"IMMORTAL IS AN AMPLE WORD": FIRST EDITION OF EMILY DICKINSON'S POEMS (THIRD SERIES)

DICKINSON, Emily. Poems. Third Series. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1896. Small octavo, original gilt-stamped grey cloth, beveled edges, top edge gilt. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $13,500.

First edition of Emily Dickinson's third book of poems, one of only 1000 copies printed.

Emily Dickinson's lyrics, "her letter to the world," offer "records of the life about her, of tiny ecstasies set in motion by mutations of the seasons or by home and garden incidents, of candid insights into her own states of consciousness, and of speculations on the timeless mysteries of love and death. Her mind was charged with paradox" (Hart, 201). Dickinson published only 11 poems during her lifetime, but upon her death in 1886, her sister Lavinia discovered 1775 manuscript poems. Mabel Loomis Todd, the lover of Emily's older brother Austin, edited and published three series of these poems until a quarrel between the Dickinson and Todd families led to a division of the manuscripts, preventing the further publication of complete and authoritative editions of Dickinson's poetry until 70 years after her death (Wolff). This is the third and final volume edited by Todd, including "It's all I have to bring to-day," "I felt a Funeral in my Brain" and "With a Flower." Binding B (no priority established), in grey cloth gilt-stamped with Indian pipes design. A contemporary periodical clipping quoting a Dickinson letter is tipped in opposite the copyright page. Myerson A4.1a. BAL 4661. Clendenning 56. Early inked single quotation marks added neatly to some poems.

Contents clean; very slight rubbing to extremities, small dent to spine. A lovely, near-fine copy.