The ninety-three letters--and the poems, over thirty in all, which she included in the letters or sent in place of them--written by Emily Dickinson to her dear friends the Hollands, are intimate, spontaneous, and at the same time as characteristically poetic as everything Emily ever wrote or said. They span the major portion of Emily's adult life, from her twenties to her death. A detailed study of handwriting and paper has made possible a new historical approach to her life, her prose, and her poetry. This is the first of the books made possible by Harvard's acquisition of the Dickinson papers and the rights connected with them.