The New York Public Library collector's edition

Virtually unpublished in her lifetime and unknown at her death in 1886, Emily Dickinson stands today in the front rank of American poets. Though she lived as a recluse in her father's house in Amherst, Massachusetts, her imagination knew no bounds, ranging with utter fearlessness through a vast landscape of love, immortality, nature, joy, faith, and despair. After Dickinson's death, her sister Vinnie was stunned to discover a locked box containing over nine hundred poems - an extraordinary body of work which the poet considered her "letter to the world." This edition gathers a rich harvest of the finest of these poems, carefully selected by the staff of The New York Public Library. Arranged chronologically, they chart the development of a poetic sensibility fired by immediacy of perception and a magnificent grasp of language. Emily Dickinson and her world are further evoked here with rare manuscripts and prints drawn from the Library's special collections, including a selection of the poet's handwritten letters.

"Gathered together in this unique collection are the novel O Pioneers! - Cather's famous double elegy to the land and to the pioneer spirit - and two of her greatest shorter works, "A Lost Lady and "The Bohemian Girl." With O Pioneers!, Cather created something bracing and new in American literature, a boldly imaginative and compassionate tribute to the men and women who struggled to make a life on the forbidding, open contours of the Western prairies. And in her radiant heroine Alexandra Bergson she brought to life a resolute and passionate woman who has become one of our most beloved literary figures. In this volume, Alexandra is joined by two other remarkable women: the vivacious, restive Clara Vavricka Ericson of the short story "The Bohemian Girl," and the enchanting but curiously baffling Marian Forrester of A Lost Lady, a luminous novella that for many critics and readers stands as the most exquisite example of Cather's art."--BOOK JACKET.

In this special Collector's Edition, a selection of Charles Dickens's most captivating stories are gathered together, richly illustrated with handwritten manuscript pages, rare family photographs, and a splendid array of prints and drawings from the special collections of The New York Public Library.