Emily Dickinson Biography & Poetry: The Poet as a Cook with Selected Recipes | Perfect for Literary Enthusiasts & Home Chefs

I am going to learn to make bread to-morrow. So you may imagine me with my sleeves rolled up, mixing flour, milk, saleratus, etc., with a deal of grace. I advise you if you don't know how to make the staff of life to learn with dispatch.

—Emily Dickinson, 1845

Inspired by questions from a visitor who had noticed many references to food and hunger in the poet's work, curators at Emily Dickinson's home in Amherst, Massachusetts prepared this pamphlet. It presents a brief overview of the poet's kitchen habits, and that of her family, at whose table dined the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Ward Beecher, and Frederick Law Olmstead.

Drawing on correspondence and household papers, as well as contemporaneous sources to provide additional context, they also provide 18 recipes, all but 2 of them for baked goods or desserts, rendered in modern style. Among them is Dickinson's prize gingerbread recipe, found in her own handwriting. There is also a brief list of family menus including some dishes which have wholly passed out of vogue ["A dainty chicken (not stuffed) served upright, soaked in milk for hours and browned on the coals."]

Black-and-white photographs. Staplebound.