Yesterday’s post focused on the Dickinson family’s library. I shared a couple of graphics and two quotes from Emily about books:
“I am glad there are Books. They are better than Heaven” (from a letter to F. B. Sanborn, an editor at the Springfield Republican) and “(My father) buys me many Books - but begs me not to rcad thcm-because he fears they joggle the Mind” (from a letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson).
The two graphics came from an article on “Religious Texts in the Dickinson Family Libraries” by Jane Wald, the Executive Director of the Emily Dickinson Museum, and today I have a third one, “Primary connection of 1600 Books at Homestead and Evergreens.”
“I am glad there are Books. They are better than Heaven” (from a letter to F. B. Sanborn, an editor at the Springfield Republican) and “(My father) buys me many Books - but begs me not to rcad thcm-because he fears they joggle the Mind” (from a letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson).
The two graphics came from an article on “Religious Texts in the Dickinson Family Libraries” by Jane Wald, the Executive Director of the Emily Dickinson Museum, and today I have a third one, “Primary connection of 1600 Books at Homestead and Evergreens.”
 | In determining these “connections” between books and family members, Wald said this: “Despite the fact that the family libraries were compiled and used by four generations of Dickinsons, it is possible to postulate—by analyzing inscriptions, correspondence, dates of publication, and genre—which member of the family purchased, owned, or was most closely associated with each of 1,400 volumes, or about 90% of the collection.” |
About Emily Dickinson specifically, Wald wrote this:
“Despite her feeling that books are ‘the strongest friends of the soul,’ Emily Dickinson seems to have had an ambiguous relationship to book ownership (Sewall, Life, 76). Only about 5% of the titles in the family libraries can be distinguished specifically as her personal property. But, obviously, she had access to the full family libraries as well as to holdings of Amherst College’s library.”
The complete article is HERE.
“Despite her feeling that books are ‘the strongest friends of the soul,’ Emily Dickinson seems to have had an ambiguous relationship to book ownership (Sewall, Life, 76). Only about 5% of the titles in the family libraries can be distinguished specifically as her personal property. But, obviously, she had access to the full family libraries as well as to holdings of Amherst College’s library.”
The complete article is HERE.
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