Emily Dickinson 

 

 

Biography of Emily Dickinson 

 

Around the time she was alive, if you asked  who  was Emily Dickinson, people wouldn't know, in fact the people who knew her didn’t recognize or know her as a poet, her works were not published and most of her writing was kept  hidden from the public. Her poetry was unrecognized during her time,but today the world knows  her poetry and writing. Even though today she is accepted worldwide as a brilliant poet and even considered as one of the best American poets. There are even some who think of her as  hard to understand and interpret poet. 

 

Education and Early Years

 

 Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts. After attending the local primary school along with her brother and sister she moved on to the Amherst Academy for her formal education and there she spent around seven years. It was a very good experience for Emily, who  enjoyed every aspect of the academy life.  Emily Dickinson was always a  very intelligent and bright student.It is believed  Amherst  Academy lay the foundations of a poet in her and it is at  the academy  she developed friendships which influenced and supported her excellence as a poet.After Amherst she went to Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, but for one year only and it was not clear why she  left within a year. Emily in her  youth was  a very sociable young lady and had close female  friends like Abiah Root, Abby Wood, Emily Fowler, and Susan Gilbert.

 

Love Life  and Social Life 

 

Even though she never got married nor had any kids of her own,  she had male friends who influenced her thoughts and poetry some of her male friends were unnamed lovers about whom she didn't tell anyone.  Among her male friends were ; Reverend Charles Wadsworth, whom she first met on a trip to Philadelphia. He left shortly after a visit to  her  home, though it’s not clear if she shared a romantic relation with him, but after his departure Emily wrote many poems which expressed her sorrow  on the parting. She called him “my closest earthly friend.” Otis P. Lord, a Massachusetts Supreme Court judge, and Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Republican were also the subject of her  many poems and impacted her literary life.

 

By 1860 Emily lived almost in complete isolation from the outside world. Many people have talked about how she would just sit in her room and write poetry 

 

Family and Friends  

 

 She cared for  her ill mother and rarely  went outside of their family home. Emily’s father was a lawyer/politician and her mother was a stay at home housewife. 

 

 Emily rarely spent a time  with her friends and  was an enthusiastic  reader. Her  brother Austin and sister Lavinia  were her close  companions and intellectual critique. Many  of her letters to them  contained her poems. Emily Dickinson liked to show her friends her poetry, she usually would send her poetry with a little basket in which she baked something special or added flowers. It was like her own signature style of showing her poetry and expressing her love to her family and friends. Everyone around Emily Dickinson knew she would write a lot but nobody ever knew that she had written over a thousand poems in her lifetime since she had only published a few in her lifetime.

 

Emily Dickinson  died at age 55 on May 15, 1886.She had a rare kidney disease   “Bright's Diseases” and her eyesight was also  greatly affected. The cause of death was considered to be very high blood pressure and heart  failure. Emily in her final years had to experience the death of many of her close friends, parents and her nephew. It is thought these loses led her to further reclusiveness and phases of depression. This state of mind had a lasting influence and reflected  on her poetry.

 

Interests 

 

 Other than poetry there were  many activities that interested her, she loved reading books and occasionally she would bake,Emily Dickinson also loved taking long walks,some of her poetry was about nature.  She enjoyed gardening for her family in her own garden. Botany interested her deeply as well.

 

Recognitions and Articles about her

 

Emily Dickinson was not recognized in her lifetime. Her  first book was published after her  death in 1890. After she died her family discovered forty handbound volumes of nearly 1,800 poems, which were then edited and published.