"Forever--- is Composed of Nows---" - Emily Dickinson's Gorgeous Nothings

 

Emily Dickinson

Here's what's new in the world of Emily Dickinson and it's exciting. See what a scholar, visual artist, and dancer have done with Dickinson's envelope poems!

From the Poetry Foundation website
 

Today New Directions will publish The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson's Envelope Poems, featuring facsimiles of 52 poems Dickinson wrote on envelopes late in her life. We talked to editors Jen Bervin and Marta Werner about the book, as well as to contemporary artists Lesley Dill and Spencer Finch whose work is inspired by the poet.

Gorgeous Nothings! Hardly. Good news spins forth from the New Directions blog–the press is publishing the first-ever, full-color, large-scale edition of Emily Dickinson’s “complete envelope writings in facsimile from her visually stunning manuscripts.” With contributions from Jen Bervin (you’ve hopefully spied her beautiful, intricate “Dickinson Fascicles”?), Susan Howe, and Marta Werner


 Watch the video of it here!

 The Gorgeous Nothings
Emily Dickinson's Envelope Poems
Poetry
Emily Dickinson
Edited by Jen Bervin
Edited by Marta Werner
Contributors: Susan Howe .

The first full-color publication of Emily Dickinson’s complete envelope writings in facsimile from her visually stunning manuscripts, here in a deluxe, large-scale edition

The Gorgeous Nothings — the first full-color facsimile edition of Emily Dickinson’s manuscripts ever to appear — is a deluxe edition of her late writings, presenting this crucially important, experimental late work exactly as she wrote it on scraps of envelopes. A never-before-possible glimpse into the process of one of our most important poets.

The book presents all the envelope writings — 52 — reproduced life-size in full color both front and back, with an accompanying transcription to aid in the reading, allowing us to enjoy this little-known but important body of Dickinson’s writing. Envisioned by the artist Jen Bervin and made possible by the extensive research of the Dickinson scholar Marta L. Werner, this book offers a new understanding and appreciation of the genius of Emily Dickinson.