A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Jo (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780143115083)

The country's most noted writers, poets, and artists converge at a singular moment in American life, a great companion to fans of the film A Quiet Passion, starring Cynthia Nixon as Emily Dickinson.

At the close of the Civil War, the lives of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade intersected in an intricate map of friendship, family, and romance that marked a milestone in the development of American art and literature. Using the image of a flitting hummingbird as a metaphor for the gossamer strands that connect these larger-than-life personalities, Christopher Benfey re-creates the summer of 1882, the summer when Mabel Louise Todd-the prot g to the painter Heade-confesses her love for Emily Dickinson's brother, Austin, and the players suddenly find themselves caught in the crossfire between the Calvinist world of decorum, restraint, and judgment and a new, unconventional world in which nature prevails and freedom is all.

Author: Christopher Benfey
ISBN-10: 0143115081
ISBN-13: 9780143115083
Publisher: Penguin Books
Language: English
Published: 03/31/2009
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.56lbs
Size: 8.44h x 5.50w x 0.68d
Award: Ambassador Book Awards - Winner

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 04/26/2009 pg. 24
Books & Culture 09/01/2009 pg. 17