Podcasts about Thomas Wentworth Higginson

If only because of its seeming incongruity with a brain “wider than the sky,” the central fact of Emily Dickinson's life has become her seclusion. As she wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson in 1869, “I do not cross my Father's ground to any House or town.” Like the relatively modest dimensions of her poems, this self-imposed constraint—of the property line within Amherst, Massachusetts, then the Dickinson home itself, then her bedroom—proved no barrier to a cosmic poetic imagination which “went out upon circumference,” and to which no subject, tone, or emotion was foreign. Erin & Wes discuss four of Dickinson's best-loved poems, whose little rooms contain some of the definitive poetic statements on grief, pain, violence, death, reason, identity, and encounters with the divine: numbers 340, 372, 320, and 477.

If only because of its seeming incongruity with a brain “wider than the sky,” the central fact of Emily Dickinson's life has become her seclusion. As she wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson in 1869, “I do not cross my Father's ground to any House or town.” Like the relatively modest dimensions of her poems, this self-imposed constraint—of the property line within Amherst, Massachusetts, then the Dickinson home itself, then her bedroom—proved no barrier to a cosmic poetic imagination which “went out upon circumference,” and to which no subject, tone, or emotion was foreign. Erin & Wes discuss four of Dickinson's best-loved poems, whose little rooms contain some of the definitive poetic statements on grief, pain, violence, death, reason, identity, and encounters with the divine: numbers 340, 372, 320, and 477.

Douglas Egerton, author of "A Man on Fire: The Worlds of Thomas Wentworth Higginson"

Douglas Egerton, author of "A Man on Fire: The Worlds of Thomas Wentworth Higginson"

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius is studied and admired by successful people the world over. Marcus Aurelius thought of the Enchiridion in a similar fashion. This is not esoteric philosophy. The Enchiridion is a guide to developing an internal monologue that fosters determination, resilience, pragmatism, and an escape from the anxiety that grips so many in the modern world. The Enchiridion is a collection of Epictetus' lectures, written down and compiled by his student and historian Arrian of Nicomedia.Translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

I've noticed some people are truly handicapped over the missing pieces in their lives. Whatever is not there—something hoped for but not realized—many become obsessed with it. It controls their thought life, and it keeps them from enjoying or appreciating the good things they do have. What about you? Would that be true of you? I remember talking with a friend who has been married quite a few years and has always wanted children, but she has not been able to have her own. That's a painful missing piece, and she was sharing the pain with me. But even though she recognizes an important piece is missing, she hastened to add: "But, Mary, I have so much to be thankful for. My life is still full and meaningful," and she began to recite the good things—the pieces that are not missing from her life. I said to her, "Do you realize how unusual you are? While you acknowledge a key piece is missing from your life, and is likely to always be missing, you are focused on what is not missing.” I've known her for many years, and I can tell you she has never moaned and groaned about this missing piece. While she has felt sorrow and pain over it, she accepts that no one has everything, and life is full of missing pieces. Have the missing pieces of your life become so overwhelming you cannot see or appreciate what you do have? For ten years I allowed what I thought was a major missing piece in my life to control me. I felt I had to be married for life to be complete, so I was consumed with pursuing and finding the right person to marry. I've shared my testimony many times before of how that obsession with finding the missing piece led me away from the Lord, away from biblical principles, into a self-focused and sinful life. What I've come to learn—and am still learning—is that instead of being controlled by the missing pieces, I can be thankful for them. If that sounds a little "too good to be true," let me assure you I don't live on another planet, and I have the same feelings and emotions and struggles as everyone else. And I emphasize I am learning this principle of being thankful for the missing pieces. But as I've started to grasp this truth, I've found such freedom and contentment. I'd like to share a poem with you, which really helped me start down this road of being thankful for the missing pieces. I first read it several years ago, and I have it written in my prayer book as a reminder of this important biblical principle—to be thankful for the missing pieces. The poem uses old-fashioned words, but the truth is still very relevant: An easy thing, O power Divine, To thank Thee for these gifts of Thine! For summer's sunshine, winter's snow, For hearts that kindle, thoughts that glow; But when shall I attain to this: To thank Thee for the things I miss? For all young fancy's early gleams, The dreamed-of joys that still are dreams, Hopes unfulfilled, and pleasures known Through others' fortunes, not my own, And blessings seen that are not given, And ne'er will be - this side of heaven. Had I, too, shared the joys I see, Would there have been a heaven for me? Could I have felt Thy presence near Had I possessed what I held dear? My deepest fortune, highest bliss, Have grown, perchance, from things I miss. Sometimes there comes an hour of calm; Grief turns to blessing, pain to balm; A Power that works above my will Still leads me onward, upward still; And then my heart attains to this: To thank Thee for the things I miss. -Thomas Wentworth Higginson[1] When I first read this poem, I began to ask myself, "Where would you be today if you had everything you wanted, if there were no missing pieces in your life?” And it was as though God drew back a curtain to let me see how having everything I wanted could have been disastrous for me. Why? Because I might have been lulled into thinking I was self-sufficient, and I may have never seen my true needy state.

Emily Dickinson was one of, if not the greatest American poet. The real Emily and details about her life remain elusive however. Sources: Ackmann, Martha. These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson. W.W, Norton & Company, Inc., 2021. Dickinson, Emily, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickenson Sic. Madison Park, an Imprint of Pacific Publishing Studio, 2022. Gordon, Lyndall. Lives like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds. Penguin, 2011.

