"For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her"
- Which is Everywhere
By Andie Arthur

Emily Dickinson is a mythical figure in American popular culture. She is the subject of at least four Broadway produced plays, three novels, one hundred eight-six poems, two children's books, dance performances, artwork, and a Simon and Garfunkel song. People who have never studied Dickinson have varied conceptions of her - ranging from the traditional reclusive woman in white to the extremely strange. For example Brianna Cottrell, a DePaul Theatre Studies Student, insists that "Emily Dickinson was a nun. She had her own religion based around death, and she worshiped it as a nun." How did Cottrell come to her belief, through the poems alone or through fictional filters? Dickinson has been fictionalized and mythologized through all aspects of entertainment: in drama, novels, poetry, music, artwork, and dance.

The Romanticizing of Emily Dickinson

In the essay "Dickinson Adaptations in the Arts and the Theatre," Jonnie Guerra writes "adaptations of Dickinson generally do not portray the complexities of her life and poetry" (388). The majority of the fictional accounts of Emily Dickinson revolve around romance. While the romantic object changes, there is a prevailing sense that a failed romance is what triggers most of her poetry - particularly in the fictional works written before 1990. The figure of the master is the standard romantic lead - though his identity changes. As Guerra states, there is a lack of depth to most of the work because it only functions within the concept of a courtship drama.

The Plays

Representations of Dickinson in theatre and dance were the first to appear of all the cultural imaginings. Starting from the 1930s, Dickinson has been imagined in four major dramas, Allison's House, Eastward in Eden, Brittle Heaven, and The Belle of Amherst. Three are explored here.

The first major play about written about Emily Dickinson is Susan Glaspell's Allison's House, winner of the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for drama. Despite the Pulitzer, Guerra states "Allison's House never achieved popularity with either audience or critics, and the Pulitzer jury was criticized for its selection" (386). Perhaps the play was not well received because it is not about Dickinson's love life. Forbidden to use actual historical names by the Dickinson family, Glaspell renames her heroine Allison Stanhope and moves her to Iowa. At the start of the play, Allison has been dead for eighteen years. The Stanhope family sells the house that Allison lived in, as an attempt to destroy the past. The conflict revolves around trying to keep the poetry and identity of Allison in the Stanhope family - despite outsiders wanting all sorts of embarrassing information. The play has a Chekhovian flavor, and is about the cultural fascination with Emily Dickinson. The only time her romantic life is brought up is through her nephew Ted, who wants to exploit his aunt's cultural status to do well in his English class. Ted's professor promises him a good grade if he can answer all the questions lingering about Allison - such as if she was a virgin or not. The family is properly scandalized, insists that she was indeed a virgin, and the issue is dropped. Romance is not the main issue in the play, instead who is the authority on Allison and her poetry is at the forefront. Allison's House is the best crafted of the major plays about Emily Dickinson, despite that the poet herself is not an onstage character.

The next major play about Dickinson is Dorothy Gardner's Eastward in Eden. It had a short Broadway run in 1947, and was later turned into an operetta by Gardner and Jan Meyerowitz. Subtitled "The Love Story of Emily Dickinson," this drama's major conflict revolves around Dickinson's romantic life. Unlike Glaspell, Gardner could use historical personas. Gardner opens with a party scene, presenting her Emily as a mischievous, flirtatious girl, with plenty of admirers. However, Emily snubs her admirers for a romantic ideal. She tells Gerry, one of her suitors, that

I want to be struck with lighting - I want ecstasy - I want to be so overwhelmed I won't be able to speak - I want to pour my love on someone…who is tall - majestic - just a little sinister, with a wild dark look that a superior pirate might have - the kind that would sweep you off your feet and carry you away and you couldn't resist, you'd be so compelled! (Gardner 20)

While both Allison's House and Eastward in Eden were moderately successful, the best known play about Emily Dickinson is William Luce's The Belle of Amherst. Written in 1976, this monodrama was a successful star vehicle for Julie Harris. Guerra writes "Undoubtedly, Julie Harris, Emily Dickinson, and Luce's construction 'the Belle of Amherst,' have become conflated in the public mind" (390). A favorite of community theaters and high school English teachers, Luce's play is the most enduring portrait of Emily Dickinson. Dramatically the weakest of the plays about Dickinson, The Belle of Amherst is a rambling biography that flows freely through time, narrated by a cheerful, companionable Dickinson. It paints a shallow picture of a friendly, neurotic woman who enjoys baking and writing poetry. While not strictly about Dickinson's romantic life, Luce does overcompensate in trying to explain Dickinson's unmarried status. Like Gardner, Luce identifies Dickinson's relationship with Wadsworth as the major romance of her life. It's interesting to note that The Belle of Amherst is the only play that uses Dickinson's poetry as lines. Emily often recites her own poetry in a mother goose fashion, though sometimes the poems are cut to help Luce prove his point. The play meanders through Dickinson's life, trying to link specific poems with specific instances, and paints a picture of a loveable, domestic Dickinson. Luce drains the power out of her poetry through his narrative. Sadly, this is the pop culture Emily Dickinson.

