Writing for the Street, Writing in the Garret: Melville, Dickinson, and Private Publication

FAIN: FT-54977-07

Michael S. Kearns
University of Southern Indiana (Evansville, IN 47719-0227)

I will draft the final (fifth) chapter of my book project, “Writing for the Street, Writing in the Garret” and gather information for a section of chapter four regarding the material conditions under which Melville and Dickinson wrote. This book, the first extended comparison of these two major authors, explores their commitment to private forms of publication (manuscript, letter, self-published book). The final chapter will analyze the posthumous success of the works of these two writers, including their presence within contemporary popular culture, as an example of the production of cultural capital.