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all words, scenes and claims of participants in the feud are documented in source notes. Though the feud began with adultery, Emily Dickinson became its focus after her death, each side battling for her unpublished papers. The issue was not so much money as the right to own the poet—the right to say who she was. Each side claimed to know, and fought to promote its legend. These legends still guard the entrance to the Abyss, for the feud persists even now. It started with a newcomer to Amherst who was drawn to the Dickinson family, and even more to its invisible poet.
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