Epic Emily Dickinson Collection Comes to the College
Tangible archival items bring literature to life. "Ann feels strongly that these items are meant to be read and used, not to sit on a shelf," says Jim Gerencser ’93, associate dean for Dickinson's Archives & Special Collections. Photo by Dan Loh.
Hundreds of first editions, unique items bring literature to life
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
As she entered the theatre, Ann Hooff Kline ’59, P’87, was eager to see a favorite actor performing onstage. By curtain call, her excitement had multiplied—and a thrilling new chapter of her life had begun.
The play starred actor Julie Harris as Emily Dickinson, and it spurred Ann’s three-decade deep-dive into the poet’s life and work. Over the years, Ann amassed a home archive of roughly 700 items related to Emily Dickinson. And now, this extraordinary collection finds a new home at Dickinson College, inviting students to experience a literary trailblazer in fresh and immediate ways.
“It’s unusual for a liberal-arts college like Dickinson to have first editions of Emily Dickinson. The English department is over the moon,” says Claire Seiler, professor of English.
A passionate pursuit
Ann Hooff Kline amassed a collection of approximately 700 Emily Dickinson-related items. She recently gifted them to the college. Photo by Dan Loh.
Emily Dickinson wasn’t yet widely taught in America when Ann was an undergrad English major at a college that, coincidentally, bears the poet's last name. Pretty, sociable and studious, Ann met Bob Kline ’58, P'87, a record-holding student-athlete, in Dickinson’s library. Bonding over their shared quick wit and love for the great outdoors, they married one week after her graduation.
While Bob climbed the ladder in finance, Ann raised their children (daughter Laura ’87 and grandson Drew ’28 are among the many Dickinsonians in the Kline family). They’ve stayed connected to the college as volunteers and Old West Society members.
Ann took in Julie Harris’ Philadelphia staging of The Belle of Amherst in 1976. She was instantly enchanted by that portrayal of Emily Dickinson’s independent spirit—and by the telegram-like poems Dickinson penned. “The poems had a vitality and a mystery about them,” Ann remembers. “I realized that if I wanted to understand them, I’d need to understand Emily Dickinson—her time and place, what she loved, what she read.”
Sharing 'the thing with feathers'
Ann read voraciously. She trekked to archives and to Emily Dickinson’s hometown. The more she learned, the more she appreciated the poet’s intellectual and artistic bravery and rich interior life. “Although she had a lot of sorrows and wrote a lot about big questions—nature, spirituality, war, death, life—her work is mostly hopeful,” Ann adds. “I connected with that, and I found a lot of joy in it.”
To share that joy, Ann gave educational talks in a custom-made, taffeta dress, similar to one shown in the only known photograph of the poet. Ann's gigs included an anniversary presentation for the Emily Dickinson International Society, which Harris attended. (Ann met Harris twice more—including at Dickinson, where Harris accepted the college’s 2001 Arts Award.)
Physical objects can impart interesting information that mere digitized text cannot. An example: This delicate cover illustration conforms to gender rules of the time—and belies the powerfully nonconformist ideas inside. Photo by Dan Loh.
All the while, Ann built up her home archive, haunting bookstores and antiquarian fairs and dispatching dealers to find related books, magazines and ephemera. She housed the collection in her son’s childhood bedroom, which she outfitted with replicas of Emily Dickinson’s bed and desk.
The collection includes:
- publications that include first printings of some of Emily Dickinson’s earliest published poems
- photos of, and letters by and to, Dickinson family members and friends
- biographies and news clippings
- bricks from the Dickinson estate
- books Emily read and music she heard
- materials related to her hometown and to the college her grandfather founded, where she sat in on classes
- era-evocative items, like 1880s currency.
There are also materials unique to the collector. These include Ann’s wax rubbings of Dickinson family gravestones; her 1848-inspired dress and the speeches she delivered in it; and daguerreotypes Ann fitted with photos of Emily Dickinson’s family members. An endowed fund, established by Bob, will empower the college to promote the Dickinson archive, add to the collection and replace and professionally restore items as needed.
Gazing through the eyepiece of a period-appropriate stereoscope, we see photos of the Dickinson family estate. Photo by Dan Loh.
How will students use it?
The collection arrived in Dickinson’s Archives & Special Collections this month. Seiler notes that it found a comfortable home at Dickinson, thanks to the English department’s strengths in poetry, literary production and textual history. Five Dickinson literature professors already interweave Emily Dickinson into their classes, and several use archival materials to enliven literary learning.
Professor Carol Ann Johnston, for example, has placed students in contact with a first edition of Paradise Lost; she also teaches hands-on lessons on book history. Assistant Professor Chelsea Skalak uses archival materials in classes about medieval manuscripts. Seiler’s students see and touch Harlem Renaissance works.
There's a long line of Dickinsonians in the Kline family. Above (from left), the youngest addition, Drew '28, poses with his grandparents, Bob '58 and Ann '59; Professor of English Claire Seiler; and father Frederick. Photo by Dan Loh.
These professors know that tangible archival items fascinate students who often come to college only encountering literature on a screen. And there are lessons only the physical works can provide. For example, Ann’s collection allows students to see and hold first editions of early-published works. Some sport floral illustrations, signaling conformity to the era’s gender norms—in a way that Emily’s poems, which plunge into “unladylike” themes like death, often did not.
This archive also illuminates an unusual publication history, since Emily Dickinson never directly sought publication. Only about a dozen of her nearly 2,000 poems, submitted by friends and heavily edited, were published in her lifetime. Her full collection was discovered posthumously and published over time. Ann’s collection traces that history from its origins to the modern era.
Finally, the poems themselves create rich interdisciplinary opportunities. Convention-flaunting and genre-shaping, these Civil War-era works connect today’s students with timely themes, including equity, empathy and divisiveness in American society.
A personal touch
Bob '58 and Ann Hooff Kline '59 placed Ann's collection in the capable hands of Jim Gerencser '93 (left). Photo by Dan Loh.
Jim Gerencser ’93, associate dean for Dickinson's Archives & Special Collections, notes that while Dickinson does not typically accept collections of books, Ann’s archive was too distinctive and useful to pass up.
“There are valuable first editions in this collection, but to me, what’s most exciting is the way Ann used these materials—the life she gave to them,” Gerencser adds. “It’s not only a collection of Emily Dickinson-related materials but also a collection representing an alumna’s unique perspective and her work and passion over decades.”
Seiler agrees, saying the English department will share that story of this Dickinson alumna who, without formal training, created and documented a luminous collection, all out of a simple love of beauty and an insatiable passion for learning.
“Ann came to love Emily Dickinson because her mind and heart were open to an interart experience. It's such a Dickinson story—I’m getting teary-eyed, just thinking about it,” says Seiler. “We’re so grateful, and we’ll use this collection in many classes. It’s going to be so much fun.”
TAKE THE NEXT STEPS
Published September 5, 2024