Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886

Poet. Full name: Emily Elizabeth Dickinson.

Dickinson was a poet of Amherst, Mass. John Long Graves was her cousin.

Emily Dickinson, poet of Amherst, Massachusetts, received formal training in botany and horticulture while a student at Amherst Academy from age 9 to 16. Her devotion to the science of and appreciation for plants came naturally, however. She joined her mother in gardening from an early age and took charge of a family conservatory in her teens. Her herbarium, produced during her years at Amherst Academy, was a treasure to her, meriting mention in letters to friends.

Dickinson was a poet from Amherst, Mass.

Dickinson was a poet of Amherst, Mass. Correspondents in this grouping of letters include her cousins: John Long Graves (1831-1915), Clara Badger Newman Turner (Mrs. Sidney Turner), and Anna Dodge Newman Carlton (Mrs. George H. Carleton). Other names in this series include: Margaret "Maggie" Maher, one of the Dickinson's domestic staff; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a close family friend; and others.

American poet.

Dickinson was an American poet. Josiah Gilbert Holland, assistant of Samuel Bowles of the Springfield Republican, and his wife Elizabeth were family friends.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), poet.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts to Edward Dickinson, a lawyer and treasurer of Amherst College, and Emily Norcross Dickinson. She graduated from Amherst Academy in 1847 then attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary for one year, 1847-1848. Benjamin F. Newton, a law student in her father's office, and Henry Vaughan, an Amherst College student, influenced her literary development by encouraging her to write. By the late 1850s, Dickinson had written hundreds of poems. She became more and more reclusive and only a few of her poems were published during her lifetime (the first edition of her poems was published in 1890). She died in Amherst on May 15, 1886, at the age of fifty-five.

Dickinson was a poet of Amherst, Mass. Emmons was a family friend.

Dickinson was a poet of Amherst, Mass. Henry Vaughan Emmons (1832-1912) was a friend of her cousin, John Long Graves, while both were at Amherst College (Emmons, class of 1854). Emmons often visited the Dickinson home and became a friend of the family. He was an evangelist minister and occupied pulpits in various New England churches.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (1830-1886), poet, was the daughter of Edward and Emily (Norcross) Dickinson. She was born on 10 December 1830 and died on 15 May 1886.

Dickinson was a poet of Amherst, Mass.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on December 10, 1830 to Edward Dickinson (AC 1823) and Emily Norcross Dickinson. She attended Amherst Academy from 1840 to 1847, then enrolled at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary from 1847 to 1848. She remained in Amherst for the rest of her life, and traveled only briefly to Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

For virtually her entire adult life, Emily lived in the Dickinson home at 280 Main Street with her father, mother, and her younger sister, Lavinia, who Emily called "Vinnie." Her brother, (William) Austin (AC 1850) lived next door with his wife, Susan Huntington Gilbert, one of Emily's closest friends. Emily was very close to their three children, Ned (Edward) (AC 1884), Mattie (Martha), and Gib (Thomas Gilbert). After the death of her father in 1874 and her mother the following year, Emily remained in the family home, living alone with Vinnie. Emily died there on May 15, 1886, at the age of 55. Renowned for a severe reclusiveness that began when she was in her 20s, Dickinson maintained warm and close relationships with family and friends through the medium of letters, frequently containing poems. Some of her most frequent correspondents outside of her family were childhood friends Abiah Root and Emily Fowler (Ford); her friend and later sister-in-law, Susan Huntington Gilbert (Dickinson); Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Republican ; Reverend Charles Wadsworth, a minister and poet; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, writer and liberal activist; Josiah Gilbert and Elizabeth Chapin Holland; and Adelaide Spencer (Mrs. Henry) Hills. A significant correspondent around 1858-1861 was a mysterious love interest who Dickinson referred to as "Master." It is not clear who this person may have been or what form any relationship between them took - only three draft letters by Dickinson to "Master" are known. Another important person Dickinson's life was Judge Otis Phillips Lord, with whom Dickinson had a romantic relationship starting in the late 1870s until his death in 1884.

