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Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst Massachusetts, Dickinson lived her life out in two homes. She died of Bright's disease, followed by a stroke on May 15th 1886. Her closest friends and allies were her brother William, and her sister, Lavinia. Emily Dickinson seldom left Amherst. The only absence she had was when attending Mt.Holyoke Female Seminary (1847-1848). The Dickinson family was Amherst's most prominent families ecnomically, politically, and intellectually. Edward Dickinson helped found Amherst College. Emily attended Amherst Academy from 1840-1846. At 18 she was more formally educated beyond the level than achieved by most Americans, male or female. Religion was an essential part of Dickinson's edcuation. Emily was challenged by the idea of hell, and graudally became estranged by the ideas of the community in which she lived. She however, overcame her religious fears. Dickinson's deepest literary debst were to the bible and to British writers, dead and living.For Dickinson, all three of the Bronte sisters became not merely admired authors but daily presences in her life. Emily found poetic freedom within the confines of a meter familiar to her from earliest childhood; within that form she multiplied many possibilites by what a later audience called "off" rhyme. Many biographers speculate that Dickinson had several "passionate relationships." Most of this is however, speculation, since there is no written record of exactly "whom" Emily was in love with. It is clear from some documents however, that she was infatuated with a certain married man named Samuel Bowles. She is also linked (in theory) to Carles Wadsworth, and Otis Phillips Lord. The second half of Dickinson's life was marked with many deaths in her family.
Sources: Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol B. Ed. Nina Baym. NY: Norton and Company 2003. 2500-2503 |
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