young-girl life has been brilliant in the extreme, & after two winters' gaiety, & being 'out', [it] is about the right time to be married. And I have seen much of the world ... & everybody knows about me, & I'm a favorite, & my marriage is of personal interest for hundred dear friends ... I never did know what it is about me which causes people to love me so much - but there it is." 7
They moved to Amherst just when the celebration of Austin& Susan Dickinson' s 25th wedding anniversary was taking place and in June 1881 David Todd, former Professor of Astronomy, was offered to become director of the astronomical observatory of the little city of Massachusetts.
Meanwhile from their marriage it was already born a child, Millicent, on February 5th, 1880, whom, given Mabel's low propensity for motherhood - thing we do well understand - who did every possible account for having relations with her husband during the less fertile periods of the month, as the medical knowledge of the time teached, was entrusted to the care of her maternal grandmother, Molly Loomis, who raised her as if she were her daughter.
- picture 5 - Molly Loomis, the little Millicent, Grandma Loomis and Mabel.
In Amherst the Todds found a house in the 'well-to-do area' of the city right in front of the Evergreens (the residence built in 1857 on the Dickinson's property to house Austin Dickinson & Susan), just on the opposite side of Main Street, in what they named Queen Anne Cottage or the Dell
- picture 6 - Photograph from the book by Polly Longsworth, Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd, University of Massachusetts Press, 1999, in which we can see, from left to right, the Queen Anne Cottage, the building of the Evergreens facing it and the Homestead of the Dickinsons on the background.
and Mabel did not fail, already now, to steal the heart of the seventeen Ned Dickinson, Austin &Susan's eldest son: they met at Mattie's birthday party - Mattie was Ned's sister - and that was how Mabel began by attending this family which was among the most esteemed of the town; her ambition could not drive her anywhere else, but no one would have ever imagined that it would be born a relationship so intense with the brother of the poet, at the time not famous yet, a relationship that lasted continuously for thirteen years - it began on September 11th, 1882, and ended with Austin's departure ...
Dozens of notes and attentions exchanged during the next three and a half years attest to Emily and Mabel's mutual affection but the tie that bound them most intimately - their love for Austin - was never alluded to. The Homestead became the safest place for Mabel and Austin to meet, for by 1882 Sue rarely went there. Emily, fully aware of what was occuring in her home rejoiced in Austin's renewed happiness and his more frequent presence, and enjoyed indirectly the gaiety and spontaneity that Mabel brought to the quite mansion. 8
- picture 7 - The Homestead, probably the first brick house in Amherst, Massachusetts, in a photograph dating back to the end of the XIXth c. It was built around 1813 for Samuel Fowler Dickinson and Lucretia Gunn Dickinson, grandparents of Emily, who was born there in 1830. Courtesy of Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and the Evergreens
- picture 8 - The Homestead: the back garden
To build the Evergreens - next to the Homestead of Edward Dickinsons and lying on the same lawn - the first dwelling which was given a name in Amherst to, were necessary two years, since October 1885, when Austin declared his love in writing to Susan, until 1887, and once it was completed, it was, for the latter, a dream that had come true:
- picture 9 - The Evergreens, view from outside
- picture 10 -The Evergreens, view from outside, detail
- picture 11 - The Evergreens, Entrance Hall
- picture 12 - The Evergreens, Entrance Hall, detail
Susan was a skilled and proud hostess
- picture 13 - Portrait of Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson
and about her marriage is given us to know very little, nothing written has come to us, we just know that after Austin declared himself by letter she was hesitant about what to do with her own life for more than twenty months, we also know that she miscarried several times and tried, unsuccessfully, to have an abortion even when she was expecting their first born son Ned, thing that made him become a cripple for all his life, that her union with Austin lasted 26 years, or until they it crept between their lives the figure of the brilliant Mabel Loomis Todd, and although Susan was well aware of the relationship that she had with her husband, the Austin Dickinsons family never separated, maybe for respect of appearances, maybe for the sake of the children, the fact is that Mabel came to consider and define herself the real wife of her lover, she only missed to bear his surname !
In 1893 Sue wrote a long essay ( a "little journal" she called it) entitled "Annals of the Evergreens" which ricapitulated the brightest moments of her marriage: her memory for color, gesture, flavor, smell, sound, and temperature reveals Sue to have been a lively sensualist, providing at the Evergreens an appealing setting for rare friends and magnetic guests to gather at the dining table or shine far into the night before the library fire. She proudly entertained such notables as Ralph waldo Emerson, Wendell Philliphs, Frederick Law Olmsted, Henry Ward Beecher, the governor of the state, the most convivial of the college trustees, and royal intimates like Samuel Bowles, who was for her the "creator of endless perspectives." 9
- picture 14 - Parlor of the Evergreens
- picture 15 - Parlor of the Evergreens
And while Susan lived peaceful days identifying herself in her beautiful, luxurious home, decorating it every day with the flowers that she herself picked up in her garden, Mabel, with the year 1887, will shift her 'fede ring' from her left hand to her right hand and will always consider herself as the true, authentic, only wife of Austin.
By 1887 Mabel wore her wedding ring on her right hand, and during 1888 they attempted to conceive a child, an effort referred to between them as 'the experiment.' Austin's expedition to Kansas and New Orleans in 1887 may have been, at least in part, a scouting trip to see how life together in the west would work, for Mabel's diary indicates that she and Austin seriously contemplating leaving Amherst ( with or without David Todd is not clear ). 10
- picture 16 on the left - And yet Austin had loved Susan, this woman with such a complex personality, so introverted and open only to those deemed worthy of her esteem ...
