Emily Dickinson: A Biography

Early Life

• Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts.

• Her father, Edward Dickinson was a lawyer and a treasurer for Amherst College. He was also a Massachusetts Senator.

• Her mother was quiet and chronically ill. • She was the middle child of three children. • William Austin Dickinson was the oldest sibling,

Lavinia Norcross Dickinson was the youngest sibling.

• Emily Dickinson spent most of her life in her family’s home in Amherst.

Education

• In 1840 when Emily was 10 years old, she was educated at Amherst Academy, a former boys school that had been opened to females two years earlier.

• At Amherst Academy she studied English, classical literature, Latin, religion, history, mathematics, geology, and biology.

• In 1847 when Emily was 17 years old, she began attending Mary Lyon’s Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.

• Less than one year later, she left the Seminary. She never returned to school.

• She became somewhat of a hermit, rarely leaving her home. She certainly was not what we would consider today a ‘social’ person.

Poetry

• Emily Dickinson has distinctive and instantly recognizable features including slant or imperfect rhyme, dashes, unusual capitalization, lyrical style, ballad/hymn meter.

• She also uses unique vocabulary and imagery, making her style very much her own.

• At the time of her death, only 10 of her poems had been published.

• After her death, her family found 40 volumes of more than 1,700 poems. Her poetry was collected after her death and published posthumously.

• At last count, Emily Dickinson wrote 1,789 poems total.

Artistic Life After Death

• Though Emily Dickinson died on May 15, 1886 of Bright’s Disease, her voice and spirit live on through her poetry.

• She is regarded as one of the most quintessential poets of the 19th century, alongside Walt Whitman.

• She is buried in Amherst, Massachusetts.

• Her home is now the Emily Dickinson Museum in honor of the timeless poet.

“Forever is composed of nows.”

Emily Dickinson