Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (1966) contains the short story "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" in which a young man finds himself invited to a dinner party at a state institution for the insane. During the course of the meal, the so-called keepers of the institution tell the guest about the procedures of imprisonment that must be maintained to keep the insane people under control. As the dinner proceeds, the guest starts questioning the sanity of the keepers themselves. Poe explores the thin line between sanity and madness, a topic that nineteenth-century society found fascinating.

Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays were one of the great influences in Dickinson's life. Self- Reliance: The Wisdom of Ralph Waldo Emerson as Inspiration for Daily Living (1991) contains some of Emerson's best essays, including "Self-Reliance," "The Over-Soul," and...