events in Emily Dickinsons life

By falling_for_never

  • Birth

    Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on December 10, 1830 to Edward and Emily (Norcross) Dickinson. At the time of her birth Emily’s father was an ambitious young lawyer, also Emilys two sibling were allready attending school. Emily would attend later in life

  • Schooling

    Schooling
    Emily Dickinson was educated at Amherst Academy and the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. She was an excellent student, though she missed long stretches of schooling due to illness or depression. The reasons for Dickinson's final departure from the academy in 1848 are unknown, it is believed that her fragile emotional state probably played a role.

  • friends

    1850s also brought her the long-lasting friendship from Susan Gilbert. Emily sent Susan around three hundred letters during of their friendship while Susan always remained supportive for her. Susan was her beloved friend, muse, influence and advisor. She later married Emily’s brother Austin after four years of courtship.

  • Inspiration

    Dickinson began writing as a teenager. Her early influences include Leonard Humphrey, principal of Amherst Academy, and a family friend named Benjamin Franklin Newton. Newton introduced Dickinson to the poetry of William Wordsworth, who was also an influence to the young writer. In 1855, Dickinson ventured outside of Amherst, as far as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

  • Complications

    In her early thirties, Dickinson got treatments for a painful eye condition, now thought to be iritis—sensitivity to light. While under the care of Henry W. Williams for seven months in 1864 and six months in 1865, she boarded with her cousins, Frances and Louisa Norcross in Boston.

  • Death

    Dickinson died of kidney disease in Amherst, Massachusetts, on May 15, 1886 at the age of 56. She was laid to rest in her family plot at West Cemetery.

  • First Book Published

    Unfortunately, much of the power of Dickinson's unusual use of syntax and form was lost in the alteration. After her sister's death, Lavinia Dickinson discovered hundreds of her poems in notebooks that Emily had filled over the years. The first volume of these poems was published in 1890.

  • Published

    Additional volumes following. A full compilation, The Poems of Emily Dickinson, wasn't published until 1955.