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Selected Letters
When the complete Letters of Emily Dickinson appeared in three volumes in 1958, Robert Kirsch welcomed them in the Los Angeles Times , saying “The missives offer access to the mind and heart of one of America’s most intriguing literary personalities.” This one-volume selection is at last available in paperback. It provides crucial texts for the appreciation of American literature, women’s experience in the nineteenth century, and literature in general.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
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About the author
Emily Dickinson
1,551 books6,829 followersEmily Dickinson was an American poet who, despite the fact that less than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime, is widely considered one of the most original and influential poets of the 19th century.
Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.
Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.
Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content.
A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/emily-di...
Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.
Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.
Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content.
A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/emily-di...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
September 16, 2007
It's a shame that this is the best edition of Dickinson's letters now in print, since it necessarily leaves out a lot of really incredible material. Harvard should bring out all three volumes of the complete letters in paperback. I can't believe it would sell less than, oh, the two volumes of Flaubert's letters, which Harvard does make available in paper. To my mind, the biggest problem with this edition is that it emphasizes biography over writing and so devotes an enormous amount of space to the long letters of Dickinson's childhood, necessarily limiting the number of late letters that could be included. Those late letters, often only a sentence long, are as rich and complex as Dickinson's poetry. My three stars are a judgment of the edition, not the letters themselves.
September 19, 2009
I would have loved to get a letter from her, but I would have been terrified to set down a response.
Read
November 12, 2021"Susie, forgive me Darling, for every word I say - my heart is full of you, none other than you in my thoughts, yet when I seek to say to you something not for the world, words fail me. If you were here -and Oh that you were, my Susie, we need not talk at all, our eyes would whisper for us, and your hand fast in mine, we would not ask for language -"
and people say they weren't in love?
and people say they weren't in love?
March 14, 2021
Not as enjoyable or illuminating as I had hoped. Only for hardcore Dickinson fans, I should think. Mostly about daily life, family affairs, and happenings among relatives and friends. Often cryptic, like her poetry. Yet, I feel closer to her, some how, for having read it.
April 13, 2021
me gustó tanto que le escribí una carta.
November 4, 2024
love emily’s letters; she is very naughty: “Don’t you know you are happiest while I withhold and not confer—dont you know that “No” is the wildest word we consign to Language?”
September 6, 2015
MR. HIGGINSON,--Your kindness claimed earlier gratitude, but I was ill, and write to-day from my pillow.
Thank you for the surgery; it was not so painful as I supposed. I bring you others, as you ask, though they might not differ. While my thought is undressed, I can make the distinction; but when I put them in the gown, they look alike and numb.
You asked how old I was? I made no verse, but one or two, until this winter, sir.
I had a terror since September, I could tell to none; and so I sing, as the boy does by the burying ground, because I am afraid.
You inquire my books. For poets, I have Keats, and Mr. and Mrs. Browning. For prose, Mr. Ruskin, Sir Thomas Browne, and the Revelations. I went to school, but in your manner of the phrase had no education. When a little girl, I had a friend who taught me Immortality; but venturing too near, himself, he never returned. Soon after my tutor died, and for several years my lexicon was my only companion. Then I found one more, but he was not contented I be his scholar, so he left the land.
You ask of my companions. Hills, sir, and the sundown, and a dog large as myself, that my father bought me. They are better than beings because they know, but do not tell; and the noise in the pool at noon excels my piano.
I have a brother and sister; my mother does not care for thought, and father, too busy with his briefs to notice what we do. He buys me many books, but begs me not to read them, because he fears they joggle the mind. They are religious, except me, and address an eclipse, every morning, whom they call their "Father."
But I fear my story fatigues you. I would like to learn. Could you tell me how to grow, or is it unconveyed, like melody or witchcraft?
You speak of Mr. Whitman. I never read his book, but was told that it was disgraceful.
I read Miss Prescott's Circumstance, but it followed me in the dark, so I avoided her.
Two editors of journals came to my father's house this winter, and asked me for my mind, and when I asked them "why" they said I was penurious, and they would use it for the world.
I could not weigh myself, myself. My size felt small to me. I read your chapters in the Atlantic, and experienced honor for you. I was sure you would not reject a confiding question.
Is this, sir, what you asked me to tell you? Your friend,
E. DICKINSON.
Thank you for the surgery; it was not so painful as I supposed. I bring you others, as you ask, though they might not differ. While my thought is undressed, I can make the distinction; but when I put them in the gown, they look alike and numb.
You asked how old I was? I made no verse, but one or two, until this winter, sir.
I had a terror since September, I could tell to none; and so I sing, as the boy does by the burying ground, because I am afraid.
You inquire my books. For poets, I have Keats, and Mr. and Mrs. Browning. For prose, Mr. Ruskin, Sir Thomas Browne, and the Revelations. I went to school, but in your manner of the phrase had no education. When a little girl, I had a friend who taught me Immortality; but venturing too near, himself, he never returned. Soon after my tutor died, and for several years my lexicon was my only companion. Then I found one more, but he was not contented I be his scholar, so he left the land.
