Brev I: Brev till de närmaste

Letters of Emily Dickinson #1

by Emily Dickinson, Lena Karlin (Översättare), Josefin Holmström (Urval, Inledn., Kommentarer)

Breven är en lika vital och viktig del av Emily Dickinsons författarskap som hennes poesi – litteratur­historiskt sett – och nödvändig läsning för den som vill sätta sig in i den amerikanska poetens tankeuniversum och stifta bekantskap med hennes vardagsliv.

Den här volymen rymmer ett rikt urval som framförallt visar på den ”privata” Dickinson. Många av breven är skrivna under hennes ungdomsår och samtliga är skrivna till familjemedlemmar eller nära vänner. För urval, inledning och kommentarer står Dickinsonforskaren Josefin Holm­ström. För översättningen svarar Lena Karlin.

Brevmottagare i volym 1:

Vännen och svägerskan Susan Gilbert (Dickinson) • brodern Austin Dickinson • Austins älskarinna Mabel Loomis Todd • kusinerna Louise och Frances Norcross • skolkamraten Abiah Root • familjevännen Samuel Bowles

Genres: Nonfiction

132 pages, Hardcover

First published September 12, 2013

About the author

Emily 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...

Reviews

[Erik]

As these are, I would argue, not made for readers outside those they are sent to I don't wish to grade this work.

Ord bör inte användas för att beskriva utbytena som sker i de här breven. Så privat, så intimt. Som ej insatt i Dickinson var det intressant att läsa och följa flickan, kvinnan och damen i många olika relationer. Jag uppskattar att se hur olika hennes korrespondenser såg ut beroende vem hon skrev till.