[DICKINSON, EMILY] | The Indicator: A Literary Periodical Conducted by the Students of Amherst College. Volume II. Amherst: Published by the Editors, June, 1849 - April, 1850

The Property of a Gentleman

[DICKINSON, EMILY]

The Indicator: A Literary Periodical Conducted by the Students of Amherst College. Volume II. Amherst: Published by the Editors, June, 1849 - April, 1850

8vo. Woodcut vignette to title-page; minor toning and offsetting, a few stray spots. Half-brown calf over contemporary marbled boards, edges speckled red, brown endpapers; rebacked, some rubbing to extremities. In custom clamshell case. 

Dickinson's first published work, in the form of a valentine (pp. 223-4)

"Sir, I desire an interview; meet me at sunrise, or sunset, or the new moon—the place is immaterial..."

Dickinson's valentine (published anonymously) appeared in the February 1850 issue of Amherst College's newly-formed student literary magazine, The Indicator. Like all of Dickinson’s writings published during her lifetime, it was believed to have appeared without her consent. It would seems that the editors of the magazine received a number of contributions from female admirers, but selected this one for publication. 

It is likely that Dickinson's valentine was intended for George Gould, and editor of The Indicator. Gould was a commanding 6’8″, and from rural Worcester County. He was also regarded as one of the most brilliant men of Amherst’s class of 1850. Gould was a classmate, friend, and fraternity brother of Austin Dickinson, Emily's brother. Given this, he would have been on close terms with the family.  

The valentine is a flurry of effusive langue and stirring imagery: "Our friendship sir," Dickinson writes, "shall endure till sun and moon shall wane no more, till stars shall set, and victims rise to grace the final sacrifice...I am Judith the heroine of the Apocrypha, and you are the orator of Ephasus..."

We locate no records for this at auction — the "black tulip" for any Dickinson collector.

PROVENANCE:

James Buckland (ownership signature to title-page)