There was also discussion as to the use of “lain” (vs. “laid”) in line 3 of “I died for Beauty, but was scarce,” but Thomas Wentworth Higginson insisted no change be made with that.
In an 1891 letter from Higginson to Mabel Loomis Todd about the various changes needed, Higginson wrote, “I have forwarded your corrections except the ‘lain’ which I think had better stay as it is.”
In that same letter, though, he brought up another typo discovered by Susan Dickinson, Emily Dickinson’s sister-in-law, in “I know some lonely houses off the road”:
“Mrs. Dickinson thinks ‘a pair of spectacles afar just stir’ should be ‘ajar’ as in her MS. If you approve please notify Mr. Niles.” Mr. Niles was the publisher with Roberts Brothers, the company which printed and distributed the first edition of Dickinson’s poetry. | Susan Dickinson did, in fact, bring the “afar”/”ajar” misprint to Higginson’s attention in a letter in which she also wrote this: |
More on this letter tomorrow.