Emily Dickinson Face to Face

From early childhood until she was nineteen, Martha “Matty” Dickinson lived next door to her Aunt Emily and was in and out of her house: hiding upstairs from the other grownups, “helping” while Aunt Emily cooked or tended the plants in her conservatory, venturing with her down to the cellar for a forbidden gingerbread cookie. As Matty grew older, Aunt Emily took a keen interest in her niece’s friends; new youth fads like dancing and sports; and the question of what makes for proper party attire (“her ‘vote’ was for my highest-heeled red slippers”)—not to mention the music, novels, and poems loved by both women. Most of all, however, Matty’s aunt taught her the joys of solitude: “No one,” Emily said, “could ever punish a Dickinson by shutting her up alone.”

This is Emily Dickinson as few saw her—not the poet, not the myth, but the person. And yet Emily Dickinson Face to Face has been out of print almost since it was first published, in 1932. In his foreword to this new edition, the poet Anthony Madrid fills in the novelistic background of the Dickinson family’s squabbles over the right to edit, publish, and profit from Emily’s work, providing essential background to this unforgettable portrait, and explaining why it might have spent so long out of sight.

“Emily Dickinson springs to life in this remarkable, long-out-of-print biography written by her niece. The daughter of Dickinson’s older brother, Bianchi enchants immediately with anecdotes about being babysat by the poet on Sunday mornings when the rest of the household was in church . . . Though millions of pages have been written about Dickinson, as poet Anthony Madrid notes in the book’s foreword, few have provided such a thrilling close-up portrait. Readers will be rapt from the first page.”

—Publishers Weekly  (Starred Review)

“Here, the famously reclusive poet is depicted in her most intimate light—a treasured relative of an awestruck niece. Though written when Bianchi (1866-1943) was in her 60s, the author’s recollections remain fresh with whimsy . . . Emily Dickinson appears here as an almost mythical, magical figure in her niece’s life.”

—Angelina Torre, Wall Street Journal

“Written by Emily Dickinson’s niece, this memoir — out of print for nearly a century — offers a more intimate side of the poet, from anecdotes detailing her secretly handing out sweets to her interest in the latest gossip, fashions and books.”

—New York Times Book Review

“With charming anecdotes and moments vividly recalled, Bianchi’s thoughtful account offers the rarest of first-hand glimpses behind Dickinson’s swiftly drawn curtain, conveyed in searching and graceful prose worthy of its subject.”

—David Wright, Library Journal

“For Bianchi, Dickinson was not merely a magical and beloved aunt but also a metric for her own evolution. She assessed her maturation by the nuance with which she perceives the poet . . . Her affectionate proximity to Dickinson—a proximity Todd did not share—must influence one’s reading of Emily Dickinson Face to Face. If Bianchi, too, mythologized her aunt, it is nonetheless a mythology spun from lived interactions with the woman at their center.”

—Rachel Vorona Cote, Poetry 

“A wonderful example of how biography can illuminate the life and work of an artist even when the artist’s work is not directly addressed, or made the subject of literary criticism. Martha Dickinson Bianchi’s portrayal of her aunt has the same quality of furtive, elusive, and yet revelatory promise that distinguishes Emily Dickinson’s poetry . . . A memoir that is complete and satisfying in itself.”

—Carl Rollyson, New York Sun

“What makes this little memoir extraordinary, even unique, in all the millions of pages written about Dickinson is its intimacy . . . Say the memoirist, later known as Martha Dickinson Bianchi (we’ll call her Mattie), was four and Emily Dickinson (ED) was forty, that means Mattie knew ED, more or less continuously, through the last fifteen years of ED’s life. ‘Knew’? She probably cuddled with her. Gotta be only six or seven people in the history of the universe who cuddled with Emily Dickinson, and only one who gives us a child’s-eye view of ED with other grownups.”

—from the foreword by Anthony Madrid

Martha Dickinson Bianchi (1866–1943) was born and raised in Amherst, Massachusetts, next door to her father’s sister, Emily Dickinson. She was educated at several girls’ schools and at home by tutors from Amherst College, and she studied piano at the Smith College School of Music. As well as editing important editions of Emily Dickinson’s poems and letters, Bianchi published novels and poems of her own and was a frequent contributor to Harper’s and the Atlantic. In 1902 she married the Russian count Alexander Bianchi; they divorced in 1920. In her later years she divided her time between New York and her childhood home, now part of the Emily Dickinson Museum.

Anthony Madrid’s essays and criticism have appeared in the Paris Review Daily, American Book Review, and FENCE. His most recent poetry collection is called Whatever's Forbidden the Wise. 

Emily Dickinson Face to Face • Paperback ISBN: 9781946022585

Apr 11, 2023 • McNALLY EDITIONS no. 16

5" x 8.5" • 112 pages • $18.00

eBook ISBN: 9781946022592