Mabel Loomis Todd
Born	November 10, 1856 Cambridge, Massachusetts
Died	October 14, 1932 Hog Island, Maine
Occupation	writer and editor
Nationality	U.S.
Subjects	Emily Dickinson

Mabel Loomis Todd or Mabel Loomis (November 10, 1856 – October 14, 1932) was an U.S. editor and writer, and wife of astronomer David Peck Todd. She is remembered as editor of posthumously published editions of Emily Dickinson.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Own works 3 External links 4 References

[edit] Biography

Todd was born Mabel Loomis in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated from Georgetown Seminary in Washington, then studied music at the New England Conservatory in Boston.

On March 5, 1879, she married astronomer David Peck Todd, with whom she had one daughter, Millicent. Mabel Loomis Todd had a passionate sexual nature and wrote freely about it. She wrote soon after her marriage: "Sweet communions. Oh joy! Oh! Bliss unutterable" and "A little Heaven just after dinner." In May 1879, the day she got pregnant, she noted: "A very happy few minutes of love in our room."

She later had an affair with Austin Dickinson, the (married) brother of Emily.^[1] According to Peter Gay's distinguished book, as reviewed in Time Magazine of January 23, 1984, Todd kissed Austin Dickinson after he had died, kissed "the dear body, every inch of which I know and love so utterly."

She became friends with the Dickinsons, and though she never met Emily Dickinson in person, the two women exchanged letters. After Emily's death in 1886, hundreds of her unpublished poems were discovered. In 1888, Emily's sister Lavinia asked Todd to copy and organize the poems, which were to be sent to the publisher Thomas Wentworth Higginson. The first volume of Poems by Emily Dickinson was published in 1890. This version included many alterations by Todd.

In 1896, Todd and the Dickinson family had a falling-out over a legal battle regarding property owned by Austin Dickinson. As a result, Emily Dickinson's manuscripts were split between the two families. In 1945, Todd's daughter Millicent published some of the poems from Todd's portion of the manuscripts ^[2]

Todd was a member of the Audubon Society.

Mabel Loomis Todd died in Hog Island, Maine.

[edit] Own works

• Footprints (1883)
• Total Eclipses of the Sun (1894)
• Corona and Coronet (1898)
• A Cycle of Sunsets (1910)
• Tripoli the Mysterious (1912)

[edit] External links

• Works by Mabel Loomis Todd at Project Gutenberg

[edit] References

Persondata
NAME	Todd, Mabel Loomis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Loomis, Mabel
SHORT DESCRIPTION	editor and writer
DATE OF BIRTH	November 10, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cambridge, Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH	October 14, 1932
PLACE OF DEATH	Hog Island, Maine

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