EditingI was at the Highlands University Library this morning in Las Vegas, New Mexico, trying to track down a 1933 thesis written by J. W. Wilferth called "An Economic History of Harding County, New Mexico" for a story I'm researching. I had to sit down and read the thing in one sitting but it turned out to be what I would call an amazing document of mid-depression, pre-Dust Bowl community-denial about dry land farming.

But in any case, I was also looking for the novel The Hi Lo Country  by Max Evans, also written about the high plains of northeastern New Mexico. To get to that book, my husband inadvertently lured me through the library's section of literary criticism. Heaven help me. It pained me not to have time to look through all the old biographies and tomes of dusty literary thought.

I did sneak out these two books which look promising: Mind

  • Emily Dickinson, The Mind of the Poet by Albert J. Gelpi from 1965: Gelpi says in the introduction his attempt is to bring together biography with textual analysis. Sounds fun!

  • The Editing of Emily Dickinson, A Reconsideration by R. W. Franklin from 1967: It seems Franklin will take me through every edit ever made to every edition of Dickinson's poems. Except the photos of her original manuscript, I'm reconsidering reading it.

Check out the Daily Dickinson