A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century

Almost everything about America's most mythical poet, Emily Dickinson (1830–86), is a mystery. In his nonfiction counterpart to his popular novel The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, Charyn explores how the gaps in knowledge about Dickinson's biography and writings contribute to her ever-expanding mystique. As a result, Charyn's book forsakes chronology for meditations on thematic details he finds important in the poet's life, such as her complicated relationship with her parents; her dog, Carlo; her love affairs—whether real or unrequited—with men and women; and a recently discovered daguerreotype that might be the second-known photograph of Dickinson. Charyn also devotes plenty of pages to writers, artists, and scholars whom he feels have best understood Dickinson's writings, such as scholars Jay Leyda and Marta Werner, poet Adrienne Rich, and artists Joseph Cornell and Jen Bervin.