University of Virginia Library

Emerson's Annotations in the British Museum Copy of the DIAL
by
Burton R. Pollin

The important task of identifying the largely anonymous contributors to the Dial was energetically undertaken by George Willis Cooke, in the late nineteenth century. His preliminary determination of the names was published in 1885,[1] and his final statement was properly included in the second of the two supplementary volumes that accompanied the set of the Dial reprinted by the Rowfant Club in 1901-02.[2] I know of no updating of Cooke's list, nor is there any need for a full one since he accurately says, "In several lists that have been used there is an amount of divergence not very large, and it is much lessened by a careful investigation" (II.193). Cooke had the advantage of being able to check various dubious or "open" items by applying directly to contributors to the Dial or to their heirs during the nineteenth century. The marked copies that he consulted

included Thoreau's set; one in the University of Michigan, marked by William Ellery Channing; "lists" in the Library of Congress, the Newberry Library, the Boston Athenaeum, and Harvard University; private sets owned by subscribers or their heirs; and, finally, Emerson's set of the Dial with its detailed identifications (Preface, I.vi-vii). This last is now deposited in the Houghton Library of Harvard and will form one part of my tripartite collation, given below, since it is the most complete of all the lists.[3]

George W. Cooke, however, along with other students of Emerson, seemed unaware of a very detailed listing of contributors' names which Emerson himself inserted into a set of the Dial magazine acquired by the British Museum. There is little question about the circumstances under which Emerson filled in the names, usually in the Table of Contents of each volume, but occasionally in the text at the foot of the article or poem. Two manuscript headnotes in faded ink indicate the source of the annotations originally. The Table of Contents of the first volume reads: "When Mr Emerson was in England in 1847-8, He, at my request, wrote the names of the authors against their various contribution to the Dial in the following List of Contents. A. I." On the Contents page of the fourth volume we find, written in the same autograph: "The names of the authors of the various papers were written by Mr Emerson at A Ireland's residence in Manchester in the winter of 1847 A I." Emerson's inscription is further confirmed by a statement in a book by "A. I.," that is, by Alexander Ireland. "An originally subscribed-for copy is in the possession of the writer of this memoir, which is rendered unique and very precious by having the authorship of each article indicated in Emerson's own handwriting."[4] Since Ireland died in 1894 it was unlikely that Cooke had knowledge of the British Museum's acquisition of the set in time for his publication of 1902.

Students of Emerson are in no need of the details of Emerson's relations with this newspaper man. Originally from Edinburgh, Ireland had forged a career and name for himself in Manchester, acquired a magnificent library, and published a variety of literary papers. While still in Edinburgh he had been greatly impressed by Emerson's sermon in the Young Street Unitarian Chapel in 1833 and subsequently became, in Rusk's term, the "chief instigator of the lecture tour of 1847-8," after hearing about Emerson's Lyceum success from Margaret Fuller.[5] He saw Emerson again on

his visit of 1872. Since he was captivated by the sense of purpose in the magazine and the "eminence" of the contributors — to a much greater extent than the editors, Margaret Fuller and Emerson later[6] — it was natural for him to ask Emerson to seek to recall the contributors to the 1840-44 defunct publication. One wonders why, as a newspaper and literary man, he later failed to publicize his precious list of the writers.

It is true that the cognoscenti in or near Concord, with the increasing importance of Transcendentalism in American literary thought, could puzzle out the authorship of some of the articles from the occasional letter or letters designating the names of the contributors, even when the letter was only a formal symbol, like the "Z" for Caroline Sturgis, or the "U" for W. H. Channing (II.45) and the "A" for Margaret Fuller (II.437) who is usually designated as "F." To a Transcendentalist reader "H. D. T." could mean only Thoreau, and "P." Parker, and "C." Cranch, but why should "M. L. O." betoken James Russell Lowell (I.366)? Again, it would be possible for some members of the group to recognize poems printed in the Dial as bearing the earmarks of William Ellery Channing, confirmed by their inclusion in the 1843 and 1847 volumes of his poetry, but Emerson did not expect this degree of awareness in England. Hence, he filled out several entries that were obvious to Americans and several that he left in "letter" form in the Harvard set. In a few instances he identified items in the text rather than in the Table of Contents, as I occasionally indicate in my lists or in the discussion below.

