Emily Dickinson Facts

Occupation: poet

Religion:

No affiliation. Family Protestant Christian, but, poetry reveals lack of commitment to organised religion. At a seminary, she was one of few who didn’t sign a profession of faith in Christianity.

Parents

  • Edward Dickinson (treasurer of Amherst College, state legislator, U.S. Congressman)
  • Emily Norcross

Siblings:

  • William Austin 1829-1895 – lawyer,
  • Lavinia 1833-1899 – stayed at home with Emily

Various

  • Amherst Academy (seven years)
  • Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (one year)
  • Emily Dickinson was born on 10th December 1830, in the town of Amherst, Massachusetts. Read: Full Biography of Emily Dickinson
  • At the time of her life, there was a revival of evangelical Christianity. Emily Dickinson was rare in refusing to profess a Christian faith whilst at Amherst College. Her religious views were not easy to pigeonhole.
  • Her father served for a time in the House of Representatives.
  • By her late twenties, she rarely ventured out of the house, preferring seclusion to write at home. Emily was often referred to as the “Myth of Amherst” and later the “Nun of Amherst.” After her death and subsequent fame, she became the “Belle of Amherst.
  • She often wore white.
  • Emily Dickinson died at the age of 55 from Bight’s disease, which is caused by kidney degeneration.
  • During her lifetime, only seven of her poems were published to a small circulation. This included publication in Samuel Bowles’ Springfield Republican between 1858 and 1868. They were heavily edited from Emily’s originals.
  • After her death, her sister found 1,000 poems in Emily’s bureau. She had them edited and published in three series. In 1955, a total of 1,800 poems were published.
  • Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.

Poetry of Emily Dickinson

  • Most of the poems we have were written in just six years, between 1858 and 1864.
  • During her lifetime only a few of her poems were published.
  • After her death, 40 handbound volumes of nearly 1800 poems, or “fascicles” as they are often called, were found.
  • Her bedroom looked on to a burial ground and she regularly saw people being buried, which might explain why so many of her poems were about death.

Bibliography of Emily Dickinson

  • Bolts of Melody: New Poems of Emily Dickinson (1945)
  • Final Harvest: Emily Dickinson’s Poems (1962)
  • Further Poems of Emily Dickinson: Withheld from Publication by Her Sister Lavinia (1929)
  • Poems by Emily Dickinson (1890)
  • Poems: Second Series (1891)
  • Poems: Third Series (1896)
  • The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (1924)
  • The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (1960)
  • The Single Hound: Poems of a Lifetime (1914)
  • Unpublished Poems of Emily Dickinson (1935)

Related