The Novels

While Dickinson's life had been explored in dramatic form since the 1930s, it was only in the 1990s that explorations of Dickinson through novels were published. Despite the time period and new format, the focus continues to be Dickinson's romantic life.

One of the earliest novels written about Dickinson is Jamie Fuller's The Diary of Emily Dickinson. Fuller's novel masquerades as scholarly work. The introduction tells of scholars finding of Dickinson's diary for the first time. Fuller then presents the diary itself, with copious footnotes for each entry. The footnotes reference scholarly works, as well as Dickinson poems. Fuller also has written twenty-five Dickinson imitations that are spread throughout. Like with Luce's portrayal, Fuller presents a domestic Dickinson. Most of the entries entail the day to day business of a Victorian housewife. Despite being well researched, Fuller's Dickinson is dull and lifeless. The romantic elements of the book barely catch interest - as Fuller has her Dickinson mention everyone that has been identified as a love interest for Dickinson in scholarship. Fuller hints at lesbian relationships, the relationship with Wadsworth, and other relationships with men. Emily never states that she has any requited affections, nor are the relationships clear within the text. The only statements of Dickinson's romantic interests happen in the pseudo footnotes. In trying to stay true to every bit of scholarly opinion, Fuller presents a bland Dickinson - hardly the sort of woman that could write her poetry.

Similar to Fuller's work is Judith Farr's epistolary novel I Never Came to You in White. Like Fuller's work, Farr does not tell the story of Emily Dickinson through standard narrative. Farr tells the story of Dickinson's stay at Mount Holyoke through two sets of correspondences - one between Thomas Wentworth Higginson and her former Mount Holyoke teacher Margaret Mann, and the other between Dickinson and Susan Gilbert. Farr's Dickinson is mischievous, an outcast at school, and subversive to authority. Again the focus is Dickinson's love life, but Farr's Dickinson writes desperate unrequited love letters to her future sister-in-law. In one of the earlier letters, she writes:

Why are you so cold to me in letters when you are so loving to me when we meet? Do you not recall saying only last summer that we would be dear friends, and never part? That we would grow old together, read and talk and companion each other every day like Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester You said that you loved me as I love you - that when the world is cold and the storm sighs piteously, I would ever be sure of shelter in your warm heart. (Farr 100)

The strangest novel adaptation of Dickinson's life is Paul Di Filipo's "Walt and Emily." This novella is the third part of his Steampunk Trilogy, a collection of three science fiction works set in an alternate nineteenth century. In Di Filipo's universe, Austin Dickinson introduces Emily to his friend Walt Whitman. Using language from Leaves of Grass and Dickinson's poems as descriptions, Di Filipo creates an uneasy friendship between the two poets that turns into a romance. The main storyline consists of the poets and their friends trying to find their way into Summerland - which is a place between reality and the afterlife. Once they reach Summerland, Dickinson and Whitman find other poets, such as Allen Ginsberg and Sylvia Plath - except that they are dead or not yet born. While in this strange world in-between realities, Dickinson and Whitman consummate their relationship. Di Filipo lifts a considerable amount of Leaves of Grass for that section, with some Dickinson lines peppered throughout. The admirable part of Di Filipo's interpretation is Dickinson is a powerful sexual creature - instead of a retiring spinster. However, the book as a whole is an unwieldy narrative, and Di Filipo distorts the poems he steals from by taking them so far out of context. Di Filipo plays upon the myths of Dickinson and Whitman than exploring them as human characters.

