Biography

Only 7 poems published all without consent

middle child

agoraphobic - afraid of big wide open spaces

Was considered a good kid

older brother - Austin - perfect lawyer

Dad was lawyer, Secretary Treasurer of College

Grandfather started Amherst College

repressed intelligence

not encouraged to get education

youngest sister - Levinia - cute, good looking, obeyed, married young

has great interest in everything

kept in school

Amherst Academy, Mt. Holyoke - Restricted Imagination

very strict and loving family

Read the Bible, Shakespeare, the newspapers

Emily was popular

didn’t want to be married, never had a job

wrote Thomas Wentworth - 4 poems - he said her poetry was too simple

1853 - Dad elected to Congress

1854 - Charles Wadsworth

1862 - Wadsworth left for San Francisco

(Emily only wore white after Charles left)

Agoraphobia increases

Will - All clothes and papers burned

poems (25 piece packets) baby blue ribbons

Higginson edited to find 40 best poems

1890 - first book of poems

1894 - Published again

1986 - The Poems and Letters of Emily Dickinson

play - The Bell of Amherst

father - Squire Dickinson

Emily - loved nature, music

editor - comic column in newspapers

Sue - 1 poem

1874 - her father died

1875 - her mother died

May 1886 - poems are discovered soon after her death

Got questions or comments? Contact Jay Edwards

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