Making Soap The Old Fashioned Way...

A Victorian Lady's Darkest Fantasies, - from author Antoinette Beard...

Hello. I'm writer Antoinette Beard... WOO-HOO!!!... Here are quirky fascinations of the Victorian to the Edwardian age, and some things that happened later that were just too bizarre to resist... Such a yummy time of quaintness & blossoming industry. Scroll down for a multitude of coolness... Ha-ha-ha, always there are those who flaunt conventions, Darlings... ;)

Saturday, August 30, 2025

Making Soap The Old Fashioned Way...

The was a reason why soap was usually made outside: it was messy and stinky!!!...

Posted by Suzanne La Force at 9:14 AM

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Featured Post

Were DID The 1st Vampire Come From???!!!...

Sooty London...

And, you see the stilt walker, in the above image??? ^^^

So... the Cheshire Cat said: "We're all mad HERE. I'm mad. He's mad. She's mad. And, Alice said: "WHAT?! I don't want to be among mad people! And, I'm not mad!" The Cheshire Cat grinned his widest grin, washed his face and smoothed a paw over his ears. He then, preened his whiskers and replied: "But, --- but, you're HERE; aren't you?"

The Delight & Fantasy Of The Wicked World Of Storyville, New Orleans...

Where everything was for sale, ~ for a price.

... NOT for me, Pretty Babe...

Oh, yes, I would be far too alternative to be a traditional Victorian woman, of course...

Soooooooo...

REALLY, REALLY, DO scroll all the way down this page to the very end to avoid missing any of the unique content here. It's VERY worth doing! Don't skip the fascinating bios of Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe, two outstanding Victorian individuals that the world will never, ever, EVER forget!!!... ;)

OH, ~ those SO VERY-VERY wacky Victorians!!!... Bless their strange little hearts!!!...

Lily Dale, New York...

The Victorian village of psychic mediums, you can apply to live and work there, but a board will scrutinize you to make sure that you are the real thing.

So, where can you read my stories???...

Hmmm... What will the future bring for us??? I know I'm always working hard on my writing. I do write Victorian Gothic stories.... And, ~ I do think of myself as lushly creating while wearing a long black velvet gown, sipping blackberry merlot, nibbling on shrimp cocktail and listening to thunder and train whistles at midnight. In reality, I'm probably wearing a shirt and sweatpants, drinking root beer, while munching on sandwiches with potato chips at six in the morning, my cat rascals Mi-Mi and Fee-Fee tearing around my living room... ***BUT, I'll definitely let you know when and where you can read my stories. Yes, I KNOW... You have to be VERY, VERY patient!

All that fragile tinted glass!!!...

Isn't this SO LOVELY???

We must never stop believing..

...that beautiful things can happen, even in times of chaos.

AH, ~ most excellent!!!... ;)

The Mad Hatter & The March Hare Try To Stuff The Dormouse In A Teapot...

... from "Alice In Wonderland," by Lewis Carroll.

A very handsome, sexy vampire...

Yes, I have written a vampire short story, called "Blood Red Velvet".

I have always been different. As the image says:

This is partly why I'm a writer.

A lady would be wheeled out to water in one of these carriages so...

...she didn't have to be stared at as she walked into the ocean wearing her bathing costume.

"In Olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking..." --- Cole Porter.

"The Girl In The Red Velvet Swing,"...

...was a movie, starring Joan Collins, and based on the life of famous fashion and artist's model Evelyn Nesbit. Evelyn was involved in a scandal-murder trial said to be the "Trial Of The Century".

The incredibly lovely Evelyn Nesbit...

at the prime of her career. She was the model for the Victorian Coca~Cola girl.

What are these ladies doing posing in a field or a swamp?

See... Woman power has deep roots.

Trick photography became very popular in Victorian times.

Rachel, in the novel, "My Cousin Rachel," by Daphne du Maurier,...

Looked far too beautiful and mysterious in mourning.

