Books by Vivian R. Pollak

Our Emily Dickinsons situates Dickinson's life and work within larger debates about gender, sexuality, and literary authority in America. Examining Dickinson's influence on Marianne Moore, Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop and others, Vivian R. Pollak complicates the connection between authorial biography and poetry that endures.

Presents an analysis of Whitman's quest for happiness. This book explores the intimate relationships that contributed to his portrayal of masculinity in crisis. It maintains that in representing himself as a characteristic 19th century American and in proposing to heal national ills, Whitman was trying to temper his own inner conflicts as well.