 Amherst, Mass. -- The Emily Dickinson
Museum will host a presentation by the editors of a new illustrated anthology
that focuses on Emily Dickinson's love of birds. A Spicing of
Birds: Poems by Emily Dickinson pairs poems from one of America's
most revered poets with evocative ornithological art. The free talk and book
signing will take place on Saturday, October 23, at 11:00 a.m. AT the
Amherst Woman's Club, 25 Triangle Street.
For more information contact the Museum at info@emilydickinsonmuseum.orgor call (413) 542-8161.
During the October 23 program, editors Jo Miles Schuman and Joanna Bailey
Hodgman will read a selection of poems from the anthology and discuss the
history of birding in the Amherst
area. They will illustrate their remarks with images from the book. A
booksigning and refreshments will follow. Copies of A Spicing of
Birds may be purchased for $22.95.
Birds--including jays, orioles, robins, and hummingbirds--are mentioned 222
times in Dickinson's poetry.
However, existing anthologies of Dickinson's
work make little acknowledgment of her close connection to birds. A
Spicing of Birds contains thirty-seven of Dickinson's
poems featuring birds common to New England. Included
are familiar poems like "A Bird came down the Walk" and "A
Route of Evanescence" as well as those less
frequently anthologized, such as "No Bobolink - reverse His Singing"
and "Upon his Saddle sprung a Bird."
In the anthology's introduction, the editors draw extensively from Dickinson's
letters, providing fascinating insights into her relationship with birds. The
editors also discuss the development and growth of birding in the nineteenth
century as well as the evolution of field guides and early conservation
efforts.
The accompanying illustrations include watercolors by Mark Catesby,
engravings of John James Audubon's paintings, illustrations by Alexander
Wilson, chromolithographs by Robert Ridgway (curator of birds at the United
States National Museum
for some fifty years), paintings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and some of the
earliest bird photographs by Cordelia Stanwood.
Jo Miles Schuman is an avid birder and the author of Art
from Many Hands, Multicultural Art Projects (1981, 2002) and lives in Phippsburg,
Maine. Joanna Bailey Hodgman
has enjoyed a lifelong interest in reading and writing poetry. A retired
English teacher, she lives in Rochester, New
York.
The Emily Dickinson Museum, comprising the Dickinson Homestead and The
Evergreens, is devoted to the story and legacy of poet Emily Dickinson and her
family. Both properties are owned by the Trustees of Amherst College. The
museum is overseen by a separate Board of Governors charged with raising its
operating and capital funds. The Homestead was the birthplace and residence of the poet
(1830-1886). The Evergreens was the home of the poet's brother and
sister-in-law, Austin and Susan Dickinson. The official museum website is
www.EmilyDickinsonMuseum.org. Regular museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday
11 a.m. until 4 p.m.,
March 31 through December 31, 2010. The Emily Dickinson Museum is located at 280 Main Street in Amherst.
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