Preface By Susie King Taylor. Introduction By Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Letter from lieut. Col. C.T. Trowbridge. Chapter One: A Brief Sketch Of My Ancestors. Chapter Two: My Childhood.    I had originally intended to do a warm up episode, but after spending some time reading my own notes, and those of other folks. Mine aren't really that important.Welcome back to Season Two! Please be aware that this memoir may use language some listeners may find offensive.  Support the stream: https://streamlabs.com/waroftherebellion My Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/waroftherebel... My Merch Store - https://rebellion-stories.creator-spr... My Podcast - https://rebellionstories.buzzsprout.com My Discord - https://discord.gg/Hd3UpGnC5G My Website - https://rebellionstories.com/ My Paypal - paypal.me/rebellionstories Support the showFind all of my social links at https://rebellionstories.com/

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911) has become famous as the man who in 1862 encouraged young contributors to submit to his magazine - and who received in reply four poems from an unknown woman in Amherst, who asked whether he thought her verses were alive. Her name, of course, was Emily Dickinson, and Higginson recognized her genius immediately. But there was more to the Higginson story than just his relationship with one of America's greatest poets. He was also a member of the antislavery group known as "The Secret Six," and during the Civil War, he was colonel of the First South Carolina Volunteers, a regiment consisting of former slaves. In this episode, Jacke takes a look at the two sides of this unassuming but astonishing man. PLUS Jacke is visited by Eve Yohalem and Julie Sternberg (hosts of the podcast Book Dreams), who are working to fund a bookmobile that will deliver free books to children in need this holiday season. Learn more about how you can help at https://www.bookdreamsinc.org. Additional listening suggestions: 169 Dostoevsky 150 "The Lady with the Little Dog" by Anton Chekhov Chekhov and "Gooseberries" And from the Book Dreams Podcast! Native Americans and Comedy A Harvard Professor, a Con Man, and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rómulo Berruti, Pablo Gorlero, Pablo Marchetti, Tano Pedercini, Marcelo Moreno, Cari Buono, Dina Emed y Diego Rivarola nos comparten sus textos elegidos. ¿Qué entendemos por “Literapia”? ¿Y por “Lied”? ¿Qué representa el “Género Dramático”? ¿Qué es el “Prosaísmo”? Escucharemos reflexiones y pensamientos pertenecientes a Adolfo Bioy Casares, Lus Alberto Spinetta, Leo Masliah, Alejandro Dolina y Almudena Grandes. Refrescamos poemas y narrativas de autores como Gabriel Celaya, Juan Solá, María Negroni, Humberto Eco, Alfonsina Storni, Julio Cortázar y José Martí en las voces de nuestros locutores Además, ¿Qué sucedió como resultado del primer poemario publicado por Nicanor Parra? ¿Qué famoso bar cobijó durante largos años la presencia de importantes escritores argentinos? ¿Qué curiosa anécdota guarda el mítico disco de rock nacional “Artaud”? ¿Quiénes integraban la famosa “Generación del 27”, un movimiento cultural surgido en España en el siglo XX ”? ¿Cómo surgió la idea de transmitir la legendaria “La guerra de los mundos” de Orson Wells? Emily Dickinson le envía a Thomas Wentworth Higginson, uno de sus maestros, donde se puede observar todo el universo poético y filosófico de la gran autora. Pensamos las letras de las canciones de Roberta Gambarini, Rosal, David Bowie y Pescado Rabioso, entre otros Como siempre, escuchamos las voces de nuestros oyentes quienes nos acercan sus propios textos o aquellos que escogieron de otros, para seguir creando este infinito collage sonoro de lecturas compartidas. POESIA 1110: Un espacio para pensar y resonar el acto poético en todas sus formas; la poesía de todas las cosas.

Consider supporting Human Voices Wake us by clicking here: https://anchor.fm/humanvoiceswakeus/support Tonight I read from Brenda Wineapple's wonderful book, White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. If any listeners can recommend other books about Dickinson they have enjoyed, email me at humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com. Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com. I assume that the small amount of work presented in each episode constitutes fair use. Publishers, authors, or other copyright holders who would prefer to not have their work presented here can also email me at humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com, and I will remove the episode immediately. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/humanvoiceswakeus/support

