The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition (Belknap) [Hardcover]

Emily Dickinson (Author), R. W. Franklin (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Belknap | Publication Date: September 24, 1999

Emily Dickinson, poet of the interior life, imagined words/swords, hurling barbed syllables/piercing. Nothing about her adult appearance or habitation revealed such a militant soul. Only poems, written quietly in a room of her own, often hand-stitched in small volumes, then hidden in a drawer, revealed her true self. She did not live in time but in universals--an acute, sensitive nature reaching out boldly from self-referral to a wider, imagined world.

Dickinson died without fame; only a few poems were published in her lifetime. Her legacy was later rescued from her desk--an astonishing body of work, much of which has since appeared in piecemeal editions, sometimes with words altered by editors or publishers according to the fashion of the day.

Now Ralph Franklin, the foremost scholar of Dickinson's manuscripts, has prepared an authoritative one-volume edition of all extant poems by Emily Dickinson--1,789 poems in all, the largest number ever assembled. This reading edition derives from his three-volume work, The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Variorum Edition (1998), which contains approximately 2,500 sources for the poems. In this one-volume edition, Franklin offers a single reading of each poem--usually the latest version of the entire poem--rendered with Dickinson's spelling, punctuation, and capitalization intact. The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition is a milestone in American literary scholarship and an indispensable addition to the personal library of poetry lovers everywhere.

(20001001)

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is now the definitive text of Dickinson, a poet one can open at random and find something exhilarating. (The Guardian )

Mr. Franklin is the recognized authority on Emily Dickinson's poetry and gives us 1,789 poems, the largest and most accurate collection of her verse...For all those who love Emily Dickinson's unique verse this is a treasure trove from which to choose. This is a publishing coup of the first order. (Contemporary Review )

Not only is it the 'authoritative' and 'definitive' edition of her complete poems, it is a gorgeous volume printed by the Belknap Press, complete with a crimson ribbon bookmark...For those who like Emily Dickinson and who want all the poems as she wrote them, unmolested by well-meaning editors and thoughtless publishers, this is the book. In one volume you can hold the closest thing to the real Dickinson that anyone will ever get. (bn.com )

About the Author

R. W. Franklin was Director of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. He is the recipient of the Emily Dickinson International Society's Award for Outstanding Contribution.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 696 pages
• Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; Reading ed edition (September 24, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674676246
• ISBN-13: 978-0674676244
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #286,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

105 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New readers's edition is authoritative, September 28, 2004

By 

George H. Soule (Edwardsville, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition (Belknap) (Hardcover)

Now there are two readers' editions of Emily Dickinson's poems that are usable for close readings and scholarship. By usable, I mean that the texts--note the word "texts"--are close to what Emily Dickinson wanted them to be. The earlier Thomas H. Johnson text has been an acceptable and competent version since it was published in 1955. Johnson's readers' edition-the one without all the scholarly apparatus-contains 1775 poems. (In the same year Belknap Press of Harvard University Press issued his three-volume variorum of all the known poems.) This is cool. This new version of Emily Dickinson poems was edited by R.W. Franklin, and the readers' edition was published in 1999. It contains 1789 poems-unfortunately with a different numbering than Johnson--based, we are told, on probable date of composition. Franklin also edited a fresh variorum edition also published by Belknap Press of Harvard. I am boring you with all of this detail to tell you that although the Johnson texts are good texts if you are serious about Dickinson--meaning if you actually care about what she wrote on the page--the Franklin will give accurate texts and is the new authority. F.W. Franklin has been working since the '60's on details where Johnson perhaps lacked information and insight. He knows whereof he speaks, and he has done his utmost to reassemble Ms. Dickinson's original manuscripts in their proper order. Previous versions of the poems--those before Johnson and Franklin--regularized rhyme and otherwise abrogated the accuracy of the poems. They were cleaned up according to late 19th century standards, and the texts--despite editorial comments to the contrary--are corrupt. That means that they are inaccurate. In conclusion, if you want Emily Dickinson with accuracy--despite the rapturous testimony of some reviewers of other presentations of the poems--go for the Johnson or Franklin texts. Franklin is most current and should be impeccable. Other texts, including some that are in supposedly respectable American literature anthologies, may be suspect. (One of the most respectable uses texts that derive from late 19th century texts that were declared corrupt some 40 years ago.)

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally!, December 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Variorum Edition) (Hardcover)

Emily Dickinson finally has an edition of her poems that she fully deserves. As many readers know, many of her poems were left with variations in words and phrases. Sometimes, whole poems exist in completely different versions -- but the problem is that a "final" form for some poems is not as easy as it might seem since Dickinson herself left many variations on words and phrases without favouring a particular one! One could say that "final" versions for many of her poems simply do not exist. The Johnson edition (the old "definitive" edition) of the complete poems makes choices for the reader -- choices which, unfortunately, are not always the best. This new edition presents the poetry with all the variations intact, so that the reader could choose for him/herself a particular reading when Dickinson herself did not leave a final preference. This new edition is a *must* for anyone who loves Dickinson's poetry (such as myself) -- and it emphasizes just how rich and imaginative Dickinson's use of language really is. Dump your Johnson edition for recycling, folks. This is the definitive edition, worth every penny (and then some) of its rather high price.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most important poetry collections available, March 16, 2007

By 

D. Fineman "[e-mail]" (L. A., CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition (Paperback)

If you know Dickinson's compositional method -- with almost no publication in her lifetime, often with many versions of one poem, and with poetic significance altered by the paper and exact handwriting -- you will recognize that any printed edition of her work cannot be perfect. Still, Franklin has worked with care, intelligence, scholarship, and order on finding the best renditions of her poems, and these are those. If you learn to love her, you may want the hardback! Her "little" lyrics are a joy forever, and you may wear out your copy.