A 833: etext transcription

Physical Description
- Manuscript: A 833
- Date: [about 1883 (THJ, RWF)]
- Status: letter, with poems embedded and enclosed [to Thomas Niles], fair-copy, mailed
- Formula: 10 leaves [1s (2 l); 1 leaf; 1s (2 l); 1 leaf; 1s (2 l); 1s (2 l)]
- Paper: laid, off-white stationery embossed Pure Irish Linen F. H. D. & Co.
- Dimensions: 205 x 132 mm, leaf
- Edges: A 833b: left: torn; A 833e: left: torn
- Folds: cross-folded
- Media: pencil
- Hand: fair
Collection
- Amherst College Library
Transmission History
- MSS from Thomas Niles to MLT, 1890
Publication History
- A 833, text 1: Letters (1894), 417–18; Poems (1955), P 1562, poem only; Letters (1958), L 814; Poems (1998), P 1602 (B), poem; letter, in part A 833, text 2: American Literature 38 (March 1966): 8; Poems (1998), P 796 (E) A 833, text 3: Poems (1955), P 1463 n, discussed but not reproduced in full; Poems (1998), P 1489 (G) A 833, text 4: Although Johnson claims to reproduce this version of the poem in Poems (1955), P 829, the published version differs from the manuscript version in several places, most significantly in the spelling of "Mattress" ("Mattrass" in the manuscript); this version is printed, in full, in Poems (1998), P 804 (D)
Commentary
- Dickinson sent this letter (with enclosures) to Thomas Niles around 1883 (THJ, RWF). For a variant fair-copy of the poem beginning "Her Losses make | our Gains ashamed -" and sent to Susan Dickinson, see H 266 (spring 1883 [THJ, RWF, Smith and Hart]); for a related fragment, see A 207 (about 1883 [THJ, RWF]).
  
  Mabel Loomis Todd (?) penciled transcripts of the enclosed poems directly onto Dickinson's manuscript; they appear on the versos of the first, fourth, seventh, and ninth leaves with titles based on Dickinson's characterizations in the letter: "Marian Evans"; "A Thunder Storm"; "The Humming Bird"; and "A Country Burial." There are many differences in lineation between the manuscript and the transcripts as well as several differences between the wording of the titles on the transcripts and the wording of the titles penciled above the enclosed poems. Todd did not transcribe the embedded poem on the manuscript.
  
  Two editorial notations are penciled on A 833: upper right, MLT: Mr Niles; upper right, MTB (?): 417. The first notation presumably identifies the source of the manuscript as Thomas Niles; the second notation, perhaps also made by Mabel Loomis Todd, but more likely made by Bingham, indicates that the text—or a version of it—was previously published in Letters (1894), 417–18.
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