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From 1850s
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[edit] Emily Dickinson's Publication History
"Publication -- is the Auction / Of the Mind of Man --" Emily Dickinson
From 1852 to the year of her death in 1886, only 11 of Dickinson's poems were published, all of them anonymously. An interesting publication history ensued posthumously.
Emily Dickinson's first poem appeared in a letter written in the winter of 1850. By 1858, she had begun to collect the poems into hand sewn booklets, each containing an average of 20 poems. Upon her death in 1886, Emily's sister Lavinia found approximately 40 booklets in a locked box. It was these poems that she presented to Thomas Higginson and Mary Loomis Todd for publication. Higginson was not inclined to become involved with the project as he was "too busy to wrestle with the difficulties of the manuscripts and that he doubted enough suitable poems could be found to fill a volume" (Franklin 4). Mabel Loomis Todd was also hesitant to lend herself to the task, as she was concerned that Dickinson's "unconventionality might repel publishers" (Franklin 5). Nevertheless, Todd began the work of editing in 1887.
By 1890 the first series of Dickinson poems were set to be released by Roberts Brothers Publishing. The head of the business, Thomas Niles, agreed to publish only if Lavinia paid for the plates, writing: "It had always seemed to me that it would be unwise to perpetuate Ms. Dickinson's poems. They are quite as remarkable for defects as for beauties & are generally devoid of true poetical qualities" (Franklin 20). Arlo Bates, the reader for Roberts Brothers, offered his own opinion: "There is hardly any of these poems which does not bear marks of an unusual and remarkable talent; there is hardly any one of them which is not marked by an extraordinary crudity of workmanship..." (Franklin 21). Bates was ultimately responsible for which poems appeared in the first series, choosing 90 out of 116 in the collection.
The first series of poems were released on November 12th, 1890, followed by the second series on November 9th, 1891. Both of these volumes were a commercial success. The third series, compiled without Higginson's editorial assistance due to his failing health, entered the market on September 1st, 1896. In comparison to the preceding volumes, the reception for the third series was lackluster.
Much has been made of alterations Higginson and Todd made to Dickinson's manuscripts. For instance, changes were made to 49 out of 116 poems in the first series, 17 of which changed the meaning of a line. Domhnall Mitchell offers the following comparison in Measures of Possibility"":
1998 Franklin version:
A narrow Fellow in
the Grass
Occasionally rides --
You may have met Him
did you not
His notice sudden is --
1891 Todd and Higginson version:
A NARROW fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;
You may have met him, -- did you not,
His notice sudden is.
In addition to the evident changes above, the poem was also given the title "The Snake", which Dickinson herself did not bestow upon it. As Franklin declares: "The error, the deception, comes in passing off these poems as Emily Dickinson's. They are Dickinson-Todd-Higginson's. They are, quite simply, poetry." Millicent Todd Bingham wrote of the changes: "In my mother's defense I should repeat that she did these things to protect Emily. The dose must not be too strong, Even after the smoothing-off process the way-wardness of the poems was still offensive to many readers." In any case, the changes were made to serve the conventions of the 1890s.
Three volumes of Dickinson's verse edited by her neice Martha Dickinson Bianchi were published some time later. The Single Hound was released on September 19th, 1914, and was composed of 147 poems sent to Sue Dickinson between 1858 and 1886. Little demand was ezpected, and only 595 copies were printed. Next came The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1924, which combined all of the previous volumes and added 5 unpublished poems. Finally, Bianchi came forth with Further Poems, which was published on March 16th, 1929. Bianchi rearranged 106 of the 175 poems in the volume, and while the book was a resounding literary success at the time of its release, it is now regarded as the most faulty of all of the editions. Poetry magazine wrote of Further Poems: "They are mainly the sort of poem which every author leaves out of his published volume -- unfinished, hasty, not always musical" (Lubbers 144).
Millicent Todd Bingham edited the well received Bolts of Melody in 1945. The book contained 650 new poems by Dickinson. Soon after this event the Dickinson family materiels were sold to Harvard University, while the Todd family collection went to the Amherst College Library. It was from these archives that Thomas H. Johnson compiled The Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1955. Johnson's edition eradicated the changes made by previous editors and included 41 unpublished poems, increasing the canon to 1,775 poems. Subsequent volumes edited by William H. Shurr and R.W. Frankin brought the Dickinson canon to well over 2,000 poems.
The Dickinson "auction" has endured for over a century, and her place as one of the most important poets of our time is established. As literary critic Thomas H. Dickinson said, "Emily Dickinson is now recognized as the true herald and precursor of the modern poetic renaissance. More than Whitman, she represents the qualities that the poets of the twentieth century strive for. This being the case, it is probably fortunate rather than otherwise that her poems were not published during her lifetime. They would not have been understood" (Lubbers 191).
[edit] A Chronology of Important Editions
- 1890
Poems by Emily Dickinson
Edited by Thomas Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd
Higginson noted of the poems in the preface to the first edition:
"They were something produced absolutely without the thought of publication, and solely by way of expression of the author's own mind."
Todd changed much of Dickinson's spelling, wording, and punctuation to appeal to 1890s sensibilities.
- 1891
Poems Second Series
Edited by Thomas Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd
- 1896
Poems Third Series
Edited by Mabel Loomis Todd
- 1914
The Single Hound
Edited by Martha Dickinson Bianchi
Composed primarily of poems Emily had sent to her sister in law, Sue Dickinson.
- 1924
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Edited by Martha Dickinson Bianchi
This edition combined all three Poems Series from the 1890s with the The Single Hound volume.
- 1929
Further Poems
Edited by Martha Dickinson Bianchi
Consisted of poems previously withheld by Emily's sister Lavinia.
- 1945
Bolts of Melody
Edited by Millicent Todd Bingham
Introduced 650 new poems by Dickinson.
- 1955
The Poems of Emily Dickinson
Edited by Thomas H. Johnson
Johnson restored the original wording and punctuation of Dickinson's manuscripts.
- 1981
The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson
Edited by R.W. Franklin
A volume of facsimile reproductions that feuled further debate on her punctuation, capitalization, and stanza divisions.
- 1993
New Poems of Emily Dickinson
Edited by William H. Shurr
Added 498 new poems to the Dickinson canon, yet these sparked controversy as they were largely culled from her letters.
- 1998
The Poems of Emily Dickinson
Edited by R.W. Franklin
Added 17 poems to the Dickinson canon
[edit] Bibliography
- Bingham Todd, Millicent. Ancestor's Brocades: The Literary Debut of Emily Dickinson.
New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers. 1945.
- Franklin, Ralph William. The Editing of Emily Dickinson: A Reconsideration.
Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press. 1967.
- Lubbers, Klaus. Emily Dickinson: The Critical Revolution.
Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. 1968.
- Martin, Wendy. ed. The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson.
United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. 2002.
- Mitchell, Domhnall. Measures of Possibility: Emily Dickinson's Manuscripts.
Amherst. University of Massachusettes Press. 2005.
