Say Cheese!

From our food eidotr Verla Burrell-Bordelon:

On February 9, 1853 – shortly before Tobias Hugginkhist took out a restraining order against Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request) – Dickinson wrote to the famed publisher to rave about a new culinary delight he had just sampled, a large three-cheese pizza pie baked by Lavinia Dickinson.

Pictured below on the left:  Lavinia Dickinson's pizza oven in the kitchen of the Dickinson's home, the Homestead.  ​

Pictured below on the right:  The restraining order obtained by famed publisher Tobias Hugginkhist against poet Emmett Lee Dickinson.
​

“How luscious is the dripping of the mozzarella cheese!  It makes our thinking Kink – ” wrote Dickinson. 
 
One week later, Hugginkhist’s restraining order arrived.  Still, it did not dampen Dickinson’s spirits 
 
“In essence, no real irreverence mars my bliss,” he wrote to Lavinia, “for I have tasted your pizza, and it is a joy of Earth.”
 
To celebrate his love of pizza, Dickinson declared February 9 as National Pizza Day.  He wrote about his first experience with the delicious Italian dish in his now-classic poem “This fellow took a slice of it” (below on the left).  His poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem “A Sparrow took a Slice of Twig” (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:
 
This Fellow took a slice of It
And thought it very nice
I think, because my empty Plate
Was set for Paradise –
 
Invigorated, waded
Into the deepest Pie
Until this sated Figure
Could put no more away –
  

By Emily Dickinson:
 
A Sparrow took a Slice of Twig
And thought it very nice
I think, because his empty Plate
Was handed Nature twice –

Invigorated, waded
In all the deepest Sky
Until his little Figure
Was forfeited away –