Mmmm... Spicing up the pudding.

"You just gotta lace me tighter!!!"

Oh, --- a Victorian snow woman!!!

His Lordship Viscount Cattley declares...

Ladies must always be...

...properly armed.

Seances and extra-sensory happenings were popular.

Gotta love Coke!!!

During the years when Prince Albert was alive Queen Victoria was frequently pregnant.

She eventually had nine children.

Extremely pale women were seen as very beautiful...

and some went to great lengths to be ghostly white, even if that meant sacrificing their health.

In the early 1900s the civilized world was becoming industrialized.....

There was great excitement about scientific inventions that could bring delight, ease, comfort and health. Thus, Steampunk is with us as cosplay, and entertainment.

Actress was a delightful, but still a slightly disreputable occupation.

This is Dorset Street, Whitechapel, at the East End of London,...

...was where Jack The Ripper did his definite five murders.

Jane Avril, --- star of the Moulin Rouge.

Madame Hardy...

Old World Rose.

Can you CAN-CAN?...

WHO really WAS Jack The Ripper???...

He had Scotland Yard stumped. But, modern DNA testing has revealed who he likely was. Of course, he was never caught, and, one day, the murders just STOPPED. Did he die, or did he just get tired of it all???

Old London Bridge...

Crumbled, caught on fire, was re-built in 1831, torn down and transported, --- all 10,000 tons of it to Arizona.

Do you think he's too stinky?... ?...

Another movie inspired by Jack The Ripper's murders...

Johnny Depp played Inspector Frederick Abberine in the movie, "From Hell," based on the award-winning graphic novel of the same name.

Ripperology continues in popularity, spawning hordes of theories and a sort of Ripper "culture".

This "culture," which refuses to die, contains numerous movies & documentaries, even Ripper tours and museums.

Cor!!!... She could be Eliza Dolittle.

"Wouldn't it be lover-ly?"

It almost looks like Cinderella's Ball carriage, but no...

It's a fancy horse drawn hearse.

Laundress, push carter, shop girl, kitchen helper or maid in a noble's house, --- if she was lucky.

Life could be difficult for a young girl, unless she married well, sometimes to a rich man old enough to be her granfather. Of course, there was always prostitution, or mistress, or if she was beautiful and talented, --- a rare job, entertainer.

Beauty Tricks Of The Time...

Swallowing arsenic wafers, plastering your face with white lead, using belladonna to enlarge your pupils so your eyes would look limpid, eating just enough to keep alive SO you could look fascinating, and ethereal.

Queen Victoria was a cat lover,...

And was largely responsible for the practice of keeping cats as pampered pets.

Yep...

A Tiny Victorian Cottage...

I'd LOVE to have it as a she-shack!!!

Mayfair Row Houses,...

Like a dream...

I LOVE Trains...

What a plush interior!!!

Oh, --- my!!!...

...A beautiful lion lamp!!!

A Civil War Mourning Hair Wreath...

made with human hair, --- such elaborate artistry was usually created by wig makers.

Victorians amused themselves posing for photographs,...

...which they called vignettes. Some of these were pretty weird.

Victorian women might be in mourning for two years, wearing deep black crepe and long veils...

Whereas, men might be in mourning only a few months, wearing a black arm band, or a swatch of black crepe around their hats.

Upper class women were educated, reading, writing, arithmetic,

... and perhaps, classical literature, history, music and dancing. Mostly, this was with a view to making a fine marriage. A woman's main function in life was to be a good wife and bear children.

From the 1971 Movie, "The Beguiled,"...

a dark, erotic & twisted Civil War drama.

Mary Shelley published her novel, "Frankenstein," in 1818...

"Animals good. People, maybe good." --- Frankie.

A Victorian Christmas Card...

Featuring the Krampus, the Christmas devil.

A Victorian Christmas Card...

Yes, I love foxes!!!

The Walrus & The Carpenter, By Lewis Carroll...