... Austin and Sue seem to have been for Emily larger aspects of her own personality, projections of the small, restricted Emily, who felt bravest and most powerful staying at home to explore the world. In retrospection, the three together - Austin Sue and Emily - were a triumvirate united at this period by inexplicable bonds of Emily's forging and seemingly tuned to some special inner frequency, that even the pretty, social Vinnie and the shy, retiring Mattie, who circulated through their field, were not sensitive to. Austin and Sue were Emily's Elect. 11
... Maybe it was just Emily to keep them together and it was her departure, on May 15th, 1886, which definitively separated them, heaven knows ...
The year 1890 was crucial for Mabel for it saw her often active as a protagonist of many conferences held in various locations in order to propagate the texts written by her husband, his latest, new discoveries in astronomy and the extraordinary poetry of the Emily Dickinson she had loved and whom was discovering thanks to the poems which Vinnie had found in the drawer of the poet's room.
During the following three years, in fact we see her engaged in composing and giving to the press the first volumes containing the poetic production of the myth of Amherst and organizing her correspondence in a collection of letters, and that's why it was necessary the collaboration, active and lively, of Vinnie who tried to procure her as many letters as possible asking to friends, relatives, acquaintances (she had received provisions from her sister to destroy every letter of hers in their house).
- picture 17 on the right - Photographic portrait of American writer Mabel Loomis Todd from American Women-Fifteen Hundred Biographies with Over 1,400 Portraits, Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore, editors. Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick, 1897
Meanwhile, the first volume of Emily Dickinson's poems was published at the end of 1890 and, alas, it bore many alterations made by the same Mabel. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, author, politician and American patriot, who had argued Emily throughout her poetical production and was friendly by her side with a jovial correspondence, something like a Emily's friend pen, collaborated with Mabel during the publishing of these manuscripts but didn't agree with the changes to the original texts she had made by her own hand; the second volume was published the following year, however, less and less convinced by how Mabel ran the job, Higginson retired from further publishing collaborations.
The letters were put in order by Mabel after November 9th, 1891 when the second volume of poems was published ...
By the time she pocketed a hard-earned $150, Mabel knew she much preferred to earn her income by lecturing, for the same amount was hers by way of nine talks she gave during 1892 and six more in 1893, half of them about Emily Dickinson and half about Japan. Most of her lectures were in women's clubs and church groups, but one memorable on Emily Dickinson was given in Amherst College on June 2, 1892, before 110 faculty and other townspeople, with President Gates introducing her. More than money, she dearly loved the overwhelming appreciation that was showered upon her after each performance.12
On August 16th, 1895 Mabel lost her companion who died at the age of 66 years, and this deep pain, since she considered herself the authentical widow of Austin and will wear mourning for a long time, was accompanied by a dispute with Lavinia, Vinnie, the younger sister of Emily Dickinson, who did not fail to lead them even in court for as Austin's widow Mabel demanded all what he had inherited from his father and everything that belonged to him, except for the Evergreens, which would have remained to Susan and the boys - this, she claimed, were Austin's promises and she even remembered that had signed a paper, that never was found, in which the same Austin also promised her as a reward for what she was doing for Emily's poems, a strip of a lawn of theirs to the border with the Dell where he had planted trees and flowering bushes which her beloved liked so much;
- picture 18 - Mabel in the eraly XXth c. still mourning Austin
for her part, Vinnie not only did not agree with everything, but demanded, besides the $ 200 that Mabel had anticipated her such rights, at least a few lines of recognition for retrieving all the manuscripts and the correspondence that Mabel had organized into volumes and published with the help ( partial ) of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, to whom the same Vinnie leaned in this case.
- picture 19 - Lavinia Norcross Dickinson, 'Vinnie', Emily's younger sister
And if the loving relationship lasting 13 years passed entirely unnoticed by the albeit limited population of the small village of Amherst, this litigation TODD-DICKINSON was at the center of the 'news' of the town for a long time, that is until everything ended by law.
- picture 20 - The whole collection of Emily Dickinson's poems
The third volume of Emily Dickinson's poems was published in 1896 and according to Brenda Wineapple, a scholar of the poetic production of 'ours', this was the volume with the "most purged" texts, given the absence of Higginson who it was advisable to keep everything unchanged and to simply transcribe it: now in many had come in contact with her personality, complex and fascinating at the same time, reflected by her poetry without equal thanks to the lectures smitten with passion by Mabel: if all this was largely due to the self-respect of this author and rampant publisher, self-respect which was further increased by the events of those years, we owe to thank her for all she has given to the history of the entire world literature ... and to our hearts.
- picture 21
- picture 22
Thanks as always for your attention, dear ones, and that the joy and the peace of mind may always be with you,
see you soon 💕
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Polly Longsworth, Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd, University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.
QUOTATIONS:
1 - Polly Longsworth, Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd, University of Massachusetts Press, 1999,
INTRODUCTION, pg. 8;
2 - op. cit., INTRODUCTION, pg. 3;
3 - ivi, pg. 9;
4 - ivi, pg. 34;
5 - ivi, pg. 24;
6 - ivi, pg. 58;
7 - ivi, pg. 50;
8 - ivi, pg. 64, note at the foot of the page;
9 - ivi, pg. 112;
10 - ivi, pg. 120;
11 - ivi, pg. 93;
12 - ivi, pg. 374.
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