if you hadn't known would you have guessed emily dickinson was a redhead? it isn't only that her famous daguerrotype makes her look dour and forbidding - it makes it never occur to us to ask what colour her hair was. i was in rikita's room looking at her emily photo collection and there was one of the child emily and rikita pointed this out: "people forget she's a redhead." that ought to be something we keep in mind when we read. at the same time, one has to reconcile this new emily with the one who had sat at a desk no wider than the standard laptop - i've been to see it in houghton - and it is a startling sight which makes you think again.