Contemplating the unfortunate oysters.

Victorians Were Fascinated By The Idea Of Strange Prehistoric Creatures...

Heh-heh-heh...

As the cat shreds him...

A Victorian Kitchen...

With a wonderful old wood burning cooking stove.

Elizabeth Siddal Was A Famous Victorian Beauty And Artist's Model...

Red hair was especially "in" in Victorian & Edwardian times.

Absinthe, --- "The Green Fairy"...

It was rumored that overuse of Absinthe caused brain damage. The green drink, flavored with anise, was so strong that it would be consumed diluted with water poured through a sugar cube.

An Alligator Would Make A Mighty Interesting Pet...

Zsa Zsa Gabor As Jane Avril...

In the 1952 movie about the life of French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec at the Parisian music hall The Moulin Rouge.

Dancers Of The Moulin Rouge...

Poster by French artist Henri de Toulouse Lautrec.

This Could Be The Actual House Of The Rising Sun, In New Orleans...

About five other houses can claim that distinction too.

Bran Castle In Romania Has Some Association With Count Dracula...

But, Bram Stoker was not known to have visited there.

Bat Man...

Snail Lady's Sister, --- The Octopus Woman...

Snail Lady Walking Along The Beach...

What A Sensational Toilet!!! Of course, a Victorian home wouldn't have one so modern...

But, with inventions springing up, flushing water closets were newly being installed in the most well-to-do households, --- a great hygenic luxury..

Mon Dieu, --- Victorian Paris,...

C'est magnifique!!!

Cage Crinoline...

That looks so incredibly uncomfortable!!! Can you imagine wearing that all day and then trying to sit down in it???

The Sexiest Dracula EVER, --- Incredibly Handsome Luke Evans In "Dracula Untold"...

In May 1897 Bram Stoker published his novel "Dracula"...

Horrid Symptoms Of Arsenic Poisoning...

Yes, in Victorian times arsenic was used to make a stunning green dye.

Cool!!!...

Cats & Bats!!!...

Ah, Black Roses!!!... I Just Love This Hat!!!...

Published in 1847, "Jane Eyre" Is One Of My Favorite Novels...

Such chemistry!!!... (Ruth Wilson, as Jane) I adore independent, intelligent, "plain and little" Jane together with moody, passionate Edward Rochester!!!...

That Classy, Sexy Way With Their Stiff And Formal Wing Collars And Stocks!!!...

Yes!!!... (Toby Stevens, as Mr. Rochester) For over 150 years women have been falling in love with Mister Rochester, right along with Jane Eyre...

Thank you...

"Darkling, I listen..." --- John Keats.

Even among the sweetest souls a darkness of the mind can always creep in...

Ahhhhhh!!!... Ohhhhhhh!!!...

"Decadent literature spread perfumes too dark and heady, it's exuberant blood-flowers breathe suffocating air." --- Frantisek Xaver Salda.

*************

As a writer. I love creating fiction set in Victorian and also Edwardian times and also reading it!!!... Oh, yes, it's so very entertaining to read a juicy novel!!!...

And, --- this blog is all about those very sexy and supposedly very repressed times, when "skirts" were put on those suggestive piano legs. (Did they REALLY???) And, people took their baths in their bedrooms behind screens and in tubs that were modestly draped in bed sheets and scrubbed themselves under nightgowns, --- plus it's about the depths of psychological darkness. So, --- you will find no porn posts or pornographic photos here... Naw, not a single one... [Below is a photo of a coy Victorian exotic dancer.]

Queen Victoria Of England reigned an astounding 63 years [1837 - 1901] and personified the Victorian Age...

[Above is a Victorian Christmas card featuring the Krampus, the Christmas devil, who came with birch switches to smack all the bad little boys and girls of Germanic countries... Oh, dear!!!]