My system of recording my collations is based on the following facts. Cooke's list of contributors is given at the end of his second supplementary volume (pp. 196-211), where they may be consulted by any student of Emerson. He did not specify for which items he was specifically using the authority of the Emerson (or Houghton) set, and since that is probably the most complete of all the authoritative lists, I wish to enable the reader to detect any discrepancies or omissions in any of the three, including the British Museum set. When Cooke's fill-in substantially matches both the Houghton copy and the British Museum copy, I omit that title. (I ignore differences in forms, such as the use of a manuscript "Z" by Emerson in the Houghton copy for Caroline Sturgis, called by Cooke "Caroline Tappan.")[7] The significant discrepancies between the British Museum and the Cooke listings are starred for separate discussion below my listing.

The individual variations between Emerson's two sets of attributions are also indicated, even though a few merely show fill-ins for the British reader, presumed less familiar with Concord figures. When both of Emerson's lists are blank, that fact is noted to show Cooke's reliance upon other sources entirely, for those items. A blank entry is indicated by a zero (o). The question marks in Cooke's listing are shown as he prints them. The first page only of each article is shown, and all data of publication are omitted save the volume and page number. (Each volume, paged continuously, covers one year — from July through April, in quarters, starting with July, 1840, and ending with April, 1844.) The printed letter, which is occasionally used to designate authorship, is added to each title in a parenthesis.

                                                                 

Page	Article or Poem	Cooke's list	Harvard set	British Museum set
Vol. I
99	Channing's Translation of Jouffroy (W.)	W. D. Wilson	W D Wilson	Wilson faintly written, as though erased
134	A Dialogue	Margaret Fuller	0	0
135	Richter----Morning Breeze	Margaret Fuller	Margaret Fuller	0
136	Dante----Sketches (S.)	Sarah Clarke	Sarah Clarke	0
158	Silence	Emerson	Emerson	0
*161	A Sign from the West (C.)	C. P. Cranch	C P Cranch	J F Clarke
172	Angelica Sleeps	Margaret Fuller (?)	0	0
187	The Poor Rich Man	Ellen Hooper	Ellen Hooper	0
187	Why askest thou?	W. E. Channing	W E Channing	0
188	Musings of a Recluse	C. P. Cranch	0	0
*193	The Day Breaks (Z.)	Caroline Tappan	Ellen Hooper	C S
216	From Goethe	Caroline Tappan	0	0
217	Paean (Z.)	Caroline Tappan	0	C S (the same)
217	Lyric (Z.)	Caroline Tappan	0	C S
219	Waves	Caroline Tappan	C S	0
219	On the surface	Caroline Tappan	C S	0
245	Life and Death	Caroline Tappan	Z	0
246	Record of the Months	George Ripley	0	0
264	Select List of Recent Publications	Various names	0	0
293	Klopstock and Meta	Margaret Fuller	0	Marg. Fuller
298	The True in Dreams (C.)	C. P. Cranch	0	C P Cranch
305	Sunset	Caroline Tappan	0	0
362	Woman (W. N.)	Sophia Ripley	0	"I believe Sophia Ripley," in text
400	To the Ideal	Ellen Hooper	Ellen Hooper	0
401	Record of the Months	Emerson and Fuller	0	0
461	Listen to the Wind	Caroline Tappan	0	0
461	The Wind Again	Caroline Tappan	0	0
468	Poems on Art	J. F. Clarke	0	0
519	The Out-Bid	Ellen Hooper	Ellen Hooper	0
539	Music of the Winter (T.)	J. F. Tuckerman	Tuckerman	0
544	Farewell	Ellen Hooper	0	0

