Dickinson scholarship : an annotated bibliography 1969-1985 /

This comprehensive bibliography cites 759 books, articles, and dissertations that have appeared since the terminal point of Willis J. Buckingham's seminal work, Emily Dickinson: An Annotated Bibliography (1970). It also updates Joseph Duchac's The Poems of Emily Dickinson: An Annotated Guide to Commentary Published in English, 1890-1977 (CH, Jan '80). The author, whose dissertation and articles concern newly discovered Dickinson poems, provides generally lengthy, informative annotations that are not evaluative but do succinctly, if rather simplistically, state the major arguments and point of view of each publication. The volume is seriously weakened by the outrageous number of typographic/spelling errors in the short seven-page section comprising the preface and introduction. No fewer than 13 glaring errors, several occuring in proper names, such as Thoreau and even Dickinson, destroy the reader's faith in the authority and accuracy of the compiler. Although no errors were noticed in the body of the bibliography, there can be no excuse for such careless proofreading in the only sections of the volume that were typeset by the publisher. The work does, however, provide limited direction through its annotations and subject index, which guide the researcher to publications dealing with such topics as alienation, circumference, gender, and Puritanism as well as criticism written from the point of view of feminist and psychoanalytic critical theories. For exhaustive collections in American literature or those serving primarily undergraduates and new graduate students. Others may rely on the works mentioned above and on standard sources like Humanities Index and MLA International Bibliography.