Sampler

This book presents a selection of two hundred poems by Emily Dickinson, one of America’s greatest poets, with prints by the acclaimed contemporary artist Kiki Smith. The title of this book was chosen for two reasons. It signals that this is a sampling of the poetry of Emily Dickinson. And it refers to embroidered samplers from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that inspired the imagery of Kiki Smith.

When Emily Dickinson died intestate at her birthplace, Amherst, Massachusetts, in May 1886, at the age of fifty-five, only ten of her more than seventeen hundred poems had been published, and these appearances were not initiated by her: publication was arranged by others without her permission, though she did not condemn those who had brought public attention to her very private art.

By now, one might assume that the work of a nineteenth-century poet would be in the public domain. But rivalry between her relatives persisted and the release of all of the poetry was so gradual that claims of copyright continue to this day.

When Arion Press came to issue the poetry of Emily Dickinson, we decided to limit selection to two hundred poems from those published prior to 1923 that are clearly in the public domain. In editing this selection, we have regularized capitalization to current standards and punctuation to house style. It is our contention that the poems are not harmed and that imposing punctuation conveys an understanding of the poem that might otherwise be missed.

The artist Kiki Smith has made prints for every page of the poetry, as well as the half-title page and a portrait of Emily Dickinson on the frontispiece, 206 images in all. These are original prints. Kiki Smith has made the matrix for each image. She scratched lines in the emulsion of photographic negatives with an etching needle and other sharp-pointed tools, thus allowing light to pass through them in the making of photopolymer plates for letterpress printing.

Kiki Smith decided to make images in the manner of samplers, traditionally sewn by young women to demonstrate their domestic skills. She studied examples in the collections of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

For a larger print to be published with the book, Smith assembled a paste-up of images from her set of proofs. This layout was used by Arion Press to make new plates for the print. Proofs were sent to the artist, and she hand-colored and gilded a proof to serve as a model for application of two shades of red ink and silver-white foil by Arion staff.

Kiki Smith is one of the foremost artists in the United States. The retrospective exhibition “Kiki Smith: A Gathering, 1980– 2005” was organized by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and appeared at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York as well as other cities throughout the U.S. in 2006 through early 2007.

For this book Kiki Smith has imitated the stitchery of samplers with short straight and slightly curved strokes. Her subtle patterns of cross-stitches and hatchings become recognizable figures or mysterious forms related to the wondrous imagery in Emily Dickinson’s poems.