                                                                                                       

Vol. II
42	Two Hymns	Eliza T. Clapp	0	0
45	Night and Day (U.)	W. H. Channing	0	0
52	Song	W. E. Channing (?)	0	0
53	Need of a Diver	W. H. Channing	0	0
77	Protean Wishes	Theodore Parker	Theodore Parker	0
78	Painting and Sculpture	Sophia Ripley	[FBS] (Sanborn?)	0
81	Sic Vita (H. D. T.)	Thoreau	0	H D Thoreau
82	Bettina	Caroline Tappan	C S	0
83	Prophecy-Transcendentalism-Progress	J. A. Saxton	At foot of p. 83, "Rufus Saxton, FBS says."	0
121	Sonnet to --	W. E. Channing	0	W E C
129	Sonnet (Hugh Peters)	J. R. Lowell	0	0
130	Review of Very's Essays	Emerson	0	R W E
131	On Heroes, etc.	Margaret Fuller	0	S M F
133	Miscellaneous	Margaret Fuller	0	0
136	Lines	Sara A. Chase	0	0
136	To Contributors	Margaret Fuller	0	0
214	A Glimpse, etc.	Elizabeth P. Peabody	0	E P Peabody
228	Poems on Life (W.)	0	0	0
230	Windmill	Caroline Tappan	0	0
271	Inworld (C.)	C. P. Cranch	0	C P Cranch
286	Yuca Filamentosa	Margaret Fuller	0	S M Fuller
288	Inworld	C. P. Cranch	0	C P Cranch
290	Outworld (C.)	C. P. Cranch	0	C P Cranch
*359	De Profundis Clamavi	0	0	B F at foot of p. 359
380	Epilogue	Margaret Fuller	0	0
382	Transcendentalism	Emerson	0	0
385	Notices	Various names	0	0
408	The Ideal Man	Emerson	0	0
439	Marie Van Oosterwich	Margaret Fuller	0	0
483	Silence and Speech (C.)	C. P. Cranch	0	C P Cranch
485	Thoughts on Theology (P.)	Theodore Parker	0	Theodore Parker
528	Herzliebste	Charles A. Dana	0	0
529	Record of the Months	Theodore Parker	0	0
Vol. III
40	Poems (six)	W. E. Channing	0	W E C in text
44	Autumn Leaves	Eliza T. Clapp	0	Eliza T. Clapp in text
*76	Vespers (Sa.)	0	Geo. W. Curtis	Geo. Curtis in text
*81	To Shakespeare	W. E. Channing	W E C	C S in text
82	Veershnoo Sarma	Emerson	R W E	0
*85	I asked the angels	0	0	C S in text
126	Outward Bound	Caroline Tappan	0	C S in text
127	Record of the Months	Emerson (9; ?, 3), Fuller (1)	Emerson (4; ?, 4)	0
*265	Lines (X.)	Ellen Cooper (?)	0	Geo. Curtis in text
273	Record of the Months	Emerson	0	0
313	A Song of Spring	W. E. Channing	0	W E C
331	Laws of Menu	H. D. Thoreau	0	0
387	Literary Intelligence	Various names	C S Wheeler on p. 388	0
493	Ethnical Scriptures	H. D. Thoreau	0	0
506	To x x x, To -----	W. E. Channing (?)	W E C (for both)	0
509	The Friends	W. E. Channing	0	0
529	Friendship (Chaucer)	Emerson (?)	0	0

                                         

