From: LouisFors <LouisFors@aol.com>
Message-ID: <bedbba4.353ea6e5@aol.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 22:26:44 EDT
To: emweb@fmgmt.mgmt.utoronto.ca
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Subject: Re: Why didn't ED marry?
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Paula wrote:

>   I am no scholar,but poetry is my life.I was wandering why ED never
married?
> 
>  And why her room became world?Many thanks to all.
>     
Paula:

You've asked two of the toughest questions that anybody could ask about ED.  

Let me suggest, for a start, that, as you say poetry is your life, so poetry
was her life.  

There's much more to it, of course--dozens of books and scores of articles
have explored those questions--but that's a good starting point. She could
write, she *had to* write, and she developed a style of life to accommodate
her gifts and protect herself from various social and psychological
expectations of her time and place.  

It's silly of me to address your questions, but it is an interesting challenge
to try in a few words, abstract as they may be, to give it a try.  Maybe
somebody else can do it briefly, and better.  

I realize that I haven't been of any practical help to you.

Louis Forsdale