DICKINSON, Emily (1830-1886). Poems. -- Poems Second Series. -- Poems Third Series. Boston: Robert Brothers, 1890, 1891, 1896.

Together, 3 works in 3 volumes, 8vo; housed in a morocco-backed folding case.

First Series: (Front hinge starting at title.) Original gilt- and silver-stamped white cloth boards, gray cloth spine gilt, gilt top edge (extremities sunned, some discoloration at foot, few tiny stains on lower cover). Provenance: Richard Collins (later ownership signature on front pastedown).

Second Series: 3pp. facsimile of “Renunciation”. (Front hinge starting, light spotting to copyright and Preface.) Original gilt-stamped gray cloth over beveled boards, top edge gilt (spine darkened with a touch of wear at extreme ends). Provenance: Harriet H. Munsey (ownership signature on front flyleaf dated November 1891). One of only 500 copies printed.

Third Series: Half-title. (Front free endpaper repaired with sellotape at foot.) Original gilt-stamped green cloth over beveled boards, gilt top edge [BAL binding 1, no priority] (spine a touch sunned, fore-corners slightly rubbed, front hinge cracked but firm). Provenance: (later ownership inscription on front free endpaper).

FIRST EDITIONS OF THE AUTHOR'S FIRST THREE BOOKS OF POETRY.

While Dickinson published 7 poems during her lifetime in magazines, these posthumous volumes comprise the first published collections of her poetry, which were edited by her close friends Mabel Loomis Todd and T.W. Higginson. Dole published a letter summarizing a paper written by Todd on Dickinson’s life and works, published in Book News in March 1892, noting that Todd was “one of the comparatively few who were admitted to anything like intimacy with the weird recluse of Amherst” (Buckingham, p.361). Dole also noted that the Indian pipe decoration on the front covers of the present works was made from the panel given to Dickinson as a gift from Todd (ibid, p.349). BAL 4655-4656, 4661; Buckingham, Emily Dickinson’s Reception in the 1890s; Grolier American 100, 91; Myerson A1.1.a, A2.1.a, A4.1.a.