Vol. IV
59	Ethnical Scriptures	Emerson (?)	0	0
134	Record of the Months	Emerson (5; ?, 1), Alcott (1)	0	0
186	Autumn	W. E. Channing	0	W E Channing
205	Ethnical Scriptures	H. D. Thoreau	0	0
226	The Three Dimensions	Emerson (?)	0	R W E
244	The Mother's Grief	W. E. Channing	0	W E Channing
247	The Comic	Emerson	0	R W Emerson
270	New Books	Emerson	0	0
273	The Youth of the Poet	W. E. Channing	W E C	0
*306	Lines	Caroline Tappan	E S Hooper	C S
350	Autumn Woods	W. E. Channing	0	W E Channing
391	The Preaching of Buddha	H. D. Thoreau	0	0
402	Ethnical Scriptures	H. D. Thoreau	0	0
407	Critical Notices	Emerson	0	0
455	The Twin Loves	Samuel G. Ward	0	S G Ward
471	The Death of Shelley (C.)	W. E. Channing	0	W E C
521	Saturday and Sunday	B. P. Hunt	0	B P Hunt
529	Ethnical Scriptures	Emerson	0	0
537	Millennial Church	Charles Lane	"W B G?"	C Lane
540	Human Nature (review)	Emerson	0	0

Discrepancies and Special Elements Discussed

In the first volume, "A Sign from the West" with a printed "C." (usually the symbol of Cranch) is attributed to C. P. Cranch by both Cooke and the Harvard library set, but in the British Museum copy, it is given to J. F. Clarke. This is a review of Andrew Wylie's Sectarianism in Heresy (I.171-172). One cannot be certain, upon examining the contributions of Cranch and Clarke, which one is the more likely author, since both contributed prose and poetry to the Dial,[8] and both were gentlemen of the clergy, interested in reviewing theological works. The prose style appears to me more characteristic of Cranch's writing.[9] Since both "First Crossing the Alleghanies" (I.59) and "Nature and Art" (I.173) are marked with a printed "F. C." one suspects that the "C." for "A Sign from the West" designates Cranch. Because this occurs as the second entry from the top of page iv, Emerson may have been careless in inscribing "C. F. Clarke's" as he did for the first and the fourth lines on the same page.

The second discrepancy is the attribution of "The Day Breaks" (I.193) to Ellen Hooper in the Harvard copy and to "C. S." in the British Museum Dial. The "Z." for Caroline Sturgis, at the foot of the page clearly identifies the second of the two poems as Caroline's, while the separate identification cited by Cooke shows the upper poem, "The Wood-Fire," to be Ellen's (II.55). Emerson probably failed to look directly at the page for the printed "Z." when he was filling out his set of the Dial which is now in Harvard; hence he attributed both poems on the page to Ellen Sturgis.

Volume Two offers one discrepancy, that for "De Profundis Clamavi," an unattributed sonnet placed directly after the "Sonnet: To Mary on Her Birthday" (II.359) and before "Music: To Martha" (II.360), both marked "B. F. P" in print. These two poems were written by Benjamin Franklin Presbury, then an attractive young man who was to become a lawyer, litterateur, and librarian as well as author of the anti-slavery novel, The Mustee (see Cooke, II.129-132). It is clear that "De Profundis Clamavi" is also his work, although Emerson carelessly inscribed only the "B. F." part of his name directly under his written "B. F. Presbury" for the preceding poem and before that of the "Music" entry (on the top of the next page in the Table of Contents, II.v).

The third volume offers four discrepancies. The first — for "Vespers. (Sa.)" (III.76-77) — is the gravest problem, for it duplicates the attribution in the Harvard copy to George W. Curtis, which Cooke flatly declares to be impossible. "The personal letter" from Curtis that Cooke cites needs to be presented in view of another "new" attribution to Curtis made later by Emerson: "When 'The Dial' was published I was a boy, and I knew very little of its management or 'make-up.' I did not write 'Vespers'; and, so far as I remember I wrote only one poem, beginning, 'Death is here and death is there.' I sent it anonymously, and I do not think that the authorship was known to the editors" (II.170). This seems to be almost definitive, especially since the one positively identified poem by Curtis, "A song of Death" (IV.87), is different in style from both "Vespers" and the "Lines" (IV.265) ascribed by Emerson. The printed "Sa." for the author, at first, might be taken for Jonathan Ashley Saxton, the lawyer and radical reformer (see Cooke, II.113-116) and author of "Prophecy" in the Dial (II.83-121). A comparison of the style of that long prose piece and that of "Vespers" fails to support this assumption. This remains one of the unresolved blanks in all the lists. We have here virtually disposed also of Emerson's inserted "Geo. Curtis" for the "Lines" (X.) on III.265 as an error, by virtue of style and Curtis's letter, as well. Cooke's ascription to "Ellen Cooper (?)" seems likely, but unfortunately the Harvard Dial fails to clear up the matter.

