Martha Nell Smith - Books

Books

Rowing in Eden: Rereading Emily Dickinson. A revaluation of the poet’s “publication” of her work. U of Texas Press, 1992. Honorable Mention, 1993, Hans Rosenhaupt Memorial Book Award, given biennially by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation for a Distinguished First Book Published in the Humanities. Excerpt reprinted in Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, eds., Feminist Literary Theory and Criticism: A Norton Reader (W.W. Norton 2007).

Comic Power in Emily Dickinson. Coauthored with Prof. Suzanne Juhasz, Univ. of Colorado, and Prof. Cristanne Miller, Chair, Department of English, University at Buffalo, SUNY. U of Texas Press, 1993. Best Books of 1993, Choice. Smith, “The Poet as Cartoonist” rpt. in New Century Views of Emily Dickinson, ed. Judith Farr. Prentice Hall, 1996.

Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson’s Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson. An editorial, critical, and biographical study of the poet’s most prolific correspondence (essays by Martha Nell Smith, notes and texts coedited with Ellen Louise Hart, Univ. of California at Santa Cruz). Paris Press, 1998; Second edition published May 2005. Selected notices/reviews/interviews: “Two Belles of Amherst,” New York Times Book Review (December 13, 1998); Featured book, CNN.com (December 15, 1998); Interview, “To the Best of Our Knowledge,” (WPR, December 20, 1998); Valentine’s Week Choice, Washingtonpost.com (February 9, 1999); American Library Association’s Notable Books List 1999; Reviewed as “ubiquitous and influential” in New York Review of Books (April 11, 1999); “a must for American literature scholars and students at all levels,” Choice (1998); “illuminate the inseparability of female creativity and profound relationships among women” in The Women’s Review of Books (November 1999).

Companion to Emily Dickinson. Coedited with Mary Loeffelholz. Blackwell Publishers, 2008. 523 pp. "The essays show the breadth, depth, and vitality of current scholarship in Dickinson studies. Indexed and selectively illustrated with black and white photographs, this volume merits a place alongside An Emily Dickinson Encyclopedia and The Emily Dickinson Handbook, but is unique in offering readers the benefits of digital collaboration.” (Emily Dickinson International Society Bulletin, Fall 2008)

Emily Dickinson: A User’s Guide (56,000 words). Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, forthcoming August 2013. An introduction to the poet, her writings, and their receptions. A brief excerpt from this new book appeared at the end of 2012: “A New Daguerreotype of Emily Dickinson?” Emily Dickinson International Society Bulletin 24.2 (November/December 2012), 1, 4-5.