Emily Dickinson: Biography Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson: Biography Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) is widely acclaimed as one of the finest American poets; a recognition that alluded her during her lifetime when only a handful of the 1800 poems she wrote were published. Early Life: Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on December 10, 1830, the second of three children of Edward and Emily Dickinson. Her father, Edward Dickinson was a lawyer who remained a Registrar at the Amherst College for 20 years.

He was the dominating influence in her early life as her mother was an unremarkable woman who often remained sick. After several years of primary school, Emily attended Amherst Academy from 1840 to 1847. She was a student at Mount Holyoke from September 1847 to August 1848 but did not complete her education for undisclosed reasons. Returning home to Amherst, Emily assumed the role of oldest daughter and her mother's helper, a role she continued for the rest of her life.

("Emily Dickinson") Early Interest in Poetry: Emily was interested in poetry from an early age. Although her family was unaware of her genius, Benjamin Franklin Newton, a young law student working as clerk in her father's law office was perhaps the first to recognize her talent and encouraged her poetic aspirations. He guided her in the development of her literary taste by introducing her to the poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson and the two often corresponded through letters even when he moved away from Amherst.

Apart from Emerson, she also read the Bible, Shakespeare, and other leading writers of the day like Thoreau, Hawthorne, the Brontes, Keats, Tennyson, and George Eliot. Her Work: Emily Dickinson's poetry was too original in content and technique for a time when most literary critics were more concerned with the "correctness" of form and versification than with the refreshing change of style in poetry that Emily's poems offered.

Despite the rebuffs received from publishers who did not consider her poems to be worthy of publication, Emily, perhaps being confident in her own ability as a poet and not caring too much for fame and recognition, kept writing poetry; and in one year alone (1862) alone, she wrote an astounding 366 poems. (Ibid) Romantic Loves in her Life: Emily's name has been romantically associated with a number of people.

However, whether by design or by co-incidence, all her love affairs seemed doomed for failure from the start -- as her objects of desire were almost always unattainable. Reverend Charles Wadsworth, a married man with children, whom she met on a rare visit to Philadelphia in 1855, has been mentioned as one of her major loves. She called him "my dearest earthly friend....whom to know was life" (Quoted by Bingham, 8) and corresponded with him through letters for years.

Others, who received Emily's romantic ardor include Samuel Bowles, editor of the "Springfield Republican," Judge Lord, a friend of her father, and at least one young woman, a school mate named Susan Gilbert who eventually married Emily's brother, Austin. In some of her poems and letters (that were never posted) Emily mentions her unrequited love as "Master." The exact nature of her relationship with her "Master" or "Masters," or even their exact identity, remains a mystery.

Last years, Death and Legacy: Emily became increasingly isolated from the world and kept to herself during the last years of her life. Even while living as an eccentric recluse, she stuck to her daily routine of doing her household chores during.