Bicycles were a new stylish way to get around and people wore special cycling outfits. Laudanum, an opium concoction, could be bought over the counter at a pharmacy, as well as questionably effective potions and medicinal cure-alls, some downright dangerous, --- some containing mercury and even radium! And, Jack The Ripper slew prostitutes at will, terrorizing the East End of London, never being caught.\

And, death photography was popular, with people posing their deceased loved ones so that their images could be preserved artfully for posterity. [Ugh, --- really grotesque.]

I think of the Victorian age with elegant corseted women carrying parasols to protect their fair and delicate skin from the harshness of the sun, with upswept hairdos and gowned in silk and handmade lace, satin, velvet and ruffles. In the Edwardian age the most fashionable women wore enormous hats embellished with all sorts of elaborate decorations, --- ribbons, veils, laces, plumes, even whole stuffed birds.

Some Victorian women, upper class women, never cut their hair.

Women who were thought to be the most interesting were ghostly pale and slenderly curving with "wasp waists," and their "mounds" of bosoms, which was thought to be fascinating and even poetic. Yes, many extremely stylish women ate only enough to stay alive and consumption, or tuberculosis, was thought a fashionable thing to die of. [The horrific wasting disease killed the poet Keats, composer Fredric Chopin, who created the gorgeous piece for piano "Claire De Lune," and authors Emily and Charlotte Bronte, plus all the other Bronte siblings, --- Anne, Maria, Elizabeth and Branwell.] When upper class pregnant women began to lose their svelte shapes they went into "confinement," in the privacy of their huge homes, seldom being seen in public, --- not until they had their babies and got their glorious hourglass figures back.

[Isn't he handsome???, --- above!!!] I think of elegant Victorian gentlemen as typically with top and bowler hats, dressed in three piece suits draped with gold watches and chains and carrying walking sticks with crystal or brass knobs on the top of them, waving their fashionable calling cards. I think of tall white frame houses edged lavishly with what is called "gingerbread," houses decorated like elaborate wedding cakes.

In those houses were big families of sometimes seven to twelve children. [Many children didn't live to much more than their babyhood and methods of birth control were unreliable.] Of course, modern folks have purchased Victorian houses, painting them strange and stunning colors. Most upper class people rode around in horse drawn carriages. Bicycles, some with enormous wheels, were seen near the turn of the century and the motor car was becoming regular on streets in about 1910, which is into the Edwardian era. If you had any big money at all you could hire lots and lots of servants, because desperate, but honest people would work for very little wages. The very large houses of the wealthy had upstairs and downstairs maids, butlers, drivers for the carriages, a groom for the horses, a whole big staff to help the household to run smoothly. Women washed clothes with a laundry detergent made from flaked lye soap and washing soda. [And, that did a great job getting the clothes clean, was cheap too, not $10 to $13 a gallon, like detergent is today!!!]

Children were, of course, supposed to be seen not heard. Sadly, child labor was depressingly common among the poor of big cities.

But, once children of wealthy parents reached a certain age they often went off to boarding schools, especially if they were boys. Girls were expected to fill a modest and traditional role, - becoming excellent, efficient, dotting wives and loving mothers. [After 1823, a boy could marry as young as fourteen without his parent's consent, a girl as young as twelve, but most people married when they were in their twenties.] Some women became business owners, - few, or teachers and governesses, and were known as "bluestockings", and thought of as rather strange, too intelligent, spirited, too bold and too radical. [Ha-HA!!! I think I'd be one of those!!! My grandma, who was widowed when she was young and never married again, owned her own jewelry business.]

It was during this time that some wonderful literature was written: such great novels, --- "Jane Eyre", by Charlotte Bronte, and "Wuthering Heights", by Emily Bronte; Elizabeth Barrett Browning and William Butler Yeats wrote their poems; Lewis Carroll wrote "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland", and "Alice Through The Looking Glass". Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created the quirky detective genius Sherlock Holmes and his faithful sidekick Doctor Watson, whom some readers of the time were absolutely convinced was a real person. Bram Stoker created the wonderfully iconic horrific character Dracula. Charles Dickens and Edgar Allen Poe wrote their famous stories; Oscar Wilde wrote his only novel, "The Picture Of Dorian Gray" . Mark Twain wrote his wonderful book "Innocents Abroad" in 1869, which quickly became a best seller, then, "Tom Sawyer," and "Huckleberry Finn".

