Dickinson, Emily | First edition, first issue, owned by T.W. Higginson's brother

Dickinson, Emily

Poems ... Edited by two of her Friends. Mabel Loomis Todd and T.W. Higginson. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1890

12mo (176 x 116 mm). Title-page; front free endpaper and title-page separated but loosely inserted, stray marginal marks in pencil, some of which erased, light toning. Grey and white publisher's cloth stamped and lettered in gilt, silver "Indian pipes" motif (Myerson's B binding, no priority), top edge gilt; hinges cracked but holding, rubbed at extremities with exposure to corners, some soiling to boards.

The rare first edition, first issue of Dickinson's first published book of poetry, the present copy belonging to the brother one of its editors, T.W. Higginson. Dickinson published a mere 11 poems in her lifetime. It was only after her death in 1886, that her sister discovered a locked box containing 1,775 of her manuscript poems. Mable Todd—a friend of Dickinson's—edited and published three series of her poems along with Higginson, who had been an extremely significant relationship in Dickinson's life. A literary mentor and correspondent throughout her life, Dickinson referred to him as her "preceptor," and some have argued that he is the "Master" of her "Master" letters. Higginson visited the poet at her home in Amherst twice, in 1870 and 1873. Of meeting her, he recounted to his wife, "I never was with any one who drained my nerve power so much. Without touching me, she drew from me. I am glad not to live near her." Despite their closeness, he wrote in The Atlantic Monthly in 1891, "The bee himself did not evade the schoolboy more than she evaded me; and even at this day I still stand somewhat bewildered, like the boy." Following her death, he and Todd sought to publish this collection of her works, which heavily edited the original manuscripts, changing her idiosyncratic punctuation and making her sui generis work conform to more conventional diction and rhyme structure. The present copy of this edition belonged to Higginson's brother, Waldo Higginson—a compelling association to a poet nearly defined by her reclusiveness.

REFERENCE:

Grolier, American 100-91; Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, "Emily Dickinson's Letters," The Atlantic Monthly, 1891; Myerson A.1.1.a

PROVENANCE:

Waldo Higginson (armorial bookplate to pastedown)