Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson » (1 ED)

Ellen Louise Hart is the author of articles on editing Emily Dickinson that have appeared in The Emily Dickinson International Society Bulletin, Emily Dickinson Journal, An Emily Dickinson Encyclopedia, Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, The Women's Review of Books, and The Heath Anthology of American Literature. She teaches writing and literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Martha Nell Smith is the author of Rowing in Eden: Rereading Emily Dickinson, and co-author of The Comic Power in Emily Dickinson. She is professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park and is coordinator of the Dickinson Electronic Archives Project.

Emily Dickinson's uncensored and breathtaking letters and poems to her sister-in-law, Susan Huntington Dickinson.

Library Journal

This intriguing new collection of letters and poems, compiled by two noted Dickinson scholars, reveals a little-known side of one of America's best-loved poets. Documenting a 36-year correspondence between Emily Dickinson and her sister-in-law, Susan Huntington Dickinson, the book does much to negate the popular image of Emily as a mysterious, lonely recluse. In writing filled with warmth, humor, playfulness, and joy, Emily shows her profound attachment to Susan as a friend and as an object of literary inspiration. The romantic and often erotically charged writings, censored or misinterpreted in earlier collections, will surprise many readers. Building upon standard works such as Thomas Johnson's Letters of Emily Dickinson (1958), Hart and Smith revise earlier scholarship and provide fresh commentary. Published by a highly selective feminist press that typically produces only two titles per year, this book is an important acquisition for academic and larger public libraries.--Ellen Sullivan, Ferguson Lib., Stamford, CT

 Publisher's Note....................................................ix Introduction........................................................xi A Note on the Text.................................................xxi Chronology........................................................xxxi SECTION ONE Why Susie! Early Writings, 1850 to mid-1850s....................................1 SECTION TWO Sue, Dear Sue, Sweet Sue, Sister Early Middle Writings, mid-1850s to mid-1860s.......................61 SECTION THREE The Incidents of Love Late Middle Writings, mid-1860s to mid-1870s.......................145 SECTION FOUR To Be Susan Is Imagination Late Writings, mid-1870s to May 1886...............................201 Coda...............................................................265 Key to Materials...................................................269 Notes..............................................................271 Acknowledgments....................................................297 Bibliography.......................................................299 Index of First Lines...............................................305 Index of Names and Subjects........................................313