Martha Nell Smith is Professor of English and Founding Director of the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities at the University of Maryland. Her numerous publications include three award-winning books - Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Dickinson (1998), Comic Power in Emily Dickinson (1993), Rowing in Eden: Rereading Emily Dickinson (1992) - and over 30 journal articles. The recipient of numerous awards for her work on Dickinson and in new media, Smith is also Coordinator and Executive Editor of the Dickinson Electronic Archives projects at the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH) at the University of Virginia.

Mary Loeffelholz is Professor and Special Advisor to the President for Faculty Affairs at Northeastern University. She is the author of From School to Salon: Reading Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry (2004), Experimental Lives: Women and Literature, 1900-1945 (1992), Dickinson and the Boundaries of Feminist Theory (1991), and of a number of essays on nineteenth-century American poetry and culture. She is also editor of Studies in American Fiction and of Volume D, Between the Wars: 1914-1945 in the seventh edition of the Norton Anthology of American Literature.

This Companion to America's greatest woman poet showcases the diversity and excellence that characterize the thriving field of Dickinson studies. The volume's original contributions are written by cutting-edge scholars and provide incisive interventions into current critical discussions as well as opening up fresh areas of critical inquiry. They feature new work being done in the critique of nineteenth-century American poetry, as well as new work being done in Dickinson studies.

The Companion is exceptionally broad in scope, covering biographical approaches to Dickinson, the historical, political, and cultural contexts of her work, and its critical reception over the years. Unusually, the volume also emphasizes issues relating to the different formats in which Dickinson's lyrics have been published - manuscript, print, halftone and digital facsimile. In all areas, readers are able to benefit from using the volume alongside the Dickinson Electronic Archives (http: //emilydickinson.org/BlackwellCompanion), an online resource developed over the past ten years by one of the editors, together with teams of Dickinson critics, and markup and programming specialists.