This companion to America's greatest woman poet showcases the diversity and excellence that characterize the thriving field of Dickinson studies.
* Covers biographical approaches of Dickinson, the historical, political and cultural contexts of her work, and its critical reception over the years
* Considers issues relating to the different formats in which Dickinson's lyrics have been published ? manuscript, print, halftone and digital facsimile
* Provides incisive interventions into current critical discussions, as well as opening up fresh areas of critical inquiry
* Features new work being done in the critique of nineteenth-century American poetry generally, as well as new work being done in Dickinson studies
* Designed to be used alongside the Dickinson Electronic Archives, an online resource developed over the past ten years

Notes on Contributors viii
Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Sources xv
Acknowledgments xvi
Introduction 1
Martha Nell Smith and Mary Loeffelholz
Part I: Biography - the Myth of "the Myth" 9
1 Architecture of the Unseen 11
Aife Murray
2 Fracturing a Master Narrative, Reconstructing "Sister Sue" 37
ngrid Satelmajer
3 Public, Private Spheres: What Reading Emily Dickinson's Mail Taught me about Civil Wars 58
Martha Nell Smith
4 "Pretty much all real life": The Material World of the Dickinson Family 79
Jane Wald
Part II: The Civil War - Historical and Political Contexts 105
5 "Drums off the Phantom Battlements": Dickinson's War Poems in Discursive Context 107
Faith Barrett
6 The Eagle's Eye: Dickinson's View of Battle 133
Renée Bergland
7 "How News Must Feel When Traveling": Dickinson and Civil War Media 157
Eliza Richards
Part III: Cultural Contexts - Literature, Philosophy, Theology, Science 181
8 Really Indigenous Productions: Emily Dickinson, Josiah Holland, and Nineteenth-Century Popular Verse 183
Mary Loeffelholz
9 Thinking Dickinson Thinking Poetry 205
Virginia Jackson
10 Dickinson and the Exception 222
Max Cavitch
11 Dickinson's Uses of Spiritualism: The "Nature" of Democratic Belief 235
Paul Crumbley
12 "Forever - is Composed of Nows -": Emily Dickinson's Conception of Time 258
Gudrun M. Grabher
13 God's Place in Dickinson's Ecology 269
Nancy Mayer
Part IV: Textual Conditions: Manuscripts, Printings, Digital Surrogates 279
14 Auntie Gus Felled It New 281
Tim Morris
15 Reading Dickinson in Her Context: The Fascicles 288
Eleanor Elson Heginbotham
16 The Poetics of Interruption: Dickinson, Death, and the Fascicles 309
Alexandra Socarides
17 Climates of the Creative Process: Dickinson's Epistolary Journal 334
Connie Ann Kirk
18 Hearing the Visual Lines: How Manuscript Study Can Contribute to an Understanding of Dickinson's Prosody 348
Ellen Louise Hart, with Sandra Chung
19 "The Thews of Hymn": Dickinson's Metrical Grammar 368
Michael L. Manson
20 Dickinson's Structured Rhythms 391
Cristanne Miller
21 A Digital Regiving: Editing the Sweetest Messages in the Dickinson Electronic Archives 415
Tanya Clement
22 Editing Dickinson in an Electronic Environment 437
Lara Vetter
Part V: Poetry & Media - Dickinson's Legacies 453
23 "Dare you see a soul at the White Heat?": Thoughts on a "Little Home-keeping Person" 455
Sandra M. Gilbert
24 Re-Playing the Bible: My Emily Dickinson 462
Alicia Ostriker
25 "For Flash and Click and Suddenness-": Emily Dickinson and the Photography-Effect 471
Marta L. Werner
26 "Zero to the Bone": Thelonious Monk, Emily Dickinson, and the Rhythms of Modernism 490
Joshua Weiner
Index of First Lines 496
Index of Letters of Emily Dickinson 500
Index 503