Emily Dickinson’s (not so) sacred book
Jun 13th, 2011 by houghtonmodern
“The Bible is an antique Volume – / Written by faded Men / At the suggestion of Holy Spectres -” (Fr 1577)
Was Emily Dickinson a religious person? She attended church services as a child, and the Dickinsons held daily religious observation in their home. But she rejected the religious revivalism that was so prominent a feature of her adolescence, and at some point ceased to attend church services altogether: “Some keep the Sabbath going to church / I keep it staying at home” (Fr 236).
She did of course own a Bible—her father gave her one in 1844, when she was 13, and it is in the Dickinson Collection at Houghton Library (EDR 8). Her poetry and her letters abound with direct and indirect references from the Bible. She did not, however, consider her own Bible at all “sacred”–she cut verses out of its pages, folded down corners, and used it to press flowers. Pictured below is a page from Psalms, with the vivid blue flower that was originally pressed there:
Dickinson’s Bible is now available online, part of a larger project to make the Dickinson Collection more easily available to those not physically here in Cambridge, as well as protecting this and other fragile volumes from the damaging effects of frequent consultation. New digitized volumes are added on an irregular basis—keep an eye on this blog for information on new additions. Next to appear with be the Dickinson family’s eight-volume set of Shakespeare.
For a complete list of the contents of the Dickinson family library, see the finding aid here. For more information on the Dickinson collection at Houghton Library, visit our website.
Well, bibles are meant to be used. Why not cut a verse out and hang it up somewhere to see. Better up and out than stuck in a book?
I think sacred is really an ambigous term. Maybe because her bible WAS sacred to her, she used it for all the important things. Turning down important pages is an example of that. Or even drying out a flower that meant alot to her. If it was kept in pristine condition, it might imply that it was not used. And therefore, that would be even worse.
Knowing how condemning and threatening the church was if you didn’t believe in the Lord back then, Emily did not seem fazed by the thought of going to Hell. Was it a rebellious adolescent movement or did she see through the empty intimidation?
i hollowed out a section of my bible so that i could stash things out of sight.. never used mine to press flowers though lol..
Sure to be used, but it is antique and should not be destroyed, right? Its holy.
Yet another example of a brilliant mind not holding religion to be an overwhelmingly sacred ideal.
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excellent image, the book looks really well preserved…
What’s interesting is how she treated her bible and what it can infer about her beliefs – to an extent. Especially during a much less secular age when religious texts were mostly revered so highly; it certainly indicates she wasn’t as dogmatic about her faith as some would have us believe.
I do not see anything wrong with that. If something is sacred to yourself does not mean you have to lock it up in the safe. Maybe by using it daily by not only reading but using it for things that are important to you it shows more of an appreciation. On the other hand maybe she just kept the bible since it was from her father and referred to it to appeal to more people and did not care about it too much herself.
It is good to see an open religious mind so long ago. If this attitude was more common I see less people choosing to be Atheist.
1.I think sacred is really an ambigous term. Maybe because her bible WAS sacred to her, she used it for all the important things.
2.Yet another example of a brilliant mind not holding religion to be an overwhelmingly sacred ideal.
Yes, I think that both enter it, its the same thing as my knowledge.
I believe in Lord eyes, everything would be clear. The real issue do lies on the mind of the people whom think whether is it the teachings that is important or what is written in a book.
Bibels are created to be used for good things. Something that is old or antique shouldn’t be ever destroyed.
Maybe by using it every few days by not only reading it but using it for good things that are important to you it shows more of an appreciation.
It just shows that Emily had her own mind and folding pages to me meant there was something important in the pages. She used the Bible in her own way which we may never understand.
Who are we to say whether or not she was religious. Most people of this era kept many a secret. The fact of the mater is she used the good book for the purposes that she best saw fit, cutting, folding, and pressing. We cannot peer into her mind so the rest is speculation.
Dickinson’s belief in the resurrection of the dead, a belief well documented in her poetry, should be held in mind for any conclusions drawn of how she treated her Bible that may imply she disrespected it.
For it being a sacred book, it does seem disrespectfully utilitarian for her to use it to press flowers (more than one was found). Then again, what better way to show respect for a flower’s Creator than to use the book about Him to press flowers that might be cataloged in her herbarium?
Of The Revelation, indeed of the entire New Testament, Mankind’s resurrection from the dead is the central theme. The last three chapters of The Revelation specifically deal with this through two resurrections which will result in the rewarding, judging, purification and renewal of every man and woman. This fact is skillfully hidden by the beautiful twisting of the Latin-based King James Version, but is readily revealed in the original Greek.
However, for anyone who is astute enough to want to find answers to the logical questions that arise from a study of our English Bible, there is sufficient evidence remaining in the King James Version to counter the contradictory logic of the Calvinistic bias that led to that translation.
I believe Emily Dickinson was that astute person and understood that Mankind’s resurrection from the dead is the true promise of Jesus Christ as compared against the ideology of the Calvinistic Protestantism that prevailed in the New England of her time – an ideology inherited from the Puritan’s trust in Calvin’s Geneva Bible, which, itself, spawned the ulterior motivated King James Translation.
That Dickinson was far ahead of her time, in many ways, including a deep understanding of the scriptures, there is no doubt.