Writing in Time: Emily Dickinson's Master Hours

2021·6.9 MB·English

by  Marta Werner

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Writing in t iMe r
e Mi ly D i c k i n s o n’s M a s t e r ho u r s
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Marta Werner is the Martin J. Svaglic Chair For more than half a century, the story of

in Textual Studies and Loyola University Chicago. i Emily Dickinson’s “Master” documents has
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Her previous publications include, with Jen Bervin, “In a most generous way, Writing in Time explicitly been the largely biographical tale of three
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The Gorgeous Nothings (Granary Books, 2012; New acknowledges, critically examines, builds on, and letters to an unidentified individual. Writing in Time
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Directions, 2013); Radical Scatters: An Electronic Archive goes beyond previous books—a beautiful model of seeks to tell a different story—the story of the
Writ i ng
of Emily Dickinson’s Late Fragments and Related Texts scholarship. It is not just an edition of the “Master e documents themselves. Rather than presenting the
letters” but an edition that, engaging deeply with
(University of Michigan Press, 1999; republished by “Master” documents as quarantined from Dickinson’s

its predecessors and historicizing them, proposes
the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, larger scene of textual production, Marta Werner’s

e
a new editorial theory of Dickinson’s letters.”
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 2010); with Nicholas M innovative new edition proposes reading them next
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Lawrence, Ordinary Mysteries: The Common Journal of Gabrielle Dean, PhD. William Kurrelmeyer l to Dickinson’s other major textual experiment in
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Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne (The American Philo- Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, The Sheridan Libraries, the years between ca. 1858–1861: the Fascicles.

Johns Hopkins University D
sophical Society, 2006); and Emily Dickinson’s Open In both, Dickinson can be seen testing the limits of
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Folios: Scenes of Reading, Surfaces of Writing (University address and genre in order to escape bibliographical
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e Mi ly D i c k i n s o n ’ s M a s t e r ho u r s
of Michigan Press, 1995). She also co-edited The i determination and the very coordinates of “mastery”
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Networked Recluse (Amherst College Press, 2017), “It is a rare thing for a scholar to disorder the senses s itself. A major event in Dickinson scholarship, Writing
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which accompanied The Morgan Library exhibition, of received criticism and interpretive method, which in Time: Emily Dickinson’s Master Hours proposes
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tiMe
“’I’m Nobody—Who are You’: The Life and Poetry of is the great achievement of Marta Werner’s book. new constellations of Dickinson’s work as well as
’
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Emily Dickinson.” Rare because when critical interpreters seek to exciting new methodologies for textual scholarship
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discover the truth about the works we investigate, as an act of “intimate editorial investigation.”
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JeroMe McGann is the John Stewart Bryan our regular tools—essays and books—tempt us to s
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University Professor Emeritus at the University of deliver finished forms. Writing in Time: Emily Dickinson’s
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Virginia and Visiting Research Professor, University Master Hours is different. As learned, thorough, and r
meticulous as any work of scholarship I have ever h
of California, Berkeley. He is the author of numerous
o
read, it ‘reconceives the editorial enterprise as a
books on textual studies and the history of literature u
critical meditation and devotional exercise.’” r
and culture, including A New Republic of Letters:
s
Humanities Scholarship in an Age of Digital Reproduction JeroMe McGann , John Stewart Bryan University

(Harvard, 2014), The Scholar’s Art: Literary Studies in Professor, University of Virginia

a Managed World (University of Chicago, 2006), and

Radiant Textuality (Palgrave/St. Martins, 2004), which

won the James Russell Lowell Prize from the Modern

Language Association and the Mellon Foundation

Distinguished Achievement Award. In 1993, he founded

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the Rossetti Archive, an online archive of the complete AMHERST ISBN 978-1-60785-605-4 E
writings and pictures of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. CoLLEGE R
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PRESS E M a rta W e r n e r
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9 781607 856054
acpress.amherst.edu
Writing in Time

