Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886

Poet. Full name: Emily Elizabeth Dickinson.

From the description of Emily Dickinson papers, 1847-1956. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79423614

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

From the description of Letters to John Long Graves, 1854-1927. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 79380981

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.

From the description of Herbarium, ca. 1839-1846. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 612740530

Dickinson was a poet from Amherst, Mass.

From the description of Poems,and letters to Maria Whitney, 1878-1884. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 83317331

From the description of Letters to Lucretia Gunn Dickinson Bullard, [ca. 1864] (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 612790314

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.

From the guide to the Letters to John Long Graves, 1854-1927., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

American poet.

From the description of Letter to Annie P. Strong [manuscript], ca. 1882. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647861194

From the description of ALsS, [1868-1884], Amherst, Mass., to the Sweetser family. (Rosenbach Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122489335

From the description of Autograph letter signed : [Amherst], to her cousin [Perez Dickinson Cowan], ca. 1873 Feb. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270129708

From the description of ALsS, 1842-[1855], Amherst, Mass., to Jane Humphrey. (Rosenbach Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122610578

From the description of Distance is not the realm of fox : autograph poem signed "Emily", [ca. 1870]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270536378

From the description of Papers and forgeries of Emily Dickinson, 1860-1984 (bulk 1860-1886). (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 32136356

From the description of The sun kept stooping-stooping-low : autograph poem signed : written and sent to Sue Dickinson, ca. 1860. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270539122

From the description of Autograph letter signed : [Amherst], to "Dear Girls" [Martha Dickinson and Sally Jenkins], [ca. 1883]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270514688

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

From the description of Emily Dickinson letters to Josiah Gilbert Holland and Elizabeth Chapin Holland, ca. 1853-1886. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 612870114

From the guide to the Emily Dickinson letters to Josiah Gilbert Holland and Elizabeth Chapin Holland, ca. 1853-1886., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), poet.

From the description of Emily Dickinson collection, 1853-1960. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702172337

From the description of Emily Dickinson collection, 1853-1960. (Yale University). WorldCat record id: 60366749

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.

From the guide to the Emily Dickinson Collection MS 0716., 1847-, (bulk 1924-, (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)

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

From the description of Letters to Henry Vaughan Emmons, 1853-1854. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 79380978

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.

From the guide to the Letters to Henry Vaughan Emmons, 1853-1854., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

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.

From the description of Poems, 1879-1881. (American Antiquarian Society). WorldCat record id: 225179867

Dickinson was a poet of Amherst, Mass.

From the description of Poems, 1858-1872. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 79390420

From the description of Miscellaneous papers, 1858-1899. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 79380968

From the description of Letters : to various correspondents, 1842-1886. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 79390503

From the guide to the Emily Dickinson poems, and letters to Maria Whitney, 1878-1884., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

From the guide to the Emily Dickinson miscellaneous papers, 1858-1899., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

From the guide to the Poems, 1858-1872., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

From the guide to the Letters to various correspondents, 1842-1886., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

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.

