Lives Like Loaded Guns_ Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds - Lyndall Gordon [136]
Mabel Todd edited the Letters on her own. It was ‘a peculiarly delicate piece of literary work’ demanding ‘an endless amount of thought and tact’. As she typed, she noticed how ‘startling’ the prose looked ‘in the cold impartiality of print’. By the time she delivered the typescript to Roberts Brothers in August 1894, Todd had given the better part of seven years to the Dickinson papers. For all this work she had received, so far, $200 out of the $300 Lavinia had gained in royalties. Todd, as a professional writer who had to earn a living, quite reasonably felt that more was due to her, this time, in the way of copyright. The result of her claim was two versions of the contract with Roberts Brothers, arranged by E. D. Hardy who, that year, succeeded Mr Niles. One is the draft, sharing copyright and royalties with Todd. The other is the final version, in which Lavinia Dickinson retains exclusive copyright. The existence of two contracts was to provide ammunition for renewed battle in time to come. Mabel retained her copy of the draft contract which granted what she wanted. Lavinia retained her copy of the final contract which, in effect, deprived Mabel of what she wanted.
In the final contract it’s agreed that the proceeds [the royalties] and not the copyright itself would be shared equally with Mabel Loomis Todd ‘in consideration of the service rendered in preparing the manuscript and editing the said work’. Austin signed, as well as Lavinia.
For the first time in the succession of early contracts Austin took part in the negotiations, weighing in on Mabel’s side. His presence is apparent in a query from Roberts Brothers on 21 August as to whether they should insert a clause to the effect that when Miss Dickinson dies ‘the whole royalty is to go to Mrs. Todd’?
Lavinia refused. On 22 September she informed Mr Hardy of her final decision. The copyright for the letters was to be ‘the same as the Poems’: that is, in her name alone. ‘I have talked with Mrs Todd,’ Lavinia went on, ‘she is satisfied with my wish.’
Mr Hardy did not believe Mrs Todd was satisfied. That very day he informed Austin that Miss Dickinson ‘does not agree with your idea nor with Mrs Todd’s’.
Austin, infuriated, apologised to Mr Hardy for Lavinia’s change of mind. ‘This may all seem very queer to you, and it is. We are a queer lot.’
His revenge was to cast Lavinia not as staunch promoter of their sister’s greatness but as a rural dimwit thrilled to receive a publishing contract addressed to herself in a big envelope from Boston. Lavinia, he said, was ‘disturbed by the feeling that somehow her glory and magnificence are dimmed by any other than her supreme self being recognized’.
In fact, Vinnie had been fending off what she saw as another encroachment on the treasure she’d inherited from Emily, and this by a couple with whom she had always sided, to the detriment of the family next door who now avoided her.
Austin, in backing Mabel, complained with some justice that Lavinia saw her as a flunky. The demeaning connotation of ‘service’ in the final contract does bear this out. Lavinia had no idea what editing entailed, Austin raged to Mr Hardy. She thought it merely a matter of copying from manuscript and carrying the copies ‘in a heap’ to the publisher.
Lavinia was not quite so uninformed. The real problem was Todd’s failure to acknowledge Lavinia’s participation as prime mover in collecting letters. Her status as sister would naturally have been more persuasive to Emily’s circle than any number of winning approaches on the part of a stranger. (Todd’s own approaches were effective in part because they had Lavinia’s support.) Lavinia insisted that Todd’s preface should include a statement that Emily Dickinson’s sister had collected the letters. Todd, unaccustomed to submit on demand, persuaded Roberts Brothers to reprint the letters with a different version of that sentence. It was to say that Emily Dickinson