Letters of Emily Dickinson (Dover Books on Literature & Drama) - Softcover

Dickinson, Emily

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486428583 ISBN 13: 9780486428581

Publisher: Dover Publications, 2011

Synopsis

Only five of Emily Dickinson's poems were published while she lived; today, approximately 1,500 are in print. Dickinson's poetry reflects the power of her contemplative gifts, and her deep sensitivity courses through her correspondence as well. Lovingly compiled by a close friend, this first collection of Dickinson's letters originally appeared in 1894, only eight years after the poet's death. Although she grew reclusive in her later years and seldom saw her many friends, she thought of them often and affectionately, as her missives attest. The small cast of daily characters in Dickinson's little world takes on vivid life in the letters, and her famous wit sparkles from every page.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

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.

Review:

[These letters] present us with as inward a view of one of God's rarer creatures as we are likely to be given...The letters themselves are as no others. The briefest line can be a mystery (and, when fathomed, a communion), the formal note a sign...If [these letters] are put alongside those of...Coleridge and Keats, they will present the most striking contrast in a poet's reactions and sensibilities. But they will stand there unashamed. (The Times)

She was no solemn bookworm destined to grow into a crabbed recluse, but a lively original creature, fully participating in the joys and despairs of a busy circle of friends and relatives...Here was a woman capable of the most intense emotion who was forced, or forced herself, to crystallize her feelings into words and phrases. The letters and poems are all of a piece. The letters, in fact, read sometimes like the raw materials of the poems. (Listener)

Emily Dickinson's letters are among the major treasures of American literature...[In] this one-volume selection...virtually everything of interest to the general reader or nonspecialist has been retained. (Library Journal)

About this edition

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0486428583
• ISBN 13: 9780486428581
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416
• Editor: Todd Mabel Loomis