On a late-July trip to Cape Charles on Virginia’s Eastern Shore (at the southern tip of the DelMarVa Peninsula), I stopped into a branch of their public library system to see what works they had on hand related to Emily Dickinson. Five of my recent posts have highlighted what they had on the shelves, and today I have one final entry, “The Oxford Book of American Poetry, Chosen and Edited by David Lehman.”
 | David Lehman is a poet, non-fiction writer, literary critic, and creator of “The Best American Poetry” series (info HERE), and back in 2006 he served as the editor for the new Oxford Book of American Poetry. Info on Lehman on the Poetry Foundation site is HERE. This morning, I found this description of the book: “Here is the eagerly awaited new edition of The Oxford Book of American Poetry brought completely up to date and dramatically expanded by poet David Lehman. It is a rich, capacious volume, featuring the work of more than 200 poets-almost three times as many as the 1976 edition.” |
| This 2006 edition has 43 poems by Dickinson. Hmm…I wonder how many were in the 1976 edition (and/or if they are the same poems)? I’ll check that out later. The description also said this: “With a succinct and often witty head note introducing each author, it is certain to become the definitive anthology of American poetry for our time.” |  |  |
Aargh! I wish I had opened the book to page 163 to see his “witty head note” to introduce Dickinson. I wonder what he said?
Well, lo and behold: I found an online copy of the book available HERE, and his introduction to Dickinson is shown in the pic below. I agree wholeheartedly that his comments are succinct and witty!
Well, lo and behold: I found an online copy of the book available HERE, and his introduction to Dickinson is shown in the pic below. I agree wholeheartedly that his comments are succinct and witty!
I love the tittle-tattle on Dickinson and Whitman – “She and Walt Whitman are our two poetic grandparents, yet he had never heard of her, and she, when asked for her opinion of Leaves of Grass, said of Whitman, ‘I never read his book — but was told that he was disgraceful.”
Hmm…I believe recently I peered into another ED book with an introduction by Joyce Carol Oates, and she wrote similar titillating chitchat. I’ll look into this and report back on it later too.
And look at this: Lehman added parenthetically, “(See Donald Hall's poem "The Impossible Marriage," about these two unwed poets on their imaginary wedding day, in this volume).”
I most certainly will (and yes, you can expect a future post about all of this Dickinson-Whitman stuff).
Oops! Lehman’s 2006 intro does include one bit of erroneous info: "Only seven of her 1,775 poems were published in her lifetime….”
For years, it was thought that “only seven” of her poems had been published in her lifetime; however, in the 1980s Karen Dandurand discovered that three other poems been published in the Civil War publication “The Drum Beat,” (“'Blazing in Gold and quenching in Purple,” “Flowers Well if anybody,” and “These are the days when Birds come Back”) bringing the total of Dickinson poems published in her lifetime to ten.
I had a couple of other non-Oxford-Anthology tidbits for today, but I’ll save them for tomorrow. Hmm...a couple more Oxford-Anthology tidbits just popped into my brain, but I'll save them for tomorrow too.
Hmm…I believe recently I peered into another ED book with an introduction by Joyce Carol Oates, and she wrote similar titillating chitchat. I’ll look into this and report back on it later too.
And look at this: Lehman added parenthetically, “(See Donald Hall's poem "The Impossible Marriage," about these two unwed poets on their imaginary wedding day, in this volume).”
I most certainly will (and yes, you can expect a future post about all of this Dickinson-Whitman stuff).
Oops! Lehman’s 2006 intro does include one bit of erroneous info: "Only seven of her 1,775 poems were published in her lifetime….”
For years, it was thought that “only seven” of her poems had been published in her lifetime; however, in the 1980s Karen Dandurand discovered that three other poems been published in the Civil War publication “The Drum Beat,” (“'Blazing in Gold and quenching in Purple,” “Flowers Well if anybody,” and “These are the days when Birds come Back”) bringing the total of Dickinson poems published in her lifetime to ten.
I had a couple of other non-Oxford-Anthology tidbits for today, but I’ll save them for tomorrow. Hmm...a couple more Oxford-Anthology tidbits just popped into my brain, but I'll save them for tomorrow too.
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