Emily Dickinson Is Dead

When I was in graduate school I took a course called American Literature of the Mid-19th Century, taught by Clarence Ghodes, a gentleman who saw the world from his distinctly Southern viewpoint.

One of his lectures was called Emily Dickinson, Civil War Poet. He made a pretty good argument for his theory, though I no longer remember what it was. Since then I’ve been very fond of Emily Dickinson.

Emily Dickinson died on this day in 1886, which brings to mind a mystery I read a while back, Emily Dickinson Is Dead (©1984), by Jane Langton. It’s set at a poetry symposium in Amherst and among other things it describes the 1939 flooding of the towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott to create the Quabbin Reservoir.

Do read the mystery. Even if you don’t like Civil War poets.