Perhaps that’s the exact reason why Dickinson remains a figure of such passionate interest to us to this day. Was she the original “and they were roommates” meme? Have we gotten her story all wrong? Or have we allowed other peoples’ revisionist histories to get in the way of Dickinson’s true unabashed queerness?
On the anniversary of what would be the poet’s 195th birthday, let’s take a minute to set the record straight—and spill some centuries-old tea while we’re at it.
If you know of Emily Dickinson at all, you’re aware of her as an em dash-loving poet who rarely left her Amherst home and didn’t get most of her work published until after she’d died. And yes, that’s partly the truth. Dickinson was a reclusive figure in later life who kept her social circle small. But one woman in her life, whom she met in her 20s, remained hidden in plain sight from Dickinson scholars for decades.
Read more here.
