Page:The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson (1924).pdf/114

82 to her the manuscripts of famous writers, before publication, and when he entertained Canon Kingsley, Bret Harte, Charles Dickens, or any other author of note, he would share his impressions of them first-hand with her; often reading her notes to him to those he considered able to follow her meteoric flights. She counted him among her brightest beacons, and when his Life and Letters was about to be published in 1885 wrote—

Emily was a fond reader of Ik Marvel. On receiving a copy of "Dream Life" from her brother she wrote back:

In the winter of 1857, Emerson was her brother's guest. There is no mention of their having met—inexplicable as it seems—but in a note to her Sister Sue after his departure she says, "It must have been as if he had come from where dreams are born!"

She wrote to Sister Sue as if it were perfectly probable:

When Howells first appeared in the magazine of which Dr. Holland was editor, Emily wrote: