The Letters of Emily Dickinson

I have heard of the name Emily Dickinson countless of times, but I have not read any of her work before her letters. Ms. Dickinson sure wrote lots of letters. This collection, edited by Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell, has 1,304 letters Ms. Dickinson wrote. Many of them she wrote in poems. One of my favorites was the one she wrote to Lucretia Gunn Bullard, about late spring 1864: “The lovely flowers embarrass me, / They make me regret I am not a Bee.”

Another piece that touched my heart was to to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, mid-March 1872:

Dear friend –
I am sorry your Brother is dead –
I fear he was dear to you.
I should be glad to know you were painlessly grieved –

Of Heaven above the firmest proof
We fundamental know –
Except for it’s marauding Hand
It had been Heaven below –

Dickinson

This book is over 900 pages, but it is worth reading Ms. Dickinson’s personal writings.