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Group Web Projects: Dickinson's "Books of Correspondence"

1. Look at all of the poems Dickinson sent to SHGD in a single year or span of years (1859, 1862, 1863, 1865). Analyze--visually, verbally--them first in the context of the correspondence, then in their fascicle context(s). Alternately, look at all of the poems Dickinson sent to TWH in a year or span of years (1876, 1877). Analyze--visually, verbally--them first in the context of the correspondence, then in their fascicle context(s).

2. Many of the people to whom Dickinson sent letters and poems saved those documents. Susan Gilbert Dickinson, to whom Dickinson sent more than 276 poems, 150 letters, and 18 fragments, and T.W. Higginson, to whom Dickinson sent more than 102 poems and 75 letters both saved these documents. Many of the manuscripts Dickinson sent to Higginson are stained with glue, suggesting that Higginson pasted the letters and poems into an album. Similarly, Susan Dickinson pasted poems into albums. Build a file in which you reconstruct the spaces/sites in which SHGD and TWH stored Dickinson's poems and letters and analyze the ways in which they chose to present Dickinson's manuscripts. How does their presentation differ from Dickinson's presentation of the poems as well as from the printed presentations of Dickinson's poems. What were their attitudes towards print culture?


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