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Emily dickinson

The Life of Emily Dickinson

  • Emily is born

    Emily is born

    Emily Elizabeth Dickinson is born in Amherst, Massachusetts. She is the second of three children of Edward and Emily Norcross Dickinson.
  • School years

    School years

    Emily and her sister Lavinia begin classes at Amherst Academy, a converted boys' school. In her seven years of schooling there, she is frequently absent due to illness.
  • Mount Holyoke

    Mount Holyoke

    Emily Dickinson enrolls at the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. This school is known as three distinct religious categories: Women who were “established Christians,” Women who “expressed hope,” and Women “without hope”. Dickinson would be the considered a no hoper
  • Poems in Springfield Republican

    Poems in Springfield Republican

    Some of Emily's poems appear in the Springfield Republican, a paper editor by her friend, Samuel Bowles. "A Valentine" is her first known published poem.
  • Poems Published

    Poems Published

    Emily’s poems appear in Drum Beat to raise money for Union soldier’s medical expenses. She also publishes poems in the Brooklyn Daily Union.
  • Withdraws from social life

    Withdraws from social life

    Emily pulls herself away from social life. She prefers to speak to others through the door rather than face-to-face. This is the most productive period of her writing.
  • Emily's death

    Emily's death

    Emily dies of Bright's Disease-a kidney ailment. She requests her coffin to be carried through a field of buttercups and then buried in West Cemetery in Amherst.
  • Book of Poetry published

    Book of Poetry published

    Emily's sister, Lavinia, finds hundreds of Emily's poems after Emily dies. She has them published and they become successful readings for years to come.