• 1813: Samuel Fowler Dickinson builds the "Homestead" on Main Street.
• 1820 - 1821 : Samuel Fowler Dickinson serves on the building committee and provides major financial support for the construction of the first Amherst College building, South College.
• 1828 May 6: Edward Dickinson (AC 1823) and Emily Norcross marry.
• 1829 Apr 16: (William) Austin Dickinson (AC 1850), Emily's brother, born in Amherst, Massachusetts.
• 1830 Dec 10: Emily Elizabeth Dickinson born in Amherst, Massachusetts.
• 1833 Feb 28: Lavinia Norcross Dickinson, Emily's sister, born in Amherst, Massachusetts.
• 1835 Aug 4: Edward Dickinson appointed Treasurer of Amherst College.
• 1835 Sep 7: Emily Dickinson begins studying at primary school.
• 1840 Apr: Dickinson family moves from the Homestead to a house on West Street (later North Pleasant Street)
• 1840 Sep 7: Emily Dickinson begins studies at Amherst Academy.
• 1844 May - 1844 Jun : Emily Dickinson visits relatives in Boston following the death of her friend Sophia Holland.
• 1845: Emily Dickinson silhouette cut by Charles Temple (AC1845), her former French instructor at Amherst Academy.
• 1846 Aug - 1846 Sep : Emily Dickinson travels to Boston for her health.
• 1846 Dec 10-ca. 1847 late Mar : Emily Dickinson daguerreotype made by William C. North, "Daguerrian Artist," in Amherst.
• 1847 Aug: Emily Dickinson graduates from Amherst Academy.
• 1847 Sep: Emily Dickinson begins at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.
• 1848 Aug: Emily Dickinson withdraws from Mount Holyoke and returns home to Amherst.
• 1850 Feb: "Magnum bonum" published for Valentines day in The Indicator, an Amherst College student publication.
• 1851 Sep 6 - 22 : Emily Dickinson and Lavinia Dickinson visit Boston.
• 1852 Feb 20: "Sic transit gloria mundi" published by the Springfield Republican under the title "A Valentine."
• 1852 Dec 17: Edward Dickinson elected Representative to Congress.
• 1855 [Feb - 1855 Mar] : Emily Dickinson and Lavinia Dickinson travel to Washington, D.C.
• 1855 [Mar 4]: Emily Dickinson meets the Reverend Charles Wadsworth in Philadelphia.
• 1855 Nov: Emily Norcross Dickinson, the poet's mother, becomes ill.
• 1855 Nov: Dickinson family moves back to the Homestead.
• 1856 Jul 1: William Austin Dickinson marries Susan Huntington Gilbert.
• 1858: Emily Dickinson begins recording poems in fascicles (sewn packets).
• 1858 Spring: Emily Dickinson drafts the first surviving "Master" letter (AC no. 827).
• 1858 Aug 2: "Nobody knows this little rose" published by the Springfield Republican under the title "To Mrs. ----, with a Rose. [Surreptitiously communicated to The Republican.]"
• 1860 [Mar]: Reverend Charles Wadsworth visits Emily Dickinson in Amherst.
• 1861 Early: Emily Dickinson drafts second surviving "Master" letter (AC no. 829).
• 1861 May 4: "I taste a liquor never brewed" published by the Springfield Republican under the title "The May-Wine."
• 1861 June 19: Austin and Susan Dickinson's first child, Edward Austin (Ned) (AC 1884), is born.
• 1861 Summer: Emily Dickinson drafts third surviving "Master" letter (AC no. 828).
• 1862 Mar 1: "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" published by the Springfield Republican under the title "The Sleeping."
• 1862 Apr: Emily Dickinson begins corresponding with writer and liberal activist Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
• 1864 Mar: "Flowers - Well - if anybody" published by Drum Beat, Springfield Republican and Boston Post under the title "Flowers"
• 1864 Mar 11: "These are the days when birds come back" published by Drum Beat under the title "October."
• 1864 Mar 12: "Some keep the Sabbath Going to Church" published by the Round Table under the title "My Sabbath."
• 1864 Feb, Mar: "Blazing in Gold, and Quenching in Purple" published by Drum Beat and the Springfield Republican under the title "Sunset."
• 1864 Apr 27: "Success is counted sweetest" published by the Brooklyn Daily Union.
• 1864 Apr - 1864 Nov : Emily Dickinson in Boston for eye treatment.
• 1864 May 13: Austin Dickinson drafted to fight in the Civil War; he pays $500 for a substitute.
• 1865 [Apr]: Emily Dickinson returns to Boston for eye treatment.
• 1866 Feb 14, 17: "A narrow fellow in the grass" published by the Springfield Republican under the title "The Snake."
• 1866 Nov 29: Susan and Austin Dickinson's second child, Martha Gilbert (Mattie), is born.
• 1870 Aug 16: Thomas Wentworth Higginson visits Emily Dickinson in Amherst.
• 1872 Jul 10: Edward Dickinson resigns as Treasurer of Amherst College, Austin Dickinson succeeds him as Treasurer in 1873.
• 1873 Dec 3: Thomas Wentworth Higginson visits Emily Dickinson for a second time.
• 1874 Jun 16: Edward Dickinson dies.
• 1875 Jun 15: Emily Norcross Dickinson is paralyzed.
• 1875 Aug 1: Susan and Austin Dickinson's third child, Thomas Gilbert (Gib), is born.
• 1877 June 28: Samuel Bowles visits Emily Dickinson in Amherst.
• 1878 Nov 20: "Success is counted sweetest" published in A Masque of Poets.
• 1880 [Aug]: Reverend Charles Wadsworth visits Emily Dickinson in Amherst.
• 1880 Aug - 1880 Sep : Judge Otis Lord and nieces visit Amherst.
• 1880 Dec 25: Judge Otis Lord gives Emily Dickinson Complete Concordance to Shakspere.
• 1881 Apr: Judge Otis Lord guest at The Evergreens.
• 1882 Apr 1: Reverend Charles Wadsworth dies.
• 1882 Apr 16: Judge Otis Lord visits Emily Dickinson in Amherst.
• 1882 May 1: Judge Otis Lord critically ill.
• 1882 Nov 14: Emily Norcross Dickinson dies.
• 1883 Oct 5: Thomas Gilbert (Gib), Emily Dickinson's nephew, dies at the age of eight of typhoid fever.
• 1884 Mar 15: Judge Otis Lord dies.
• 1886 May 15: Emily Dickinson dies.
