Turns out the raunchiest thing Emily Dickinson ever wrote wasn't about death... it was her sapphic love letters - Queerty

"Next to Sappho, Emily Dickinson is one of the most famous sapphic poets ever to walk the Earth-and somehow there are still people who deny her queer sexuality. Perhaps that's the exact reason why Dickinson remains a figure of such passionate interest to us to this day. Was she the original "and they were roommates" meme? Have we gotten her story all wrong? Or have we allowed other peoples' revisionist histories to get in the way of Dickinson's true unabashed queerness?"

"If you know of Emily Dickinson at all, you're aware of her as an em dash-loving poet who rarely left her Amherst home and didn't get most of her work published until after she'd died. And yes, that's partly the truth. Dickinson was a reclusive figure in later life who kept her social circle small. But one woman in her life, whom she met in her 20s, remained hidden in plain sight from Dickinson scholars for decades."

"I'm talking about Susan Gilbert, who would end up marrying Dickinson's brother Austin while carrying out a completely separate, but nonetheless passionate and real, Boston marriage with Dickinson. Dickinson lived next to Gilbert and her brother, and according to academic and Dickinson scholar Martha Nell Smith, "the 40-year relationship between Emily and Susan was of a committed lesbian character; that they lived together, if not in the same house, then side by side.""

Emily Dickinson is one of the most famous sapphic poets, and some people deny her queer sexuality. She became a figure of sustained interest because of questions about her relationships and life. Dickinson was an em dash–loving poet who rarely left Amherst and had most work published posthumously. She became reclusive later and kept a small social circle. She met Susan Gilbert in her twenties and maintained a passionate, real Boston marriage with her while Susan married Dickinson's brother Austin. They lived side-by-side. Scholar Martha Nell Smith characterized their 40-year relationship as of a committed lesbian character, and Smith's 1990s book, once scandalous, later gained credibility with new evidence.

Read at Queerty