Library Research Guides: WRIT 105 / ENG 120: Critical Interpretation: Literary Criticism and Authorial Editing

Manuscripts, Letters, and other Drafts

To find letters or other manuscripts by your poet, search for "[poet name] correspondence" or "[poet name] manuscript". You may also try some of the resources below.

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson Collection
Over 800 manuscripts relating to Emily Dickinson and her work and life, including letters and rough drafts of poems, from the collection at Amherst College. In the words of the guide to the collection, "It is impossible for any transcription of these fragments to capture the important details of how Dickinson originally laid out her poetry on the page."
The manuscript books of Emily Dickinson [book]
Facsimilies of the manuscripts of all of Emily Dickinson's poetry.

Elizabeth Bishop

Words in air: the complete correspondence between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell [book]
While Bishop does not have handwritten manuscripts published as Dickinson does, many poems are referenced in her letters, including her correspondence with fellow poet Robert Lowell.

Conversations with Elizabeth Bishop
Call Number: PS3503 .I785 Z464 1996
Reprinted interviews with Elizabeth Bishop.
One Art: letters by Elizabeth Bishop; Robert Giroux (Editor, Selected by)
Call Number: PS3503.I785 A4 1994
Selected correspondence of Elizabeth Bishop.

Key Databases for Literary Criticism

Databases can contain a combination of full text articles (ready to read online) and/or citation information about articles, book chapters, or books.

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Use this database to find scholarly books, book chapters, and articles on your poem or poet. Limited full-text.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Biographies, bibliographies and full-text critical analysis of authors from all genres and eras.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A database that contains full-text access to scholarly collection of journals that cover the major disciplines, including language and literature. JSTOR does not contain the most recent issues (previous 5 years).

In-Class Exercise

Donne in Manuscript (from Digital Donne)

Click on "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning ['As virtuous men pass mildly away']"

Find It! @ Wellesley

Can't find the full text of the article?

Click on the button.

It will try to direct you to the full text of the article.

For articles that we don't have electronically,

you can check to see if we have them in print,
or request them from other libraries through ILL (interlibrary loan).