 It is my birthday week so today I am talking about my new favorite queen, the American poet and writer who became an activist demanding better treatment of Native Americans from the United States government. Her name was Helen Hunt Jackson, and I will share some of her poetry throughout the story.    We will start the story with Deborah & Nathan Fiske, in Amherst, Massachusetts. The couple both suffered from chronic illness through their lives. Nathan was a Unitarian minister, author, and professor of Latin, Greek, and philosophy at Amherst College. Unitarians did not believe in the concepts of sin and of eternal punishment for sins. Appealing to reason, not to emotion. They believed that God is one person. They did not believe in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, the God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  Their daughter, Helen Maria Fiske, was born on October 15 of 1830. Deborah encouraged Helen to have a cheerful disposition and Helen was smart and she worked hard to live up to her father's expectations. As a result of their parent's disabilities, Helen and her younger sister Ann often stayed with relatives.  Deborah died from tuberculosis when Helen was fourteen. A few years later, Nathan Fiske was also suffering from tuberculosis. His doctor advised him to find a new climate to alleviate his symptoms. He arranged for Fiske's education to be paid for and left on his last adventure. He was in Palestine in the summer of her 17th year when her father died of dysentery. He was buried on Mt. Zion.   Helen's maternal grandfather, Deacon David Vinal, assumed financial responsibility for the sisters. Julius A. Palmer, a prominent Boston attorney and state legislature representative, took on the role as their guardian, and the girls moved into his puritan home. Palmer sent Helen to the private schools and while she was away for education, she formed a long lasting friendship with the young Emily Dickinson. After school, Helen moved to Albany, New York. The following year, a Governor's Ball was held in Albany. Helen went, and met Lieutenant Edward Bissell Hunt, who was also in attendance. Hunt graduated from West Point, was an Army Corps of Engineers officer and a civil engineer. The couple married on October 28th of that year. She lived the life of a young army wife, traveling from post to post. Helen said she was almost too happy to trust the future.  A woman's intuition is often right. Helen gave birth to a son the year after the wedding. His name was Murray. Sadly, Murray was born with a disease attacking his brain and he did not live to see his first birthday. She became pregnant soon after and had a second son, Warren, a year after they lost Murray. They nicknamed him "Rennie".  Eight years later, Helen's husband was testing one of his own designs of an early submarine weapon for the military when he fell and suffered a concussion, overcome by gunpowder fumes. It was a devastating loss. The perhaps most profound loss next. Up to this time, her life had been absorbed in domestic and social duties. Her son Warren, her last living family member, soon died due to diphtheria.   When she was young, her mother had encouraged her to expand on her vivid imagination by writing. Helen also suffered from chronic  illness like her parents, and she took inspiration from her mom and started to write poetry, withdrawing from public view to grieve. Two months later, her first poem was published. She emerged months later dressed in all too familiar mourning clothes, but now determined to pursue a literary career.   “And every bird I ever knew Back and forth in the summer flew;  And breezes wafted over me The scent of every flower and tree:  Till I forgot the pain and gloom And silence of my darkened room“   Most of Hunt's early melancholic work grew out of this heavy experience of loss and sorrow. Like her mother, she continued turning negatives into positives in spite of great hardship. She was 36 years old and writing had become her greatest passion. She moved to a lively community of artists and writers in Newport, Rhode Island where she met the women's rights activist,   Unitarian minister, author and abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson. He would become her most important literary mentor.    “Only a night from old to new; Only a sleep from night to morn. The new is but the old come true; Each sunrise sees a new year born.”   After living in Boston for two years, she spent a few years traveling through England, France, Germany, Austria and Italy. She soaked up inspiration and wrote from her writing desk from back home, which she brought with her on all her journeys.  She wrote about popular culture, domestic life, children's literature and travel, using her editorial connections to cover the costs for her cross-country trips. Her career began.  She became well known in the literary world, publishing poetry in many popular magazines and a book, followed by a string of novels. She used the pseudonyms “H.H.”, “Rip van Winkle,” and “Saxe Holm.”   Helen was a good business woman and made connections with editors at the New York Independent, New York Times, Century Magazine, and the New York Daily Tribune. Her circle of friends included publishers and authors including Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ralph Waldo Emerson, who admired and published her poetry. The smart woman used her connections to help her shy and reluctant childhood friend Emily Dickinson get her initial work published. Helen visited California for the first time in 1872. While there, she explored the Missions in Southern California and took an eight day trip to Yosemite. She was enamored with the native populations she met.   “When one thinks in the wilderness, alone, many things become clear.  I have been learning, all these years in the wilderness,  as if I had had a teacher.”   Helen received bad news in 1873. Like her parents, she suffered from chronic health issues throughout her life, and now, like her parents, Helen had tuberculosis. When her mother passed away, tuberculosis management was difficult and often of limited effect but people were now seeking tuberculosis treatment in Colorado Springs because of its dry climate and fresh mountain air. At the time, one-third of the people living in Colorado Springs had tuberculosis staying in boarding houses, or sanatoriums with hospital-like facilities.  She moved to the small town of Colorado Springs with 3,000 residents and very few amenities and was quickly disappointed. She said, “There stretched before me, to the east, a bleak, bare, desolate plain, rose behind me, to the west, a dark range of mountains, snow-topped, rocky-walled, stern, cruel, relentless. Between them lay the town – small, straight, new, treeless. One might die of such a place alone, but death by disease would be more natural.” She wasn't happy with the challenges of western life at first, but she  stayed cheerful. Helen said her mother's tireless “gift of cheer” was her greatest inheritance. Soon Helen understood and appreciated the beauty of the local scenery. She fell in love with the Pikes Peak region. Her admiration for the natural beauty of the west showed in her work, andher work, boosted tourism to the region. Helen said her mother's tireless “gift of cheer” was her greatest inheritance.    “Today that plain and those mountains are to me well-nigh the fairest spot on earth. Today I say one might almost live in such a place alone!”   William Sharpless Jackson, a trusted business associate of the Founder of Colorado Springs, wealthy banker and railroad executive for the Denver and Rio Grande Railway became fast friends with Helen. They married in 1875. After they wed, Helen took his name and became known in her writing as Helen Hunt Jackson. Helen and William had the most fabulous home in town at the corner of Kiowa and Weber streets. It was a leader in architecture and technology. Inside was one of the first indoor bathrooms in town. William had the exterior of the house remodeled to give Helen a picture-perfect view of Cheyenne Mountain out her window. One of her most popular poems is Cheyenne Mountain. The Jackson's entertained at their home regularly. Helen lavishly filled the rooms with pieces from her travels, reflecting her insatiable curiosity about the world and its people. A lamp hung, attached to a hemp belt embellished with camel hair, Cowrie shells and red and black wool over pottery and an ornately carved Shell Dish, created by Haida craftsmen from the Pacific Coast. There were also many pictures of her loved ones, including her beloved son Rennie that sat on bookshelves next to her purse, made from the inner ear of a whale. The shelves were full of fiction, poetry, natural sciences, travel guides, and books on spiritualism and the afterlife. On the back of a chair, an unfinished Navajo Chief's Blanket produced in 1870, featuring diamonds woven atop an alternating background of stripes, cut from the loom and made into a saddle blanket.  