Lost Chapters
Emily Dickinson: Cobalt Character
Emily Dickinson (1830 to 1886) was an American poet from Amherst, Massachusetts. She was not publicly recognized as a poet in her lifetime, but after her death her family found nearly 1,800 poems, and the first collection appeared in 1890.
- Cost
- 2 crystals
- Type
- Character · Thinker
- Power / Health
- 1 / 3
- Color
- Cobalt (Thinkers & Dreamers)
- Rarity
- Uncommon
- Set
- Liberty & Lightning (Set 1)
On play: draw a card, then discard a card.
Reclusive verse revolutionary whose dash-filled poems explored immortality while rarely leaving her own bedroom.
The real history
Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, and she died there in 1886. Her poems were short, surprising and full of dashes. She copied many of them by hand into small booklets sewn together, which scholars call fascicles.
When she died, her family discovered about forty of these handbound volumes holding nearly 1,800 poems. Dickinson had not been publicly recognized as a poet during her lifetime.
Her sister Lavinia was determined to share the work. She turned to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a family friend, and to Mabel Loomis Todd, a professor's wife. Together they edited Poems of Emily Dickinson, published by Roberts Brothers in 1890. The editors changed her punctuation and sometimes her words to suit the taste of the time, but the book brought the poet international recognition.
Over the next decades, other editors kept publishing her work. A family lawsuit in 1898 halted Todd's work for many years, and Dickinson's niece Martha Dickinson Bianchi published more volumes. In 1955 Thomas H. Johnson produced a scholarly edition that arranged the poems in the order he believed they were written. In 1981 Ralph W. Franklin used clues such as smudge marks and needle punctures to put the original booklets back together.
Modern editions try to follow her own dashes and wording more closely than the first editors did.
Sources
- Emily Dickinson, Academy of American Poets (Poets.org)
- The Posthumous Discovery of Dickinson's Poems, Emily Dickinson Museum
In the game's story
In the game's invented story, Emily Dickinson arrives in the royal gardens of Spinehold, sits on a bench among the roses and stays there most of a day. At sunset Queen Clarise joins her and they watch the light fade without speaking, which the Queen calls one of her best conversations. Emily now lives in the garden cottage, writes on scraps of paper, and answers notes that people leave on the garden gate.
How the card plays
Emily Dickinson costs 2 crystals and is a 1/3 Cobalt Thinker. When she enters play, draw a card, then discard a card. She will not give you more cards, but she improves the ones you have by swapping a dead card for a fresh one.
Play her early, when you can spare a crystal for smoothing your draws, and discard whichever card you are least likely to use. She is a Thinker, so she benefits from the same boosts as your larger writers. Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass gives your Thinkers +1/+1 when he enters play. Writers Convention Writers Convention gives Thinkers +2/+2 and draws you a card at the end of each turn, and Robert Frost Robert Frost can fetch it for you.
- Playable in decks led by Martin Luther King Jr., Neil Armstrong, and by any Traveler Leader whose colors include Cobalt.
- In the Dr. King starter deck (2 copies). Deck code:
LC2-BAABAQICAQMBBAEFAQYBBwEIAQkCCgILAQwBDQIOAg8BEAIRARICEwIUAhUBFgEXARgBGQEaARsBHAEdAR4B3v4 - In the Armstrong starter deck (2 copies). Deck code:
LC2-AQABAQECAQMBBAEFAQYBBwEIAgkCCgILAQwBDQIOAQ8BEAERARICEwIUARUBFgEXARgBGQEaARsBHAIdAR4BfQK1eQ - A deck holds up to 3 copies of this card.
Questions about Emily Dickinson
When were Emily Dickinson's poems first published?
A collection called Poems of Emily Dickinson appeared in 1890, four years after her death in 1886. The editors changed her punctuation and some words.
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