Renee Bergland: The Enchanted Science of Emily Dickinson and Charles Darwin

Feb 28, 2026

Renee Bergland, a literary scholar and historian of science, explores the surprising kinship between Emily Dickinson and Charles Darwin. She traces their shared wonder of fossils, field observations, and a science that valued emotion. The conversation highlights natural magic, intertwined sensibilities, and how this outlook reshapes hope and care for the living world.

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INSIGHT

Natural Magic Reconnects Wonder With Science

Natural magic names a scientific attitude that embraces wonder, emotion, and mystery alongside observation.
Renee Bergland explains it as a 17th–19th century practice (garlic experiments to gravity) that treated phenomena like magnetism as wondrous properties to study.

ANECDOTE

Writing In Dickinson's Bedroom Felt Haunting

Renee Bergland visited Emily Dickinson's bedroom in Amherst for a museum writing session and felt an emotional, haunting presence.
She sat at a card table next to Dickinson's tiny writing desk and found herself recalling poems perfectly while writing notes.

INSIGHT

Dickinson Was Trained As A Natural Philosopher

Emily Dickinson's education was heavily scientific, including geology, chemistry, astronomy, and botany, and this shaped her thinking.
Bergland stresses period vocabulary: Dickinson would call these pursuits natural philosophy and natural history, not separate 'science' disciplines.

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Emily Dickinson and Charles Darwin both saw nature as alive with mystery – and treated wonder as a way of knowing. Literary scholar and science historian Renee Bergland, author of "Natural Magic," is our guide to the forgotten kinship between the reclusive poet and the celebrated naturalist.

Dickinson and Darwin never met, but they had at least one close friend in common. Both were both fascinated by fossils. Both wandered the woods and swamps near their homes, studying insects and documenting rare plants. They shared a vision of the interconnectedness of all life. We know that Dickinson, with her background in botany, geology, astronomy and chemistry, was enthralled by Darwin’s evolutionary theory. And it certainly seems possible that Darwin, with his degree in theology and his lifelong love of poetry and literature, might have admired the American poet whose close observations and delicate perceptions echoed his own.

Bergland’s dual biography, just out in paper, is vivid, sparkling intellectual history – a window onto a time when scientific thinking still embraced emotion and wonder as modes of perception. Could the belief in “natural magic” that infused Dickinson’s and Darwin’s ideas restore our own faith in a universe alive with meaning? Our conversation about the poet who studied natural history and the naturalist who loved poetry suggests a way forward – by reclaiming their shared ecological wonder.

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Now out in paperback: "Natural Magic: Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, and the Dawn of Modern Science"
Previous books from Renee Bergland: "Maria Mitchell and the Sexing of Science: An Astronomer Among the American Romantics" and "The National Uncanny: Indian Ghosts and American Subjects"

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0:00 — Meeting Renee Bergland

9:00 — What Is Natural Magic?

20:00 — Beauty, Truth, and Evolution

34:00 — Hope and the Garden of Change

Wonder Cabinet is hosted by Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson. Find out more about the show at https://wondercabinetproductions.com, where you can subscribe to the podcast and our newsletter.