From: LouisFors <LouisFors@aol.com>
Message-Id: <70f0a822.350874b2@aol.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 18:50:10 EST
To: emweb@fmgmt.mgmt.utoronto.ca
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Subject: Re: Has anybody read _Rubicon_?
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Both Marianne and Marcy have suggested (asserted) that Martha Nell Smith is
the expert on matters relating to Susan.  A couple of weeks ago I finished her
_Rowing in Eden:  Rereading Emily Dickinson_ and I was deeply impressed by the
book.  I have seen MNS's posts on this list and have always found them
beautifully written and filled with always helpful information.  In asking a
month ago about Judith Farr's novel 
_I Never Came to You in White__, MNS (I find that difficult to write) noted
that Susan was badly treated.  I skimmed the novel again and found that Susan
was dismissed rather crudely.  

A further work about _Rowing in Eden__.  Not only did I learn a great deal
about ED's work--from interpretations of poems, to ED's calligraphic work in
the manuscripts, to the important relationship between ED and Susan (writing
workshop, yet!)....I also saw the clearest statements that I've ever read
about the necessity of thinking of sexuality (homosexuality and
heterosexuality) along continuums.  One knows that, of course, but feels it
much more deeply when reading it MNS's words.  And, as someone who has spent a
great deal of his life studying (and teaching about) the history of human
communication, I learned again about the importance of correspondence in an
age before we sent electrical signals to each other.  There's much more in
that book of course, but to say more would only repeat what others have known
for a long time.  But it's a delightful discovery for a newcomer.

Marianne, it's warmer in Santa Fe than it apparently is in St. Louis.  Is
Walter Ong where you are?

Louis Forsdale