Christopher Benfey's Flight of Fancy

A whimsical group biography of Emily Dickinson and her peers aims for the feeling, as well as the facts, of an artistic era

By JULIA M. KLEIN

Amherst, Mass.

On a recent morning, Christopher Benfey is serving as a genial guide to this quiet New England college town of churches, craft shops, and Emily Dickinson. Benfey,...