Dickinson's poems often got their start in her kitchen, where she spent a large portion of each day, baking. She would draft poems on the back of recipes, shopping lists, chocolate bar wrappers, pharmacy flyers and wings of envelopes.

"Before she had a maid, she was in there cooking and doing all of the baking," Murray says. "When a maid was hired to permanently work in the kitchen, Dickinson actually remained in the kitchen to write."

Tim Nighswander/Courtesy Aife MurrayEmily Dickinson servant Henry Hawkins with his grand-daughter Helen Pettijohn.

Extended family

Over the years, Dickinson had hired an ethnically diverse group of servants: African American gardeners, Yankee seamstresses, Native American laborers, stablemen from England, and maids from Ireland.

In her book, "Maid as Muse," Murray explores the relationship between Dickinson and her staff.

"Emily Dickinson isolated herself from her peers, the wealthy leading families of the town as she got older, but the poor community was in and out," Murray says. "The servants' children were running her errands, taking her letters around the neighborhood. She was rewarding them with pieces of cake. The world came to her."

For the last 17 years of her life, Dickinson shared her kitchen with Margaret Maher, an Irish immigrant. Dickinson wrote her poems while cooking with Maher.

She stored them in her maid's trunk, trusting Maher to keep them safe. This everyday interaction, Murray says, changed the way Dickinson felt about poor people, especially those coming from Ireland.