Selected Poems & Letters of Emily Dickinson

by Emily Dickinson and editor Dickinson, Emily / Robert N. Linscott

Book Overview

This Anchor edition includes both poems and letters, as well as the only contemporary description of Emily Dickinson, and is designed for readers who want the best poems and most interesting letters in convenient form. An excellent introduction to the work of a poet whose originality of thought remains unsurpassed in American poetry.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 038509423X
• ISBN13: 9780385094238
• Release Date: September 1959
• Publisher: Anchor Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

When the Student is Greater Than the Teacher

Emily Dickinson chose the wrong teacher when she reached out to Thomas Higginson, who was writing in the Atlantic Monthly, in the early 1860s. She asked him, "Are you too deeply occupied to say if my verse is alive?" She included original verse in her letter to Higginson challenging him deeply with her brilliance, depth of emotion, and astounding writing ability. Higginson seemed almost at a loss for words. This early letter, arriving in 1862, would be the beginning of a lifelong correspondence between Dickinson and Higginson. He was disturbed by her offbeat and radical use of punctuation. His sagely but confused advice to her was to get more in line with standard punctuation. He understood correctly that Emily Dickinson was a unique-- possibly unprecedented voice in American Letters. But, he didn't understand quite enough the greatness that Dickinson's poetry represented. Emily Dickinson is something of a tragic figure, apparently suffering from some kind of agoraphobia and an extreme shyness. She rarely left the grounds of her father's Amherst home. Higginson would only meet her twice in his life and he would describe the first meeting as follows, "The impression undoubtedly made of me was that of an excess of tension, and of something abnormal". He described her as needing help in solving "her abstruse problem of life". He described their meeting as the most disturbing meeting of his life. He said, "an instinct told me that the slightest attempt at direct cross examination would make her withdraw into her shell". Reading Dickinson is challenging on so many levels. Her brilliance is almost shattering to the reader. Her ability to weave images, analogies, references, and emotion into her verse evokes deep responses from readers who care to meet her very weighty intellectual challenge. The sadness and depth of feeling in her work pours out of the page and seems to almost grab one by the heart and soul and throat. Dickinson truly demands our attention and she gets it. Her personal world was a small one but the places that her heart and intellect traveled certainly must have included the entire universe. She's not easy to read, but she is easy to love. She is a woman of grand skill and has a way of expression that make her timeless. She loved flowers and gardening and the grass and talked often in her work of life and so many deep frustrations of unfulfilled dreams and a deep core broken sadness that resulted from the deaths of family members around her. Only after her death did the world get to appreciate her incredible talent and skill. As a poet and correspondent, she is in the highest pantheon of American literature. She would not know much fame in her life, but she is now immortal. This is an excellent selection of her letters and poetry. The most important aspect of this particular book is that unlike other editors, this editor has chosen to leave Dickinson's unorthodox punctuation as she wrote it. In this c

A Mystery

I have come to believe that Emily Dickinson is the greatest writer America has produced. Unfortunately, the poet remained in anonymity and so went without constructive criticism. Her poems, while splendid, were not of the depth of Whitman nor the pleasure of Longfellow. They did not "live" like Poe's. But they lived; only heavier in breath. So it is not her poetry that we look at to find America's greatest writer, it is these wonderful letters. At thirteen her imagery is as complicated as Mailer or Morrison might ever be. And in our age of television, no genius will surpass these imaginings. To read Emily is to fall in love with her. Certainly misunderstood. Unapreciated. My copy of this books is weathered like a Baptist preachers Bible. It is my favorite book of all time. Emily is my favorite writer. Not everyone I recomend this book too enjoys it as much as I, but please try. You may find something special.