<P> Some scholars question the poet's sexuality, theorizing that the numerous letters and poems that were dedicated to Susan Gilbert Dickinson indicate a lesbian romance, and speculating about how this may have influenced her poetry . Critics such as John Cody, Lillian Faderman, Vivian R. Pollak, Paula Bennett, Judith Farr, Ellen Louise Hart, and Martha Nell Smith have argued that Susan was the central erotic relationship in Dickinson's life . </P> <P> In the early 20th century, Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Millicent Todd Bingham kept the achievement of Emily Dickinson alive . Bianchi promoted Dickinson's poetic achievement . Bianchi inherited The Evergreens as well as the copyright for her aunt's poetry from her parents, publishing works such as Emily Dickinson Face to Face and Letters of Emily Dickinson, which stoked public curiosity about her aunt . Bianchi's books perpetrated legends about her aunt in the context of family tradition, personal recollection and correspondence . In contrast, Millicent Todd Bingham's took a more objective and realistic approach to the poet . </P> <P> Emily Dickinson is now considered a powerful and persistent figure in American culture . Although much of the early reception concentrated on Dickinson's eccentric and secluded nature, she has become widely acknowledged as an innovative, proto - modernist poet . As early as 1891, William Dean Howells wrote that "If nothing else had come out of our life but this strange poetry, we should feel that in the work of Emily Dickinson, America, or New England rather, had made a distinctive addition to the literature of the world, and could not be left out of any record of it ." Critic Harold Bloom has placed her alongside Walt Whitman, Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, and Hart Crane as a major American poet, and in 1994 listed her among the 26 central writers of Western civilization . </P> <P> Dickinson is taught in American literature and poetry classes in the United States from middle school to college . Her poetry is frequently anthologized and has been used as texts for art songs by composers such as Aaron Copland, Nick Peros, John Adams and Michael Tilson Thomas . Several schools have been established in her name; for example, Emily Dickinson Elementary Schools exist in Bozeman, Montana, Redmond, Washington, and New York City . A few literary journals--including The Emily Dickinson Journal, the official publication of the Emily Dickinson International Society--have been founded to examine her work . An 8 - cent commemorative stamp in honor of Dickinson was issued by the United States Postal Service on August 28, 1971 as the second stamp in the "American Poet" series . A one - woman play titled The Belle of Amherst first appeared on Broadway in 1976, winning several awards; it was later adapted for television . </P>

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