Down the Road; And Other Essays of Nature, Life, Literature, and Religion (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1911. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... EMILY DICKINSON: THE HERMIT THRUSH OF AMHERST In this subject we have a Human Enigma and a Literary Surprise. On Main Street in the college town of Amherst, Massachusetts, stands a large old-fashioned cupolaed square brick mansion, surrounded by ample grounds with trees and blooming shrubs, in which was born on December 10, 1830, and died on May 15, 1886, at the age of fifty-six, a singular and mysterious woman. During the last thirty years of her life Miss Emily Dickinson withdrew herself from intercourse with the world outside her home into a seclusion more and more complete and impenetrable, until she became entirely unknown except to a few who were mostly friends of her youth; and with them her intercourse was almost exclusively through the post office. For many years she declined to go outside her father's front gate, and finally for several years she refused to step foot beyond the threshold of the house, even to go into the garden to see her flowers. She had moods in which she would not see her dearest friends when they came a long distance to the house. She seems to have so treated Samuel Bowles, editor and proprietor of the Springfield Republican, for one letter to him says: "Friend, Sir: I did not see you yesterday. Perhaps you thought I didn't care, because I stayed out. I did care, Mr. Bowles. I pray for your sweet health to Allah every morning; but something troubled me, and I knew you needed light and air, so I didn't come in to darken you. Won't you come back? Can't I bring you something?" Considering her gifts and opportunities, she must be counted about the shyest bit of flesh and blood living in our neighborhood in our day. The father of this eccentric woman was the Hon. Edward Dickinson, the leading lawyer of Amherst, at one time memb...