Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson: Biography Born the second of three children in Amherst, Massachusetts Father was a lawyer and one of the wealthiest and most respected citizens in the town, as well as a conservative leader of the church Dickinson grew up regularly attending services at the Congregational First Church of Christ (Congregational churches essentially followed the New England Puritan tradition) She attended Amherst Academy, where she studied a modern curriculum of English and the sciences, as well as Latin, botany and mathematics

Emily Dickinson: Biography Except for one year at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary ( ) and a visit to Washington, D.C., to visit her father, she spent her entire life in Amherst In her family library, she had access to many religious works as well as books by Emerson, other transcendentalists and current magazines Around 1850, she begins to write verse, which she circulates among a circle of friends Her poem “Sic transit gloria mundi” was published in the Springfield Daily Republican in 1852

Emily Dickinson: Biography She spent sociable evenings with guests such as Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Daily Republican She also enjoyed dancing, buggy rides, parlor games, and other forms of entertainment until she began to seclude herself Around 1860, she stopped visiting with other people and became a recluse In 1862, her poem “Safe in their alabaster chambers” appeared in the Springfield Daily Republican

Emily Dickinson: Biography Around that time, she began her correspondence with Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a local intellectual, journalist, and anti-slavery activist She asked Higginson for advice with her poetry –Higginson had published an article entitled “Letter to a Young Contributor,“ in the Atlantic Monthly, in which he advised budding young writers –Dickinson sent him four poems, along with a letter asking “"Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive?" Higginson responded with much praise and gentle criticism (“surgery”), but he advised her against publishing her poetry because of its raw form and subject matter

Emily Dickinson: Biography Higginson became Dickinson’s intellectual mentor, even though he admitted feeling out of her league in poetical talent After Dickinson’s death, Higginson collaborated with Mabel Loomis Todd in publishing volumes of her poetryMabel Loomis Todd His edition was heavily edited for conventional punctuation and form, as well as content But, his edition helped Dickinson’s poetry gain quick national prominence

Emily Dickinson: Biography While becoming more reclusive, Dickinson intensified correspondence with friends and output of poetry She suffered from eye-trouble in 1864 and 1865 The last 12 years she spent in self-imposed isolation in her parents’ home Allegedly, Dickinson dressed entirely in white and communicated only indirectly with visitors and friends, from behind a folding screen or via notes and gifts in a basket she let down from her window into the garden

Emily Dickinson: Biography She spent most of these years reading and writing poetry Her most productive period coincided with the civil war, during which she wrote about 800 poems She called writing poetry her business, “My Business is Circumference” (after Emerson’s term for poetry) She copied many of her poems into hand-sewn small booklets or “fascicles” and sent them as poetic gifts to family and friends

Emily Dickinson: Biography Dickinson never married, although several men played an important role in her life Lively correspondence with Benjamin Franklin Newton on literary topics of the day Long correspondence with Higginson, although he ultimately did not recognize the worth of her poetry Close emotional bond to Charles Wadsworth, whom she had met on her journey home from Washington

Emily Dickinson: Biography Strained relationship to her sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert, who was apparently the object of her desire in such homoerotic poems as “Her face was in a bed of hair” When Dickinson died in 1886 of Bright’s disease, her family and friends were surprised at the amount of work she left behind Her sister Lavinia found 40 notebooks and loose poems in a locked box in her bedroom The poems were unarranged and only 24 were titled

Emily Dickinson, Daguerreotype by Josiah Gilbert Holland, circa February-April 1848.

The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts

The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts (garden)

The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts (bedroom)

The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts (Dress)