Although Emily and Lavinia were very close, and Lavinia was aware that Emily wrote poetry, she was not aware of the extent of her sister's writing. Upon Emily's death, Lavinia discovered how prolific and talented her sister had been when she found 1,775 poems in Emily's bureau drawer. Emily wrote some 1,789 poems, some contained in letters to friends and family, some sewn together in little bundles called fascicles that Emily stored in her drawers, some written on scraps of paper like shopping lists or envelope flaps. Lavinia preserved the poems she found, distributing them between Mabel Loomis Todd and Susan Dickinson, but destroyed all of Emily's correspondence in accord with her sister's previously expressed wishes.

Within 10 years of Emily's death, three volumes of her poetry and two volumes of her letters were published by Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, a woman with whom Austin had a long-term affair during his marriage to Susan. Emily Dickinson's niece, Martha Dickinson Bianchi (Austin's daughter), also helped to publish her aunt's poetry beginning in 1914.

It was not until 1955, when Harvard published The Poems of Emily Dickinson edited by Thomas Johnson, that all of Dickinson's poetry was available in a single source. In 1960, Jay Leyda published The Years and Hours of Emily Dickinson, a chronological documentation of the events in the lives of Emily Dickinson and her family and friends. In 1998, Ralph W. Franklin, published The Poems of Emily Dickinson, which documents revisions and different versions of the poet's work.

Unknown during her lifetime, Emily Dickinson is known today as one of the world's most important and loved poets of all-time, in any language.

This chronology was adapted from The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson, edited by Wendy Martin; The Life of Emily Dickinson by Richard Sewall; and Archives and Special Collections files.

Emily Dickinson, poet of Amherst, Massachusetts, received formal training in botany and horticulture while a student at Amherst Academy from age 9 to 16. Her devotion to the science of and appreciation for plants came naturally, however. She joined her mother in gardening from an early age and took charge of a family conservatory in her twenties. Her herbarium (MS Am 1118.11) was produced during her years at Amherst Academy. These botanical specimens were never mounted in that or any other herbarium.

It is possible that some or all of the labeled specimens were sent to Dickinson by Abby Wood Bliss, a schoolmate from Amherst Academy, who went to the Middle East as a missionary wife in 1855.

Emily Dickinson, poet of Amherst, Massachusetts, received formal training in botany and horticulture while a student at Amherst Academy from age 9 to 16. Her devotion to the science of and appreciation for plants came naturally, however. She joined her mother in gardening from an early age and took charge of a family conservatory in her twenties. Her herbarium ( MS Am 1118.11 ) was produced during her years at Amherst Academy. These botanical specimens were never mounted in that or any other herbarium.

Nada Sinno Saoud, Post Herbarium Curator, American University of Beirut, has provided some tentative plant identifications.

It is possible that some or all of the labeled specimens were sent to Dickinson by Abby Wood Bliss, a schoolmate from Amherst Academy, who went to the Middle East as a missionary wife in 1855. Eleanor Johnson, a descendent of Abby Bliss, believes the handwriting on the labels for the Middle East specimens to be Abby's.

The poet Emily Dickinson formed a close relationship with her brother's family, particularly with her sister-in-law Susan Huntington Dickinson, to whom most of the letters and poems in this collection were sent. Emily's older brother, William Austin Dickinson (1829-1895; usually referred to as Austin) attended Amherst College, then Harvard Law School. He married Susan Huntington Gilbert (1830-1913) on 1 July 1856; as a wedding present, Edward Dickinson built the couple The Evergreens next door to the Dickinson's house, called the Homestead. Austin practiced law in Amherst, and succeeded his father as Treasurer of Amherst College in 1873.

Susan Dickinson was the youngest daughter of Thomas and Harriet Arms Gilbert. Her mother died in 1837, and her father in 1841. She was then raised by an aunt, and attended Utica Female Academy. Emily and Austin Dickinson became acquainted with her when she came to live with her sister Harriet Gilbert Cutler in Amherst in 1850. Susan taught in Baltimore 1851-1852, and became engaged to Austin in November 1853.

Austin and Susan Dickinson had three children: Edward, called Ned (1861-1898); Martha (1866-1943), who married Alexander Bianchi in 1903; and Gilbert (1875-1883).