There were native woven baskets from a Yokut tribe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Heavily carved, unpainted wooden Spanish Stirrups, tear-drop shaped with cone and leaf designs, illuminated from the soft glow behind Asian decorative brass lighting fixtures made from incense burners.    “Dead men tell no tales," says the proverb.  One wishes they could.  We should miss some spicy contributions to magazine and newspaper literature; and a sudden silence would fall upon some loud-mouthed living.”   Helen traveled to Boston in 1879, attending a lecture by Chief Standing Bear about the creation of the Great Sioux Reservation. During the lecture, Standing Bear described the forced removal of the Ponca from their reservation in Nebraska, and transfer to a Reservation in Indian Territory, in present-day Oklahoma. They suffered from disease, harsh climate, and poor supplies. Upset about the mistreatment of Native Americans by government agents, she became an activist on an all-consuming mission on behalf of the Native Americans.  For several years, she investigated, raised money, circulated petitions, and documented the corruption of the agents, military officers and settlers who encroached on the land.  She publicized government misconduct in letters to The New York Times about the United States Government's response to the Sand Creek and Meeker Massacres. She wrote on behalf of the Ponca and publicly battled William Byers of the Rocky Mountain News and Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz,whom she once called "the most adroit liar I ever knew." The locals in Colorado Springs were not always keen on Helen's fiercely independent nature, or her fiery advocacy for Native rights at the time. In 1881, Jackson condemned state and federal Indian policies and recounted a history of broken treaties in her book, A Century of Dishonor. The book called for significant reform in government policy towards the Native Americans. Jackson sent a copy to every member of Congress with a quote from Benjamin Franklin printed in red on the cover: "Look upon your hands: they are stained with the blood of your relations." Helen needed rest after some years of advocacy, let's not forget she had a chronic illness. So she spent a significant amount of time among the Mission Indians in Southern California.  Don Antonio Coronel, former mayor of the city, had served as inspector of missions for the Mexican government. He was a well-known early local historian and taught Helen about the history and mistreatment of the tribes brought to the Missions. In 1852, an estimated 15,000 Mission Indians lived in Southern California. By the time of Jackson's visit, they numbered fewer than 4,000.   “The wild mustard in Southern California  is like that spoken of in the New Testament.  Its gold is as distinct a value to the eye  as the nugget of gold in the pocket.”     When the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Hiram Price recommended her to be appointed as an Interior Department agent; she was named Special Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Southern California. She would document the location and condition of various bands, and determine what lands, if any, should be purchased for their use. At one point, she hired a law firm and fought to protect the rights of a native family facing dispossession from their land at the foot of the San Jacinto Mountains. In 1883, Jackson completed a 56-page report on the Conditions and Needs of the Mission Indians. In the report, she recommended extensive government relief for the Mission Indians, including the purchase of new lands for reservations and the establishment of more Indian schools. The report was well received and legislation was drawn up based on her findings. The bill passed the U.S. Senate but died in the House of Representatives. She knew she needed a wider audience and decided to write about it for the masses. She said, "I am going to write a novel, which will set forth some Indian experiences in a way to move people's hearts. People will read a novel when they will not read serious books. If I could write a story that would do for the Indian one-hundredth part what Uncle Tom's Cabin did for the person of color, I would be thankful for the rest of my life."  With an outline she started in California, Helen began writing in December 1883 while sick with stomach cancer in her New York hotel room and completed it in three months. She cared enough to undermine her health to better their lives. In 1884, Helen published Ramona. The book achieved rapid success and aroused public sentiment. In the novel, Ramona is a half native and half Scots orphan in Spanish Californio society. The romantic story coincided with the arrival of railroad lines in the region, inspiring countless tourists to want to see the places described in the novel.  Historian Antoinette May argued that the popularity of the novel contributed to Congress passing the Dawes Act in 1887. This was the first American law to address Indian land rights and it forced the breakup of communal lands and redistribution to individual households, with sales of what the government said was "surplus land".  When few other white Americans would do so, she stood up for this cause and brought the topic to light. She wanted to write a children's story about Indian issues, but her health would not allow it. Helen was dying. The last letter she wrote was to President Grover Cleveland. “From my deathbed I send you a message of heartfelt thanks for what you have already done for the Indians. I ask you to read my Century of Dishonor. I am dying happier for the belief I have that it is your hand that is destined to strike the first steady blow toward lifting this burden of infamy from our country and righting the wrongs of the Indian race.”  Cancer took Helen Hunt Jackson's life on August 12, 1885 in San Francisco.   I shall be found with 'Indians'  engraved on my brain when I am dead.  A fire has been kindled within me, which will never go out.   Her husband arranged for her burial near seven cascading waterfalls on a one-acre plot at Inspiration Point, overlooking Colorado Springs. Her remains were later moved to Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs.  One year after her death, the North American Review called Ramona "unquestionably the best novel yet produced by an American woman" and named it one of two of the most ethical novels of the 19th century, along with Uncle Tom's Cabin.  Helen believed her niece would be a good bride for her husband after she passed, indicating this to William in a letter from her deathbed. After Helen died, William Sharpless Jackson remarried to Helen's niece and namesake. Together William and Helen's niece Helen had seven children in the house in Colorado Springs.   Darling,' he said, 'I never meant To hurt you; and his eyes were wet. 'I would not hurt you for the world: Am I to blame if I forget?' 'Forgive my selfish tears!' she cried, 'Forgive! I knew that it was not  Because you meant to hurt me, sweet- I knew it was that you forgot!' But all the same, deep in her heart, Rankled this thought, and rankles yet 'When love is at its best, one loves So much that he cannot forget   The family took an active role in preserving the legacy of Helen Hunt Jackson's life, literature and advocacy work. Several rooms from the home  furnished with her possessions are preserved in the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. The Helen Hunt Jackson Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Ramona High School in Riverside, California and Ramona Elementary in Hemet, California are both named after her. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1985. Helen Hunt Falls, in North Cheyenne Cañon Park in Colorado Springs, was named in her memory. Visitors can enjoy the view from the base of the falls or take a short walk to the top and admire the view from the bridge across the falls.    When Time is spent, Eternity begins.   Sources: https://www.cspm.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Helen-Hunt-Jackson-Exhbit-Text.pdf https://somethingrhymed.com/2014/05/01/emily-dickinson-and-helen-hunt-jackson/  

