"We think we know Emily Dickinson: the Belle of Amherst, virginal, reclusive, and possibly mad. But in A Loaded Gun, Jerome Charyn introduces us to a different Emily Dickinson: the fierce, brilliant, and sexually charged. Through interviews with contemporary scholars, close readings of Dickinson's correspondence and handwritten manuscripts, and a suggestive, newly discovered photograph that is purported to show Dickinson with her lover, Charyn's literary sleuthing reveals the great poet in ways that have only been hinted at previously: as a woman who was deeply philosophical, intensely engaged with the world, attracted to members of both sexes, and able to write poetry that disturbs and delights us today" -- Publisher's description

By the end of her life, Emily Dickinson lived in virtual isolation in her family’s home, refusing any contact with strangers. Though she attracted local renown as a recluse, her reputation as one of America’s finest and most original poets was established only posthumously; her works, numbering nearly two thousand, were virtually all unpublished at the time of her death. Displayed here is an insightful and comprehensive outline of all her most famous works as well as the real life events that inspired her. This in-depth examination is then coupled with rich, extensive, and intimate correspondences with figures who exerted enormous influence on the poet—despite, in some cases, never meeting her—all of which were recovered after her death, to form a compete, authoritative account of one of America’s most beloved poets.