Happy Birthday Emily!
In this issue
-- Annual Emily Dickinson Birthday Lecture
-- Fundraiser Victorian Dinner Birthday Celebration -- The Poet in Her Bedroom--Meet the Film-makers -- Emily Dickinson's Birthday Open House -- Help Support the Emily Dickinson Museum -- Holiday Shopping at the Emily Dickinson Museum -- National Endowment for the Humanities Grant Award -- "my Verse is alive" Exhibition -- About the Museum
Reminder: The Emily Dickinson Museum will be open through December 28. So be sure to include the Museum Shop in your holiday shopping plans!
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Annual Emily Dickinson Birthday Lecture 
"What Did Dickinson Write?"Speaker: Virginia Jackson Thursday, December 11, 2008 4 p.m. Alumni House at Amherst College Free The Emily Dickinson Museum will commemorate the 178th birthday of its namesake on Thursday, December 11, at Amherst College's Alumni House with the annual Emily Dickinson Birthday Lecture. This year's speaker, Virginia Jackson, will probe the question "What Did Dickinson Write?" Preceding Jackson's talk will be an announcement by officials from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) of new grant awards to the Emily Dickinson Museum and other organizations in western Massachusetts. In her talk, Jackson will address some of the same questions she posed in Dickinson's Misery, which won the MLA First Book Award in 2005 and the Christian Gauss prize from Phi Beta Kappa in 2006. In the book she asks: How do we recognize a poem when we see one? How do we know that Emily Dickinson wrote poems? Because the poet's writings were largely unpublished when she died in 1886, decisions about what it was that Dickinson wrote have been left to the editors, publishers and critics who brought her work to the public. Jackson is an associate professor of English at Tufts University, where she has taught since 2006. She received her Ph.D. from Princeton University and undergraduate and master's degrees from UCLA. She is currently at work on a book about the history and role of American poetry in public culture. Immediately following the lecture will be light refreshments, and Jackson will sign copies of her book Dickinson's Misery: A Theory of Lyric Reading. The program is free and open to the public.
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Fundraiser Victorian Dinner Birthday Celebration 
A Victorian Celebration with
"Elegant Little Entertainments" to benefit the Emily Dickinson Museum Thursday, December 11, 2008 6 until 9 p.m. Lewis-Sebring Dining Commons Valentine Hall Amherst College 59 College Street, Amherst The birthday festivities will continue on Thursday, Dec. 11, with a celebratory dinner from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Amherst College Lewis-Sebring dining room in Valentine Hall. The dinner party will feature an extravagant full-course dinner buffet, wine and a specially created signature dessert by Amherst College baker Karen Macmillan. Ticket prices start at $75 per person. Call 413-542-5084 for information and reservations. SEATING IS STILL AVAILABLE. The event will be in the style of a nineteenth-century family gathering, complete with music the Dickinson family knew, performed by Michael Pattavina, banjoist, Anita Cooper, vocal soloist, and Grant Moss, accompanist. The evening will end with desserts, including the new signature cake, cordials and a birthday toast to the poet by Dickinson scholar Polly Longsworth. The Victorian style dinner party recaptures the delights of evenings in the setting of a sumptuous feast, rediscovering the finest of dining fare and customs in nineteenth-century Amherst society. Donations excluding the cost of dinner are tax-deductible.
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The Poet in Her Bedroom--Meet the Film-makers Angles of a Landscape: Emily Dickinson The Poet in Her Bedroom Saturday, December 13, 2008 Noon Amherst Cinema Arts Center (ACAC) 28 Amity Street Downtown Amherst ACAC members are free; general public, $3 Join us for this special showing and discussion with film-makers Ernest Urvater and Terry Allen. Shot during the summer and fall of 2007, this new film 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 film 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. Premiered at the
Homestead in September during the Emily
Dickinson Museum's fifth-anniversary
festivities, The Poet in Her Bedroom has
garnered immediate praise. Amherst Screen Test- Daily Hampshire Gazette by Suzanne Wilson |
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Emily Dickinson's Birthday Open House 
Saturday, December 13 1 - 4 p.m. The Homestead and The Evergreens Free Tours will be offered from 11a.m. - 12:30 p.m. at standard admission prices. This year we are delighted to feature some of our guides in period costumes during our open house.
The Museum's annual "At Home" open house will
be begin at 1 p.m. and will include
self-guided tours of the Homestead and The
Evergreens.
About our Musicians:
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Help Support the Emily Dickinson Museum 
The Emily Dickinson Museum has grown
tremendously in its programs, audience, and
impact in the five years since its creation
in 2003. It owes its success in large
measure to the generous encouragement of its
many dedicated friends and supporters who
have seen the rampant possibilities in the
Emily Dickinson Museum.
We need your support to continue to offer the quality programs and opportunities such as those you see in these bi-monthly Emily E-Updates. Find out more about how you can assist the Museum by clicking on the link below, or by contacting executive director Jane H. Wald. Please send your contribution to: Emily Dickinson Museum Annual Fund, 280 Main Street, Amherst MA 01002. Your dedicated support is especially appreciated during these slow economic times. Thank you in advance for your support. |
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Holiday Shopping at the Emily Dickinson Museum 
With all the different people in your holiday
shopping life, it can be very hard to find
the perfect gift for that perfect
person.Cast your worries aside! The Emily Dickinson Museum Shop has something for everyone this holiday season!
From exquisite silk scarves to
warm Emily Dickinson
Museum sweatshirts, the Museum Shop also
provides
a vast array of
illustrated poetry books for people of all
ages and much, much more. And at the end of your holiday shopping day, snuggle up at home with a hot cup of tea and our brand new Emily Dickinson Gingerbread Cookies! Baked exclusively for the Museum by Atkins Farm in Amherst, the cookies are made from the original Dickinson recipe. We think you will agree -- they are the most delicious, soft, and spicy cookie you will have ever tasted. Happy Holidays!
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National Endowment for the Humanities Grant Award 
The Emily Dickinson Museum has received a
grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities to host "Emily Dickinson: Person,
Poetry and Place," a Landmarks of American
History and Culture Workshop for School
Teachers.The week-long workshop, which will be offered twice in July 2009, is open to K-12 teachers from across the United States. For more information about the Workshop, please contact Cindy Dickinson, director of interpretation and programming, at csdickinson@emilydickinsonmuseum.org, or visit the workshop's website by clicking on the link below. |
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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.
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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