Books

Boston: Roberts Bros., 1891-96. First Series is a fifth printing, with "1891" on title page and "Fourth Edition" on copyright page. Second Series conforms to Meyerson's fourth or fifth printing with "1892" on title page and "Fourth Edition" on copyright page. Third Series is a first printing with 1896 on title page, no edition statement on copyright page, and "Roberts Bros" on spine. Three octavo volumes. Volume I bound in gray cloth; volumes II and III bound in olive-green, with beveled edges, gilt lettering and decoration; top edges gilt; red silk ribbon detached but present in volume I. Housed in custom-made slipcase. Boards worn at extremities with brief exposure and minor fraying; corners bumped; spines rather dulled; volume II scuffed and spotted with discrete but amateur tape mending to bottom half of rear joint. Hinges to volume I starting but bindings holding; title page vol. I separated but present; volumes II and III bindings sound. Contemporary bookplates and brief annotations to preliminaries; gift inscription to title page of volume III. Overall a Very Good set of early or first printings of many of Dickinson's poems, summed up in Higginson's preface: ".the main quality of these poems is that of extraordinary grasp and insight, uttered with an uneven vigor sometimes exasperating, seemingly wayward, but really unsought and inevitable." [Myerson A.1.1.e; A.2.1.d-e; A.4.1.a BAL 4655, 4656, 4661].

An extensive collection of Emily Dickinson's poetry, presented in its original unaltered form as edited by Thomas H. Johnson.