Amherst (29 page)
Authors: William Nicholson
The fictional characters in
Amherst
have appeared in my earlier novels. Jack and Alice can be met at the age of eleven in
The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life
. Their tentative romance begins eight years later in
All the Hopeful Lovers
. The story of Alice’s grandmother develops in
Motherland
and
Reckless
. Nick Crocker’s past love affair with Jack’s mother, Laura, and his attempt to rekindle that love, is told in
The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life
. Attentive readers will find many more seeds which I’ve planted, waiting for their turn to flower.
This sequence of six novels has been overseen by my matchless agent, Clare Alexander, and by my editor, Jane Wood. Jane’s sensitive and thorough notes have guided and enriched the novels, and I’m more grateful for her stewardship than I can say.
More from William Nicholson
Motherland
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About the Author
© JERRY BAUER
W
ILLIAM
N
ICHOLSON
is a screenwriter, playwright, television writer, and novelist. Perhaps best known for his Academy Award–nominated screenplays for
Shadowlands
and
Gladiator
, he has also written the screenplays for
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
,
Sarafina
,
Les Misérables
, and
The Long Walk to Freedom
. He is the author several young adult and fantasy novels and a sequence of contemporary adult novels set in England. He lives in Tunbridge Wells, England, with his wife and children.
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
authors.simonandschuster.com/William-Nicholson
Also by William Nicholson
The Trial of True Love
The Society of Others
The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life
All the Hopeful Lovers
The Golden Hour
Motherland
Reckless
BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
The Wind Singer
Slaves of the Mastery
Firesong
Seeker
Jango
Noman
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Bibliography
Bingham, Millicent Todd.
Ancestors” Brocades: The Literary Debut of Emily Dickinson.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1945.
———.
Emily Dickinson’s Home
. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955. Reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 1967.
———.
Emily Dickinson: A Revelation
. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1954.
Dickinson, Emily.
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
. Ed. Thomas H. Johnson. 3 vols. 1955. Reprint, Boston: Back Bay Books, Little, Brown, 1976.
Gordon, Lyndall.
Lives like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family’s Feuds.
New York: Viking, 2010.
Longsworth, Polly.
Austin and Mabel: The Amherst Affair and Love Letters of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd
. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1984.
Sewall, Richard B.
The Life of Emily Dickinson
. 1974; reprint Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994.
Todd, Mabel Loomis. “Footprints.”
New York Independent
, September 27, 1883.
Wolff, Cynthia Griffin.
Emily Dickinson
. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, c1988.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by William Nicholson Originally published in 2015 in Great Britain by Quercus Editions Ltd.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
The poems of Emily Dickinson are reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from
The Poems of Emily Dickinson
, Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition February 2015
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Jacket photographs: Emily Dickinson daguerreotype © West Collection/Alamy
Emily Dickinson House, Amherst, Massachusetts, © Susan Pease/Alamy
Blue Sky Clouds © KZWW/Shutterstock
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nicholson, William.
Amherst : a novel / William Nicholson. — First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
pages ; cm
“Simon & Schuster fiction original hardcover.”
1. Dickinson, Emily, 1830–1886—Fiction. 2. Women poets, American—19th century—Fiction. 3. Screenwriters—Fiction. 4. Adultery—Fiction.5. Amherst (Mass.)—History—19th century—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6064.I235A82 2015
823'.914—dc23
2014022219
ISBN 978-1-4767-4040-9
ISBN 978-1-4767-4042-3 (ebook)
Contents