Emily Dickinson

January 22, 1988
This erudite biography of the enigmatic belle of Amherst is rich in "provocative analogies and insights,'' according to PW. Wolff, MIT humanities professor, analyzes the sources and voices of the poems, while portraying Dickinson as a strong person struggling to deal with the fact of death. Photos.

October 15, 1986
This is a dense, extended study of Dickinson's life and poetry, the first attempting this perilous joining since Thomas Johnson's Emily Dickinson (1955). Wolff, expanding on Tate ("New England Culture and Emily Dickinson," 1932), deflects the peril by positing that the passion in the poetry arises from Dickinson's lifelong wrestling with an abandoning, vengeful God. This single perspective illuminates poetry Christian in idea or imagery but convolutes when applied to nonfaith poems. Biographical revelations arise from the reconsideration of known data, yielding a complex portrait and some plausible conjectures in a context profuse with family, ancestry, and social history. The rich interweaving of times, life, mind, and letters makes this a formidable addition to the canon of enduring Dickinson studies. Domenica Paterno, Lehman Coll., CUNY