MANUSCRIPT: HCL (Dickinson collection).

PUBLICATION: The paragraph touching upon the literary executorship is published in the preface to Poems by Emily Dickinson, Second Series (1891), edited by Mabel Loomis Todd. Mrs. Todd must have seen the letter when it as in the possession of Lavinia Dickinson.

ED had read of the accident, and had written a note of condolence to which this is the reply. Hannah Dorrance, daughter of Dr. Gardner Dorrance of Amherst, had moved to Attica, New York, after her marriage. Presumably she later moved to Chicago. ED's reply to this letter pointedly ignores the request to be made literary executor.