Books

Hardcover. Bound with white/ivory/cream cloth spine and gray paper over boards. Spine stamped in gold; front cover stamped in silver, with Indian Pipes. Binding good and tight. The light colored cloth at the spine is faded and handled more towards tan than its original white; spine is a tone or two darker still than the same cloth on the boards. The top inch and a half of the rear hinge appears to be a bit threadbare, but we see no ill effects yet. Some minor shelfwear. Top edge gilt. Title page dated 1891. Copyright page dated 1890, stated Third Edition. 152 pages. Some toning to pages and occasional foxing as well, but never offensive. These earliest editions were printed on paper that has a tendency to get brittle, but that does not yet affect this copy. A couple very modest 'x' or / marks beside a few poems, done long ago and in pencil. Myerson's bibliography notes that the first printing of this book was a mere 500 copies, done in October 1890. A second printing of about 400 copies followed closely on its heels -- Of those, some are identical to the first printing except on slightly thicker paper; some of them have 'second edition' on the copyright page. The 'Third Printing' has 1891 on the title page but says 'second edition' on the copyright page. It too sold out before the end of the calendar year 1890, and Roberts quickly printed a fourth printing, updating the copyright page to say 'Third Edition.' This edition (which is this book) was only 500 copies; it was printed in late December 1890 (but with 1891 on the title page). Of the 500 copies in this edition, several of them were incorrectly folded and bound, putting the poem 'this is my letter to the world' and the introductory page to section 1 right in the middle of the table of contents (between viii and ix). Correspondence from the time suggests that 250 copies contained this mistake and that 180 had been sold before anyone noticed it. Many of those were returned to the printer and were repaired (the offending pages cut out and then glued back in at their proper place), leaving only a very few with the mis-folded pages present. This edition sold out quickly as well, and 1891 saw 3 more printings. Please email with questions or to request photos. If you see a photo beside this listing, please be aware that it s an ABE Stock Photo (whatever that is) and not a photo of this book.

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