Writing

E m i ly D i c k i n s o n ’ s ma s tEr H o u r s
i n
ti m e
ma rta W e r n e r
A m h e r s t C o l l e g e P r e s s
4 WrItINg IN tIme
Contents
Copyright © 2021 by marta Werner 6 Acknowledgments
some rights reserved
8 Archives & Scholarly Editions
this work is licensed under the Creative 10 Prologue
Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–
To the Reader
NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.
to view a copy of this license, visit http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
or send a letter to Creative Commons, Po Box 12 Historical Introduction
1866, mountain View, California, 94042, UsA.
The Discovery, Transmission, and Printing
Published in the United states of America by
Histories of the “Master Letters”
Amherst College Press.
manufactured in the United states of America.
14 early Printings
the complete manuscript of this work was
19 In the hour of the New Bibliography
subjected to a partly closed (“single blind”)
review process. For more information, please see 24 homage to ralph W. Franklin
our Peer review Commitments and guidelines
at https://acpress.amherst.edu/peer-review-
commitments/. 26 Textual Introduction
DoI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/mpub.12023683 From Letters to Documents: Imagining a
IsBN 978-1-943208-18-0 (paper) New Edition of the “Master” Documents
IsBN 978-1-943208-19-7 (oA)
library of Congress Control number: 2020946280 27 re-drawing the Boundaries
https://acpress.amherst.edu/ 31 Dating the “master” Documents
38 editing in space and time
42 Principles of transcription
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46 Manuscript Witnesses & Transcriptions in Time 102 Appendices
48 Dear Master / I am ill – (A 827) 102 Appendix 1: Fascicled “master” Poems
53 The writing line, ca. spring 1858–ca. summer 1860 108 Appendix 2: A 826, second Variant Version
58 Mute – thy Coronation – (A 825) 110 Appendix 3: Additional Candidates for the
60 The writing line, ca. autumn 1860–ca. winter 1861 “master” Constellation, 1858–1861
61 Oh ' did I offend it – (A 829)
114 Afterword
67 The writing line, ca. spring 1861
Interpretation in a New Key by Jerome McGann
69 A wife – at Daybreak / I shall be – (A 826)
72 The writing line, ca. late spring–ca. summer 1861
122 Works Cited & Further Reading
73 Master . / If you saw a bullet (A 828)
82 Reading Hours
Commentaries on the “Master” Documents
84 the hour of Flowers: A 827
87 the hour of ermine: A 825
89 the hour of lead: A 829
93 the midnight hour: A 826
95 the Queen’s hour: A 828
6 WrItINg IN tIme
Acknowledgments
In 2016, mark edington, then Director of the Amherst harvard University, kindly facilitated my examination of
College Press, invited me to compose a new edition of theodora Ward’s papers.
emily Dickinson’s “master letters”. I am indebted to him I called on many readers, all of whom offered generous
for this original summons and for his encouragement counsel. Vivian Pollak graciously directed me to important
during the more than two and a half years I spent working research on the “master” documents I might otherwise
on this project. Beth Bouloukos, the current Director of have overlooked. martha Nell smith shared years of her
the Amherst College Press, has ably and graciously shep- research and thinking about these documents and offered
herded the work into its final form. Hannah Brooks-Motl, me a forum to present early versions of the work. Domhnall
Assistant Acquisitions editor for the Amherst College Press, mitchell engaged me in spirited and deeply informed
oversaw the photographic reproduction of Dickinson’s discussions about dating Dickinson’s writings and gave me
manuscripts and was a thoughtful and poetic reader of the confidence to press on with the work. Both Domhnall
the text. the University of michigan team of Amanda Karby mitchell and Cristanne miller generously shared many
and Alja Kooistra provided expert as well as elegant details of their forthcoming edition of Dickinson’s Letters
copyediting. mike savitski’s designs capture the spirit with me. Julie Dobrow read and commented with great
of the book in ways I did not dream possible. care on an earlier version of the work, and Cristanne miller
the manuscripts of the core documents represented and Karen sánchez-eppler offered valuable notes on an
in this edition are part of the emily Dickinson Collection excerpt of the work that will appear in the Oxford Handbook
housed in the Amherst College library. I am ever grateful to Emily Dickinson. Charles Bernstein, though recently retired
to mike Kelly, head of the Archives & special Collections, from his professorship, immediately answered the call from
for giving me unstinted access to these materials. tim his old student to read an early version of the manuscript
