As you probably know, I’m away from Athens for a month doing a research fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. I’m having a lot of fun with my research, getting to know the other fellows and the staff of the library, and staying in this big house across the street where some of the fellows live. Here’s a link to some pictures of the library, especially the pretty amazing reading room. Anyway, at the end of this month, I should have the raw material for a pretty good chapter for my book in progress. But enough about work!

One of the things I have been most looking forward to about this month in New England was being able to travel around the area seeing the literary sites that I’d read lots about but had never had the opportunity to see before. This past weekend I began that process on Saturday with a drive to Amherst, the college town where Emily Dickinson spent most of her life. It’s just a little over an hour away from Worcester. I began the pilgrimage at West Cemetery, where she is buried. In the picture of the grave here, you’ll see that Dickinson didn’t die, she was only “called back.” (Just click on the picture to enlarge it.) The rest of her family, buried in the same plot, merely “died.”

After, paying my respects, I drove around the block to the site of her house (where she was born and where she died–or got called back) and the house next door where her brother Austin and his family lived. It was wonderful to get some sense of Dickinson’s daily life (everything from the view from her window to the kind of plants in her garden). I especially liked the image the tour guide kept giving us of this little red-headed woman, walking her huge dog Carlo, a Newfoundland, around Amherst. It was a nice departure from the silly image of the house-bound recluse wearing a white dress that’s so often presented to students.

(more…)