H SH 1
JP 14
FP 5
OMC 30
late 1850s
ink, on two leaves
blue-ruled
folded in half
SH, 1-2, headed "To Sue" and signed "Emilie" (later editions delete
the heading and alter the signature to "Emily"). Ink, on two blue-ruled leaves, the first four
quatrains on the first page. Pinholes, "X" on verso. Now one can see that the manuscript sheet
on which this was written has been folded in half so that there are two leaves. Then, on the third
page, the top third (above the crease for folding to enclose in an envelope) is torn away. Pasted
into Martha D. Bianchi's own copy of her first edition of her aunt's poetry, The Single Hound, an
inscription by Bianchi appears above Dickinson's holograph: "To my Dolly - / From Aunt Emily
and me / 1917" (Dolly was a nickname that Emily sometimes used for Sue). Below the title is
Dickinson's poem:
Adventure most untoPencil, on sheet carefully torn at right and bottom, folded in half. Pinholes. Johnson dates "One Sister" "December 1858" on the basis of the handwriting and because Austin and Sue were living in the Evergreens by her twenty-eighth birthday and he surmises that this was a birthday greeting.
itself
The Soul condemned
to be
Attended by a Single
Hound
Its' own identity.
Emily -
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Image reproduced by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University. Not to be reproduced in whole or in part without permission.
Transcription and commentary copyright 1996 by Martha Nell Smith, all rights reserved
Last updated on May 9, 2001
Maintained by Tanya Clement <tclement@umd.edu>