Heritable Heaven Erotic Properties in the Dickinson-Lord Correspondence

• Published in: Reading Emily Dickinson's Letters p. 189
• Main Author: JAMES GUTHRIE
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: University of Massachusetts Press 15.12.2009
• Subjects: Afterlife; Applied arts; Architecture; Arts; Attorneys; Biological sciences; Biomes; Buildings; Civil law; Communications; Doctrinal theology; Ecology; Economic disciplines; Economics; Ecosystems; Employment; Eschatology; Estate administration; Fences; Government; Government officials; Grasslands; Heaven; Judges; Judicial officers; Labor economics; Law; Legal documents; Legal instruments; Legal professionals; Literary genres; Literature; Love poetry; Meadows; Minor structures; Occupations; Paradise; Poetry; Political science; Probate law; Religion; Social sciences; Systematic theology; Theology; Wills; Written communication; Written correspondence
• ISBN: 1558497412; 9781558497412

The drafts of letters Emily Dickinson apparently wrote during her correspondence with Judge Otis Phillips Lord, justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, employ a wide range of legal terms and references. Elsewhere I have discussed the extent to which the drafts dwell upon matters related to property law, notably the areas of bankruptcy and trespass, as part of a larger campaign Dickinson conducted to negotiate the conditions of their romantic relationship.¹ I wish to expand upon that subject now by considering how her correspondence with Judge Lord makes similar use of concepts drawn from the practice of estate law. Although