[Yes, he was a cat lover.]

The Civil War was going on in the United States. Starting in 1861, Southerners thought it might last only a few months and many young men of the aristocratic and rich plantation owners families were eager to get in on the action before it was over. That terrible war lasted years, and devastated the South, leaving many young widows to wear deep mourning clothes with black veils down to their knees. They were to be shrouded in black clothes for the rest of their lives, unless they married again, eventually, in propriety, according to the strict customs and morals of the time.

There were astounding discoveries in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, with the beginnings of industrialization... Nicola Tesla, scientific genius, was born in Serbia in 1856; we have alternating electrical current because of him. John Snow made a major breakthrough with in the treatment of dreaded cholera with the universal germ theory of disease. Louis Pasteur added to that, creating a safe way to decontaminate milk and stabilize it so it wouldn't spoil as fast by heating the liquid to 160F. Smallpox vaccinations were first given, causing the infamous deadly and disfiguring scourge to eventually be practically exterminated in our modern world. The far distant planet Neptune was discovered. Richard Owen created the term "Dinosaur," --- which stood for "The Terrible Lizard".

Even the recipe for the delicious and very popular soft drink Coca Cola was invented; it became known as the helper of listless women because it made from the coca leaf and originally contained traces of the stimulant cocaine, which was legal in Victorian times.

Music halls where saucy and even scandalous acts could be seen were becoming all the rage, such as the Moulin Rouge in Paris where artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who was only four feet six inches tall and who's shortness was the results of his broken legs never healing properly, drew and painted beautiful dancers who often threw their ruffled petticoats over their heads during their routines. [In it's early days, the vigorous Can Can dance with it's cartwheels, jumping splits, high kicks and rapid turns was sometimes performed by men too.]

[Victorians seemed to like peculiar photos.]

Alright, - then... Jolly good, --- oh, jolly good, sweetlings!!!,,, Crack on!!!... ;D

Movies And T.V. Shows Set In Victorian Times & A Little Beyond That, In Edwardian Times - ;)...

