ABSTRACT
More than any other poet in the language, Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) strained and defied the generic distinctions between letter and lyric. Thomas Johnson, the editor who saved her work from the distortions of earlier editors, divided her opus into a three-volume Poems and a three-volume Letters.' These standard editions have come under scrutiny in recent years because of new attention to Dickinson's fascicles (handmade books of fair copy poems); new emphasis on her rejection of typography in favour of the possibilities of script and collage; and - of greatest interest here - because of a growing sense that the letters and poems are not separate endeavours.