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: voicesoftoday.net/15s Fifteen Sonnets By Francesco Petrarca Translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson Narrated by Denis Daly Francesco Petrarca (1304 - 1374), known in the English speaking world simply as Petrarch, was a 14th-century Italian scholar and poet, who was one of the first to use Italian as a literary language. One of his close friends was Boccaccio, who was also a pioneer in literary composition in Italian. Although Petrarch was a notable Latin scholar, and most of his works were written in that language, today he is most famous for his many sonnets in Italian, which frequently feature the superior charms of his innamorata, Laura. Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823 – 1911) was an American Unitarian pastor, Civil War veteran, abolitionist, translator and author. After the Civil War, he devoted most of his time to literature. In later life he became a mentor to Emily Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd, and was associated with literary luminaries like Jack London, Clarence Darrow, and Upton Sinclair.

In the poem, “Chase's Cascade”, Higginson writes about the serenity of the waterfall. He relates how the sounds, sights and smells of the cascade connect him with the spiritual side of Nature, as represented by Undine, “the green-woods loveliest daughter”. In ancient mythology Undines are female water spirits. Undines can fall in love with humans but will die if the human they fall in love with is unfaithful to her. An interpretation of the poem could be that the cascade is represented in the Undine and the author is attracted to the spirit. The author's time spent with the waterfall is wonderful but he does not know how he can leave her for the “common” world. He is torn because returning to society means hurting the Undine.

Cow's Head. When I see the words, Cabeza de Vaca, that's what I think. However, this is not what we are talking about today. Today, we read a story about a guy whose name is Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, one of the first explorers to visit Florida. This story comes to us from Thomas Wentworth Higginson and his book “A Book of American Explorers.”   Where you from...What book(s) are you reading? Survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FM8626C   Website: http://www.thefightingmoose.com/   iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fighting-moose/id1324413606?mt=2/   Texas State Historical Association https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/cabeza-de-vaca-lvar-nunez/   Story (PDF): http://ww.thefightingmoose.com/episode147.pdf   Reading List: http://www.thefightingmoose.com/readinglist.pdf   YouTube: https://youtu.be/i_Nn1DEqmZo/   Books: “A Book of American Explorers” http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56346   Music/Audio: Artist – Analog by Nature http://dig.ccmixter.org/people/cdk   National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): http://www.nasa.gov   Songs Used: cdk - Sunday by Analog By Nature (c) copyright 2016 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/cdk/53755  

“The fantasy of isolation, the fantasy of intervention: they create recluses and activists, sometimes both, in us all.” This is Brenda Wineapple on the friendship of Emily Dickinson, in my view America's greatest poet, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, editor, writer, abolitionist, activist, and soldier. During this time of a global lockdown, let's listen to Dickinson again.  I spoke with Brenda Wineapple, author of White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, about Dickinson's remarkable assuredness, her confidence, and her decision to spend much of her life largely secluded in her father's home in Amherst, Massachusetts. In this self-elected state of being on her own, Dickinson had intense, passionate and transformative relationships, including one with the editor, writer, abolitionist and soldier Thomas Wentworth Higginson. "Are you too preoccupied to say whether my verse is alive?" was the question Dickinson laid out like a snare in her first letter to him.  Higginson fell for this brilliant rhetorical ruse, and Brenda explains how Dickinson's remarkable friendship with a man whom academics like to relegate to the dustbin of history, or at best footnote status, is a major reason Dickinson's poetry is with us today. Brenda also explains how America has always struggled with the choice between separateness and connection, and how to understand Dickinson not as the spinster from Amherst, the victim of the patriarchy, or a forlorn recluse but as a superbly confident and self-assured poet. "To be alive is power,/ existence in itself,/ Without a further function,/ Omnipotence enough." Brenda is the author of a number of books, including The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation,  Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848-1877, and more . I recorded this conversation while in Covid-19 lockdown. The poems here are read by Anna Kathryn Kendrick.   

