Emily Dickinson

On December 10, 1830, Emily Dickinson was born to Edward Dickinson, a lawyer, and his wife Emily in Amherst Massachussetts. Dickinson lived in Amherst in her father's house with her parents and her sister for the rest of her life. Dickinson's younger years were full of social activities. She attended the local schools as well as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. After 1855, however, she began to be more and more reclusive, leaving Amherst only twice to go to Boston. She also began to see fewer people at her home. After her death in 1886 after a two year illness her poems were discovered. Her sister and one of her few friends began to have edited selections of her poetry published. It was not until 1955 that her complete poems were made available in a variorum edition published by Harvard University Press. This three volume set included all known manuscripts of her works. Although only seven of her poems were published, anonymously, in her lifetime, Dickinson's work is now widely known and appreciated.