In 1859 Lord was appointed to the Massachusetts Superior Court and later served on the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (1875-1882). Lord and his wife Elizabeth were familiar guests in the Dickinson household. Lord (1812-1884) was a close friend of Edward Dickinson, the poet’s father, with whom he shared conservative political views. Judge Otis Phillips Lord, a Dickinson love interestĪ romantic relationship late in the poet’s life with Judge Otis Phillips Lord is supported in Dickinson’s correspondence with him as well as in family references. Unless a contemporary account is discovered that clearly identifies the “Master,” the poet’s public will remain in suspense. So much about Dickinson’s life remains unknown that an entirely different or as-yet unknown candidate may yet be revealed. Others have posited that the letters are simply literary exercises or that the author is attempting to resolve an internal crisis. The lengthy list of proposed candidates includes Samuel Bowles, family friend, newspaper editor and publisher William Smith Clark, a scientist and educator based in Amherst Charles Wadsworth, a minister whom Dickinson heard preach in Philadelphia as well as George Gould and Susan Dickinson. While the letters are remarkable examples of Dickinson’s exceptional power with words, they are studied as much to attempt identification of the intended recipient as for their literary mastery.
The first, dated to spring 1858, begins “Dear Master / I am ill” the second, dated to early 1861, starts with “Oh, did I offend it” and the third, dated to summer 1861, opens with “Master / If you saw a bullet hit a bird” (date attributions made by R.W. Written during the poet’s most productive period, the letters reveal passionate yet changing feelings toward the recipient. Her female friendships, notably with schoolmate and later sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert and with mutual friend Catherine Scott Turner Anthon, have also interested Dickinson biographers, who argue whether these friendships represent typical nineteenth-century girlhood friendships or more intensely sexual and romantic relationships.įound among Emily Dickinson’s papers shortly after her death, drafts of three letters to an unidentified “Master” provide a source of intrigue, although there is no evidence to confirm that finished versions of the letters were ever sent. Early Dickinson biographers identified Gould as a suitor who may have been briefly engaged to the poet in the 1850s, and recent scholarship has shed new light on the theory (Andrews, pp.
A draft of a letter from Emily to the mysterious “Master”ĭickinson’s school days and young adulthood included several significant male friends, among them Benjamin Newton, a law student in her father’s office Henry Vaughn Emmons, an Amherst College student and George Gould, an Amherst College classmate of the poet’s brother Austin.
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