You ask of my companions. Hills, sir, and the sundown, and a dog large as myself, that my father bought me. They are better than beings because they know, but do not tell; and the noise in the pool at noon excels my piano.
I have a brother and sister; my mother does not care for thought, and father, too busy with his briefs to notice what we do. He buys me many books, but begs me not to read them, because he fears they joggle the mind. They are religious, except me, and address an eclipse, every morning, whom they call their "Father."
But I fear my story fatigues you. I would like to learn. Could you tell me how to grow, or is it unconveyed, like melody or witchcraft?
You speak of Mr. Whitman. I never read his book, but was told that it was disgraceful.
I read Miss Prescott's Circumstance, but it followed me in the dark, so I avoided her.
Two editors of journals came to my father's house this winter, and asked me for my mind, and when I asked them "why" they said I was penurious, and they would use it for the world.
I could not weigh myself, myself. My size felt small to me. I read your chapters in the Atlantic, and experienced honor for you. I was sure you would not reject a confiding question.
Is this, sir, what you asked me to tell you? Your friend,
E. DICKINSON.
May 6, 2022
"When I state myself, as the Representative of the Verse - it does not mean - me - but a supposed person."
February 6, 2008
Emlily Dickinson's letters have elegance and are crafted and written with, I think, just as much consideration and care as her poetry was. It is fun to read the letters to gain a sense of everyday life at the time, but perhaps my favorite thing about these letters is the malleability of voice employed in their writing. Depending on the recipient and Dickinson's mood, the letters vary wildly in tone and style. Often dealing in the mundane day-to-day details of life, the letters contain a flow of vivid and colorful inner life just below that surface which, when allowed air, is so dazzling as to temporarily blind the reader and then restore vision tenfold. Read this book slowly, with much time for staring out the window, going for walks, noticing details of your world in more depth and with greater clarity of focus.
March 30, 2014
"A Letter always feels to me like immortality because it is the mind alone without corporeal friend." Many of these letters are as original and truthful of thought as her poems. They also provide a biography in her own voice. A few letters from her friend the poet, T.W. Higginson are included, as well as the letters he wrote to his wife after meeting Emily Dickinson for the first time. He quotes her as saying, "If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire ever can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way." By her own standard of measurement, this book should be classified as poetry instead of a book of letters.
February 1, 2008
"You are a great poet—and it is a wrong to the day you live in, that you will not sing aloud. When you are what men call dead, you will be sorry you were so stingy."
-Helen Hunt Jackson to Emily Dickinson, March 1876
-Helen Hunt Jackson to Emily Dickinson, March 1876
December 1, 2014
Maybe it's because I spent a week at a workshop talking about them, but I think these letters are unbelievably sweet, complicated, mysterious, and poetic. They make me want to write tons of letters.
December 23, 2017
I reviewed this book on my blog.
December 15, 2021
I have but one thought, Susie, this afternoon of June, and that
of you, and I have one prayer, only; dear Susie, that is for you.
That you and I in hand as we e'en do in heart, might ramble away as children, among the woods and fields, and forget these many years, and these sorrowing cares, and each become a child again - I would it were so, Susie, and when I look around me and find myself alone, I sigh for you again; little sigh, and vain sigh, which will not bring you home
wow!
Muy bonitas cartas, la manera en la que escribe Emily Dickinson con tanta pasión y honestidad, es increíble! Lees y re lees y en cada parte encontrar algo distinto que te atrapa.
Las que más me gustaron fueron las cartas hacia Sue, mucha pasión y amor ahí, me encanta como ella pudo contar cada detalle de lo que sentía mediante estas cartas que pasaron a ser de lectura obligatoria para todo aquel que disfruta leyéndola.
of you, and I have one prayer, only; dear Susie, that is for you.
That you and I in hand as we e'en do in heart, might ramble away as children, among the woods and fields, and forget these many years, and these sorrowing cares, and each become a child again - I would it were so, Susie, and when I look around me and find myself alone, I sigh for you again; little sigh, and vain sigh, which will not bring you home
wow!
Muy bonitas cartas, la manera en la que escribe Emily Dickinson con tanta pasión y honestidad, es increíble! Lees y re lees y en cada parte encontrar algo distinto que te atrapa.
Las que más me gustaron fueron las cartas hacia Sue, mucha pasión y amor ahí, me encanta como ella pudo contar cada detalle de lo que sentía mediante estas cartas que pasaron a ser de lectura obligatoria para todo aquel que disfruta leyéndola.
January 2, 2022
I have difficulty understanding or feeling Dickinson's poems, so I tried to get to know her through her letters. This edition has helped me a great deal in doing so.
The foreword before each section is really helpful, for I based on that to understand the context of that period. Emily was a sentimental, loving person, and while reading between letters we can catch a gem in her thoughts. her words are beautifully chosen.
The foreword before each section is really helpful, for I based on that to understand the context of that period. Emily was a sentimental, loving person, and while reading between letters we can catch a gem in her thoughts. her words are beautifully chosen.
November 16, 2022
« If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way? »
That’s all that needs to be said.
That’s all that needs to be said.
June 14, 2017
Un libro delicioso que se bebe y se lee con la luz.
