Lives Like Loaded Guns by Lyndall Gordon

This is a new biography of Emily Dickinson that focuses on family rivalries that have affected her publication and her literary personae. It's a fascinating story that revolves on the fact that Emily Dickinson's elder brother , in his 50's, started an affair with a young married woman of the family's acquaintance. This affair was kept secret for a very long time and the papers surrounding it have come to light in more recent times. At the time Austin Dickinson started the affair he recruited his other sister, Lavinia, into helping the lovers. Plus, they met for a long period of time at the home of Emily and Lavinia Dickinson. When Austin's wife, Susan (who was Emily's good friend) confronted Austin, their two children sided with her against him and he essentially disowned them. These are the actions of a man who had been all his life extremely conservative, upright, almost puritanical and a leader of the Amherst community! The woman that Austin became involved with, Mabel Loomis Todd had an agenda of greatness for herself, and although she never actually met Emily Dickinson face to face, she gradually came to believe and to promote to others that she Emily's good friend. Meanwhile, the Dickinson family has become split into two warring camps and a little after a year of the beginning of the affair, Emily dies. She had published maybe 10 poems out of over 1700 she wrote during her lifetime and so the bulk of her work was left unorganized with both Lavinia Dickinson and Susan Dickinson. From that point on there was a vicious struggle over who would claim Emily Dickinson and her poetic legacy. Mabel Loomis Todd used her influence with Austin and Lavinia to become Emily's first editor and to smear Susan Dickinson beyond recognition. Susan Dickinson and her children struggle to keep their relationship and memory of Emily intact. Mabel Loomis Todd does not come out looking good although the author does give her credit for doing a huge amount of work on Emily's poetry and that she recognized Emily's greatness when few did. This struggle between the "two houses" is passed down to the next generation and on even to now through Dickinson scholars. There's many details I've not covered, it reads more like a gothic mystery story than anything else. Fascinating book!