1. This is my letter to the world,  That never wrote to me,--   The simple news that Nature told,   With tender majesty.   Her message is committed   To hands I cannot see;   For love of her, sweet countrymen,  Judge tenderly of me!
Emily Dickinson

2. Emily Dickinson
The Belle of Amherst

4. Emily was born…
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson on December 10, 1830 to a very prominent family in Amherst, MA
Second child to Elizabeth Norcross Dickinson and Edward Dickinson (Yale grad, lawyer, Congressman)
Granddaughter to Samuel Fowler Dickinson (one of the founders of Amherst College and builder of the National Historic Landmark “The Homestead,” Emily’s home)

5. Edward and Elizabeth Norcross Dickinson

6. Emily had…
An older brother named William Austin (Austin) and a younger sister Lavinia Norcross (Vinnie)

7. Emily attended… Amherst Academy from 1840-1847
Left for Mount Holyoke Female Seminary at the age of 17
Returned home 10 months later from either homesickness, illness, or her refusal to publicly announce her faith

8. At home, Emily… Baked for her family
Took place in household activities
Ventured out to attend local events in the budding college town
Was an avid gardener

9. Emily stayed close to home..
Besides one big trip to D.C. and Philly in 1855
When her mother became chronically ill, Emily would barely leave “The Homestead” to be near her
In 1858, she began to write clean copies of her work
Forty bundles comprising nearly eight hundred poems – but no one knew of these until after her death

10. The manuscript of her poem “Wild Nights – Wild Nights!”

11. A family friend…
Samuel Bowles published some of Emily’s poems from in his Springfield Republican
They were anonymous and heavily edited
They included: “A narrow Fellow in the Grass” as “The Snake,” and “Nobody knows this little rose”

13. In 1862…
Emily answered a call for poetry submissions in The Atlantic Monthly from Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a former minister and author
He told her to delay publishing, but they became close friends, as he provided great moral support
He seems to have been her literary mentor, as indicated in an extended correspondence beginning in 1862
Emily once told him he saved her life in 1862

14. Thomas Wentworth Higginson

15. In 1864…
Several of Emily’s poems were published in Drum Beat to raise money for wounded Union soldiers during the Civil War and
Another was published that year in the Brooklyn Daily Union

16. Emily made a trip to Boston…
In 1865, which would be her last venture from Amherst
She rarely even left “The Homestead”
She became known as the Myth because she was rarely seen
Also The Lady in White because she was always wearing white when she was seen
As early as 1867, she began to talk to her visitors from behind closed doors

17. Despite her seclusion…
Emily was socially active and expressive through her letters and poems
Though she would leave when visitors came, she would write them poems or give them small gifts
However, she met Higginson in her home in 1870

18. In 1874…
Emily’s father suffered a stroke and died—she only opened her door a crack for the funeral, and did not attend memorial service
A year later, her mother suffered a stroke, and was left in bad physical and mental state
Around this time, Emily stopped going out in public, but still had visitors and wrote to close friends

19. In the 1878…
Helen Hunt Jackson convinced Emily to publish “Success is counted sweetest” anonymously in A Masque of Poets
This was the last poem published in her lifetime

20. In the summer of 1884…
Emily fainted while baking, which led to weeks of ill health
On November 30, 1885, her brother cancelled a trip to Boston because she was confined to bed and worried him
She wrote a burst of letters the following spring, including one thought to be her last to her cousins, “Little Cousins, Called Back. Emily”

21. On May 15, 1886… Emily died at the age of 55 of Bright’s Disease
Her coffin was carried through daffodils, and Higginson read “No Coward Soul is Mine” by Emily Bronte, Emily’s favorite poem
She was buried at West Cemetery on Triangle Street in Amherst

22. Lavinia promised…
That she would burn Emily’s correspondence after her death
No instructions were left regarding the forty notebooks and loose sheets Emily left in her chest
Vinnie sought to have them published

23. Poems was published in 1890…

24. Poems: Second Series was published in 1891…

25. In 1894… Two volumes of Emily’s letters, highly edited, appeared
Susan Dickinson (Austin’s wife) published some poems in literary magazines, such as Scribner’s Magazine and The Independent
Martha Dickenson Bianchi (Emily’s niece) published a series of collections between 1914 and 1929
Other volumes followed throughout the 1930s

26. Poems: Third Series was published in 1896…

27. In 1960…
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by Thomas H. Johnson
It contained all 1,775 of her poems—all unedited
Various books of her poems and letters have been published since

29. Emily is known for… Unconventional broken rhyming meter
The use of dashes
Random capitalization
Use of metaphor
Varied line lengths
No titles
Various genres

30. Emily Dickinson is…
Considered one of the most original poets of the 19th century
Placed alongside such poets as Walt Whitman and Robert Frost
Taught in grade school, high school and college
A powerful and persistent figure of American culture
Heralded as the greatest woman poet in the English language

32. The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts

33. The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts (garden)

34. The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts (bedroom)

35. Works Consulted
“Emily Dickinson.” The Literature Network. 12 July literature.com/dickinson/

36. Pictures
Slide # 3: Emily in black dress from
Slide # 5: Emily’s parents from and
Slide # 6: Emily and siblings from
Slide # 10: “Wild Nights – Wild Nights!” from ghts%22_manuscript.jpg/180px-Emily_Dickinson_%22Wild_nights%22_manuscript.jpg
Slide # 12: The Republican from Emilyrepublican.jpg
Slide # 14: Higginson from px-Thomas_Wentworth_Higginson.jpg

37. Pictures (Cont’d)
Slide # 23: Poems from %29.djvu/page1-300px-Emily_Dickinson_Poems_%281890%29.djvu.jpg
Slide # 24: Poems: Second Series from %29.djvu/page1-300px-Emily_Dickinson_Poems_%281890%29.djvu.jpg
Slide # 25: Poems: Third Series from _third_series_%281896%29.djvu/page1-381px-Emily_Dickinson_Poems_- _third_series_%281896%29.djvu.jpg
Slide # 28: “Rowing in Eden” from
Slide # 30: Emily sitting from