War Flowers [A Civil War Drama], with Christina Ricci
The Beguiled, 2017, with Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell
The Beguiled, 1971, with Geraldine Page and Clint Eastwood
Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines, with Stuart Whitman, Sara Miles, Terry-Thomas & Robert Morley
Moulin Rouge, 1952, with Jose Ferrer & Zsa Zsa Gabor
Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, 6 seasons, with Jane Seymour, Joe Lando, William Shockley, Barbara Babcock & Orson Bean
Wild, Wild West, with Will Smith, Salma Haylek & Kevin Kline
Titanic, with Leonardo Di Caprio, Kate Winset and Billy Zane
The Seven Faces Of Doctor Lao, with Tony Randall
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, with Paul Newman, Robert Redford & Katherine Ross
Oliver, the musical
Gigi, with Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier & Louis Jourdan
The Greatest Showman, with Hugh Jackman
Elvira Madiagan
Jack The Ripper, 1988, with Michael Caine
From Hell, with Johnny Depp
Like Water For Chocolate, [Spanish]
Around The World In 80 Days, with David Niven & Shirley Mac Laine
Far From The Madding Crowd, 1998
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, with Kirk Douglas & James Mason
League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, with Sean Connery, Richard Roxburgh, & Peta Wilson & Stuart Townsend
Ruby In The Smoke, Masterpiece Theater, with Billie Piper
A Christmas Carol, 1984
The Glass Virgin, based on the novel by Catherine cookson
The Rag Nymph, based on the novel by Catherine Cookson
War Of The Worlds, 1953
The Time Machine, with Rod Taylor & Yvette Mimieau
Penny Dreadful, T.V. series, with Eva Green, Josh Hartnett & Timothy Dalton
The Great Race
My Fair Lady
The Girl In The Red Velvet Swing, with Joan Collins
Mary Poppins, with Julie Andrews & Dick Van Dyke
Far And Away, with Nicole Kidman & Tom Cruise
The Corpse Bride, a Tim Burton animated film
Sleepy Hollow, with Johnny Depp & Christina Ricci
Mack The Knife, musical, with Raul Julia
Journey To The Center Of The Earth, with James Mason & Arlene Dahl
Around The World In 80 Days, with Pierce Brosnan
The Governess, with Minnie Driver, excellent sensual tale
Jane Eyre, with Toby Stevens, the best version ever!
Mansfield Park
The French Lieutenant's Woman, with Merle Streep
Swept From The Sea, with Vincent Perez & Rachel Weisz
Oliver Twist, musical
Peter Pan, Disney, animated
Neverland, T.V. series, with Rhys Ifans
Hook, with Dustin Hoffman
Van Helsing, The London Assignment, animated, with the voice of Hugh Jackman and others of the original Van Helsing
Doctor Zhivago, with Omar Shariff & Julie Christie
Alice Through The Looking Glass, with Johnny Depp
Alice In Wonderland, with Johnny Depp
Alice In Wonderland, Disney, animated version
The Moulin Rouge, old version, with Jose Ferrer & Zsa Zas Gabor
The Moulin Rouge, musical with Nicole Kidman & Ewan Mc Gregor
Young Victoria
Dracula: The Untold Story, with Luke Evans
The Piano, with Holly Hunter & Sam Neil
Van Helsing, with Hugh Jackman
Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows, with Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law & Stephen Fry
Sherlock Holmes, with Robert Downey Jr., Rachel Mc Adams & Jude Law
Legends Of The Fall, with Brad Pitt, Adian Quinn, Anthony Hopkins, Henry Thomas and Julia Ormand
Tombstone, with Kurt Russell, Bill Paxton and Sam Elliott
Samurai Champloo, anime series set in the late Edo Period of Japan, which was in the Victorian Era
Victoria, T.V. series, with Jenna Coleman & Tom Hughes
The Duchess Of Duke Street, BBC T.V. series, 1976-1977 with Gemma Jones & Christopher Caszenove
Dickensian, BBC T.V. series, a prequel to many of Dickens' stories, with Stephen Rea
Gangs Of New York, with Leonardo Di Caprio, Claire Danes & Daniel Day Lewis

Non-fiction, Novels, Stories & Plays Set In Victorian Times And A Little Beyond That, ;)...

The Widow Of The South, by Robert Hicks
Gone With The Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
The Goblin Market, by Christina Rosetti
The novels & stories of Charles Dickens
The Harlot's House, by Oscar Wilde
Beautiful Joe, by Margaret Marshall Saunders
The Piano, [novel based on the movie], by Jane Campion
The Four Winds Of Heaven, by Monique Raphel High
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer, and Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells
War Of The Worlds, by H. G. Wells
American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, The Birth Of The "It" Girl And The Crime Of The Century, by Paula Uruburu
The Picture Of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde
The Crimson Petal And The White, by Michel Faber
Nicholas & Alexandra, by Robert K. Massie
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo
The works of Edgar Allen Poe
The Three Penny Opera, play by Bertolt Brecht & Kurt Weill
From Hell, graphic novel, by Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell
The Strange Case Of Doctor Jekyll And Mister Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson
The House Of Dark Desires & other stories, by Louisa Burton
Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert
Far From The Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy
Tess Of D'Ubervilles, by Thomas Hardy
Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak
Alice Through The Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll
Alice In Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly
Dracula, by Bram Stoker
The Plays Of Oscar Wilde
Daughter Of Fortune, by Isabel Allende
The Irene Adler novels, by Carole Nelson Douglas
The Sherlock Holmes novels, by Arthur Conan Doyle
Of course!... Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte & Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
Unmentionable, by Therese Oneill

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"Nobody," By Emily Dickson...

