Dickinson sent this letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson in September 1877 (THJ). Small amounts of glue residue on the manuscript suggest that he may have pasted it into an album. Someone—perhaps Mabel Loomis Todd or Higginson himself—drew a large, light "X" through part of the text on the third leaf and then drew a zigzag line through all of the text on the fourth leaf. This letter was first published in part in Letters (1894); the light cancellation marks seem to indicate the text to be omitted from the printed edition. For a related fragment, see A 856 (about 1877 or last decade [THJ]). The fragment appears to be a trial draft for a passage in the letter.

Two editorial notations are penciled on BPL Higg 86: leaf 1, recto, at top, center: TWH? [1877]; leaf 3, recto, right of line 6: xxx. The first notation presumably refers to the date T. W. Higginson received—or recalled receiving—the letter. The authorship and significance of the second notation are unclear, though again the cross marks appear to indicate the beginning of the section of the text to be omitted from the printed version of the text in Letters (1894).