=================================================================== Match: Bowles Source: GEN-MEDIEVAL@rootsweb.com From: JD <jimdandy1947@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Axes belong in the tool shed, not on the medieval genealogy On Aug 25, 4:41Ýpm, Bill Arnold <billarnoldflor...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Aug 25, 3:01Ýpm, James Hogg ><Jas.H...@gOUTmail.com> wrote:> His real name is >Bill Arnold and he is the author of a > > published book entitled "Emily Dickinson's Secret Love". > > Reviews at Amazon and Amherst Books.com and Barnes and Noble, > > and at thousands of libraries worldwide attest to its greatness > > as Dickinson scholarship...he is the internationally know > > Dickinson scholar who's book is taught in English classes worldwide > > <snip> > > http://www.amazon.com/Emily-Dickinsons-Secret-Love-Arnold/dp/1892582007 > > > and may be purchased online at: > > http://www.amherstbooks.com/ > > > or contacting Amherst Books > > 8 Main Street ÝAmherst, MA 01002 ݅ Ý 413.256.1547 ݅ Ý800.503.5865 > > Gotta love it when a scholar, who has not been at > soc.genealogy.medieval > in years has his book touted by those who love to read the very best > about > famous personages, particularly the American Bard, Emily Dickinson, of > Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.A. ÝThanks for the nod from the Hog across > the Pond > > Bill Arnold, > > http://www.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.org/scholars/scholars.htm Bill Arnold is being modest, and Hogg overlooked some of the 5-Star * * * * * Reviews at Amazon over 10 years, perhaps showing his literary bias: http://www.amazon.com/Emily-Dickinsons-Secret-Love-Arnold/product-reviews/1892582007/ref=cm_cr_dp_hist_5?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addFiveStar 27 of 33 people found the following review helpful: * * * * * I Heard a Bill Buzz..., April 13, 2000 By A Customer You have to understand two things right away: I don't like Emily Dickinson, and I hate bio-psycho-historical criticism. Puttin those minor reservations aside, however, I highly recommend Bill Arnold's wild and crazy ride through Emily's own secret garden. If you do care about the Belle of Amherst's poetry, and if you are interested in her affair with Sam Bowles, spend a few minutes with Mr. Arnold's passionate and engaging search through endless anagrams and anacrostics, and I can almost guarantee that you will walk away rewarded. If energy counts and if conviction matters, then Bill Arnold's brave new look at Dickinson's is definitely worth your time. Ý 3 of 8 people found the following review helpful: * * * * * Readers of reasonable intelligence can know Dickinson, April 29, 2002 By A Customer Dickinson is a difficult poet, and one of the main purposes of this book of the life of her and critiques of her poems is to try to clarify any and all points where the meaning would not be perfectly clear to a reader of reasonable intelligence. Bill Arnold makes use of poem variants recorded in the Johnson editions which had not come to light. His pages are full, detailed, and extensive, and in addition offer full commentaries on all her love poem. He tells us that his aim was to create a new understanding for the general reader, which would bring these cryptic poems to readers both in America and abroad. He offered, "The untold story of Emily Dickinson's 'Secret Love' can now be told in its entirety. She disclosed their affair and his name via acrostics and anagrams in the tradition of the French court-love poets." It does that and more. As sometimes exasperatingly obscure poems hit you, Bill Arnold details exactly which code unravels the mystery of who was the Master in her life. The poems are preceded by interesting prose passages and the book is rounded out with a biography of the author. It's a compact easy to read book and pleasant to handle. Now, readers can know that her secret love was Sam Bowles, a publisher of the Springfield Daily Republican, and an intimate of her brother Austin. In a book of this nature the problem is always that of trying to strike a balance between giving the reader too much help or too little. Bill Arnold is a Dickinson scholar who has put sufficient details to prove why the scandalous relationship did not surface in Emily Dickinson's lifetime. As the author comments, "Thus, the reason Emily Dickinson remained unpublished in her lifetime becomes self-evident." The secret-love affair is not so shocking as revealing of what her poems mean, and her anagrams do "now make sense." Although Bill Arnold may have given some readers a bit more help than they need, on the whole he seems to have struck a nice balance, and most readers will probably find most of his notes and commentary to be both helpful and illuminating. It is an excellent introduction to those who know little of the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson. * * * * * What a Wonderful Love Story!, March 16, 2001 By A Customer What a wonderful love story! I never knew. My daughter bought me Bill Arnold's book and what a wonderful story full of love about America's most famous poet. She makes words sing. I like her poem Autumn and the one about the snake. Her words stand out on the page. It's great to know she lived a full life. The mystery of her love life is finally exposed. The truth is told, just like in the supermarket tabloids. Emily dickinson was a real lady and not just a bookworm. 27 of 33 people found the following review helpful: * * * * * a fan of Emily Dickinson's, April 11, 2000 By A Customer I enjoy Emily Dickinson's poems. This book does justice to her love story. It is a wonderful book which I will share with my poetry friends. It beautifully captures her inspiring life. Now I know why she wrote from her heart. ======================================