Renée Bergland – Natural Magic: Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, and the Dawn of Modern Science

Renée Bergland will talk about her fascinating new book, Natural Magic: Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, and the Dawn of Modern Science with professor emeritus Jack L. Sammons.

Emily Dickinson and Charles Darwin were born at a time when the word “scientist” didn’t yet exist, and when the practice of studying the natural world was known as “natural philosophy,” a pastime for poets, priests, and schoolgirls. The world began to change in the 1830s, while Darwin was exploring the Pacific aboard the HMS Beagle and Dickinson was a student in Amherst, Massachusetts. Poetry and science started to grow apart, and modern thinkers challenged the old orthodoxies, offering thrilling new perspectives that suddenly felt radical—and too dangerous for women.

Natural Magic intertwines the stories of these two luminary nineteenth-century minds whose thought and writings captured the awesome possibilities of the new sciences and at the same time strove to preserve the magic of nature. Illuminating and insightful, Natural Magic explores how Dickinson and Darwin refused to accept the separation of art and science. Today, more than ever, we need to reclaim their shared sense of ecological wonder.

Renée Bergland is professor of literature and creative writing at Simmons University. She is the author of Maria Mitchell and the Sexing of Science: An Astronomer among the American Romantics and The National Uncanny: Indian Ghosts and American Subjects.

Jack L. Sammons is the Griffin B. Bell Professor of Law Emeritus at Mercer Law School. The author of over forty publications including books, articles, plays and poems, Jack’s work was the subject of a festschrift held in his honor which can be found in the Mercer Law Review (Vol. 66, No. 2, Lead Articles Edition): “The Scholarship and Teaching of Jack Sammons: A Symposium.”

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This event is free and open to all! RSVP of your interest in attending (below) is appreciated as seating is limited. 

Co-hosted by the Yankee Bookshop. Copies of Natural Magic will be available for purchase and signing. 

Please email Programs@NormanWilliams.org for more information.