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 age. While the vast majority of her poems remained unpublished during her lifetime, this did not reflect her desire to be distinguished. In response to an article by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, she sent him four of her poems, inaugurating what would become a lifelong correspondence between the two of them. Though Higginson was instrumental in the posthumous publication of Dickinson’s poems, it took Dickinson’s death in 1886 before she gained the distinction she had desired throughout her life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 age. While the vast majority of her poems remained unpublished during her lifetime, this did not reflect her desire to be distinguished. In response to an article by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, she sent him four of her poems, inaugurating what would become a lifelong correspondence between the two of them. Though Higginson was instrumental in the posthumous publication of Dickinson’s poems, it took Dickinson’s death in 1886 before she gained the distinction she had desired throughout her life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 age. While the vast majority of her poems remained unpublished during her lifetime, this did not reflect her desire to be distinguished. In response to an article by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, she sent him four of her poems, inaugurating what would become a lifelong correspondence between the two of them. Though Higginson was instrumental in the posthumous publication of Dickinson’s poems, it took Dickinson’s death in 1886 before she gained the distinction she had desired throughout her life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 age. While the vast majority of her poems remained unpublished during her lifetime, this did not reflect her desire to be distinguished. In response to an article by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, she sent him four of her poems, inaugurating what would become a lifelong correspondence between the two of them. Though Higginson was instrumental in the posthumous publication of Dickinson’s poems, it took Dickinson’s death in 1886 before she gained the distinction she had desired throughout her life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 age. While the vast majority of her poems remained unpublished during her lifetime, this did not reflect her desire to be distinguished. In response to an article by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, she sent him four of her poems, inaugurating what would become a lifelong correspondence between the two of them. Though Higginson was instrumental in the posthumous publication of Dickinson’s poems, it took Dickinson’s death in 1886 before she gained the distinction she had desired throughout her life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Ackmann 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 age. While the vast majority of her poems remained unpublished during her lifetime, this did not reflect her desire to be distinguished. In response to an article by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, she sent him four of her poems, inaugurating what would become a lifelong correspondence between the two of them. Though Higginson was instrumental in the posthumous publication of Dickinson’s poems, it took Dickinson’s death in 1886 before she gained the distinction she had desired throughout her life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Being brave. Finding the right balance. These are core Stoic virtues, but in their seriousness, they pale in comparison to what the Stoics worshipped most highly: Doing the right thing. There is no Stoic virtue more important than justice, because it influences all the others. Marcus Aurelius himself said that justice is “the source of all the other virtues.” Stoics throughout history have pushed and advocated for justice, oftentimes at great personal risk and with great courage, in order to do great things and defend the people and ideas that they loved. Cato gave his life trying to restore the Roman Republic.And Thrasea and Agrippinus gave theirs resisting the tyranny of Nero.George Washington and Thomas Jefferson formed a new nation—one which would seek, however imperfectly, to fight for democracy and justice—largely inspired by the philosophy of Cato and those other Stoics.Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a translator of Epictetus, led a black regiment of troops in the US Civil War.Beatrice Webb, who helped to found the London School of Economics and who first conceptualized the idea of collective bargaining, regularly re-read Marcus Aurelius.Countless other activists and politicians have turned to Stoicism to gird them against the difficulty of fighting for ideals that mattered, to guide them towards what was right in a world of so much wrong. A Stoic must deeply believe that an individual can make a difference. Successful activism and political maneuvering require understanding and strategy, as well as realism… and hope. It requires wisdom, acceptance and also a refusal to accept the statue quo. It was James Baldwin who most brilliantly captured this tension in Notes of a Native Son:It began to seem that one would have to hold in mind forever two ideas which seemed to be in opposition. The first idea was acceptance, the acceptance, totally without rancor, of life as it is, and men as they are: in light of this idea it goes without saying that injustice is commonplace. But this did not mean that one could be complacent, for the second idea was of equal power: that one must never, in one’s own life, accept these injustices as commonplace but one must fight them with all one’s strength.A Stoic sees the world clearly...but also sees clearly what the world can be. And then they are brave, and strategic enough to help bring it into reality. Check out the Daily Stoic’s new Four Virtues Medallion here.

