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Emily Dickinson: A Biography

Emily Dickinson: A Biography. Early Life. Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her father, Edward Dickinson was a lawyer and a treasurer for Amherst College. He was also a Massachusetts Senator. Her mother was quiet and chronically ill.

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Emily Dickinson: A Biography

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  1. Emily Dickinson: A Biography

  2. Early Life • Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. • Her father, Edward Dickinson was a lawyer and a treasurer for Amherst College. He was also a Massachusetts Senator. • Her mother was quiet and chronically ill. • She was the middle child of three children. • William Austin Dickinson was the oldest sibling, Lavinia Norcross Dickinson was the youngest sibling. • Emily Dickinson spent most of her life in her family’s home in Amherst.

  3. Education • In 1840 when Emily was 10 years old, she was educated at Amherst Academy, a former boys school that had been opened to females two years earlier. • At Amherst Academy she studied English, classical literature, Latin, religion, history, mathematics, geology, and biology. • In 1847 when Emily was 17 years old, she began attending Mary Lyon’s Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. • Less than one year later, she left the Seminary. She never returned to school. • She became somewhat of a hermit, rarely leaving her home. She certainly was not what we would consider today a ‘social’ person.

  4. Poetry • Emily Dickinson has distinctive and instantly recognizable features including slant or imperfect rhyme, dashes, unusual capitalization, lyrical style, ballad/hymn meter. • She also uses unique vocabulary and imagery, making her style very much her own. • At the time of her death, only 10 of her poems had been published. • After her death, her family found 40 volumes of more than 1,700 poems. Her poetry was collected after her death and published posthumously. • At last count, Emily Dickinson wrote 1,789 poems total.

  5. Artistic Life After Death • Though Emily Dickinson died on May 15, 1886 of Bright’s Disease, her voice and spirit live on through her poetry. • She is regarded as one of the most quintessential poets of the 19th century, alongside Walt Whitman. • She is buried in Amherst, Massachusetts. • Her home is now the Emily Dickinson Museum in honor of the timeless poet.

  6. “Forever is composed of nows.” Emily Dickinson

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