Martha Ackermann, "These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson" (Norton, 2020)

New Books in American Studies · Apr 28, 2020 · 56m

After a life lived in obscurity, Emily Dickinson emerged after death as one of the greatest poets of her time. In These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson (W. W. Norton, 2020), Martha Ackermann traces her evolution as a poet by focusing on some of the key moments in her life that defined and shaped her as a writer. The daughter of a prosperous attorney, Dickinson did not have the concerns of work or marriage that defined the lives of the women of her era. Without them she was able to focus on composing poems, a task to which she dedicated herself at an early…