Today we celebrate the Swiss botanist who started a botanical Dynasty and the man who coined the term osmosis. We’ll learn about the American landscape architect who made England his home and cheered on so many gardeners with his book Successful Town Gardening. Today’s Unearthed Words feature words about winter. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about hunting for medicinal plants in the Amazon. I’ll talk about a garden item to help you get growing and then we’ll wrap things up with the early spring warm-up of 1931 - it was extraordinary. But first, let’s catch up on a few recent events.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart   Curated Articles American Gardens: An American Garden In Bath American gardens: an American garden in Bath by Gardens Illustrated @gdnsillustrated What is an American garden? Discover more with our focus on the new garden at the American Museum and Garden in Bath   Gardens: Weeds To Love And Loathe | Life And Style | The Guardian Weeds to love and loath, an excerpt from Wild about Weeds by @JackWallington   Now, if you’d like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you’re in luck, because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There’s no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you’re on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I’d love to meet you in the group.   Important Events 1778Today is the birthday of the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. Candolle named hundreds of plants. His seven-volume monumental work, Prodromus, was an effort to characterize all of the plant families and establishing the basis for the science of botany. He only finished two volumes. Augustin’s Candolle descendants would finish Prodromus after extensive and detailed research. His famous son, Alphonse, was born the year Linnaeus died. In 1855, Alphonse was awarded the Linnean gold medal. Augustin’s grandson, Casimir, was devoted to the study of the pepper plant family or the Piperaceae ("PIE-per-aye-see-ee"). The most commonly-known species in the family is Piper nigrum ("PIE-purr NYE-grum") - a flowering vine that gives us peppercorns that are ground to become black Pepper. The biggest consumer of Pepper, at almost 20% of the world’s total Pepper crop, is the United States. During the middle ages, pound for pound peppercorns was worth more than silver. Augustin de Candolle’s great-grandson, Richard Émile, was also a botanist. He died unexpectedly at the age of 51. After his death, the enormous Candolle family herbarium and Library - built over four generations was donated to the city of Geneva. Augustin’s great living legacy is the Botanical Garden of Geneva.   1847Today is the anniversary of the death of the French botanist and physiologist Henri Dutrochet. After studying the movement of sap in plants in his home laboratory, Dutrochet discovered and named osmosis. Dutrochet shared his discovery with the Paris Academy of Sciences on October 30th, 1826. Like the cells in our own human bodies, plants don’t drink water; they absorb it by osmosis. Dutrochet also figured out that the green pigment, chlorophyll, in a plant is essential to how plants take up carbon dioxide. Photosynthesis could not happen without chlorophyll, which helps plants get energy from light. And chlorophyll gives plants their color. Have you ever asked yourself why plants are green? Long story short, chlorophyll reflects green light, which makes the plant appear green. Dutrochet was a true pioneer in plant research. He was the first to examine plant respiration, light sensitivity, and geotropism (How the plant responds to gravity, ie, roots grow down to the ground.) The upward growth of plants against gravity is called negative geotropism, and downward growth of roots is called positive geotropism. The plant part that responds to positive geotropism is at the very end of the root, and it is called the root cap. So, what makes the roots turn downward as they grow? The root cap - responding to positive geotropism.   1879Today John H. Heinz received a patent for an improvement to Vegetable-Assorters - the machines used for sorting produce like fruits, vegetables, etc. I, myself, have created some excellent vegetable sorters - their names are Will, Emma, PJ, & John.   1912Today is the birthday of the American landscape architect, consummate plantsman, and writer who made England his home - Lanning Roper. When Vita Sackville-West read Lanning’s book Successful Town Gardening she wrote, “The book I have been reading, and which has cheered me up so much as to the answers I can in future return, is called Successful Town Gardening by Lanning Roper.” Today, Lanning’s book is regarded as a classic garden book. Many people use the wintertime as a chance to reconnect with the garden and dream about the following season as they read or reread Successful Town Gardening. Lanning’s grandfather was William Hartley Eveleth, who served as the Superintendent of the college grounds for Harvard University and Radcliffe College. Lanning, himself, went to Harvard and graduated in 1933. After Harvard, Landing enlisted in the Navy, and he ended up in charge of division 67, which is where he found himself on D-Day. After D-day, Lanning had a six-week deployment near the great Rothschild estate. He fell in love with the rhododendrons, the woodland, the gardens, and England. He decided to train as a gardener at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and then pursued more training at Edinburgh (ED-in-bruh).” He began working as an editor for the Royal Horticultural Society. And In 1952, Lanning fell in love with a woman named Primrose. Primrose Harley. She was a muralist and a gardener. Her parents had named her Primrose because she was born on Primrose Day, April 19th, 1908. Primrose worked with Lanning on his many landscape projects. When it came to his gardens, Lanning wanted romance. Known as the father of borders, Lanning liked to see flowers spilling into paths - like lavender and roses. He wanted walls to be covered in vines - and more roses. As a designer, Lanning had a knack for creating beautiful hardscapes like paths and walkways. But, Lanning also cautioned about planting too much. He said, “Over-planting is a fault common to most gardeners. If you plant three shrubs that will grow quickly to fill an area where one alone would have been sufficient, two things may happen. If you remove two, the remaining one is in the wrong place. If you leave all three, they perhaps will be poor specimens, lacking the characteristic natural grace of the species.” Lanning designed nearly 150 gardens during his career. His work has mostly joined the many gardens that can only be seen through pictures or through the words that sang their praises. In 1987, Jane Brown wrote the only volume on Lanning Roper and his gardens. It it loaded with beautiful images of Lanning's gardens. You can get a used copy of Lanning Roper & His Gardens and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today’s Show Notes for under $6. But hurry, because I predict there won’t be many left of this gem in the coming decades. At the end of his life, Lanning was picked to completely redesign the garden at a new estate called Highgrove, which had recently been purchased by Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Camilla Parker Bowles had recommended Lanning; he had beautifully designed her parents’ garden in the 1960s. Lanning noted that, “the soil at Highgrove is alkaline, very different to the acid soil of the gardens which Prince Charles is used to at Windsor, Sandringham, and Balmoral where rhododendron and azalea flourish.” Lanning said, “Highgrove is ideal for lilac, roses and flowering shrubs, which make some of the prettiest gardens [and] Prince Charles [wanted Highgrove, his first garden,] to be fragrant.” Sadly, Lanning never had the chance to do the work, his cancer was taking a toll, and he declined the job. It was Lanning Roper who said, “People like myself are lucky to follow a profession which is so absorbing, satisfying, and pleasurable that at times it is not easy to decide where work ends and recreation begins.”   Unearthed Words Here are some words about winter: In winter, the stars seem to have rekindled their fires, the moon achieves a fuller triumph, and the heavens wear a look of a more exalted simplicity. Summer is more wooing and seductive, more versatile and human, appeals to the affections and the sentiments, and fosters inquiry and the art impulse. Winter is of a more heroic cast, and addresses the intellect. The severe studies and disciplines come easier in winter. — John Burroughs, American naturalist and nature writer   Winter is a season of recovery and preparation. — Paul Theroux, American travel writer, and novelist   How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose if there were no winter in our year! — Thomas Wentworth Higginson, American Unitarian minister, and abolitionist   He knows no winter, he who loves the soil, For, stormy days, when he is free from toil, He plans his summer crops, selects his seeds From bright-paged catalogs for garden needs. When looking out upon frost-silvered fields, He visualizes autumn’s golden yields; He sees in snow and sleet and icy rain Precious moisture for his early grain; He hears spring-heralds in the storm’s ‘turmoil­ He knows no winter, he who loves the soil.” — Sudie Bower Stuart Hager, Idaho’s Poet Laureate, He Knows No Winter    Grow That Garden Library Witch Doctor’s Apprentice by Nicole Maxwell The subtitle to this book is: Hunting for Medicinal Plants in the Amazon This memoir features Nicole Maxwell who was hunting for medicinal plants in the rainforest. Despite setbacks and disillusionment, she never lost sight of her goals. Maxwell, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, was scouring the Amazon rainforest for clues to ancient medicinal plants and practices. Maxwell has created an appendix that catalogs all of the plants mentioned in the text, with their scientific names, the names by which they are known locally, and their medicinal uses. This edition also includes a new introduction by the noted ethnobotanist Terence McKenna. “A spirited and engrossing personal narrative, as much about people and places, discomforts, and dangers, the beauty of the jungle." You can get a used copy of Witch Doctor’s Apprentice by Nicole Maxwell and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today’s Show Notes for under $6.   Great Gifts for Gardeners LED Grow Lights, Full Spectrum Panel Grow Lamp with IR & UV LED Plant Lights for Indoor Plants, Micro Greens, Clones, Succulents, Seedlings $18.44  Full Spectrum Plant Light - equipped with 75 High-power LED chips:47 Red 19Blue 3UV 3IR 3White. NOTE: The UV and IR LEDs are particularly DIM, but it is normal. PANEL SIZE: 12.2 * 4.7 *1.2 inches Wide Uses - This light can be used for both hydroponics and indoor plants in soil, mainly used for small plants, micro-greens, and perfect for you to add as a supplemental side panel during bloom. Easy Set-up - updated hanging kits make these fluorescent lights much more easy to assemble. With good heat dissipation and strength, ABS material body ensures your panel more durable and long-lasting. Lighting Cover: Max 1.2x3ft at 2ft height;Recommend Height: 8-30 inch. Highly Efficient - Estimated monthly cost roughly $3 in electricity (12 hours a day). Package contains: 1x 25W Halogen Equivalent Plant Grow Light, 1x Steel Hanging Kits (with four ropes), 1x Power Cord, 1x User Manual What You Get - 12 Months Warranty plus 30 Days Money Back Guarantee for any reason. You can contact our 24 hours available customer service by clicking “Sold by” on the product detail page or your Amazon order page.   Today’s Botanic Spark 1931On this day newspapers were reporting a shocking headline from Brainerd, Minnesota: Pansies In Bloom: “A bed of pansies came into full bloom today in a farm garden near Brainerd, the center of a section famous for severe winters. Other February oddities: Lilac trees were budding. Girls were playing tennis. Boys were shooting marbles. Men were pitching horseshoes. The temperature was climbing toward 60 above.”  

