First Edition of Dickinson's "Poems", Second Series in Original Cloth

DICKINSON, Emily.

Poems by Emily Dickinson [Second Series]. Edited by Two of Her Friends T. W. Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd. Second Series.

Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1891.

Full Description:

DICKINSON, Emily. Poems by Emily Dickinson. Edited by Two of Her Friends T. W. Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd. Second Series. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1891.

First edition. Small octavo (6 7/8 x 4 1/2 inches; 175 x 115 mm). [3, blank], [1, publisher’s ad], [4, facsimile manuscript], [1]-230, [2, blank] pp. With four pages facsimile manuscript of "Renunciation."

Publisher’s gray-green cloth over beveled boards. Front cover and spine lettered and pictorial stamped in gilt. Top edge gilt. Spine somewhat darkened and rubbed. Some light rubbing to board edges. Some foxing to endpapers and fore-edge of the text. Evidence of a removed bookplate to front pastedown. Some minor red ink stains to foot of rear board. Overall, a very good copy of this rare item.

"When Emily Dickinson died in 1886, she was unknown as a poet outside of a small circle of family and friends. Dickinson’s poetic legacy consisted of almost 1800 poems, and no instructions about what to do with them... After discovering hundreds of Emily’s poems shortly after her death, the poet’s sister Lavinia resolved that the poetry must be published... To fulfill her vision, Lavinia turned to Mabel Loomis Todd, the vivacious young wife of an Amherst College professor... An accomplished artist and musician, Todd brought much-needed vitality and commitment to preparing Dickinson’s poetry for publication. After finally enlisting Thomas Wentworth Higginson as co-editor, Todd completed Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1890, just four years after the poet’s death. The two editors made changes to the poems, regularizing punctuation, adding occasional titles, and sometimes altering words to improve rhyme or sense. Encouraged by the first collection’s success, Todd and Higginson published a second volume, Poems of Emily Dickinson, Second Series (1891). Public curiosity about the previously unknown poet prompted both editors, but especially Todd, to promote the work through lectures and journal articles. Todd alone edited a collection of Dickinson’s letters (1894) and a third volume of poems Poems of Emily Dickinson, Third Series (1896)." (Emily Dickinson Museum).

BAL 4656.

HBS 69700.

$6,000.

Price: $6,000.00

Item #69700