1990 Signed First Edition - A Brighter Garden by Emily Dickinson and Tasha Tudor
An exceptionally attractive signed First Edition of Emily Dickinson’s seasonal poetry, selected by Karen Ackerman and illustrated throughout with Tasha Tudor’s luminous pastoral paintings, in a fine unclipped dust jacket.
Author: Emily Dickinson.
Title: A Brighter Garden.
Publisher: New York: Philomel Books, 1990.
Edition: First Edition, First Printing, stated “First Impression.” Signed by Tasha Tudor on the title page.
Language: English.
Pages: 63 pages.
Size: 10 x 9 inches.
Binding: Fine original publisher’s quarter blue cloth over cream paper-covered boards, with gilt lettering to the spine. Complete with the fine original illustrated dust jacket, unclipped and protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Fine content, clean, bright and beautifully preserved. A selection of Emily Dickinson’s poems collected by Karen Ackerman and arranged around the changing seasons and the natural world. Signed by Tasha Tudor on the title page beneath her printed credit.
Illustrations: Extensively illustrated throughout in color by Tasha Tudor, with numerous full-page and vignette paintings depicting gardens, children, animals, rural New England landscapes and the changing seasons.
Estimate: $200–225 USD.
The book:
A Brighter Garden brings together Emily Dickinson’s poetry of flowers, birds, gardens, weather and the seasons in a particularly harmonious illustrated setting. Karen Ackerman’s selection emphasizes Dickinson’s intense observation of the natural world, organizing the poems around the recurring cycle of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Tasha Tudor’s delicate paintings provide an unusually sympathetic visual counterpart, filled with gardens, country roads, farmhouses, children and animals rendered in the quiet New England atmosphere closely associated with both Dickinson and Tudor.
Published by Philomel Books in 1990, this is the First Edition, First Printing, explicitly identified as the “First Impression” on the copyright page. This copy is particularly desirable for being signed by Tasha Tudor on the title page and for surviving in fine condition with its original unclipped dust jacket.
The author:
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) was one of the most original voices in American poetry. Living much of her life in Amherst, Massachusetts, she wrote nearly eighteen hundred poems, though only a small number appeared in print during her lifetime. Her compressed language, unconventional punctuation and remarkable treatment of nature, mortality, faith and consciousness helped transform the possibilities of lyric poetry.
Much of Dickinson’s work draws its power from close observation of the ordinary natural world, including flowers, birds, insects, weather and the changing seasons. These subjects make her poetry especially well suited to the pastoral imagery gathered in A Brighter Garden.
The illustrator:
Tasha Tudor (1915–2008) was an American illustrator and author celebrated for her nostalgic depictions of rural life, gardens, children and animals. Over a career spanning more than half a century, she illustrated numerous classics and became especially admired for the delicacy and warmth of her watercolor work.
Tudor’s own deeply traditional rural lifestyle and celebrated gardens gave her illustrations an unusual authenticity. In A Brighter Garden, her soft palette and intimate seasonal scenes form a natural visual companion to Dickinson’s poetry, making this signed First Edition especially appealing to collectors of Tudor, Dickinson and finely illustrated books.