I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you - Nobody - too? Then, there's a pair of us! Don't tell! they'd banish us, - you know! How dreary - to be - Somebody! How public - like a Frog - To tell one's name - the livelong June - To an admiring Bog!

THE LIFE OF EMILY DICKINSON...

Emily Dickinson Born December 10, 1830 Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S. Died May 15, 1886 (aged 55) Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S. Resting place Amherst West Cemetery Occupation Poet Alma mater Mount Holyoke Female Seminary Parents Edward Dickinson Emily Norcross Dickinson Relatives William Austin Dickinson (brother) Lavinia Norcross Dickinson (sister) >>> Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born into a prominent family with strong ties to its community. After studying at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she briefly attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's home in Amherst. Evidence suggests that Dickinson lived much of her life in isolation. Considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a penchant for white clothing and was known for her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even to leave her bedroom. Dickinson never married, and most of her friendships were based entirely upon correspondence. Although Dickinson was a prolific writer, her only publications during her lifetime were 10 of her nearly 1,800 poems and one letter. The poems published then were usually edited significantly to fit conventional poetic rules. Her poems were unique for her era; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality (two recurring topics in letters to her friends), aesthetics, society, nature, and spirituality. Although Dickinson's acquaintances were most likely aware of her writing, it was not until after she died in 1886—when Lavinia, Dickinson's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that her work became public. Her first published collection of poetry was made in 1890 by her personal acquaintances Thom as Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, though they heavily edited the content. A complete collection of her poetry first became available in 1955 when scholar Thomas H. Johnson published The Poems of Emily Dickinson. In 1998, The New York Times reported on a study in which infrared technology revealed that certain poems of Dickinson's had been deliberately censored to exclude the name "Susan". At least eleven of Dickinson's poems were dedicated to her sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson, and all the dedications were later obliterated, presumably by Todd. This censorship serves to obscure the nature of Emily and Susan's relationship, which many scholars have interpreted as romantic. ~ From "Wikpedia'.

The Elegant And Fierce Emily Dickinson...

"Annabel Lee," By Edgar Allan Poe...

It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me. I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea, But we loved with a love that was more than love— I and my Annabel Lee— With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven Coveted her and me. And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsmen came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, Went envying her and me— Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee. But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we— Of many far wiser than we— And neither the angels in Heaven above Nor the demons down under the sea Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride, In her sepulchre there by the sea— In her tomb by the sounding sea.

THE LIFE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE...

Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, author, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism and Gothic fiction in the United States, and of American literature. Poe was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story, and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre, as well as a significant contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction. He is the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career Poe was born in Boston, the second child of actors David and Elizabeth "Eliza" Poe. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and when his mother died the following year, Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They never formally adopted him, but he was with them well into young adulthood. He attended the University of Virginia but left after a year due to lack of money. He quarreled with John Allan over the funds for his education, and his gambling debts. In 1827, having enlisted in the United States Army under an assumed name, he published his first collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems, credited only to "a Bostonian". Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement after the death of Allan's wife in 1829. Poe later failed as an officer cadet at West Point, declared a firm wish to be a poet and writer, and parted ways with Allan. Poe switched his focus to prose, and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move between several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In 1836, when he was 27, he married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. She died of tuberculosis in 1847. In January 1845, he published his poem "The Raven" to instant success. He planned for years to produce his own journal The Penn, later renamed The Stylus. But before it began publishing, Poe died in Baltimore in 1849, aged 40, under mysterious circumstances. The cause of his death remains unknown, and has been variously attributed to many causes including disease, alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicide. He was found dead on the street. ~ From "Wikpedia".

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