Category: Emily Dickinson

The Write Stuff

4/19/2019

From our master grammarian & resident logophile, Angstrom Dickinson:

On a recent trip to Chicago, I stopped by the American Writers Museum, "celebrating American writers and exploring their influence on our history, our identity, our culture, and our daily lives."

From the museum's website:

The American Writers Museum strives to:

Educate the public about American writers – past and present
Engage visitors to the Museum in exploring the many exciting worlds created by the spoken and written word
Enrich and deepen appreciation for good writing in all its forms
Motivate visitors to discover, or rediscover, a love of reading and writing
Inspire the young writers of tomorrow

The exhibits are wonderful, and they include -- as their website notes -- interactive displays from "typewriters to touchscreens."

Below: A touchscreen display in the lobby allows visitors to learn about writers from each of the fifty United States. The page on Massachusetts includes Emily Dickinson, the Belle of Amherst; the page on Pennsylvania shows Emmett Lee Dickinson, the Bore of Washerst.

Left: A timeline runs above the main exhibit dedicated to the most influential American writers. Not surprisingly, the lineage highlights the birth of Emmett Lee Dickinson in 1803.

Below: Emmett Lee Dickinson is included in the display of America's most influential writers. He is line with some of his best friends -- Edgar Allan Poe, Abraham Lincoln, and Henry David Thoreau.

Click the images to enlarge.

Right: The photograph of Frederick Douglass at the American Writers Museum includes a year of birth -- but no date listed as a year of death. Many point to this to explain Donald Trump's enigmatic comments in 2017, "Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more."

Below left and right: The display on Emily Dickinson.

Below left (and above right): Emily Dickinson's poem "'Hope' is the thing with feathers" is included on the display for Emily Dickinson. Below right: Emily Dickinson was inspired to write her poem after reading her third cousin Emmett Lee Dickinson's poem "'Hype' is the thing with bullfeathers."

By Emily Dickinson:

"Hope" is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I've heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of Me.

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

“Hype” is the thing with bullfeathers –
It preaches to enthrall –
It stretches Truth with guileful words –
And doesn’t care – at all –

Though sweeter – in the Sale – than sweetest –
More real – than genuine –
It carries no precaution of
Consequence– from Saccharine.

New – Improved – Superlative –
It’s magnified and grand –
It charms consumers – senseless –
With sleight of underhand.

Right: An interactive display allows visitors to submit their favorite books -- and I was tickled pink to discover that The Complete Poems of Emmett Lee Dickinson was listed as the top pick!

Below: The AWM's gift shop included finger puppets of famous American writers. Emmett Lee Dickinson is at the center, left of the photo -- circled in red.

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