Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief

Garnishing awards from "Choice, Christianity Today, Books & Culture," and the Conference on Christianity and Literature when first published in 1998, Roger Lundin's "Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief" has been widely recognized as one of the finest biographies of the great American poet Emily Dickinson. Paying special attention to her experience of faith, Lundin skillfully relates Dickinson's life -- as it can be charted through her poems and letters -- to nineteenth-century American political, social, religious, and intellectual history.This second edition of Lundin's superb work includes a standard bibliography, expanded notes, and a more extensive discussion of Dickinson's poetry than the first edition contained. Besides examining Dickinson's singular life and work in greater depth, Lundin has also keyed all poem citations to the recently updated standard edition of Dickinson's poetry. Already outstanding, Lundin's biography of Emily Dickinson is now even better than before.From reviews of the original edition Lundin's gracefully written biography is a fine introduction for readers who know little about the life of Emily Dickinson; specialists too will profit from Lundin's portrait of her in the context of the cultural, political, and theological issues of her day and of the history of Christian thought. -- Dorothy Huff Oberhaus in "Emily Dickinson International Society Bulletin" Lundin gives us a magnificent literary biography, massively researched, elegantly written, subtly argued. . . . A work of haunting beauty. -- Grant Wacker in "Books & Culture" Well written, free of the swollen jargon that obscures so much academic writing, Lundin's study ofDickinson provides a thoughtful analysis of America's greatest poet and the God who always eluded her grasp. -- Martha Ackmann in "The Journal of American History" Rarely do reviewers read books they wish they had writte

Roger Lundin is Blanchard Professor of English at Wheaton College in Illinois.