The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson's Envelope Poems

This book is AMAZING! The intro and other written portions show a deep understanding of Dickinson's life, etc. etc. What I'm most thrilled with, though, are the facsimiles of the poems! I thought there would be a few facsimiles and the rest transcription, but ALL are facsimiles with a transcription on the opposite page. It's WONDERFUL! I'm going to savor this volume.

These 52 pieces were found, unbound, among Dickinson's papers, written on envelopes that had been used or addressed and unsent. They are as much works of visual as textual art, offering the chance to read into Dickinson's slanting handwriting. Her bubbly loops and long strokes suggest, to me at least, the odd confidence of one who knows the peculiar joy of refining and performing her own identity on a private stage, a bit like the names of boys or bands on the backs of middle-school notebooks.And, if we agree with editor Marta Werner, Dickinson was playing not only with the arrangement of words in poetic lines, but the arrangement of different groups of words on different parts of these envelopes. On a folded-over lip of one envelope, she describes a "Drunken man" (who may also be dead, or almost dead), "Oblivion bending / over him," and, written slanted over the curled edge, "enfolding him / with tender / infamy." It's the medium making the metaphor here, something usually reserved for sculpture. This is poetry in 3-D.These are late writings, probably composed after she'd sewn up the last of her famous "fascicles," the bound packets in which her poems were found after her death. So these are experiments, perhaps, begun after she'd set the bulk of her legacy in store for "immortality," one of her favorite words. Due, perhaps, to the limits these unusually shaped pages exerted on her writing, the best of these poems are among her most compressed and aphoristic. "A Pang," she writes, "is more / Conspicuous in Spring / In contrast with the / things that sing," blending colloquial and biblical speech in the kinds of enigmatic leaps that make her poems rush with wind.The Gorgeous Nothings is an art book as much as a poetry book, featuring full-color facsimiles of 52 of Emily Dickinson's envelope poems.iThe Gorgeous Nothings is an art book as much as a poetry book, featuring full-color facsimiles of 52 of Emily Dickinson's envelope poems.Jen Bervin/Courtesy of New DirectionsThe editors offer endless avenues of interpretation; the typed transcriptions of Dickinson's handwriting are superimposed atop the outlines of their corresponding envelopes, so the multidirectional layout of the text isn't lost. A series of esoteric indexes — by shape of the envelopes, by what direction they are turned, by whether or not they have "penciled divisions," for example — encourage the reader to speculate about the various relationships Dickinson may have conceived between paper and words.It's a good season to chase after the ever-elusive Emily Dickinson. In addition to this book, there's a corresponding exhibit in Chicago; there's also a separate show in New York City, and all of the poet's online archives were recently organized into one accessible hub. This book is a rare gift for all poetry lovers. We are lucky to have more of Dickinson's ongoing "letter to the World / That never wrote to Me," an endlessly fascinating correspondence, addressed to any of us who find it — so long as we're willing to answer it with concentration and curiosity.

This book is something so special and rare that I know I’ll treasure it forever . The juxtaposition of image and word , the envelope as an object combined with Dickinson’s poems form these exquisite gems . Truly an inspiration .

timeless and poignant, love the meticulous care to capture imaging of the actual handwritten poems on envelopes. lovely that she used and wrote on whatever was around at the time of her inspiration. 🤍🤍

I am pleasantly surprised that it is a coffee table binding. I also love that Emily’s actual hand writingare included with type-written translations in case her script cannot be deciphered by anyone. A bonus of this approach for me is that I can be sure that her poems in this book are the real deal, and not ‘corrected’ versions by latter day know-it-alls.The binding and paper used are exquisite. I am a reverent Emily Dickinson fan and for me this production is a credit to her genius.

There is just one small feature in the graphics i would have done differently but that is a matter of personal opinion; The text is clear and informative giving examples of how E D's use of the papers help us to understand her poems better and wonder whether she would have had them printed that way had she cared to. This book shows how Emily Dickinson's enigmatic poetry was motivated by the domestic structure of her life and her idiosyncratic approach to it. When the post arrives most of us look to the content, and no doubt she did, but her adrenalin must have notched up at the possibility of a post-mortem on the envelopes. The book gives one a clear sense of this and allows us to share the visual excitement of the revealed results.The Gorgeous Nothings is also beautifully produced so in itself is a pleasure to ownIan Tyson

This is a sturdy, hardback book and the fact that it arrived with a mangled cover was disappointing--especially as the book's value largely lies in its visuals.

A beautifully produced book that presents Emily Dickinson's notes the way she viewed her poetry. When someone was ill, Emily Dickinson would often being over a tray with baked goods, flowers, and tea. There has been speculation about her love life because of some poetry she wrote to a woman friend. However, in Doris Kearns Williams' book on Lincoln, she notes letters which appear to be love letters between Lincoln and close male friends; however, that was the style of that time period. When reading about people, we cannot put the template of today on "yesterday."This is a reasonably priced book. I would suggest to anyone familiar with poetry would enjoy owning this edition.

Apesar da demora, o livro chegou em perfeito estado.

Facilité de la lecture

gorg product, great service

He wrote this...A beautiful book for an Emily fan.(She is not the greatest woman poet but the fifth greatest poet. This book gives insight into what she was thinking as she wrote her poems.) (Imust ask him to list his poets in order of "greatness".Paul

A remarkable find. I love Dickinson's poems. To find she wrote snippets of ideas and small poems on the backs of opened-up envelopes and scraps of paper (such an environmentally friendly thing to do) was a revelation - so to discover someone had gone to the trouble to scan these and provide 'visual translations' (her handwriting can be difficult at times) was a joy. This is a book to treasure. I have now started the practice with my own poetry. I'll never be worthy of opening the envelopes of Emily Dickinson, but I like the idea of using a technique she employed.