... [a] fine new work which reminds us that what’s important about Emily Dickinson is that she wrote some of the greatest poetry in the English language ... Ackmann makes good use of scholarship that has long recognized her as an unconventional, formally inventive artist. The subtitle’s Ten Pivotal Moments prove a useful organizing principle ... provides with panache in a lucid narrative grounded in solid research colored by appreciative warmth ... Ackmann’s insights are unfailingly fresh and vivid, evidence of a profound personal affinity for her subject ... palpable, exciting, and accessible.

...powerful, and powerfully puzzling ... I quickly came to treasure Ackmann’s ample descriptions, her deep knowledge of the poet’s milieu ... Ackmann’s These Fevered Days peoples the poet’s world more thoroughly than do previous accounts ... Ackmann’s excursions into Emily Dickinson’s mind don’t so much distort as disappoint, after I’d come to rely on her solid research and the artful verisimilitude of her re-creations ... a book I recurrently fell in and out of love with as the hours passed, all the while fully absorbed.

... a short, highly readable telling ... Ackmann aims to convey a sense of the poet’s rich interior life and her evolution as an artist by dramatizing 10 formative moments of her life on the day each occurred. Remarkably, she pulls it off. Readers may quibble with some of her choices—beginning each day’s account with a detailed weather report, for instance, or her premise that on each of the days selected, the poet was different at 10 p.m. that night than she was at 10 a.m. in the morning. But by the end, you’ll be a believer, in part because of Ackmann’s grasp of her subject—both the mountains of scholarship on Dickinson as well as the poet’s historical and cultural milieu—and Ackmann’s own formidable gifts as a storyteller.

Martha Ackmann’s new book...conjures up its own immersive spell. The book vividly recreates the texture of Dickinson’s beautiful, everyday world and the key events that shaped her complex and rebellious interior life ... Ackmann paints a living, breathing portrait of Dickinson ... Ackmann is an able and enthusiastic guide, and her passion and fascination energize the narrative ... Ackmann used the novelist’s tools—description, dialogue, and narration—to produce powerful vignettes ... It’s an impressive feat of accumulation and organization that contains many gems, like a scene in which Dickinson staged a dramatic solo reading of Shakespeare in her attic. Ackmann’s observations are often beautifully rendered. Her style is sensory, relaxed, generous with detail and description, empathetic, and explanatory.

Many rigorous biographers and literary historians have examined Dickinson’s life and writings, but from the first page of Martha Ackmann’s new book, you know you’re reading something entirely different: a set of evocative yet grounded-in-detail essays, each of which recreate one of Emily Dickinson’s days, yet range freely over her writing, thoughts, horticulture, religion, current events ... Other biographers may have done similar things but none to my knowledge has made the ingenious choice of beginning each chapter with a meteorological epigraph so that the reader could have a sense of the weather on a particular day ... Some of Ackmann’s essays are, of course, better than others. There are few dramatic encounters and the author must rely mostly on letters to reconstruct the poet’s many elusive relationships with family members, friends, and correspondents. The first chapter, built around 14-year-old Emily in the act of writing a letter to her best friend Abiah Root, is so quiet and meandering that, had I not been a reviewer, I might have stopped reading the book right there. But I found Ackmann’s insistence on proceeding in her own eccentric style audacious and fascinating. Sometimes, I was fully conscious of authorial intent; other times I felt lost. But I trusted Ackmann, stuck with her, and found myself immersed in Dickinson’s world — far more than in the recent films about the poet ... the antithesis of a fast read. But its slow, eccentric way of trying to draw nearer to this most enigmatic of poets is admirable and, ultimately, rewarding.

... [a] wonderfully thoughtful and engaging book ... fascinating detail ... Ackman[n] might have provided more scaffolding. She ends with the glib remark that Dickinson shows us 'what its like to be alive.' Maybe, but this needs explanation. At best, it’s understatement. For, when clues are interpreted, Dickinson challenges an idea of human beings that’s been around for hundreds of years.

