The article begins, “Dickinson’s exact wishes regarding the publication of her poetry are in dispute,” and then it discusses the acrimonious feud between the Dickinson and the Todd families in getting the poet’s works published.
One paragraph gives a brief but succinct publication history of Dickinson’s works:
“In editing Dickinson’s poems in the 1890s, Todd and Higginson invented titles and regularized diction, grammar, metre, and rhyme. The first scholarly editions of Dickinson’s poems and letters, by Thomas H. Johnson, did not appear until the 1950s. A much improved edition of the complete poems was brought out in 1998 by R.W. Franklin.”
Next, the article discusses how Dickinson was accepted by the reading public. It begins, “In spite of her ‘modernism,’ Dickinson’s verse drew little interest from the first generation of ‘High Modernists.’ Hart Crane and Allen Tate were among the first leading writers to register her greatness, followed in the 1950s by Elizabeth Bishop and others.”
The paragraph continues, and then I encountered this line, the one to which I alluded earlier – the one that brought a smile to my face: “From the beginning, however, Dickinson has strongly appealed to many ordinary or unschooled readers.”
LOL – that’s me! (Okay, “that’s I”...and, yes, that is “proper” grammar; still, it sounds weird). I am among the “ordinary” and “unschooled” readers.
(As an aside, as I typed that last statement, I remembered a time years ago when I went shopping at a Walmart. My kids were in middle school, and as we approached the store, one daughter – who was angry that we were at Walmart – said, “Why are we here? The only people who shop here are poor or rednecks.” At the time, a friend of mine was passing us in the parking lot, so I laughed and said something like, “Well, I know I’m the poor one so you must be the redneck.”)
The Britannica article continues, “Her unmistakable voice, private yet forthright—’I’m Nobody! Who are you? / Are you—Nobody—too?’ —establishes an immediate connection.”
LOL – yep, that’s me! …er…that is I!