The Heart Has Many Doors

Book excerpt: The poet Emily Dickinson's love affair with the eminent Judge Otis Phillips Lord, eighteen years older and her father's best friend, begins in her childhood and evolves over the years into passion. As Emily and Phil struggle with her need for privacy and his power as a man of the world, they stir up the troubled Dickinson family. Despite illness and the hostility of their greedy and jealous relatives, Emily contrives a secret rendezvous in Salem with the big, tempestuous man she calls Little Phil, and they even talk of marriage. Their courage to defy convention inspires the poet's unforgettable art. Poet, scriptwriter, and essayist Susan Snively lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, and works as a guide at the Emily Dickinson Museum. This is her first novel.