Ackmann weaves...clues [about Dickinson's life] together beautifully in prose that reads like page-turning fiction ... many surprises ... Ackmann’s prose is rich and intricate as she describes the poet’s experience ... She captures the sights and sounds Dickinson experienced, as well as her daily duties and the simple pleasures that brightened her days ... Ackmann builds slowly toward crucial moments and realizations, providing background and context along the way. She also includes wonderful insights about Dickinson’s artistic evolution ... a wonderful biography that illustrates the complexity of Dickinson’s life...allowing readers to discover Dickinson for themselves.

... enjoyable and absorbing ... There are many monumental biographies of Dickinson...and there are many useful, pocket-size quick-study guides. But Ackmann’s list aims for the sweet spot in terms of length and depth, and generally hits its target ... Sometimes, Ackmann’s selected 'moments' seem like arbitrary pegs on which to hang a piece of Dickinson’s life...but others are indisputably important[.]

...a short, highly readable telling of [Dickinson's] life and the extraordinary, pathbreaking body of work she left behind ... Ackmann aims to convey a sense of the poet’s rich interior life and her evolution as an artist by dramatizing 10 formative moments of her life on the day each occurred. Remarkably, she pulls it off ... Readers may quibble with some of her choices ... But by the end, you’ll be a believer, in part because of Ackmann’s grasp of her subject — both the mountains of scholarship on Dickinson as well as the poet’s historical and cultural milieu — and Ackmann’s own formidable gifts as a storyteller.

The greatest strength of These Fevered Days is Ackmann’s ability to convey with tangible immediacy the physical world of Amherst. Readers are drawn into the book partly because of its strong sense of place ... This immediacy is also the source of the book’s major flaw. Frequently, Ackmann’s interpretations are based less on written source material than on her belief that she can channel Emily’s spirit through her immersion in Dickinson’s world. She often writes as if she knows what the poet was thinking, based not on her academic research but on of her own knowledge of physical layout and a historical day’s weather ... Even when the biographer does provide citations, it is impossible for readers to evaluate the evidence since the letters are cited only by number, with no reference to their writers or recipients ... In addition to the author’s tendency to state her imaginings as if they were truth, Ackmann chooses not to engage with debates in the Dickinson scholarship ... Despite the intensely-readable prose, serious readers of Dickinson will be disappointed by Ackmann’s reticence to acknowledge both the complexity of scholarship and the limitations of extant evidence.

The compelling, eminently readable, novel-like style of Ackmann’s writing makes this new take on the poet’s artistic and personal growth highly recommended for both scholars and casual readers long captivated by the 'Belle of Amherst.'

Ackmann’s literary biography of Emily Dickinson takes a unique approach ... a deep dive into the milieu and mind of the elusive poet ... Ackmann combines rigorous scholarship, thorough explication of the poems, and a sharp familiarity with the geography of Dickinson’s world in Amherst, Massachusetts, with a fiction writer’s sensibility. Indeed, the book feels like a novel, and casual readers will be greedy for what happens next, while those steeped in Dickinson’s poems will delight in learning about the moments that gestated them ... an affectionate and knowledgeable look at the person and the poet.

... excellent ... Some of the days covered initially seem trivial, but Ackmann excels at revealing her subject’s passion and vibrant imagination even in innocuous moments ... Ackmann freely draws from historical records, poems, and letters, sampling some of Dickinson’s best bon mots ... Though far from comprehensive, Ackmann’s account gets to the core of her subject with remarkable clarity. Though the book’s Dickinson can be odd, ethereal, and contradictory, other qualities emerge as well—her humor, charm, and unwavering confidence in her own work. The result is a remarkably refreshing account of one of America’s finest poets.

The reclusive American poet emerges vividly in an imaginative examination of her life ... a fresh approach to Dickinson’s life and work ... Radiant prose, palpable descriptions, and deep empathy for the poet’s sensibility make this biography extraordinary.