EmilyDickinson

Tira DeanMs. Owens

ENG-1102-XTIQ-14/T4

BiographyEmily Elizabeth Dickinson

Occupation- PoetBorn: December 10, 1830 in Amherst,

MassachusettsDied: May 15, 1886 in Amherst,

MassachusettsEducation: Amherst Academy (now Amherst

College), Mount Holyoke Female Seminary

Childhood and Youth (1830-1855)Emily Dickinson, the middle child of Edward

and Emily Norcross Dickinson, was born on December 10, 1830, in the family Homestead on Main Street in Amherst, Massachusetts. Just two months earlier, her parents and older brother Austin had moved into the Homestead to live with Edwards parents, Samuel Fowler and Lucretia Gunn Dickinson, and several of Edward’s siblings.

Emily’s Writing Years (1855-1865)Although Emily Dickinson’s calling as a poet

began in her teen years, she came into her own as an artist during a short but intense period of creativity that resulted in her composing, revising, and saving hundreds of poems. That period, which scholars identify as 1858-1865, overlaps with the most significant event of American nineteenth-century history, the Civil War. During this time, Dickinson’s personal life also underwent tremendous change.

The Later Years (1865-1886)After Emily Dickinson’s visits to Cambridge for eye

treatment in the mid-1860’s, the poet settled into a quiet, reclusive existence with her parents and sister. Although she rarely ventured beyond the family Homestead, she did entertain several significant visitors, including Thomas Wentworth Higginson, whom she met in person for the first time in 1870 when he visited her at home in Amherst. To Higginson she offered her own definition of poetry: “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way?”

Sample Writings

Photographs of Emily

Family Photos

To the left is a picture of Emily and her siblings and top is a picture of the family Homestead.

Family Tree & Final Resting Spot

The End