• 1886 May 19: Emily Dickinson's funeral in The Homestead library.
• 1890 Nov 12: Poems, the first published volume of Emily Dickinson's poetry, edited by Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, is published by Roberts Brothers.
• 1891 Nov 19: The second series of Poems, edited by Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, is published by Roberts Brothers.
• 1894 Nov 21: Letters of Emily Dickinson in 2 volumes, edited by Mabel Loomis Todd, is published by Roberts Brothers.
• 1895 Aug 16: William Austin Dickinson dies.
• 1896 Sep 1: Mabel Loomis Todd edits the third series of Poems, published by Roberts Brothers.
• 1896 Nov 16: Lavinia Dickinson files a suit against Mabel Loomis Todd over a piece of land she had earlier deeded to the Todds at Austin's request. The case is decided in Lavinia's favor.
• 1899 Aug 31: Lavinia Dickinson dies.
• 1903 Jul 19: Martha Dickinson marries Alexander Emmanuel Bianchi, known as "Count Bianchi," of Russia at the Church of the Russian Embassy in Dresden, Germany.
• 1913 May 12: Susan Dickinson dies.
• 1914: The Single Hound, edited by Martha Dickinson Bianchi, is published by Little, Brown and Company.
• 1924: The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson, edited by Martha Dickinson Bianchi, is published by Jonathan Cape.
• 1924: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Alfred Leete Hampson, is published by Little, Brown and Company.
• 1929: Further Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Martha Dickinson Bianchi, is published by Little, Brown and Company.
• 1931: Letters of Emily Dickinson, edited by Mabel Loomis Todd, is published by Harper Brothers.
• 1932: Emily Dickinson Face to Face: Unpublished Letters with notes and Reminiscences by Martha Dickinson Bianchi is published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
• 1932 Oct 14: Mabel Loomis Todd dies.
• 1935: Unpublished Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Alfred Leete Hampson, is published by Little, Brown and Company.
• 1937: Poems by Emily Dickinson, edited by Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Alfred Leete Hampson, is published by Little, Brown and Company.
• 1943 Dec 21: Martha Dickinson Bianchi dies. She bequeaths The Evergreens to Alfred Leete Hampson, it later passes into the hands of his widow, Mary Landis Hampson.
• 1945: Bolts of Melody: New Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and Millicent Todd Bingham, is published by Harper and Brothers.
• 1945: Ancestors' Brocades by Millicent Todd Bingham is published by Harper and Brothers.
• 1951: Emily Dickinson's Letters to Dr. And Mrs. Josiah Gilbert Holland, edited by Theodora Van Wagenen Ward, is published by Harvard University Press.
• 1954: Emily Dickinson: A Revelation by Millicent Todd Bingham is published by Harper and Brothers.
• 1955: The Poems of Emily Dickinson in 3 volumes, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, is published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
• 1955: Emily Dickinson's Home by Millicent Todd Bingham is published by Harper and Brothers.
• 1956 Mar 23: Millicent Todd Bingham donates the majority of the Emily Dickinson Collection material to Amherst College. The donation includes 850 poems and fragments, 350 letters, publication material, and objects, including the Dickinson daguerreotype and silhouette.
• 1958: The Letters of Emily Dickinson in 3 volumes, edited by Thomas H. Johnson and Theodora Ward, is published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
• 1960: The Years and Hours of Emily Dickinson by Jay Leyda is published by Yale University Press.
• 1965 Jan: Amherst College purchases the Dickinson Homestead.
• 1965 Dec 1: Millicent Todd Bingham dies.
• 1983 Apr 18: A lock of Emily Dickinson's hair and letter to Emily Fowler (AC no. 72) are given to Amherst College by William R. Bailey in memory of his mother, Gillian Barr Bailey, and in the name of himself and his brothers and sisters.
• 1986: The Master Letters of Emily Dickinson, edited by R. W. Franklin, is published by Amherst College Press.
• 1988 Jan 3: Mary Landis Hampson, the last owner of The Evergreens, dies.
• 1991: The ownership of The Evergreens passes to the Martha Dickinson Bianchi Trust. The trust was established by Mary Landis Hampson in her will to preserve The Evergreens as a cultural resource.
• 1998: The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Variorum Edition, edited by Ralph W. Franklin, is published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
• 1998: Emily Dickinson: A Letter is published by Amherst College Press. It is republished with a revised introduction in 2006.
• 2003 Jan: The Martha Dickinson Bianchi Trust transfers ownership of The Evergreens to Amherst College. The Emily Dickinson Museum is created, composed of The Homestead and The Evergreens.
• 2006 Dec: Three additional Dickinson manuscripts and an envelope (Ms. 53-56) are given to Amherst College by Thomas Michie.

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.

From the guide to the Emily Dickinson Collection, 1840-2005, 1850-1955, (Amherst College Archives and Special Collections)

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.

From the description of Botanical specimens, undated. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 84666525

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.

From the guide to the Botanical specimens, undated., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

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).

From the guide to the Emily Dickinson letters and poems sent to the Austin Dickinson family, 1850-1886., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)