How did her brother Austins affair with Mabel Loomis Todd affect the publication of Dickinsons poetry?
It is impossible to imagine the path that Emily Dickinson’s poetry would have taken if Mabel Loomis Todd had not been involved in its publication. Todd became intimately involved with Austin Dickinson in 1883, shortly after the death of his young son Gilbert. Todd never met Emily Dickinson but was friends with Lavinia, Austin and Emily’s younger sister. After the poet died in 1886, Lavinia first approached Austin’s wife, Susan, with a request to prepare some of Emily’s work for publication. When Susan, who had been one of the poet’s closest friends, did not complete the task as Lavinia had hoped, she turned to Mabel Todd. A good choice, perhaps, in terms of Todd’s artistic and literary sensibilities, but a poor one in terms of family relations. While Austin Dickinson had little to do with the editing project itself, both he and Lavinia kept Susan in the dark about Todd’s involvement in the publication effort; Susan, who was aware of the love affair, learned about Todd’s work with Dicki
