From: LouisFors@aol.com
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Date: Sun, 1 Feb 1998 17:17:09 EST
To: emweb@fmgmt.mgmt.utoronto.ca
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Subject: Re: Influences on Emily Dickinson
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Joe:

You asked about influences on ED.  There is a fascinating article written by
Thomas Wentworth Higginson (from whom ED had sought guidance and criticism) in
the October 1891 issue of the Atlantic Journal.  It consists of correspondence
from ED to Higginson, and Higginson's impressions of Dickinson after a
personal meeting with her in her father's house in Amherst.  In the letters,
Higginson asks what ED reads, and she replies.  Her letters are delightful, as
compact as her poetry, and, one suspects, she is, in stylistic boldness and
intellect, a couple of steps ahead of her critic.

It's  a fascinating article.  I suspect that you and your students would learn
a lot from it.  Address on the Web:

     www.theatlantic.com/atlantic/atlweb/poetry/emilyd/edletter.htm

Louis Forsdale