H L5

JL 56

OMC 2

9 October 1851

ink, one sheet, four pages

watermark/embossment: N, no symbol

20 x 12.5 cm.

FF 205-208. End of letter may be missing. Coffee stains (rings of mug) on manuscript. Text of every paragraph has faint pencilled lines, as if someone (presumably Sue) was reading and marking passages for editorial purposes. A calligraphic "g" in "hight" underlines the first part of the word. Johnson omitted "left" from the line, "for there will be none left to interpret. . . ." As he also notes, Dickinson's October 1 letter to Austin indicates that she had written to Sue on September 29. Ik Marvel's (Donald G. Mitchell) Reveries of a Bachelor (1850) was a bestseller and favorite of Emily, Sue, and Austin, as was Longfellow's Golden Legend (1851). Lindley Murray, William Harvey Wells, and John Walker were lexicographers and/or grammarians.

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Transcription and commentary copyright 1996 by Martha Nell Smith, all rights reserved
Last updated on June 4, 2001
Maintained by Lara Vetter

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