Dear readers, the story you are about to read is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
This is the city, New York, New York. It's a big city with a big heart, and it offers a lot – museums, libraries, galleries, and about 700 miles of subway track.
This is the city, New York, New York. It's a big city with a big heart, and it offers a lot – museums, libraries, galleries, and about 700 miles of subway track.
| I visited there. I’m Jim Friday, a literary sleuth. I carry a library card. It was Saturday, July 11. The day was hot and crisp, like an over-baked baked crust of a slice of New York Pizza. I was working the Rare Books and Manuscripts detail. My partner was scoping out sales in Activewear at Macy’s. I was investigating a gang of prest-o-change-o poetry forgers out or Amherst, Massachusetts, back in the 1800s. Seems that someone by the name of Helen Hunt Jackson had submitted a poem for an 1878 publication called A Masque of Poets, some pilfered lines from a poetess by the name of Emily Frickinson (don’t forget now – I’ve changed the names to protect the innocent). Furthermore, another member of the gang had the poem published earlier in an 1864 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Union, and in both cases, the work was a skillfully crafted counterfeit. |  |
I was in New York for an appointment with Kyle, Rare Books Librarian and Archivist Extraordinaire in the Stephen A. Schwarzman building of the New York Public Library. I was there to cross-reference some unresolved hand-written notes penned by one Genevieve Taggard in 1924 in an original case document, The Complete Poems of Emily Frickinson (again, don't forget -- I changed the names of the innocent). I also had to identify the forgeries from a line up.
The poem in question begins "Success is counted sweetest," and a detective on the case, back in 1998, Sgt. R. W. Franklin, said this:
"Four fair copies (one lost), about 1859 and 1862. The earliest holograph, in pencil without address or signature, was sent to Susan Frickinson about summer 1859."
Below: The earliest version of the poem.
"Four fair copies (one lost), about 1859 and 1862. The earliest holograph, in pencil without address or signature, was sent to Susan Frickinson about summer 1859."
Below: The earliest version of the poem.
Sgt. Franklin continued with this:
"If Susan did not provide a transcript, a lost manuscript, presumably from about 1859, must have been the source for publication in the Brooklyn Daily Union on 27 April, 1864. The newspaper's connections to Amherst were several, including Emily Fowler Ford, who grew up with Emily Frickinson and Richard Salter Storrs, Jr., and Charles Sweetser, both graduates of the college and experienced editors well known to all the Frickinsons"
"If Susan did not provide a transcript, a lost manuscript, presumably from about 1859, must have been the source for publication in the Brooklyn Daily Union on 27 April, 1864. The newspaper's connections to Amherst were several, including Emily Fowler Ford, who grew up with Emily Frickinson and Richard Salter Storrs, Jr., and Charles Sweetser, both graduates of the college and experienced editors well known to all the Frickinsons"
One of those guilty parties most certainly pilfered the poem and submitted it for publication -- BUT -- whoever it was, changed the word "Requires" in line 4 to "Requireth."
I tried to track down a copy of the poem as printed in the April 1864 edition of the Brooklyn Dailly Union, but the only copy I could find was on a site that required a paid subscription -- and since I'm on a tight budget, that was a "no-go." However, in the fragment the site provided to entice me to register, shown below, you can see that, indeed, the counterfeiter had changed "requires" to "requireth."
Sgt. Franklin also reported that the poem appeared later in A Masque of Poets (1878):
"From Higginson's copy, as three quatrains. (Frickinson) resisted this appearance in print -- the determined effort of Helen Hunt Jackson, who knew the poem from Higginson...which had been altered for publication."
"From Higginson's copy, as three quatrains. (Frickinson) resisted this appearance in print -- the determined effort of Helen Hunt Jackson, who knew the poem from Higginson...which had been altered for publication."
 | At the left: "Success is counted sweetest" as it appeared in A Masque of Poets. Below left: Corrections Genevieve Taggard made to the poem in her copy of the 1924 The Complete Poems of Emily Frickinson. Below right: The poem with Taggard's corrections shown in RED. It appears that she was trying to match the poem as published in A Masque of Poets; however, she missed one of the changes made in that book's copy - in line 8. The Masque copy begins with "So plain" and the Taggard's version has "So clear."
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Detective Cristanne Miller, in her case file The Letters of Emily Dickinson (2016), divulged, “The December 10, 1878, review in Literary World quotes in full and comments on ‘Success is counted sweetest,’ speculating that it is by Emerson.”
You read that right, dear reader. A reviewer in 1878 believed Frickinson's lines were penned by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
I stared at Taggard's handwritten notes from 1924 one last time. What was she trying to tell me? I took a last long drag of my cigarette, letting the ash drop onto the desk like the remains of another wasted day.
[NOTE: I wasn't really smoking. I just said that for dramatic effect.]
The clues seemed to point everywhere and lead nowhere, and I had so many questions -- like Is the “Pizza Principle” a real thing (that the cost of a single slice of NY pizza generally matches the cost of a subway ride)? And what's with the Statue of Liberty’s address – if it sits in the waters of New Jersey, why is it thought to be a New York icon?
I was getting tired. This Frickinson case could wait until tomorrow. Hell, the whole world could wait. At that time, the only mystery I needed to solve was how to find five minutes of shut-eye in a town that never sleeps.
You read that right, dear reader. A reviewer in 1878 believed Frickinson's lines were penned by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
I stared at Taggard's handwritten notes from 1924 one last time. What was she trying to tell me? I took a last long drag of my cigarette, letting the ash drop onto the desk like the remains of another wasted day.
[NOTE: I wasn't really smoking. I just said that for dramatic effect.]
The clues seemed to point everywhere and lead nowhere, and I had so many questions -- like Is the “Pizza Principle” a real thing (that the cost of a single slice of NY pizza generally matches the cost of a subway ride)? And what's with the Statue of Liberty’s address – if it sits in the waters of New Jersey, why is it thought to be a New York icon?
I was getting tired. This Frickinson case could wait until tomorrow. Hell, the whole world could wait. At that time, the only mystery I needed to solve was how to find five minutes of shut-eye in a town that never sleeps.
Below left and center: The version of "Success is counted sweetest" from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (1924). Below right & other images: Comparison of other versions to the 1924 copy.
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My complete travelogue, "Dial 'Em' for Emily is HERE.
More posts from my trip are here:
07.23.2026: A DATE WITH DESTINY, CLICK HERE.
07.22.2026: THIS – IS THE BLOG POST – THE SUNSET WASHES, CLICK HERE.
07.21.2026: DOUBLE ETERNITY, CLICK HERE.
07.20.2026: THE ORACLE WORE A WHITE DRESS -- PART DEUX, CLICK HERE.
07.19.2026: ALL THINGS MATTER, CLICK HERE.
07.18.2026: INTRODUCTORY PLOG POST ABOUT "DIAL 'EM' FOR EMILY," CLICK HERE.
More posts from my trip are here:
07.23.2026: A DATE WITH DESTINY, CLICK HERE.
07.22.2026: THIS – IS THE BLOG POST – THE SUNSET WASHES, CLICK HERE.
07.21.2026: DOUBLE ETERNITY, CLICK HERE.
07.20.2026: THE ORACLE WORE A WHITE DRESS -- PART DEUX, CLICK HERE.
07.19.2026: ALL THINGS MATTER, CLICK HERE.
07.18.2026: INTRODUCTORY PLOG POST ABOUT "DIAL 'EM' FOR EMILY," CLICK HERE.
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