Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Though almost unknown and nearly unpublished in her own lifetime, Dickinson has since come to be regarded along with Walt Whitman as one of the two great American poets of the 19th century. Often called reclusive, Dickinson lived nearly her whole life at the Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Early life

Dickinson lived most of her life in the family's houses in Amherst. She was born in the brick homestead on Main Street in Amherst, which her parents then shared with a cousin's family; quarters were close, and as was common in 19th-century America, siblings shared their beds. In 1840, her father purchased a wood-frame house on West Street (now North Pleasant Street) about a mile away, and the family moved into a somewhat less crowded home. During the poet's youth, Austin, her older brother, bore much of the burden of his parents' expectations, though the family educated both daughters. Some biographers contend that Edward Dickinson was anxiously overprotective of his daughters during their childhood (Habegger 75-120).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Beginning in 1840, Emily was educated at the nearby Amherst Academy, a former boys' school which had opened to female students just two years earlier. She studied English and classical literature, learning Latin and reading the Aeneid over several years, and was taught in other subjects including religion, history, mathematics, geology, and biology. The academy's teachers were often recent graduates of Amherst College, and its students sometimes attended lectures there. During this time, Emily traveled to Boston and Worcester, visiting family there in 1844 and recuperate from illness the next year.

Related Topics:
English - Classical literature - Latin - Aeneid - Boston - Worcester - 1844

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At the age of 13, she befriended fellow student Abiah Palmer Root, and they remained close friends and correspondents during Dickinson's youth. Root left Amherst in 1845, and thereafter the two exchanged frequent letters; in 1846, amid the Second Great Awakening religious revival which swept through the area, Root was converted while Dickinson remained unconvinced. The friendship ended decisively in 1848 when Dickinson's sentiments cooled.

Related Topics:
1846 - Second Great Awakening - Religious revival - 1848

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At 17, Dickinson began attending Mary Lyon's Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (which would later become Mount Holyoke College) in South Hadley, about ten miles from her home. The school was academically strict, even disciplinarian, and religiously evangelical, strongly encouraging conversion. This atmosphere did not prove completely hospitable for Emily, who was academically successful and socially content but remained a spiritual skeptic rather than a Christian convert. When she again became ill in the spring, her brother Austin was sent to bring her home after less than a year at the Seminary, and she did not return to the school.

Related Topics:
Mary Lyon - Mount Holyoke Female Seminary - South Hadley

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After that, she left home only for short trips to visit relatives in Boston, Cambridge, and Connecticut. For decades, popular wisdom portrayed Dickinson as an agoraphobic recluse peeking out from the attic window and always wearing white. New scholarship suggests a much wider circle of influence than previously thought, including friends and extended family whom Dickinson kept in contact with through letters and their occasional visits to her Amherst home.

Related Topics:
Boston - Cambridge - Connecticut - Agoraphobic

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~