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About Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on Dec. 10, 1830, into a well-to-do, tightly knit family. The socially prominent Dickinsons were well known in Amherst, a small college town in western Massachusetts. Dickinson's grandfather helped to found Amherst College and Amherst Academy. Her father was a successful lawyer and politician. Dickinson distinguished herself at Amherst Academy and, in 1847, Mount Holyoake female seminary. Her brother Austin recalled, "Her compositions were unlike anything ever heard, and always produced a sensation; her imagination sparkled, and she gave it free rein." At her parent's home, where Dickinson lived her entire life, she was noted among friends and family for her intellectual brilliance and imaginative extravagance. One of Emily's closest friends was her younger sister, Virginia ("Vinnie"), who was known for her tart tongue and vivacity. They lived together their entire lives. Dickinson probably began writing poetry seriously around 1850. On April 15, 1862, Dickinson sent four of her poems to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a well-known writer and reformer. He thought her work was "wayward" and "uncontrolled," and urged her not to publish. Numerous literary professionals of her time shared Higginson's opinion, failing to see the brilliance in her work. As a result, very few of her poems were published during her lifetime. Her work remained known by only a small nexus of family and friends. The annus mirabilis, 1862, an extraordinarily productive time for the poet, was thought to be inspired by a mystery lover who supposedly broke her heart in the late 1850s. In 1862, Dickinson produced over 360 poems, including many of her greatest works. It was during this time that she began to withdraw from society, becoming the recluse we think of today. After the mid-1860s, her production fell off greatly, but she still produced some of her most haunting lyrical poetry. After her death on May 15, 1886, Vinnie found a locked box of her sister's containing hundreds of poems, carefully written out into small, hand-stitched booklets. Through Vinnie's diligent efforts, Emily Dickinson's poems found a publisher. By the 1890s, three volumes of selections were published. | |
