Black Cake: Emily Dickinson’s Hidden Kitchen

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Black cake, gingerbread, slant rhyme, secret loves, family scandals, poems composed on the back of a coconut cake recipe —we journey into the steamy, myth-laden, hidden world of poet Emily Dickinson through her kitchen. In her lifetime, Emily was probably better known as a baker than a poet.

Filled with mystery, intrigue and readings by Patti Smith, Thornton Wilder, Jean Harris and an array of passionate poets and experts.

Special thanks to: Emilie Hardman, Emily Walhout and Heather Cole from the Houghton Library, Harvard University; Brenda Hillman, poet and Professor of Creative Writing at St. Mary’s College; Jean McClure Mudge writer and filmmaker; Christopher Benfey, writer and Professor of English, Mount Holyoke College; Elaine Hardman who led us to this story; and Zoe Kurland.

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emily-dickinson-recipe-scan-courtesy-of-harvard-college

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A recently discovered daguerreotype believed to show Emily Dickinson with her friend Kate Scott Turner

A recently discovered daguerreotype believed to show Emily Dickinson with her friend Kate Scott Turner