"...persuasive and compelling... utterly authentic."
— Kirkus Reviews (Starred)

"...touching...believable...a treasure."
— Horn Book (Starred)

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Published by HarperCollins

(Publication date March 1, 2009)

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Quotations

“Don't let your free spirit
be chained.”


“I told my Soul to sing!”


“There is always one thing to
be grateful for, that one is one's
self & not somebody else.”

Illustration by Janet Shelby, Artist ©Morning Glory Greetings, Grand Rapids, MI. Used with permission.

> More information on upcoming
   performances and appearances

Emily Dickinson

Barbara Dana has had an enduring interest in the life and works of the poet Emily Dickinson. Being an author, playwright and actor, Ms. Dana can enthusiastically offer several programs for schools, libraries and women's groups:

School & Library Programs:

1. Readings. The book is written in the “first person”. Therefore, readings will be acted, the author playing Dickinson. Discussion period with questions to follow.

2. Who is Emily Dickinson? Having spent more than 10 years researching Dickinson, the author will present talks, with slide presentation, offering new insights, along with “tried and true” facts about the young life of the poet. Visuals will include pictures of Dickinson's family, friends, her Newfoundland dog, her home, garden, Amherst, Massachusetts and life in 19th century New England.

3. Becoming Emily Dickinson. A workshop. In this program the author shares her experience as writer and actor in portraying a well-known person. Slides, music, and anecdotes round out this “how to” of bringing a famous person to life. The students explore their own process. They pick a heroine, or hero, who inspires them. Do they want to act their choice, or write about her, or both?! Who do they pick? How do they begin? How do they complete this exciting task?

4. The Belle of Amherst. Beginning in the fall of '09 the author will offer a performance of William Luce's one-woman play about Emily Dickinson, originally starring Julie Harris. Ms. Dana will be performing the play at the 2009 Emily Dickinson International Conference in Canada (July 2009). The play can be followed by a discussion and/or coupled with any of the programs above.

5. I Told my Soul to Sing! Beginning in the fall of '09 the author will offer a concert performance of her program with mezzo-soprano Kathleen Shimeta. The performance combines text from her book (A VOICE OF HER OWN: Becoming Emily Dickinson) acted by the author, along with musical settings of the poems sung by Ms. Shimeta. The performance will be followed by a discussion and can also be coupled with programs 2&3 above.

6. Power Girls! The program follows the young lives of two strong women of history, Emily Dickinson and Joan of Arc. The author spent 10 years each, researching the experiences, joys, pains, and challenges faced by these young girls as they stood firm in their sense of what was true for them and in what they needed to do to “live” it. The program includes an exploration of the similarities and differences between these two “Power Girls”, along with slides and readings from the author's HarperCollins novels, YOUNG JOAN and A VOICE OF HER OWN: Becoming Emily Dickinson. This program might be especially interesting to women's groups.

> Download "A Voice of Her Own: Becoming Emily Dickinson" Teaching Guide
> Download "Explore Emily Dickinson" a brochure on the performances, author events and
workshops presented by author/actor Barbara Dana on the life and writing of Emily Dickinson

About Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10, 1830. She died in Amherst on May 15th, 1886. The cause of death is listed as Brights disease.

Emily had one brother, William Austin Dickinson (Austin)(1829-1895). She had one sister, Lavinia Norcross Dickinson (Vinnie) (1833-1899). Her Father, Edward Dickinson (1803-1874), was a prominent lawyer who served a term in Congress from 1853-1855. He was also treasurer of Amherst College for thirty-eight years. Her mother, Emily Norcross Dickinson, was a homemaker. Emily attended Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke Seminary. In 1864, at the age of 33, Emily was treated in Boston for a serious eye condition. She returned to Boston for more treatment the following year and ultimately recovered.

Emily never married. She is said to have been enamored of several men, all of them married. The three names most often discussed in this connection are the Reverend Charles Wadsworth, the minister she encountered in Philadelphia when she was twenty-four, Samuel Bowles, a family friend and editor of the Springfield Daily Republican and Judge Otis Phillips Lord, a business associate of her father's. After her father's death and the subsequent death of Judge Lord's wife, he and Emily were said to have had a romantic relationship, nearly becoming engaged.

Emily Dickinson wrote over seventeen hundred poems. Only ten were published in her lifetime. Most of these appeared in the Springfield Daily Republican. Most were submitted without her knowledge. Three were published in the Civil War publication Drum Beat. She initiated the publication of none of her poetry. Emily bound her poems in small hand-sewn booklets called fascicles, which she kept in a drawer of her bureau. She sent copies of some of her poems to friends and relatives as gifts and condolences. In 1890, four years after her death, the first edition of some of her poems was published, entitled Poems by Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd.

Emily Dickinson is considered by many to be America's foremost poet. As I write this, all one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine of her known poems have been published in The Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by R.W. Franklin. There are countless editions of her poetry in the U.S. and in many languages around the world. The Dickinson Electronic Archives (www.emilydickinson.org ) is currently in the process of publishing Emily's poems and letters on the internet, the largest known audience in the history of recorded time!

A fine source of information and a place to explore the many facets of Dickinson and her work is The Emily Dickinson International Society. Barbara is currently on the Board of Directors. Other fine sources of information include: The Emily Dickinson Museum, The Dickinson Archives and The Emily Dickinson Lexicon.