English 95.4: Emily Dickinson

Fall 2007

• Books and Articles: Critical/Secondary Sources
• Some Sources of Primary Materials
  
• Citing Sources

Books and Articles: Critical/Secondary Sources

Five College Library Catalog: Catalog to all books, music, video, online resources, etc., in Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith libraries. Search all together or serach one library at a time.
WorldCat: Search for books in thousands of libraries. Use Interlibrary Loans to ask for books beyond the 5 College area.
MLA International Bibliography: References to scholarly articles about literature, folklore, linguistics, and more published since 1963. Use ACLinks for online articles or for catalog searches for the journals and books in print.
America: History & Life: Database listing scholarly articles about the history of the United States and Canada.
Academic OneFile and Academic Search Premier: Indexes to articles in many disciplines. Some references back to 1975. Book reviews as well as critical articles.

Journal Locator/Citation Linker See if a journal is available at AC; connect to electronic copies or look in library catalog for print journals

Some Sources of Primary Materials

Find "primary" documents in library catalogs, in the bibliographies of scholarly books and articles, in databases, and out on the Web. Don't limit your horizons. Be open and imaginative when you search.

Historical Magazines and Newspapers

American Periodical Series Online, 1740-1900: Digital reproductions of articles from American magazines from the 18th century up to the beginning of the twentieth century.
America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1876: Fully searchable archive of American newspapers.
Atlantic Monthly from the Making of America: Very important journal that started publishing in 1857 from digital project at Cornell.
RSAP: Resources for Research: Periodicals: Links to a vast collection of digitized periodicals from many places and many organizations from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
Springfield daily republican: Microfilm, 2nd floor, Frost Library; Springfield weekly Republican: Archives & Special Collections: Newspapers from 19th-century Springfield, Massachusetts.
Hampshire and Franklin Express; Hampshire Express; Amherst Record: Microfilm, 2nd floor Frost Library; Archives & Special Collections: Amherst newspapers from the time of the Dickinsons.
New York Times, 1851-2003

Emily Dickinson: Collections, Places, & Titles

Finding Aids to Manuscript Collections in Amherst College Library - Explore several Dickinson-related collections including the Bliss Family Papers, Edward (AC 1849) and Mary Judson Hitchcock Papers, Edward and Orra White Hitchcock Papers, and Amherst College Early History Collection.
Amherst College Library, Emily Dickinson Collection (finding aid, PDF, 3MB). The collection documents the creative work and personal life of Emily Dickinson, spanning her lifetime; her family and friends; and the early publication history of her work. It also includes material from Dickinson scholars Mabel Loomis Todd, Millicent Todd Bingham, Jay Leyda, and others. The collection includes original poems, manuscripts, and letters from Dickinson to family and friends; images of the poet, including the daguerreotype and silhouette; physical artifacts related to Dickinson; manuscript transcriptions; printers' copies and proofs; Mabel Loomis Todd's correspondence, research indices, and writings; and material from or about Dickinson's friends and family, including correspondence, photographs, objects, and scrapbooks. The finding aid includes numerous references to additional primary sources both in the Library and at other institutions. (Note: because of the fragile condition of Dickinson manuscripts, surrogates are used.)
Amherst College Library, Dickinson Related Materials Collection (finding aid, PDF, 60K). The collection documents the vast (and continually growing) array of material (studies, derivative works, memorabilia, etc.) inspired by Dickinson since the time of her death.
Amherst College Library, Buildings and Grounds Collection - in Archives & Special Collections. Includes information on the Dickinson Homestead and the Evergreens, the home of her brother Austin and his family.
Emily Dickinson Collection at the Jones Library
Emily Dickinson Electronic Archives - A website produced by the Dickinson Editing Collective devoted to the study of Emily Dickinson, her writing practices, writings directly influencing her work, and critical and creative writings generated by her work.
Emily Dickinson Museum : Website for The Emily Dickinson Museum which consists of the "Homestead" and the next-door Evergreens, home of her brother Austin, his wife Sue, and their children.
Emily Dickinson Lexicon : A website with "a comprehensive dictionary of over 9,275 words and variants found in the collected poems".
Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series : Todd and Higginson’s first three editions of Dickinson’s poems; free text from Project Gutenberg.
The Single Hound : Free online reproduction of Martha Dickinson Bianchi’s collection of Dickinson’s poetry from 1914.
Radical Scatters: Emily Dickinson's Fragments and Related Texts, 1870-1886: E-book by Marta Werner.

Citing Sources

Be sure to credit the sources you use for a research project -- whether printed books and journals or online texts, websites, etc. The Citation Styles Handbook: MLA Style from the University of Illinois tells you how to cite all kinds of sources for courses in literature. Or use The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers at the Reference Desk

Do you have questions about research in this course? Contact Daria D'Arienzo (email:ddarienzo; voice: x2299)

 

Send comments to Daria D'Arienzo (ddarienzo)

Amherst College > Library > Research > English 95.4: Emily Dickinson