Emily Dickinson Biography

Emily Dickinson Biography (1830 - 1886)

With full name Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, Born on 10th December 1830 in Amherst, western Massachusetts, USA, in a house called the Homestead, built by her grandfather. This house was sold out of the familyin 1833 and re-purchased by her father, Edward Dickinson, in 1855.

Died on 15 May 1886 in Amherst, western Massachusetts, USA, in this house the Homestead as well.

Fahter: Edward Dickinson (1803-1874) Yale Graduate, successful lawyer, Treasurer for Amherst College and a United States Congressman
Mother: Emily Norcross Dickinson (1804-1882).

They have had three chlidren : Austin Dickinson (1828-1895), Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) and Lavinia Dickinson (1833-1899). They were raised in the Christian tradition

Samuel Fowler Dickinson, Emily's grandfather,a Dartmouth graduate, accomplished lawyer, was one of the founders of Amherst College

Education: Attended the Amherst Academy. At 17, she left for the South Hadley Female Seminary, Massachusetts to attend the Mount Holioke Female Seminary (currently Mount Holyoke College). Although successful at college she returned (after only one year) to Amherst in 1848. She then began her life of seclusion.

Not only was she known for her poetry, but for her quotations as well, like:

1848: Back home, after having left the college,Emily started to write her first poems.

1855: Emily and her sister spent time in the cities of Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1855: Her father bought the Main Street home where she was born.

1856: Austin Dickinson, her brother, successful Harvard Graduate and Amherst lawyer, married Susan Gilbert, Emily's best friend. Moved in their house The Evergreens. They entertained many guests such as: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Republican.

1862: Dickinson answered a call for poetry submissions in the Atlantic Monthly. (she corresponded with its editor Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

1864/1865: Stayed with her cousins the Norcross in Boston. She saw an eye doctor. She was forbidden to read and write. First and last time she went away from Amherst.

1870: Her mother was sick. She and her sister Lavinia cared for her.

1874: Her father died suddenly.

1878: Samuel Bowles, her friend, died.

1882: Charles Wadsworth, a friend too,died.

1883: Gilbert, the son of her brother Austin, died.

Dickinson herself was afflicted with her own illness (kidneys, Bright's Disease, chronic pain and edema).

1886, May 15 :She died at the age of fifty-six. She rests in the West Cemetery of Amherst, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. She did not wish a church service. She was buried in one of her white dress with some violets pinned to her collar by her sister Lavinia.

1914: Martha Dickinson Bianchi, Emily's niece published another of the many collections to follow.

1955: Thomas H.Johnson published the first comprehensive collection of her poems in three volumes.

1958: Thomas H. Johnson's "The Letters of Emily Dickinson" .

This Is My Letter To The World

This is my letter to the world,
That never wrote to me,--
The simple news that Nature told,
With tender majesty.
Her message is committed
To hands I cannot see;
For love of her, sweet countrymen,
Judge tenderly of me!