Why does her tombstone say “Called Back”?
Called Back was a popular novella written by Hugh Conway (real name John Frederick Fargus). In a January 1885 letter, Dickinson called the book “a haunting story … ‘greatly impressive to me.'” Those two words, “Called back,” are the only words in her last known letter, written to her cousins Fannie and Loo Norcross in May 1886. Dickinson’s original tombstone simply had her initials, “E.E.D.,” inscribed on it. That headstone was later replaced by her niece Martha Dickinson Bianchi, who included Dickinson’s birth and death dates as well as the phrase “Called Back.
Called Back was a popular novella written by Hugh Conway (real name John Frederick Fargus). In a January 1885 letter, Dickinson called the book “a haunting story … ‘greatly impressive to me.'” Those two words, “Called back,” are the only words in her last known letter, written to her cousins Fannie and Loo Norcross in May 1886. Dickinson’s original tombstone simply had her initials, “E.E.D.,” inscribed on it.
