MANUSCRIPT: BPL (Higg 63). Ink. Dated: Amherst. Envelope addressed: Col. T. W. Higginson/Newport/Rhode Island. Postmarked: Middletown Ct Jul 16.

PUBLICATION: L (1931) 284.

This brief note enclosed one poem: "The Luxury to apprehend." The postmark suggested that this letter was mailed by some member of the Dickinson family who was visiting the Dudleys in Middletown. No detail whatever, except what this letter reveals, is known about ED durin the year 1867, but the probability is that she wa not he visitor. Since the Dudleys left Middletown in June 1868, and since Higginson's essay "A Plea for Culture" had appeared in the January 1867, issue of the Atlantic Monthly, this letter almost certainly was written in 1867. It attempts to renew a correspondence with Higginson that apparently had lapsed after ED's second refusal, in the summer of 1866, to visit Boston (see letter no. 319). It is the only letter known which with reasonable certainty may be assigned to this year.