My recent posts have focused on the difficulties faced by Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higgins in the late 1880s as they were preparing Emily Dickinson’s poetry for publication.
Yesterday’s post included a quote from Millicent Todd Bingham detailing what her mother had told her surrounding the editing recommendations and rulings she and Higginson had to make:
“When Emily Dickinson was unknown, her acceptance by the literary world problematical, such decisions were weighty. The poems chosen to introduce her must not be too queer. The editors never ceased to feel handicapped by this limitation.”
Due to the “problematical” nature of Dickinson’s work (i.e, in form, punctuation, capitalization, syntax, grammar, etc.), publishers in 1890 weren’t keen on printing her work.
Bingham’s father, David Peck Todd, told her that Colonel Higginson first recommended the poems to Houghton Mifflin Company for publication, as he was one of their readers at the time. They declined. The poems, they said, “were much too queer – the rhymes were all wrong.”
Her father added, “they thought that Higginson must be losing his mind to recommend such stuff.”
Ultimately, Roberts Brothers agreed to publish the poems. However, take a look at this letter from company representative Thomas Niles to Higginson from June 1890:
Dear Mr. Higginson:
It has always seemed to me that it would be unwise to perpetuate Miss Dickinson’s poems. They are quite as remarkable for defects as for beauties and are generally devoid of true poetical qualities. If, however, Miss Dickinson (i.e., Emily’s sister Lavinia) will pay for the plates, we will publish from them at our expense a small ed, say 500, which shall be exempt from copyright, all future issues to be subject to 15% copyright on the retail price of all sold.”
Mr. Niles, by the way, had shared copies of the poems with poet Arlo Bates. Niles’ letter continues:
Yesterday’s post included a quote from Millicent Todd Bingham detailing what her mother had told her surrounding the editing recommendations and rulings she and Higginson had to make:
“When Emily Dickinson was unknown, her acceptance by the literary world problematical, such decisions were weighty. The poems chosen to introduce her must not be too queer. The editors never ceased to feel handicapped by this limitation.”
Due to the “problematical” nature of Dickinson’s work (i.e, in form, punctuation, capitalization, syntax, grammar, etc.), publishers in 1890 weren’t keen on printing her work.
Bingham’s father, David Peck Todd, told her that Colonel Higginson first recommended the poems to Houghton Mifflin Company for publication, as he was one of their readers at the time. They declined. The poems, they said, “were much too queer – the rhymes were all wrong.”
Her father added, “they thought that Higginson must be losing his mind to recommend such stuff.”
Ultimately, Roberts Brothers agreed to publish the poems. However, take a look at this letter from company representative Thomas Niles to Higginson from June 1890:
Dear Mr. Higginson:
It has always seemed to me that it would be unwise to perpetuate Miss Dickinson’s poems. They are quite as remarkable for defects as for beauties and are generally devoid of true poetical qualities. If, however, Miss Dickinson (i.e., Emily’s sister Lavinia) will pay for the plates, we will publish from them at our expense a small ed, say 500, which shall be exempt from copyright, all future issues to be subject to 15% copyright on the retail price of all sold.”
Mr. Niles, by the way, had shared copies of the poems with poet Arlo Bates. Niles’ letter continues:
| “I enclose Mr Arlo Bates’ criticisms, not, however, for any other purpose than to shew (sic) you the opinion of a poet who is not apt to be optimistic.” Who, exactly, was Arlo Bates? According to a footnote by Bingham in “Ancestors’ Brocades, the Literary Debut of Emily Dickinson”: |  |  |
“In view of Mr. Bates’s estimate of Emily’s poems it is well to recall his own standing as a poet at that time. A review of his book, “The Poet and His Self” (1891), in the Boston Herald contained these words: Arlo Bates ‘gives greater promise of high and enduring power than almost any other American poet of our own generation.”
Take a look at Bates’ book HERE – the work from the poet who gave “greater promise of high and enduring power than any other American poet.” Let me know what you think.
Take a look at Bates’ book HERE – the work from the poet who gave “greater promise of high and enduring power than any other American poet.” Let me know what you think.
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