Pinault, Digitization Coordinator for Amherst College, and offered valuable counsel. the friendship and example
created new images of the core documents for this edition of my colleagues in the society for textual scholarship was
that enable readers to see them in luminous detail. Archivist a great boon.
margaret Dakin, whose knowledge of the emily Dickinson I am deeply indebted to the anonymous readers for the
Collection is wide and deep, supported my research in Amherst College Press, whose sympathetic assessment of
countless ways. leslie A. morris, gore Vidal Curator of this work cheered me on and whose thoughtful questions
modern Books and manuscripts at the houghton library, enabled me, I hope, to make it better.
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Janet malcolm’s abiding interest in the work was a rich
source of encouragement.
susan howe, whose scholarship, poetry, and friendship
have guided me for many years, steered me again, especially
when cutting a straight and narrow documentary path was
necessary.
Jerome mcgann and sharon Cameron, peerless scholars
in their respective fields, led me to deepen my encounters
with these documents in untold ways. their probing
readings, constant companionship, and abundant patience
with me are a beautiful, unfathomable debt.
the credit for what is best in this work goes to these
readers; where it errs, I alone am responsible.
Finally, without my beloved partner, the Petrarch
scholar h. Wayne storey, this edition would not exist.
he accompanied me at every stage—at every hour—of the
research and writing of this work. I have lost count of the
number of times he read and commented on the pages
that follow. he is my unnamed collaborator. he made me
a philologist at last. I dedicate this edition to him.
8 WrItINg IN tIme
Archives & Scholarly Editions
a Amherst College Archives & Special Collections. The manuscripts of the five principal works included
here are housed in the Amherst College library, Archives & special Collections. they were catalogued
by Jay leyda in the 1950s and assigned the numbers A 825–A 829. Although these numbers have
no relation to any ordering system used by Dickinson, they do identify specific manuscripts and the
singular versions of the texts carried by them. given the emphasis in this edition on the relationship
between message and medium, I have elected to use these numbers as opposed to first lines when
referring to a particular text on a particular document. references to line numbers within a text are
to physical rather than metrical lines.
H Houghton Library, Harvard University. In addition to the five documents at the core of this edition, the
original manuscripts of a number of “master” poems bound into fascicles are housed at the houghton
library, harvard University.
9
Commonly Referenced Editions of the “Master” Documents and Related Writings
mlt 1894 mabel loomis todd, ed. Letters of Emily Dickinson. 2 vols. Boston: roberts Brothers, 1894.
[references are to page numbers.]
mlt 1931 mabel loomis todd, ed. Letters of Emily Dickinson. New York: harper & Brothers, 1931.
[references are to page numbers.]
mlt 1945 mabel loomis todd and millicent todd Bingham, eds. Bolts of Melody: New Poems of Emily
Dickinson. New York: harper & Brothers, 1945. [references are to page numbers.]
mtB 1955 millicent todd Bingham, ed. Emily Dickinson’s Home: Letters of Edward Dickinson and His Family.
New York: harper & Brothers 1955. [references are to page numbers.]
thJ 1955 thomas h. Johnson, ed. The Poems of Emily Dickinson. 3 vols. Cambridge, mA: the Belknap
Press of harvard University Press, 1955. [references are to poem number (J).]
thJ 1958 thomas h. Johnson, ed., with theodora Ward. The Letters of Emily Dickinson. 3 vols. Cambridge,
mA: the Belknap Press of harvard University Press, 1958. [references are to letter number (l).]
YH 1960 Jay leyda. The Years and Hours of Emily Dickinson. 2 vols. New haven, Ct: Yale University Press,
1960. [references are to volume and page number.]
rWF 1986 r. W. Franklin, ed. The Master Letters. Amherst, mA: Amherst College Press, 1986. [references
are to page number.]
rWF 1998 r. W. Franklin, ed. The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Variorum Edition. 3 vols. Cambridge, mA:
the Belknap Press of harvard University Press, 1998. [references are to poem number (Fr)
and version (A, B, C, etc.).]
OMC 1998 ellen louise hart and martha Nell smith, eds. Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson’s Intimate Letters to
Susan Huntington Dickinson. Ashfield, MA: Paris Press, 1998. [References are to page number.]
Cm 2016 Cristanne miller, ed. Emily Dickinson’s Poems: As She Preserved Them. Cambridge, mA:
the Belknap Press of harvard University Press, 2016. [references are to page number.]