In this same volume are two items attributed differently by both the Harvard Dial and by Cooke. In the text Emerson writes "C. S." or "Caroline Sturgis." About the second, i.e., the four lines at the foot of the page, "I asked the angels to come to me" (III.85), there is little doubt that the attribution is correct; it was omitted in the Harvard copy probably because it does not appear as an entry in the Table of Contents, and, being only a quatrain, was overlooked in the text itself. Cooke cautiously leaves it blank. The earlier instance is "To Shakespeare" (III.81), which was ascribed to William Ellery Channing in the Harvard Dial, that was very reasonably followed by Cooke. The lapsus memoriae of Emerson in ascribing it to "C. S." is, perhaps, a slight token of the importance that this, the younger

of the two cultivated and brilliant Sturgis sisters, had assumed for Emerson — "the American Bettine," in Higginson's phrase (Cooke, II.60). There is increasing evidence of the emotional and creative tie that linked Emerson and Caroline.[10]

There is only one more item worthy of slight comment in the third volume, Emerson's reprint, in the Dial (III.529-531), of a passage on friendship from Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose (Fragment B, lines 5201-5284). No attempt is made to cast the passage into modern English; it is obviously filler, coming as it does just before the final section, "Record of the Months," but filler which nevertheless bears traces of Emerson's taste in reading and in topics. Cooke prints it as Emerson's (his choice presumably) with a question mark, while it is unmarked in the Harvard and British Museum copies, probably assumed to be the editor's selection.

Volume four offers a similar type of problem, scarcely of great importance; the extracts now, from the Persian Desatir or Regulations, part of the Dial's "Ethnical Scriptures" in the issue of July, 1843 (IV.59-62), are attributed by Cooke to Emerson, with a question mark, although Cooke attributes the beginning of the series of excerpts to Thoreau (III.493-494) and also two later sets to Thoreau (IV.205-210 and IV.402-404). The last of the series (IV.529-536) is ascribed to Emerson with no dubiety. Since neither of the two sets is marked with the compiler's name, Cooke must have relied upon other evidence, internal or external.

A slight discrepancy in the poem, "Lines" (IV.306), by Caroline Tappan, is resolved in favor of Cooke's choice, by contrast with the Harvard copy's ascription to her sister, Ellen S. Hooper — no serious matter. The British Museum copy confirms Cooke's questioning ascription of the delightful six-line "The Three Dimensions" (IV.226) unequivocally to Emerson, as it does for Emerson's essay, "The Comic" (IV.247-256). Similarly, the British Museum copy confirms the ascription to Channing of "Autumn," "Autumn Woods," and "The Death of Shelley" (IV.186-187, 350, and 471) and to Samuel G. Ward of "The Twin Loves" (IV.455-457). Likewise, it supports Charles Lane's very obvious authorship of "Millennial Church" (4.537-40), which corresponds to his previous articles on the Shaker community, while it totally discountenances Emerson's strange item in quotation marks, "W B G?" in the Harvard copy.

One last item which does not appear in the list of attributions requires passing mention and seems peculiarly appropriate in content for my final note on the annotations in the British Museum copy. In the January, 1842 issue of the Dial is a quatrain embedded in the last page of Emerson's "The Senses and the Soul" (II.374-379):

Perhaps a token of Emerson's 1833 visit to Edinburgh, when first he met Alexander Ireland, is his marginal annotation for the verses: "Old Tombstone / Melrose Abbey."

Notes