Emily's published works: in life and death
1851:
1850:
In 1850, Emily's first poem was published as a Valentine's Day letter in the Amherst College Indicator. Titled "Magnum Bonum Harem Scarem", the poem discusses both love of the natural world and Botanical studies, as well as a potential budding romance between her and her best friend from Amherst Academy, Sue Gilbert.
Pictured: Emily Dickinson’s earliest known message to Susan Huntington Gilbert. Susan, a lifelong friend and early champion of Dickinson’s poetry, would go on to receive more than 250 poems from Dickinson, more than sent to any other correspondent.
1852:
Emily Dickinson's second poem was published in 1852, also as a Valentine titled "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi". The poem was published anonymously, but the symbology of roses within the text is indicative that the poem may have been about Sue Gilbert.
1858:
Emily begins constructing fascicles.
Early 1860s/beginning of the civil war:
Emily Dickinson’s reclusiveness increases. While the origin of this departure from social life is specifically unknown, Dickinson’s withdrawal from society also marks the beginning of one of her most productive times, artistically.
1890:
After her death, her sister, Lavinia, discovered literally hundreds of poems in Emily's room. Determined to have them published, she searched for an editor. Susan Dickinson, one of Emily's most influential readers, immediately began work on editing an inclusive volume of poetry, wanting to present a "full, and varied" volume of Dickinson's works, one that would include "letters, humorous writings, illustrations" (Smith and Hart xvi). However, at the time the more marketable image of Emily Dickinson was that of the nineteenth century "poetess," the "eccentric, reclusive asexual woman in white," which was not the image Susan seemed concerned to produce (Hart and Smith xv). And, as she felt Susan was moving too slowly anyway, Lavinia turned the manuscripts over to Mabel Loomis Todd, with whom Susan's husband (Austin Dickinson) had had a years' long affair, and Thomas W. Higginson, one of Emily's main correspondents. Todd and Higginson published the first volume of Dickinson's poems, Poems by Emily Dickinson, in 1890, to the disappointment of Susan. They had divided the poems into popular themes, such as "Love," "Nature," "Life," "Time & Eternity"—prim categories that helped to establish the myth of Dickinson as "a recluse by temperament and habit," Higginson's words in the introduction. Meanwhile, Susan published manuscripts of her own in journals and continued to compile her manuscripts for a complete volume of her own.