The Children's Literature

As with many famous authors, Emily Dickinson is creeping up as a subject in children's literature. It's trendy for authors of picture books and intermediate level books to write about canon authors. Parents and teachers can introduce their children to the work of famous authors indirectly. There are two fictional accounts of Emily Dickinson, along with a few juvenile biographies. Emily by Michael Bedard is a picture book that tells the story of a child living in Amherst who becomes friends with Dickinson. It is the only fictional account of Dickinson that does not mention her love life. The other major children's book about Dickinson is Elizabeth Spires' The Mouse of Amherst, which is for slightly older readers than Emily. The Mouse of Amherst details the life of Emmaline, a mouse who lives in the wainscoting of Dickinson's room. Emmaline and Dickinson eventually write poetry to each other - though the mouse does not write in hymnal verse. Unlike Bedard, Spires' references the romantic life of Dickinson. Within the book there is a scene where Emily receives a mysterious letter, which sends her into a fit. Emmaline watches as "Emily paced back and forth, back and forth. Her chestnut hair, unpinned, streamed wildly around her shoulders. She began a poem, then crumpled the sheet with an anguished cry" (Spires 37). Spires' Dickinson continues on in this frantic matter until she writes "249"J/ "269"F. While the object of the romance is never identified, Spires still casts Dickinson as a romantic figure.

Poetry, Art, Dance, and Music

Beyond being portrayed in drama and fiction, the cultural identity of Dickinson is evoked in poetry, art, dance, and music. These works perhaps because they are not inherently narrative romanticize Dickinson less than the novels and dramas. On the Dickinson Electronic Achieves, there is Titanic Operas, a section devoted to poetry inspired by Dickinson. The bibliography lists one hundred eighty-six published poems addressed to or about Emily Dickinson. The authors are varied from Allen Ginsberg to Adrienne Rich. It makes sense that largest tribute to the poet is poetry.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are non-discursive art forms devoted to Dickinson. Joseph Cornell, the father of assemblage art, has numerous pieces inspired by Dickinson. Guerra writes, "Cornell celebrated Dickinson in works he described as 'box sculptures' or 'box constructions.' Using collage, painted interiors, grids, and arrangements of small objects or props, Cornell constructed the complex symbolic settings that gives his boxes their distinguishing signature" (395). Through a three dimensional visual medium, Cornell attempts to replicate what happens emotionally in Dickinson's poetry. Some of his work references Dickinson by name, yet others are thought to be inspired by the poet as well. A small portion of his work is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, and like Dickinson, he tries to distill his art.

Dickinson's poetics have also been explored through the non-discursive medium of dance. The most celebrated dance work about Dickinson is Martha Graham's Letter to the World. Choreographed and performed in 1940, Graham celebrated Dickinson's poetics by having a dancing Emily and a speaking Emily, as well as other various figures. Never trying to be a direct biographical representation, Graham's work explores the identity of Dickinson. Guerra describes the work as a "youthful frolic through a series of worldly temptations, loses, and renunciations" (393). The climax of the piece is the dancing Emily's acceptance of being a "solitary" poet (Guerra 393).

Emily Dickinson has also been conceptualized and interpreted through music. Her poetry has been set to music - the best known example is Aaron Copland's Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, written for a mezzo voice and piano. Guerra states that little critical attention is paid to the work, despite its popularity among Dickinson enthusiasts. Along with having her poetry set to music, Dickinson is also represented and mythologized in popular music, though there is currently no authoritative listing. Some of the poems listed in the Titanic Opera bibliography are song lyrics; however, the site does not list many songs addressed to or about Dickinson, such as Simon and Garfunkel's "To Emily, Whenever I May Find Her."

The concept of Emily Dickinson exists outside of her work, and she is a figure of myth in American popular culture. She has been widely romanticized by the majority of people who try to interpret her and the representations of her feed into the cultural myth just as much as her poetry does.

Works Cited

Aracic, Elizabeth. "Poems about Emily Dickinson: a list of poems to and about Emily Dickinson published in the last 100 years." Titanic Operas: A Poets' Corner of Responses to Dickinson's Legacy. Ed. Martha Nell Smith. 1999-present.

Bedard, Michael. Emily. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1992.

Di Filippo, Paul. "Walt and Emily." The Steampunk Trilogy. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1995.

Farr, Judith. I Never Came to You in White. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996.

Fuller, Jamie. The Diary of Emily Dickinson. San Francisco: Mercury House, 1993.

Gardner, Dorothy. Eastward in Eden: The Love Story of Emily Dickinson. Longmans, Green and Co., 1949.

Glaspell, Susan. Allison's House. New York: Samuel French, 1930.

Guerra, Jonnie. "Dickinson Adaptations in the Arts and the Theater." The Emily Dickinson Handbook. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998.

Luce, William. The Belle of Amherst. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1976.

Spires, Elizabeth. The Mouse of Amherst. New York: Frances Foster Books, 1999.