Emily Dickinson Personal Library

Emily Dickinson Personal Library

Working on the series, Personal Libraries of Successful People, has been a good process for me because it allows me to see the shaping of the mind. of a very successful person. Like I have written before, from what I have observed so far, these successful people read books to improve their craft, and they read broadly. This is also true of Emily Dickinson, who was an American poet. She read the works of other poets, classic literature, fiction of her time, and various other genres.

Born in 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson received a very good  education. She loved going for long walks, enjoyed music, dancing, and gardening and joined a Shakespeare club. During her twenties, she no longer liked formal occasions. She fell in love with a preacher, but much to her dismay, discovered that he was married.

For the rest of her life, she lived in seclusion, and only two of her poems were published during her lifetime, and they were done without her permission. This post is possible because of the excellent work of Library Thing. Emily Dickinson's personal library has over 150 books.

Some of the Books in Emily Dickinson's Library

1. Italian Journeys, William Dean Howells
2. Reveries of a Bachelor; Or, A Book of the Heart, Donald Grant Mitchell
3. The Spanish Gypsy, George Eliot
4. Scenes of Clerical Life, George Eliot
5. The Mill on the Floss (Dover Thrift Editions), George Eliot
6. Memoirs of Rachel, Mme. A. de Barrera
7. Sweetness And Light, Matthew Arnold
8. Publii Virgilii Maronis Opera, Or, the Works of Virgil, Virgil
9. The Complaint, or Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality (Classic Reprint), Edward Young
10. Memoirs of the Late Mrs. Susan Huntington, of Boston, Mass: Consisting Principally of Extracts from Her Journal and Letters; with the Sermon Occasioned by Her Death, Susan Huntington
11. The Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron, Edward John Trelawny
12. In Memoriam, Baron Alfred Tennyson
13. The Princess: A Medley, Baron Alfred Tennyson
14. Tennyson: Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets), Alfred Tennyson
15. Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe (Profile of Harriet Beecher Stowe)Profile of Harriet Beecher Stowe)
16. Poems, by Alexander Smith, Alexander Smith
17. Adjutant Stearns, William A. Stearns
18. Dream Life: A Fable of the Seasons, Donald Grant Mitchell
19. The Imitation of Christ: In Four Books (Classic Reprint), Thomas à Kempis
20. Arctic Explorations, Elisha Kent Kane
21. Malbone: an Oldport Romance, Thomas Wentworth Higginson
22. The Poetical Works of George Herbert: With a Memoir of the Author and Notes by Rev. Robert Aris Willmott, George Herbert
23. The Marble Faun (Oxford World's Classics), Nathaniel Hawthorne
24. Essays on the poets: and other English writers, Thomas De Quincey
25. Autobiographic Sketches, Thomas de Quincey

26. 

    Cyclopedia of English Literature (2 Volume set): A History, Critical and Biographical, of British Authors, from the Earliest to the Present Times

