Houghton Library Blog

Writings on Special Collections and Archives at Harvard University's Houghton Library

  • About
  • Information for Authors

Houghton From Home–Dickinson Family Library

11 June 2020 Posted by HL Blog Staff Collections in Focus

Why read your own copy of Charlotte Brönte’s novel Jane Eyre when you could read Emily Dickinson’s copy? Can you find the two passages the poet marked in pencil? (Hint: the marks are in the margin on page 418 and the passages are devastating.) Houghton Library is in fact home to 30 volumes known to have been associated with—i.e. owned or read by—the reclusive bard, and nearly 600 owned by her family. Over half of the volumes in the Dickinson family library are available fully online, including Emily Dickinson’s bible which features markings, excised verses, and carefully laid botanical specimens; her brother’s copy of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Conduct of Life; and her niece’s copy of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.

If you still haven’t gotten your fix of Emily, why not peruse her herbarium, gaze at her writing desk, and of course, read her manuscript poems. (We also heartily recommend watching Apple TV’s Dickinson—a joyous, playful interpretation of the poet’s teenage years.)

Thanks to Christine Jacobson, Assistant Curator of Modern Books and Manuscripts, for contributing this post. Houghton From Home is a series of posts highlighting our digitized collections. For more items from across the Harvard Library, visit Harvard Digital Collections.

Emily Dickinson Bible

Emily Dickinson Bible, Dickinson Family Library, EDR 8. Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • « Announcing the winner of the 2020 Summer Humanities and Arts Research Program (SHARP) undergraduate fellowship at Houghton Library
  • How Sergeant William Harvey Carney Rescued the Old Flag in the Assault on Fort Wagner in the American Civil War »

Search Houghton Library Blog

Recent Posts

  • Cosmic Visions: Illuminating Dante’s Divine Comedy
  • Baking with Emily D.
  • A Stellar Intern

Blog Archives

Categories

More Houghton Blogs

  • Hyde Catablog
  • Modern Books and Manuscripts
  • Woodberry Poetry Room

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

WCAG 2.0 (Level AA)

CC BY-NC 4.0 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Proudly powered by WordPress
Protected by Akismet • Blog with WordPress