Her Work

Emily Dickinson’s writing became much acclaimed worldwide and highly valued posthumously. She is portrayed as the mystic dressed in white, a recluse and as a great and original American poet (Bouson 1). Being the extremely private individual that she was she did not publish or share her writing with others with the exception of the letters she wrote. She once said that “Publication is the Auction/Of the Mind of Man” (Holmstrom 1). This is a very profound statement that emphasizes her dignity and the self preservation and privacy of her mind. She is known for her unique poems and extremely introvert nature.  Dickinson’s manuscripts have become literary relics that are now stored at Harvard Houghton’s Library (Holmstrom 1). 

However, her original work has been available since October of 2013 on Emily Dickinson's Archive. Collaboration between Harvard, Yale, Amherst College, Boston Public Library, and others made this possible and they promise the future release of letters and other historical additions of her work (Holmstrom 1). After her death, close to 1800 poems bound into small booklets were found locked away in one of her drawers. On her death bed she requested from her sister, whom she was very close with, that she burn all of her writing. Although her sister burned most of the letters, one can only imagine the deception that Emily would have felt had she known of her sister’s betrayal and the publication of her work. However, if it were not for her betrayal Emily Dickinson would not have become a household name. 

After this discovery her work was published in 1890. Dickinson’s editors, whom consisted of her personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Todd, struggled with her eccentric punctuation, ambiguous lineation and quirks of calligraphy (Holmstrom 2). Thus the editors had to creatively fill in the blanks, uncertainties, and grammatical quirks that they did not understand. Ralph Franklin with the help of literary critics such as Marta Werner, Martha Nell Smith and Jerome J. McGann began to shuffle through Emily’s manuscripts and tried to produce the most authentic version of her writing possible and in 1981 Franklin published this authentic version on “The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson” (Holmstrom 2).