Approaching Emily Dickinson: Critical Currents and Crosscurrents since 1960
Fred D. White
Camden House, 2008
Hardcover, first U.S. edition
ISBN 978-1-57113-316-8
256 pages; $75.00

Today is the official publication date of this brilliant critical work, a labor of love by a man who has studied Emily Dickinson for his entire professional career. Fred White describes his work, nearly four years in the making, as “a long bibliographic essay,” but it is, in my opinion, more than that: it is a true work of metacriticism. White does not just note, but critically comments upon, virtually all of the criticism of Dickinson since 1960. The date is significant, since it was about that time that Dickinson studies exploded, just a few short years after the unexpurgated versions of her poems were published. Critical studies, too, began to blossom around that time, as new schools began to spring up: feminist studies, queer studies, deconstructionism, and other new ways of looking at Dickinson’s work brought new views of this deeply philosophical poet’s works to an eager public. In addition, White also explores Dickinson’s artistic reception by artists, creative writers, musicians and dramatists.

I cannot be objective about this book: the author is my husband, and I lived through every moment of the four years of its gestation along with him. In fact, Emily Dickinson played a key role in our courtship. After our first meeting, I returned home, on the clouds, wondering if – and hoping that – I’d be meeting this bright, funny, interesting, passionate man again. An email from him awaited me, containing the Dickinson poem that begins, “Come slowly, Eden.” Any of you who know Dickinson’s poetry know that our continued romance and marriage was a virtual certainty from that moment forward.

I therefore won’t ask you to accept my opinion about the worth of this book, which is, after all, dedicated to me. Instead, I offer you the opinion of Paul Crumbley of Utah State University, president of The Emily Dickinson International Society:

"White’s comprehensive and engaging book so effectively unites a balanced assessment of relevant scholarship with insight into prevailing trends that it is destined to become essential reading for both students coming to Dickinson for the first time and scholars long familiar with the field of Dickinson studies. White helps experienced scholars acknowledge those whose work has made their own thought possible at the same time that he provides those new to Dickinson with a lively sense of the expanding panorama of interpretive possibilities that continues to define the field of Dickinson scholarship."

The book is currently available with a 25% discount at www.boydellandbrewer.com if you use the reference number $08240. It is available on Amazon with a 15% discount, which might be a better bet if you are part of Amazon’s free shipping program.

This book is a fundamental research tool for both scholars and students. It is the thorough study of Dickinsonian criticism that the field has long needed. No one with a serious interest in Dickinson can do without it.