The great and long disorder of Dickinson’s late manuscripts, coupled with the complete absence of salutations (and signatures) on the documents, often make it difficult to determine which drafts Dickinson composed with Lord in mind and which are only fortuitously associated with that relationship. On this issue, moreover, Bingham, Leyda, and Johnson never reach a consensus. Only the Amherst College Library/Special Collections’ card catalog, arranged by Leyda, records all and sundry associations and coincidences, cross‑referencing drafts Dickinson jotted down on the versos of envelopes addressed by Lord, rough drafts possibly intended for Lord, etc., with the main body of letter‑fragments (see figure 1). Bingham and Johnson focus on the recipient of the drafts, rather than on the material documents themselves, thus somewhat narrowing and altering the shape of the body of drafts. In Emily Dickinson: A Revelation (1954) Bingham divides the manuscripts into two sections, the first consisting of those letter‑fragments she believes were almost certainly intended for Lord and the second section of “notes . . . not with the letters, but . . . among the masses of unclassified bits of verse and prose usually referred to as ‘scraps’” (Rev., 72). The link between the fair copy fragments and the scraps remains uncertain, though Bingham’s physical association of the documents in A Revelation is suggestive. Johnson’s criteria for selection in the three-volume Letters of Emily Dickinson (1958) have not been recorded, though he seems to have chosen, with several important exceptions (see L 645), from among Dickinson’s fair copy drafts, relegating the great majority of rough copy drafts to “Prose Fragments.” The following lists suggest the breakdowns formulated by each editor/cataloger.*

*In the lists that follow, each editor’s or cataloger’s idiosyncratic transcriptions of Dickinson’s drafts have been reproduced verbatim; the reader will notice slight variations in the form of a number of the entries (e.g., see “You spoke of ‘Hope’ surpassing ‘Home’ –,” “I kissed the little blank –,” “I know you acutely weary,” “Tuesday is a deeply depressed Day –,” “As there are Apartments in our own minds,” etc.).

A. Millicent Todd Bingham, A Revelation (1954)

1. Letters and fragments composed by Emily Dickinson (ED) to Otis Lord

            My lovely Salem smiles at me – (two drafts)

            Ned and I were talking . . .

            To beg for the Letter . . .

            Dont you know you are happiest . . .

            . . . to lie so near your longing –

            . . . I know you acutely weary, . . .

            The withdrawal of the Fuel of Rapture . . .

            His little “Playthings” were very sick . . .

            To remind you of my own rapture . . .

            I wonder we ever leave the Improbable –

            You spoke of “Hope” surpassing “Home.”

            . . . The celestial Vacation of writing you . . .

            What if you are writing!

2. Supplementary rough notes

            Spirit cannot be moved by Flesh –

            (verso) We are always in danger of magic . . .*

            I sometimes [have] almost feared Language . . .

            But why did you distrust your little Simon . . .

            This has been a beautiful Day – dear –

            I feel like wasting my Cheek on your Hand . . .

            (verso) The summer that we did not prize (in part)

            I kissed the little blank.

            But are not all Facts Dreams . . .

            A group of students passed the House –

            I never heard you call anything beautiful . . .

            (verso) Still as the stern Profile of a Tree . . .

            Second of March, and the Crow, . . .

            My little devices to live till Monday . . . (two drafts)

            Tuesday is a deeply depressed Day –

            Emerging from an Abyss and entering it again –

            (verso?) Were Departure Separation . . .**

            ’Tis a dangerous moment for any one . . .

            We do not think enough of the Dead . . .

            God cannot discontinue [annul] himself.

            As there are Apartments in our own minds . . .***

*Only Bingham links this fragment with the Lord letters. The manuscript is so badly torn that it is impossible to determine whether these lines are part of the draft on the recto beginning “Spirit cannot be moved by Flesh –,” or part of another draft, now probably lost forever. Thomas H. Johnson transcribes the text on the recto of the manuscript, but, mysteriously, does not transcribe the text on the verso.

**Though it may exist, I have not been able to locate the manuscript containing both “Emerging from an Abyss” and “Were Departure Separation.” In Johnson’s Letters the fragments are no longer linked.

***This fragment is quoted on page 20 of Emily Dickinson: A Revelation. A footnote informs the reader that these words were inscribed on the back of a fragment of envelope addressed to “[O]tis P. Lord / Salem / Mass.” Bingham does not reproduce this fragment in either part 1 or part 2 of her text.

