Theodora V.W. Ward

Dickinson Connection
Dickinson's Handwriting
Appendix D
Biography
Writings
References to Ward
Family photographs


Editing Emily

Theodora Van Wagenen Ward

The Emily Dickinson Connection


© VanWagenen.org
In the Acknowledgements section of The Complete Poems, Thomas Johnson wrote:

"The editorial assistance of Theodora Van Wagenen Ward has immeasurably lightened the task of preparing this edition.  She has acted as counselor in all matters of plan and execution, while devoting her time chiefly to the letters, now being prepared for publication. She wrote the section in the introduction on "Characteristics of the Handwriting," and compiled the subject index." [xv]

Ward herself refers to "seven years of intimate association with her [Dickinson's] manuscripts, in my work as assistant to Thomas H. Johnson, editor of The Poems of Emily Dickinson, (Harvard, 1955), and as associate editor with him of The Letters of Emily Dickinson, (Harvard, 1958)" (Capsule of the Mind, preface, vi).

There are other Dickinson connections:

  • Theodora's grandparents, Dr. and Mrs. Josiah Gilbert Holland, were among Dickinson's closest friends. Theodora collected the letters Dickinson wrote the Hollands and turned them into a book, Emily Dickinson's Letters to Dr. and Mrs. Josiah Gilbert Holland, Cambridge, Harvard UP, 1951.
  • She also wrote Capsule of the Mind: Chapters in the Life of Emily Dickinson, Belknap Press, 1961.
  • There were also three articles:
    • "Emily Dickinson and T.W. Higginson," Boston Public Library Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 1, January 1953;
    • "Ourself behind ourself: An interpretation of the crisis in the life of Emily Dickinson," Harvard Library Bulletin, Vol. X, No. 1., Winter 1956; and
    • "The Finest Secret," Harvard Library Bulletin, Vol. ?, No. ?, Winter 1960.
[For excerpts and discussion of these and other writings]

Attempt To Prevent Publication

Theodora encountered the nightmare of trying to publish anything of Dickinson's (as did Prof. George Whicher and others).

"When Theodora Ward sought to publish with Harvard a book of Emily Dickinson letters to the Hollands, Ward's grandparents, [Alfred Leete] Hampson initially planned to prevent the publication because Ward had spoken with [Millicent Todd] Bingham at the onset of her work. After [William H.] McCarthy interceded to convince Hampson that Ward had talked to Bingham out of ignorance, the book was permitted; although it was "non-royalty," Ward was allowed "a small fee" (McCarthy for Alfred Leete Hampson, letter to T. J. Wilson, Apr. and May 1950)."[Source: The Emily Dickinson Journal, "To Market: The Dickinson Copyright Wars" by Elizabeth Horan]

Appendix D

Before I realized what an incredible woman Ward was, I was struck by the scholarship that was so evident in her book, Emily Dickinson's Letters to Dr. and Mrs. Josiah Gilbert Holland. Having read R.W. Franklin's book, The Editing of Emily Dickinson: A Reconsideration, and his extensive discussion of paper, inks, etc., I read Ward's Appendix D with relish. [Appendix D]

Homage

Thanks to Theodora Van Wagenen Ward's relatives, I've been able to piece together the beginnings of an "homage" to her. Although it is a work in progress, I've begun with a short biography, photographs of her family and her writings.