The Letters of Emily Dickinson

January 1, 2024
A newly expanded, annotated edition of the poet's letters, the first in more than 60 years. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) is one of the most recognizable poets in history. Yet, as the editors note in the introduction, she "was a letter writer before she was a poet." She was a prolific and passionate correspondent, and this new edition contains 1,304 of her letters, "as well as all of the extant letters that [she] received." This extraordinary collection shows her to be a masterful prose writer, and, contrary to her popular image as a recluse, the letters reveal that "Dickinson was by no means an isolated, lonely, woman." The editors include hundreds of new letters, redate many of the previously published ones based on careful research, and provide essential annotations. Additionally, where possible, they restore omissions by previous letter transcribers. In some cases, the restorations are critical to our ability to reevaluate who Dickinson was in relation to those in her correspondence. While her prose writing is noteworthy in itself, the editors also include many "letter-poems." Dickinson frequently sent poems in her correspondence, often without an accompanying note. Included in this edition alongside her regular letters, they provide beautiful texture to the collection. Perhaps the most delightful materials, though, are the writing notes. Like many writers, Dickinson collected scraps of language and fragments of poems, which she may have used to draft both her letters and poems. Seeing them together shows how "a retained metaphor or sequence of language might serve as the germ of a letter, or it might linger in her workshop until a letter seemed just right to house it, just as a poem might begin with a resonant phrase." The notes, in particular, provide illuminating insight into the mind and process of a truly brilliant writer. An exciting new standard in Dickinson scholarship.

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