Called Back (novel)

Called Back is an 1883 mystery/romance novel written by Englishman Frederick John Fargus under the pseudonym Hugh Conway^[1] and published in Bristol by J. W. Arrowsmith.

Over 350,000 copies were sold within four years, and Fargus produced a stage version in London in 1884. The book was popular during the 1880s in Amherst, Massachusetts, a fact that has been correlated with the use of the phrase "called back" by American poet Emily Dickinson in her later life.^[2] The book, which a friend sent to her, impressed her.^[3] She used the title in a later letter.^[4] In what was evidently the last letter she composed shortly before she died in May 1886, she simply wrote, "Little Cousins, Called back. Emily."^[5]

Conway collaborated with J. Comyns Carr in adapting the novel into a stage play. The play premiered on May 20, 1884 at the Prince's Theatre, London.^[6]