EVER SINCE the organization of Zeta Chapter (Columbia University) of Phi Delta Gamma in 1934, Emily Dickin­son has been its unofficial poet. Many of Zeta's programs have been based upon her life and works. Both Mrs. Mabel Loomis Todd and Madame Martha Dickinson Bianchi--her earlier and later editors--addressed eagerly interested meetings, and in December of last year our honorary President, Juliana Has­kell, gave a memorable address on EMILY: THE PERILS OF POST­HUMOUS PUBLICATION, which it is hoped will one day be pub­lished for the edification of a larger group.

Because of Zeta's great interest in the writings of Emily, and because Martha Dickinson Bianchi, then her only surviving relative, was so generous of her time and service and so fre­quently available in New York, Madame Bianchi was made an honorary member of the chapter. She was a familiar figure to all who regularly attended Zeta's functions.

Upon her death the members felt the time was propitious for the publication of a memorial volume in which friends and admirers of Madame Bianchi would put on record their mem­ories of a vivid and dramatic personality, and those who are known as authorities on Emily Dickinson and her work would add a few words of appreciation of America's greatest woman poet.

We regret that space does not permit us to print all the tributes received toward the "Martha" section of the book, nor to invite contributions from many others who would have written from other angles. We regret too that not all of the "Emily" authorities acceded to our request for articles or per­ mission to quote from material already published. In spite of the bare spots on each side of the hedge, however, we believe we have brought together a collection of articles and poems which will be of lasting interest to both Emily-ites and Martha­ites.

The task of editing this memorial was originally entrusted to Winnifred Brown, whose untimely death in December, 1945,