Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
Chronology of Emily Dickinson’s Life
Part 1. A Life Enshrouded in “fiery mist”
The Young Dickinson
Amelia D. Jones Stearns, Reminiscence of Mount Holyoke days, 1899
Emily L. Norcross to Hannah Porter from Mount Holyoke, 11 January 1848
Austin Dickinson to Joseph Lyman, 20 December 1848(?) (excerpt)
Dickinson as Poet
Susan and Emily Dickinson, Exchange on “Safe in their AlabasterChambers,” 1861–62
Joseph Lyman and Emily Dickinson, n.d.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson to Emily Dickinson, 11 May 1869
Thomas Wentworth Higginson on first visit to Dickinson, 16–17 August 1870
Lydia B. Torrey to Emily F. Ford, 16 November 1872
Thomas Wentworth Higginson to Anna and Louisa Higginson,
9 December 1873 (excerpt)
Helen Hunt Jackson, Letters to Emily Dickinson and Material Regarding A Masque of Poets, 1876–79
“Saxe Holm” Speculations, July–August 1878
Catherine Scott Anthon to Susan Dickinson, n.d.
Mabel Loomis Todd, Journal entries on the “Myth” of Amherst, 1882
Thomas Niles, Correspondence with Emily Dickinson, 1882–83
Lavinia Dickinson, Poem for Emily, 1882
Helen Hunt Jackson to Emily Dickinson, 1884–85
Obituary by Susan Dickinson, Springfield Republican, 18 May 1886
Part 2. The Life of the Poems
Arlo Bates, Report to Thomas Niles of Roberts Brothers, c. June 1890
Austin Dickinson to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 10 October 1890
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, “Preface” to Poems, 1890
Mabel Loomis Todd, “Bright Bits from Bright Books,” Home Magazine, 3 November 1890
E. Winchester Donald to Mabel Loomis Todd, 8–9 December 1890
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Correspondence with Mabel Loomis Todd, 1890
Susan Dickinson to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, December 1890
John White Chadwick, “Poems by Emily Dickinson” (review), Christian Register, 18 December 1890
William Dean Howells, “Editor’s Study” (review), Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, January 1891
Andrew Lang, “The Newest Poet” (review), Daily News (London), 2 January 1891
Lavinia Dickinson to Thomas Niles, 24 February 1891
Susan and William Austin Dickinson, Correspondence with William Hayes Ward, February and March 1891
S. J. Barrows to Mabel Loomis Todd, 1891
Charles E. L. Wingate, “Boston Letter,” The Critic, 9 May 1891 (excerpt)
Samuel G. Ward to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 11 October 1891
Mabel Loomis Todd, Journal entry, Amherst, 18 October 1891 (excerpt)
Alice James, Diary entry, 6 January 1892
Elihu Vedder to Lavinia Dickinson, 19 January 1892
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, “Emily Dickinson’s Letters,” Atlantic Monthly, October 1891
Emily Fowler Ford, Letters to Lavinia Dickinson and Memoir, 1893
Caroline Healey Dall, “Two Women’s Books” (review), Boston Evening Transcript, 22 December 1894
Lavinia Dickinson to Caroline Healey Dall, 29 January 1895
E. Winchester Donald to Mabel Loomis Todd, 29 December 1894
Rupert Hughes, “The Ideas of Emily Dickinson” (review), Godey’s Magazine, November 1896
Bliss Carman, “A Note on Emily Dickinson” (review), Boston Evening Transcript, 21 November 1896
MacGregor Jenkins, “A Child’s Recollections of Emily Dickinson,” Christian Union, 24 October 1891
Clara Newman Turner, Reminiscences, c. 1896
Henrietta Mack Eliot, “Was She a Recluse?,” Portland Sunday Oregonian, 19 March 1899 (excerpt)
Louisa Norcross “Housework Defended” (letter), Woman’s Journal, March 1904
Part 3. Twentieth-Century Recognition and Remembrance
Martha Dickinson Bianchi, “The Editor’s Preface,” The Single Hound: Poems of a Lifetime, 1914
Amy Lowell, “Imagism Past and Present: Emily Dickinson,” lecture delivered at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 20 March 1918
Daniel Bliss, The Reminiscences of Daniel Bliss, 1920 (excerpt)
Martha Dickinson Bianchi, Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson, 1924 (excerpt)
Clara Bellinger Green, “The Sketch Book: A Reminiscence of Emily Dickinson,” The Bookman, November 1924
MacGregor Jenkins, Emily Dickinson Friend and Neighbor, 1930 (excerpt)
Gertrude Graves, “A Cousin’s Memories of Emily Dickinson,” Boston Globe, 12 January 1930 (excerpt)
(Lois) Ella Cowles Ellis and Jenny Lind Cowles, Reminiscences, c. 1932
Sources and Permissions
Poems Cited
Index