Emily Dickinson poems

This collection consists of 40 "packets," or fascicles, containing poems by Emily Dickinson. Dickinson used the manuscript books as a way of organizing her poetry, and copied into them poems composed on other sheets and scraps. For the most part, then, these poems are fair copies, not real working drafts. Some, however, do contain alterations, or alternative word choices; this is indicated in the finding aid.

The term "fascicle" refers to the sheets bound/sewn together by Dickinson; "set" is a term used by Ralph Franklin to indicate fascicle sheets never bound by Dickinson, which he has grouped together by similarity of paper and date. After Dickinson's death, the manuscripts were disbound; when received at Houghton Library, none of the packets were still sewn.

Other hands than that of the poet have written on these manuscripts, as detailed by Ralph Franklin in his "Introduction" to The manuscript books. Lavinia Dickinson, the poet's sister who found the manuscripts following Emily's death, turned them over to her sister-in- law, Susan Huntington Dickinson. Susan's letters D, F, L., N, P, S, and W occur at the head of poems in several fascicles (see, for example, item (69)). The letter H is probably also hers. The meaning of these letters is not absolutely clear, although they seem to indicate certain themes: D for a poem about death, for example. Susan's numbers 1, 2, and 3 also appear on the manuscripts (e.g. item (35)). The markings of crosses X, XX, XXX have been traditionally ascribed to Lavinia, but Franklin attributes them to Susan.

After about two years, when Susan had not finished work on the poems, Lavinia gave a box of them to Mabel Todd; and in 1890, turned a second box over to her. Todd numbered the manuscripts in blue pencil (1-38, 40, 80-85) and in lead pencil (86-95) and made two marks in blue pencil, an X on the last verso of the bound fascicles in her possession and an occasional mark i the upper right corner of the first recto of others. She also marked the manuscripts by crossing out words and wrote alternates; and sometimes wrote instructions to her copyist, Harriet Graves.

Lavinia and Mabel Todd quarrelled after Todd had published three books of Dickinson's poetry (1890, 1891, 1896). Lavinia retrieved most of the manuscripts, but some remained with Todd. Lavinia then turned to Mary Lee Hall for help in copying poems out. In determining which of the manuscript poems had been previously published, Hall wrote a 0 to indicate "not published"; a 1 to the left of a poem is also hers, indicating it was published in the first Todd collection. Hall returned the manuscripts to Lavinia shortly before Lavinia's death in August 1899. Additional marks were added by Lavinia's niece, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, who wrote "no" to indicate poems which were still unpublished.

The division of the manuscripts between the Dickinson and Todd families continued into the twentieth century, with each branch publishing selections. Lavinia left her manuscripts to her niece, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, who in turn left them to Alfred Leete Hampson, from whom Gilbert H. Montague purchased them to present to the Houghton Library in 1950. The Todd manuscripts came to rest at Amherst College.