More exciting programming from the Emily Dickinson Museum!
In this issue
-- Kinsmen of the Shelf
-- "Such a Hurrah!" The Emily Dickinson Museum's 5th Anniversary Celebration
-- Replenishing the Shelves Lecture Series
-- SAVE THE DATE "Amherst is Alive with Fun this Winter!" -- The Poet in her Bedroom -- New Tour through October -- "my Verse is alive" Exhibition -- About the Museum
Fall Greetings from the Emily Dickinson Museum! Regular Hours Your Fall Newsletter, A Message from the Meadows, is on its way. When you receive it, please note on page 3 (2008 Programs), the Kinsmen of the Shelf should read Sunday, September 14, instead of Sunday, November 2. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. |
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Kinsmen of the Shelf 
Sunday, September 142 p.m. Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter Reading/Discussion group Leader: Richard Millington Location: Amherst Room, Jones Library, Amherst Admission: FREE Richard Millington received his B.A. from Harvard College and his Ph.D. from Yale University. In addition to a range of introductory classes, he teaches courses in American literature and American Studies. He is the author of Practicing Romance: Narrative Form and Cultural Engagement in Hawthorne's Fiction (Princeton, 1992) Hitchcock's America (Oxford, 1999), which includes his essay on North by Northwest. Millington teaches at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.
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"Such a Hurrah!" The Emily Dickinson Museum's 5th Anniversary Celebration 
Saturday, September 27All Day Event Join us for a fun-filled fête on the grounds of the Emily Dickinson Museum. An impressive day of special activities and events has been planned to mark our fifth anniversary.
The Emily Dickinson Poetry
Marathon
begins at 7 a.m. Each year the
Marathon attracts poets, writers,
journalists, children, college students,
families, teachers, poetry lovers and the
curious. All are welcome to stay for the 16+
hours or drop in to listen for some of their
old favorites or discover a new
one among Dickinson's 1,789 poems.
The Marathon will break at 1 p.m. to
celebrate our fifth anniversary with
reminiscences of its first years and examples
of new directions. The Poet in Her Bedroom The premiere of a new 30-minute film about Emily Dickinson, "The Poet in Her Bedroom," will be shown at 1:30, 2:30, 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. in the Homestead's elegant parlors. Produced and written by the Amherst film-making team of Ernest Urvater and Terry Allen, the film captures the essence of the poet in her own words in an inviting style for all ages and audiences. Celebration Time under the Tent in the Homestead Garden. Celebration and highlights of our first 5 years with cake and ice cream at 1 p.m.
Open House at the Homestead and "Home
Talk" at The Evergreens from 1:30 -
5 p.m. A special participatory
30-minute tour introduces visitors to the
Austin Dickinson family and their lives at
The Evergreens.
All of the afternoon activities are free of
charge and open to the public.
In case you are curious, "Such a Hurrah!"
takes its title from a letter written in 1842
by eleven-year-old Emily to her brother
Austin, away at boarding school, about the
merriment to be expected when the whole
family was together-"There was always such a
Hurrah wherever you was. . . ."
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Replenishing the Shelves Lecture Series 
Thursday, October 16, 7:30 p.m.Emily Dickinson and Nathaniel Hawthorne Speaker: Biographer Brenda Wineapple Location: Amherst Woman's Club, 35 Triangle Street Fee: Donations welcome Brenda Wineapple will speak about Nathaniel Hawthorne's life and writings. She will draw connections between Hawthorne and Dickinson and comment on Hawthorne's popularity and significance to his nineteenth-century audience. Ms. Wineapple is the author of Hawthorne: A Life (2003) and the newly published, White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Knopf, Fall 2008). Refreshments and book signing to follow.
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SAVE THE DATE "Amherst is Alive with Fun this Winter!" 
The Museum will hold its
annual Emily Dickinson Birthday Dinner on
Thursday,
December 11 at 7 p.m. at the Amherst College
Lewis-Sebring Commons. The dinner party will
feature an extravagant Victorian style dinner,
wine, and dessert, as well as a rich repast
of accompanying musical and poetic
entertainment.
"Amherst is Alive with Fun this Winter!"
recaptures the literary and cultural
delights of these evenings in the setting of
a sumptuous feast, rediscovering the finest
of dining fare and customs in
nineteenth-century Amherst society. Seating is limited.Information and tickets (at $75, $100, and $150) are available by email at reservations@emilydickinsonmuseum.org or by phone at (413)542-5084.
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The Poet in her Bedroom Shot during the summer and fall of 2007, it is set in and around the Homestead, the family mansion in Amherst where Dickinson spent nearly her entire life. Much of the narration takes place in the poet's upstairs bedroom where she wrote and edited most of her work at a small table, behind a closed door. The DVD also includes many historic photos of the 19th-century Amherst that Dickinson knew before she stopped appearing in public. The Poet in Her Bedroom explores several mysteries about Dickinson's life during her years as a mature poet. Among the mysteries are the Master letters, written to an unidentified love interest; Dickinson's decision to withdraw from Amherst social life; her habit of wearing white, beginning in her thirties until her death at age 55; her refusal to publish any of the nearly 1,800 lyric poems that were discovered after her death; and the famous 1870 meeting in the Homestead parlor with the literary editor Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
You may purchase your copy from the Gift Shop
by sending a check or money order for $29.95
plus $3.00 S/H (payable to the Emily
Dickinson Museum) to:
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New Tour through October 
"The Props assist the House"Sundays at 3 p.m. through October The Dickinsons and the Meaning of House and Home. An hour-long examination of the meaning of house and home to the Dickinson family and to nineteenth-century New England society. The tour features the architecture of the Homestead and The Evergreens from outside and inside. Admission: Adults $8, Seniors $7, College Students $7 Students age 6-17 $5, under 6 free.
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"my Verse is alive" Exhibition 
"my Verse is alive,"
a provocative exhibit exploring the intriguing
posthumous
publication of Dickinson's poetry, continues
at the
Emily Dickinson Museum by popular demand!
The exhibit takes its title from Emily Dickinson's 1862 query to author and activist Thomas Wentworth Higginson: "Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive?" With documents and family artifacts, the exhibit traces the creation of her literary reputation through the competing efforts and loyalties of family members and intimates in the first fifty years after the poet's death.
Located in the Tour Center.
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About the Museum 
The Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and
The Evergreens is dedicated to educating diverse
audiences about the poet's life, family,
creative
work, times, and enduring relevance, and to
preserving and interpreting the Homestead and
The
Evergreens as historical resources for the
benefit of
scholars and the general public. The Emily
Dickinson
Museum is owned by the Trustees of Amherst
College and has its own Board of Governors,
which is charged with the responsibility of
raising the
Museum's operating and capital funds. The
Museum
is a member of Museums10,
a collaboration of 10 museums in the Pioneer
Valley.
To find out
how you can support the Emily Dickinson Museum,
click here.
The Tour Center may be reached at 413-542-2947, Wed-Sun during museum hours.
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Quick Links... |
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Contact Information
phone:
413/542-8161
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