May 22, 2008
Gura and Dickinson
On The Book Bench, the New Yorker's new books blog, Jenna Krajewski discusses Transcendentalism scholar Philip Gura's odyssey with what might be the second known picture of poet Emily Dickinson:
In 2000, Rebecca Mead wrote about the possible discovery of a new photograph of Emily Dickinson, which would be in direct competition with the presumed-to-be singular Amherst daguerreotype. Since bidding close to five hundred dollars on the albumen print, Philip Gura, a professor at U.N.C.-Chapel Hill, has worked feverishly to prove, or disprove, the authenticity of the photograph, which he at one point calls his “albatross.” In 2004, he published a lengthy article in Common-Place: The Interactive Journal of Early American Life, which details his pursuits and replicates both the photographs and the original eBay listings. As with all good obsessions, at some point his commitment takes a slightly sordid turn...
Gura's 2007 book American Transcendentalism: A History is currently at number two on my to-read pile, just after I re-read Emerson's essays.