27. The Poems of William Cowper (Classic Reprint), William Cowper
28. The Ring and the Book (Broadview literary texts), Robert Browning
29. The Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
30. Aurora Leigh (Oxford World's Classics), Elizabeth Barrett Browning
31. The Professor (Penguin Classics), Charlotte Brontë
32. Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë (Book Review – The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë)
33. Across the continent : a summer's journey to the Rocky Mountains, the Mormons, and the Pacific states, with Speaker Colfax, Samuel Bowles
34. Star Papers: Or, Experiences of Art and Nature, Henry Ward Beecher
35. The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth (Classic Reprint), William Wordsworth
36. The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, William Wordsworth
37. An American Dictionary of the English Language: Containing the Whole Vocabulary of the First Edition Etc., Noah Webster
38. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (Princeton Classic Editions), Henry David Thoreau
39. Walden, Henry David Thoreau (Walden by Henry David Thoreau, Review)Walden by Henry David Thoreau, Review)
40. The Seasons, James Thompson
41. Philip van Artevelde; a Dramatic Romance. In Two Parts, Sir Henry Taylor
42. Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, Volume I (Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas & Yucatan) John Lloyd Stephens
43. Letters on Practical Subjects to a Daughter (Classic Reprint), William Buell Sprague
44. The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley – The Original Classic Edition, Percy Bysshe Shelley
45. Complete Works of William Shakespeare : Complete Comedies, Histories, Tragedies and Poems, William Shakespeare
46. Hope Leslie: or Early Times in Massachusetts, Catharine Maria Sedgwick
47. Waverley – Complete, Sir Walter Scott
48. Titan: a romance (Titan: A Romance v. 1 (of 2), Titan A Romance Volume II), Jean Paul Friedrich Richter
49. Thaddeus of Warsaw, Jane Porter
50. The Course of Time: A Poem, in Ten Books. with a Memoir of the Author; an Analysis of Each Book; Divisions of the Subjects Embraced in the Poem; and a Comprehensive Index, Robert Pollok
51. The Last Leaf from Sunny Side (This is a link from Google Books), Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
52. The Angel in the House: The Betrothal, Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore
53. Coelebs In Search of a Wife, Hannah More
54. Moore's Irish Melodies, Thomas Moore
55. Paradise Lost, John Milton
56. My Study Window, James Russell Lowell
57. A Fable for Critics, Or, Better, a Glance at a Few of Our Literary Progenies from the Tub of Diogenes: That Is, a Series of Jokes, James Russell Lowell
58. Poems (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Poems & Other Writings: (Library of America #118)), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
59. Hyperion: A Romance, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
60. The Golden Legend, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
61. The Conduct Of The Understanding: Essays, Moral, Economical, And Political / By Francis Bacon. With Sketches Of The Lives Of Locke And Bacon, John Locke
62. Ranthorpe, George Henry Lewes
63. The Life of Jean Paul Richter (Life of Jean Paul Frederic Richter, Volume 1…, Life Of Jean Paul Frederic Richter, Volume 2), Eliza Lee
64. The letters of Junius., Junius
65. Verses Of Helen Hunt (1887), Helen Hunt Jackson
66. Bits of talk, in verse and prose, for young folks, Helen Hunt Jackson
67. Life of George Washington ( Life of George Washington: Volume I, Life of George Washington, Vol. 2 of 3 (Classic Reprint), Life of George Washington, Vol. 3 (Classic Reprint)), Washington Irving
68. Poems, Oliver Wendell Holmes
69. Kathrina: Her Life and Mine, a Poem, J. G. Holland
70. Elementary Geology, Edward Hitchcock
71. Short Studies of American Authors, Thomas Wentworth Higginson
72. The House of the Seven Gables (Illustrated), Nathaniel Hawthorne
73. The Blithedale Romance (Penguin Classics), Nathaniel Hawthorne
74. Gems From American Female Poets: With Brief Biographical Notices (1842), Rufus W. Griswold
75. A Father's Legacy To His Daughters, John Gregory
76. Faust: A Tragedy Translated from the German of Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von Faust Goethe
77. Life of William Blake, with selections from his poems and other writings, Alexander Gilchrist
78. Grantley Manor a Tale, Charlotte Fullerton
79. Theodore Parker: A Biography, Octavius Brooks Frothingham
80. Poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson (Profile: Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Essayist, Poet and Lecturer)Profile: Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Essayist, Poet and Lecturer)
81. Essays: First Series (Emerson: Essays and Lectures: Nature: Addresses and Lectures / Essays: First and Second Series / Representative Men / English Traits / The Conduct of Life (Library of America)), Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson)
82. Essays: Second Series, Ralph Waldo Emerson
83. The national spelling-book, and pronouncing tutor; containing rudiments of orthography and pronunciation on an improved plan, by which the sound of … of English orthoepy, with progressive, Benjamin Dudley Emerson
84. The Architecture Of Country Houses: Including Designs For Cottages, Farm Houses, And Villas, With Remarks On Interiors, Furniture, And The Best Modes Of Warming And Ventilating, Andrew Jackson Downing
85. Endymion, Earl of Beaconsfield Benjamin Disraeli
86. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
87. The Old Curiosity Shop and Other Tales., Charles Dickens
88. Nicholas Nickleby (Wordsworth Classics), Charles Dickens
89. Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation, Charles Dickens
90. American Notes for General Circulation (Penguin Classics), Charles Dickens
91. The Complete Concordance To Shakespeare: Being A Verbal Index To All The Passages In The Dramatic Works Of The Poet. (New And Revised Edition.), Mary Cowden Clarke
92. The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
93. Critical and miscellaneous essays, Thomas Carlyle (Thomas Carlyle, British Historian, Essayist)
94. The Works: Lord Byron, Baron George Gordon Byron
95. Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: With Notices of His Life, Baron George Gordon Byron
96. The Complete Works of Robert Burns, Robert Burns
97. Pilgrim's Progress, Parts 1 and 2 with detailed Table of Contents, John Bunyan
98. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
99. Villette (Signet Classics), Charlotte Bronte
100. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
101. The Life of Charlotte Bronte (Penguin Classics), Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
102. The True and the Beautiful: In Nature, Art, Morals, and Religion (Classic Reprint), John Ruskin
103. Lectures On the Philosophy of the Human Mind, Thomas Brown
104. Adam Bede (Penguin Classics), George Eliot
105. Prometheus Bound, and Other Poems, Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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Author Bio: Avil Beckford, an expert interviewer, entrepreneur and published author is passionate about books and professional development, and that's why she founded The Invisible Mentor and the Virtual Literary World Tour to give you your ideal mentors virtually in the palm of your hands by offering book reviews and book summaries, biographies of wise people and interviews of successful people. Connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.

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