Winds of Will

"With this volume, Crumbley (Utah State Univ.) adds a new dimension to understanding of the US's most reclusive poet. Through a close reading of Dickinson's correspondence and verse, the author examines the rhetorical strategies the poet invoked, and he argues that although her writings have typically been viewed as apolitical, Dickinson often addressed the issue of individual sovereignty, thus leading the reader to politicize her verses through the act of interpretation. This democratic discourse, he contends, 'magnifies the role of individual choice and profoundly governs the spirit of her work.' Crumbley illustrates that the absence of overt political posturing in Dickinson's writings, along with her Whitmanesque propensity for contradictions, forces the reader to make interpretive choices, which in itself constitutes a type of democratic reasoning. Crumbley explores the cultural context of Dickinson's poetry by situating it alongside other 19th-century women writers (including Elizabeth Oakes-Smith, Alice Cary, Lydia Huntley Sigourney, and Helen Hunt Jackson), discusses the influence of the spiritualist movement on Dickinson's notions of democracy, and examines significant nuances in her correspondence that argue for individual sovereignty. A meticulously researched and cogently argued book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers."
—CHOICE
 

“A compelling, revitalizing, inspirational book that takes readers back to the future, as it were, back to the reading practices Dickinson endorsed, one of vital choices, choice comfortable in the negative capabilities of ‘uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts’ (Keats) rather than definitive closure or choice that excludes other possibilities.” —Martha Nell Smith, author of Rowing in Eden: Rereading Emily Dickinson and Emily Dickinson: A User’s Guide and coeditor of Emily Dickinson's Correspondences