August 10, 2017
Cuanto más leo sobre Emily Dickinson, menos creo saber.
May 19, 2021
After reading "Wars Laid Away" it becomes easier to read Emily's letters because it shows more about her personality and health. I thought she was exceptionally cheeky.
July 21, 2021
Read some letters for Whitman/Dickinson class. Master letters are cool. Letters to Sue are magical. Letters to Higginson - cocky.
July 27, 2011
Certainly access to her books and blooms are reasons enough for reading these selected letters, but the insight given to her poetry, philosophy, and life as an iconoclastic woman of the 19th century is astounding. Not only for scholars of Emily Dickinson, this collection of her letters is for an reader who wishes to immerse him or herself in the wit and wisdom of one of America's premier poets. Documenting important familial and scholarly correspondences, Johnson's text provides ample notes about her relationships with Austin and Lavinia Dickinson, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Samuel Bowles and Otis Lord. Also, he provides (for the first time in paperback) the complete text of the "Master" letters -- alone worth the price of admission. Dispelling myths of Emily as a reclusive poet, these letters instead paint a picture of her as a woman who is reaching out to a world she seems to know will judge her for her beliefs and desires. What a comprehensive portrait is evidenced in these letters -- an excellent collection.
November 15, 2014
Emily Dickinson is one of those mysterious figures in Literature. I've always been very curious about her. Her life is just so incredible, so different. She locked herself in her house little by little, and wrote amazing poetry that was only published after her death.
I liked these letters because I could get a glimpse of that woman who left her mark upon Literature and yet, nobody know much about her. I loved reading about her relationship with her siblings, with her sister-in-law, with some supposed love interests and so on. I'm always very curious about the lives of the authors I like, especially those like Emily Dickinson or J.D. Salinger, who actively rejected public life. It's just so incredible.
I like to know that an author is somehow a real person. I got that feeling from this book. Emily Dickinson was a genius (and there's no way to deny it), but she was also a woman with friends and family, who might have fallen in love more than once. She lived, despite her reclusion and her secrets. And I really loved getting to know her a little bit more.
I liked these letters because I could get a glimpse of that woman who left her mark upon Literature and yet, nobody know much about her. I loved reading about her relationship with her siblings, with her sister-in-law, with some supposed love interests and so on. I'm always very curious about the lives of the authors I like, especially those like Emily Dickinson or J.D. Salinger, who actively rejected public life. It's just so incredible.
I like to know that an author is somehow a real person. I got that feeling from this book. Emily Dickinson was a genius (and there's no way to deny it), but she was also a woman with friends and family, who might have fallen in love more than once. She lived, despite her reclusion and her secrets. And I really loved getting to know her a little bit more.
May 7, 2007
A little esoteric, a lot delightful. Sometimes they are as weird as you'd expect. Other times they're as insightful as you'd hope. And the letters from Dickinson's childhood are precious:
we found a Hens nest with four Eggs in it I took out three and brought them in the next day I went to see if there had been any laid and there had not been any laid and the one that was there had gone so I suppose a skonk had been there or else a hen In the shape of a skonk and I dont know which.
we found a Hens nest with four Eggs in it I took out three and brought them in the next day I went to see if there had been any laid and there had not been any laid and the one that was there had gone so I suppose a skonk had been there or else a hen In the shape of a skonk and I dont know which.
January 28, 2009
So entirely beautiful. So strange. I am very grateful that she lived.
“You mention Immortality.
This is the Flood subject. I was told that the Bank was the safest place for a Finless Mind. I explore but little since my mute Confederate, yet the ‘infinite Beauty’—of which you speak comes too near to seek.
To escape enchantment, one must always flee.”— 194
“You must let me go first, Sue, because I live in the Sea always and know the Road.” – 306
“You mention Immortality.
This is the Flood subject. I was told that the Bank was the safest place for a Finless Mind. I explore but little since my mute Confederate, yet the ‘infinite Beauty’—of which you speak comes too near to seek.
To escape enchantment, one must always flee.”— 194
“You must let me go first, Sue, because I live in the Sea always and know the Road.” – 306
October 10, 2008
Undeniably, the letters give a view into Emily Dickinson's life, and the voice in her poems. So many ecstatic letters sent to Higginson or Bowles. The tender tone taken toward Otis Lord or her Norcross cousins. My only dispute comes where the editor points out some part of Dickinson's relationship with Sue Gilbert Dickinson that I don't feel the full context for.
June 21, 2007
i love emily dickinson and her letters are witty and heartfelt. a must-have for any true fan.
September 14, 2008
"You know how I must write you -
down, down, in the terrestrial;
no sunset here,
no stars,
not even a bit of twilight,
which I can poetize -"
(ED, letter to Susan Gilbert [Dickinson])
down, down, in the terrestrial;
no sunset here,
no stars,
not even a bit of twilight,
which I can poetize -"
(ED, letter to Susan Gilbert [Dickinson])
July 30, 2008
Usually, I don't go in much for author's personal lives, but I found her poems so psychologically interesting I had to read more.
December 1, 2008
Her letters make other poets' poems seem like prose.
February 20, 2009
The depth of emotion expressed in such few words can be very powerful.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews