Emily Dickinson

Here is a letter she wrote to a friend who witnessed her cousin drowning in a pond -
Dear Friend,
   What a reception for you! Did she wait for your approbation? Her deferring to die until you came seemed to me so confiding - as if nothing should be presumed. It can never be real to you.

And here is a letter she wrote to someone whose house caught fire -
Dear Friend,
   I congratulate you.
   Disaster endears beyond Fortune -
                    E. Dickinson.

She was also famous for carrying on conversations with callers from behind a screen or in the next room.

   Then Space began to toll
   As all the Heavens were a Bell
   And Being but an Ear
   And I, and Silence, some strange Race
   Wrecked, solitary, here.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Emily Dickinson...