Emily Dickinson's short poem, the third of the four she sent to Thomas Wentworth Higginson to begin their relationship, is a salvo right across his bow. She either takes apart his misogyny, or his elite editorial status, or both, and more--because, after all, this is Dickinson's writing. It never says just one thing--except her rage at and acceptance of her situation.

With this second in a mini series on the poems Emily Dickinson sent to Thomas Wentworth Higginson (see episode 30 for the first one in this series), let's try to understand why she claims dreams recede. Or is it heaven that recedes? Or maybe poetry? Or Dickinson herself? This poem is a confusing interpretive knot--like the poet herself. Perhaps that's why she sent it to the man she wanted to become her "preceptor."

One of the first lyric poems Dickinson sent to her correspondent and friend Thomas Wentworth Higginson, this small sixteen-liner offers a glimpse of this almost inscrutable poet at work and begs the reader to enter the poetic space with her--before, of course, leaving the reader all alone in the emptiness.

As the country debates whether President Trump should be impeached, many are making comparisons to past presidencies like Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. Less attention, however, is paid to the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, the first president to be impeached by the House of Representatives. Brenda Wineapple, author of “The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation,” joins Julian Zelizer to discuss the components of the impeachment process of Johnson. Having begun “The Impeachers” six years ago, Wineapple talks about her book and demonstrates Johnson’s impeachment as a significant event in American history. Wineapple also wrote “Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848-1877,” named a “Notable Book” by The New York Times and “White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson,” a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

March 22, 2019 at the Boston Athenæum. When a decades-long court battle resulted in her family’s freedom in 1855, seven-year-old Mary Mildred Williams unexpectedly became the face of American slavery. Famous abolitionists Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Henry David Thoreau, and John Albion Andrew would help Mary and her family in freedom, but Senator Charles Sumner saw a monumental political opportunity. Due to generations of sexual violence, Mary’s skin was so light that she “passed” as white, and this fact would make her the key to his white audience’s sympathy. During his sold-out abolitionist lecture series, Sumner paraded Mary in front of rapt audiences as evidence that slavery was not bounded by race. Weaving together long-overlooked primary sources and arresting images, including the daguerreotype that turned Mary into the poster child of a movement, Jessie Morgan-Owens investigates tangled generations of sexual enslavement and the fraught politics that led Mary to Sumner. She follows Mary’s story through the lives of her determined mother and grandmother to her own adulthood, parallel to the story of the antislavery movement and the eventual signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Girl in Black and White restores Mary to her rightful place in history and uncovers a dramatic narrative of travels along the Underground Railroad, relationships tested by oppression, and the struggles of life after emancipation. The result is an exposé of the thorny racial politics of the abolitionist movement and the pervasive colorism that dictated where white sympathy lay―one that sheds light on a shameful legacy that still affects us profoundly today.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and works of Emily Dickinson, arguably the most startling and original poet in America in the C19th. According to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, her correspondent and mentor, writing 15 years after her death, "Few events in American literary history have been more curious than the sudden rise of Emily Dickinson into a posthumous fame only more accentuated by the utterly recluse character of her life and by her aversion to even a literary publicity." That was in 1891 and, as more of Dickinson's poems were published, and more of her remaining letters, the more the interest in her and appreciation of her grew. With her distinctive voice, her abundance, and her exploration of her private world, she is now seen by many as one of the great lyric poets. With Fiona Green Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Jesus College Linda Freedman Lecturer in English and American Literature at University College London and Paraic Finnerty Reader in English and American Literature at the University of Portsmouth Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and works of Emily Dickinson, arguably the most startling and original poet in America in the C19th. According to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, her correspondent and mentor, writing 15 years after her death, "Few events in American literary history have been more curious than the sudden rise of Emily Dickinson into a posthumous fame only more accentuated by the utterly recluse character of her life and by her aversion to even a literary publicity." That was in 1891 and, as more of Dickinson's poems were published, and more of her remaining letters, the more the interest in her and appreciation of her grew. With her distinctive voice, her abundance, and her exploration of her private world, she is now seen by many as one of the great lyric poets. With Fiona Green Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Jesus College Linda Freedman Lecturer in English and American Literature at University College London and Paraic Finnerty Reader in English and American Literature at the University of Portsmouth Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Literary biographer Brenda Wineapple discusses her book, White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. [28:47]

Literary biographer Brenda Wineapple discusses her book, White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. [28:47]

Literary biographer Brenda Wineapple discusses her book, White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. [28:47]

Literary biographer Brenda Wineapple discusses her book, White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. [28:47]