From: LouisFors <LouisFors@aol.com>
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Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 12:31:38 EDT
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Subject: Belle of Amherst
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Dear friends:

Having discovered something, I share it with you, hoping that ED scholars, who
doubtless know this, will accept my enthusiasm at the find as that of a new
miner finding nuggets here and there.

In a letter dated May 7, 1845, ED wrote to her friend Abiah, and therein is
found this passage:  "I am growing handsome very fast indeed.  I expect I
shall be the belle of Amherst when I reach the my 17th year.  I don't doubt
that I shall have perfect crowds of admirers at that age.  Then how I shall
delight to make them await my bidding, and with what delight shall I witness
their suspense while I make my final decision.  But away with my nonesense."
So I assume that the title of the play "Belle of Amherst" came from this
passage.  (That's my little discovery.)  I gather from the sentence "But away
with my nonesense" that ED was jesting.  But maybe not.  That last sentence,
or something like it, is found frequently as a means of making a transition.

I don't have a copy of the complete letters, so I don't know the letter
number.  This comes from the 1894 Letters of Emily Dickinson, edited by Mabel
Loomis Todd, and it prints very few letters indeed.

Someone posted an ED poem a few weeks ago that bore the sentiment "wait 'till
I'm famous, then let them seek me," or something very roughly akin to that.  I
can't find it myself.  What poem is it?

Best wishes to all,

Louis Forsdale