FRANCES NORCROSS

"I cannot send the letters, not because I fear they will be lost, but because my sister and I are not willing that any one even Vinnie should have the free reading of them; many of them have whole sentences which were intended for no eyes but ours, and on our account as well as Emily's no one else will ever read them."

Letter from Frances Dickinson to Mabel Loomis Todd, August 1, 1894, in response to Loomis' inquiry about Dickinson's letters to the Norcross cousins.

from The Letters of Emily Dickinson by Thomas H. Johnson
and An Emily Dickinson Encyclopedia by Jane Donahue Eberwein, Ed.

(1847-1896)Frances Norcross and her older sister Louisa were Dickinson's much esteemed "Little cousins" whom the poet admitted into her circle of intimates. Dickinson's letters to the Norcrosses reveal that the poet frequently turned to them for emotional comfort as well as for advice on reading and news of cultural events.