An Hour Renting Emily Dickinson’s Bedroom Where She Wrote Her Entire Life’s Work

This content has been archived. It may no longer be accurate or relevant.

From Pictorial:

“Sweet hours have perished here;
This is a mighty room”

You can visit the café in Edinburgh where J.K. Rowling supposedly sat penning Harry Potter, tour Ernest Hemingway’s house in Key West, still crawling with cats, or see William Faulkner’s Rowan Oak, a Mississippi home flanked by cedar trees. But few writers have written their entire life’s work—nearly 1,800 poems, in Emily Dickinson’s case—in just one room.

For one hundred dollars an hour, you can rent the second-floor bedroom in Amherst, Massachusetts where Dickinson spent a huge portion of her life. The Dickinson Homestead on Main Street was purchased by the Parke family in 1916, and sold to the Trustees of Amherst College in 1965 (it quickly became open for public tours). After twentieth-century wallpaper and floorboards from Dickinson’s room were removed, clues to the original floor coverings and interior design during the Dickinsons’ occupancy were discovered.

In 2003, Amherst College acquired “The Evergreens,” a dwelling directly next-door to Emily’s house, once inhabited by her brother Austin. The buildings were merged to create the Emily Dickinson Museum. In further attempts at historical accuracy, the two-year restoration of Dickinson’s specific room was completed in 2015. Although the Museum has been visited by thousands every year—eager to peer inside the eminent poet’s room on the guided tour—this is the first time her chamber has actually been rentable.

Link to the rest at Jezebel

5 thoughts on “An Hour Renting Emily Dickinson’s Bedroom Where She Wrote Her Entire Life’s Work”

    • Hush you — they’re trying to make money here!

      Just wait until we have holosuites and you can pretend you’re anywhere in any time that anyone has recorded or dreamed up.

  1. This isn’t unique. There are thousands of bedrooms available for rent by the hour. Though not usually with public viewing.

Comments are closed.