B. Emily Dickinson Collection, Amherst College (Leyda)

1. Letters and fragments composed by ED to Otis Lord

            Second of March, and the Crow, . . .

            I feel like wasting my Cheek on your Hand . . .

            (verso) The Summer that we did not prize . . .

            My lovely Salem smiles at me – (two drafts)

            Ned and I were talking . . .

            To beg for the Letter . . .

            . . . remained what the Carpenter called the Door . . .*

            Dont you know you are happiest . . .

            . . . To lie so near your longing –

            . . . I know you acutely weary, . . .

            . . . Door either, after you have entered, . . .

            His little “Playthings” were very sick . . .

            To remind you of my own rapture . . .

            I wonder we ever leave the Improbable –

            You spoke of “Hope” surpassing “Home” –

            The celestial Vacation of writing you . . .

            What if you are writing!

            The withdrawal of the Fuel of Rapture . . .

            But why did you distrust your little Simon . . .

            I kissed the little blank –

            My little devices to live till Monday . . . (two drafts)

            Tuesday is a deeply depressed Day –

            Thank you for knowing I did not spurn it, . . .*

            (verso) It is joy to be with you . . .*

*Only Leyda includes these fragments among those written by ED to Otis Lord. They are not included in Bingham’s Revelation, and Johnson does not link them with Lord in Letters.

2. Fragments possibly written by ED to Otis Lord

            I never heard you call anything beautiful . . .

            A group of students passed the House –

            I do . . . her Sister . . .*

            I sometimes [have] almost feared Language . . .

            This has been a beautiful Day – dear –

            Throngs who would not prize them, . . .*

            Common Sense is almost as omniscient . . .*

*Again, neither Bingham nor Johnson connects these fragments with Lord. I have included them here to initiate the drift of boundaries.

3. Fragments peripherally associated with Otis Lord*

            Arrows enamored of his Heart –; Circumference thou Bride of Awe

            Glass was the Street –; It came his turn to beg –

            Still as the Stern Profile of a Tree . . .

            Through what transports of Patience . . .

            Emerging from an Abyss and entering it again –

            When it becomes necessary . . .

            As there are Apartments in our own minds . . .

* These “peripheral” drafts and fragments have material links to the canonical Lord drafts. For instance, “As there are Apartments in our own minds” and “Through what transports of Patience” are composed on scraps of envelopes addressed by ED to Lord and Lord to ED, respectively. “Glass was the Street –” and “It came his turn to beg –” are written on a torn telegram envelope possibly connected with Lord. And, finally, “Arrows enamored of his Heart –,” “Circumference thou Bride of Awe,” “Still as the Stern Profile of a Tree,” “Emerging from an Abyss and entering it again –,” and “When it becomes necessary” are composed on the same writing surface as other drafts connected with Lord (see A 132a, A 359, A 752a, and A 760).

C. Thomas H. Johnson, The Letters of Emily Dickinson (1958)

1. Letter‑fragments composed by ED to Otis Lord

            My lovely Salem smiles at me. (two drafts)

            Ned and I were talking . . .

            To beg for the Letter . . .

            Dont you know you are happiest . . .

            Tuesday is a deeply depressing Day –

            . . . You spoke of “Hope” surpassing “Home” –

            I never heard you call anything beautiful . . .*

            My little devices to live till Monday . . . (two drafts)

            His little “Playthings” were very sick . . .

            To remind you of my own rapture . . .

            The celestial Vacation of writing you . . .

            What if you are writing!

            I know you [are] acutely weary, . . .

            The withdrawal of the Fuel of Rapture . . .

            I feel like wasting my Cheek on your Hand . . .

*L 645 [about 1880] includes the following additional fragments: “Still (stern) as the Profile of a Tree,” “I kissed the little blank –,” “This has been a beautiful Day – dear –,” “But why did you distrust your little Simon,” “I sometimes [have] almost feared Language,” and “I wonder we ever leave the Improbable –.”

2. Fragments possibly written by ED to Otis Lord

            A group of students passed the House –

            As there are Apartments in our own Minds . . .

            But are not all Facts Dreams . . .

            Emerging from an Abyss and entering it again –

            God cannot discontinue [annul] himself.

            Second of March and the Crow . . .

            Spirit cannot be moved by Flesh –

            Tis a dangerous moment for any one . . .

            We do not think enough of the Dead . . .

            Were Departure Separation, . . .