“True lovers of poetry will welcome these rediscovered treasures and take pleasure in their quiet intensity, wisdom, and grace.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Scrupulously reading her letters for passages that contain her familiar iambics, meter or punctuation, Shurr gathers nearly 500 . . . 'excavations,' which he has altered minimally to conform with Dickinson’s 'usual poetic lines.' . . . The brevity and visual intensity of many short pieces show Dickinson as a precursor of the Imagists.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Those with an open mind will find pleasures here as one of America’s great poets plays with pushing the boundaries of poetry and human sensibility. The book is more than a literary curiosity.” — Houston Post
“William Shurr, the most insightful critical biographer of Emily Dickinson, is at it again, reading Dickinson with the acute eye of a Kepler or a Galileo, offering us our American Sappho unfragmented. His careful readings offer us an even richer mother of American poetry than any of us ever knew to exist.” — Diane Wakoski, Michigan State University
“An exciting, innovative, and important advance in Dickinson studies. While certain to cause controversy and debate, it is a major advance in our knowledge of Dickinson as poet and person. Shurr has revealed a secret treasure of her poetry that was waiting to be discovered.” — Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
