After Emily

Two Remarkable Women and the Legacy of America's Greatest Poet

By: Julie Dobrow

Narrated by: Andrea Gallo

Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

The untold story of the mother and daughter who opened the door to Emily Dickinson's poetry.

Emily Dickinson may be the most widely read and beloved of all American poets, but the story behind her work's initial, posthumous publication in 1890 and the mother-and-daughter team most responsible for her enduring legacy are barely known. After Emily recounts the extraordinary lives of Mabel Loomis Todd and her daughter, Millicent Todd Bingham, and the powerful literary legacy they shared.

Mabel's complicated relationships with the Dickinsons - including her 13-year extramarital affair with Emily's brother, Austin - roiled the small town of Amherst, Massachusetts. Mabel and Austin's love led to her work with Emily Dickinson's poetry, which inspired both Mabel's life and her daughter's, and fed controversies over the poetry's promotion, editing, and ownership.

Julie Dobrow has unearthed hundreds of primary sources to tell this compelling narrative and reveal the surprising impact Mabel and Millicent had on the Emily Dickinson we know today.

©2018 Julie Dobrow (P)2018 Recorded Books

Great Biography

Though I have wondered about Emily Dickinson a time or two, for the most part I am not all that interested in fathoming out poetry. I, by far, prefer history to poetry. Julie Dobrow’s biography of Mabel L. Todd and her daughter Millicent T. Bingham gave me what I personally wanted, history, and what I wasn’t looking for a desire to give Emily Dickinson’s poetry a try.

After Emily is fascinating biography. There’s interesting Women’s History, particularly in the late nineteenth century. There’s the personal history of two women who kept diaries, journals, and lists. There’s the history of a place, Amherst, Massachusetts. There’s history steeped in mythology and misunderstandings about the members of the Dickinson and Todd households. There’s even political history concerning the deposition of Emily’s papers between Harvard and Amherst College. There’s other historical information about scholarship, publishing, astronomy, travel, academia, etc. All of this made After Emily quite a great read. On top of that there’s romance and controversy.

It must have been a monumental task to familiarize herself with the lives of not one but two women who saved so much of the papers of their lives. These were women who had never been studied by biographers until Dobrow began to do so. Moreover, these were women who were portrayed by both admirers or detractors and by almost no neutral people. Dobrow had her work cut out for her. And I think she did a commendable job. Oh, there were times I wondered if she might have become biased towards the Todd women from reading all those diary entries, but overall I think she undertook an incredible task and did it very well. I highly recommend this book.