Envelope Poems
Envelope Poems by Emily Dickinson, published by Christine Burgin/New Directions in 2016, is a first edition that spans 95 pages. This collection showcases Dickinson’s later writings, specifically her envelope poems, which were created during a period of intense creativity. Despite being a prolific poet, Dickinson published only a few of her works during her lifetime, opting instead to craft small handmade books at home. The envelope poems represent a unique aspect of her literary legacy, reflecting her innovative approach to poetry.
Readers will find that this edition includes full-color facsimiles of Dickinson’s original manuscripts, accompanied by pioneering transcriptions by Marta L. Werner and Jen Bervin. These transcriptions provide clarity to Dickinson’s handwriting, allowing readers to engage with her texts while the facsimiles reveal the intricacies of her writing process, including variant words and crossings-out. The envelope poems are characterized by their emotional depth, addressed to no specific recipient, yet resonating universally. This collection offers insights into Dickinson’s artistic vision and her contributions to American poetry, particularly as a woman author.
Official synopsis Publisher
Although a very prolific poet–and arguably America’s greatest–Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) published fewer than a dozen of her eighteen hundred poems. Instead, she created at home small handmade books. When, in her later years, she stopped producing these, she was still writing a great deal, and at her death she left behind many poems, drafts, and letters. It is among the makeshift and fragile manuscripts of Dickinson’s later writings that we find the envelope poems gathered here. These manuscripts on envelopes (recycled by the poet with marked New England thrift) were written with the full powers of her late, most radical period. Intensely alive, these envelope poems are charged with a special poignancy–addressed to no one and everyone at once.
Full-color facsimiles are accompanied by Marta L. Werner and Jen Bervin’s pioneering transcriptions of Dickinson’s handwriting. Their transcriptions allow us to read the texts, while the facsimiles let us see exactly what Dickinson wrote (the variant words, crossings-out, dashes, directional fields, spaces, columns, and overlapping planes).
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