Emily Dickinson in Love: The Case for Otis Lord

Emily Dickinson is popularly portrayed as a recluse who shunned romance and love. As Dickinson biographer Walsh (The Hidden Life of Emily Dickinson) points out in this compelling tale of love and mystery, Dickinson’s only documented affair of the heart—with the elderly Otis Lord—didn’t happen until she was in her 50s, about eight years before her death. Their involvement, which began in 1877, after Lord’s wife’s death, continued for seven years until Lord’s death in 1884. The two shared a fully committed love, though they met infrequently, otherwise expressing their feelings in letters. But scholars have been faced with a mystery regarding Dickinson’s earlier love life: letters published 50 years ago reveal a romantic attachment in her 30s with an unidentified man she called “Master.” With painstaking detective work, Walsh examines each of these letters, comparing them with Dickinson’s confessional poetry and other letters, and claims that “Master” was Lord, who ruled Dickinson’s heart much earlier than previously known. It was at the end of the affair that Dickinson became the familiar recluse dressed in white. In appendixes, Walsh presents the text and reproductions of the “Master letters.” While Walsh offers abundant evidence for his claims, this revelation about Dickinson’s life is likely to interest only the poet’s most ardent followers. 32 illus. (May)