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Emily dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10,1830. Emily and her family never lived anywhere but Amherst. She was the middle child. She had an older brother Austin and a younger sister Lavinia. This is the earliest picture of Emily.
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Emily and her younger sister started at Amherst Academy which had just been opened for femal students for two years. Amherst Academy had been a boy school before that.
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Emily's second cousin Sophia Holland died of typhus. Emily was traumitized and she became obssed with death. She was so upset that her parents sent her to Boston to stay with family untill she recovered.
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Emily completes her studdies at Amherst Academy and enrolls in Mount Holyoke which is a female seminary. Mount Holyoke classsifies its students into three religious categories, women who were "established Christians," women who "expressed hope," and those "without hope." Emily was classified in the last catagory.
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Emily made no friends at her brief time at Mount Holyoke. She did not like the teachers and was very homesick. She felt there was too much religion at that school.
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Her former principal dies at the age of 25 of brain congestion. His death caused Emily to go into a deep depresion.
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The name of Emily's first poem published is "Sic Transmit Gloria Mundi " it was published anonymously in the Springfeild Daily Republican. it was only a few verses of the poem.
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Emily's father was a member of Congress. They spent three weeks in Washington and spent two weeks in Philadelphia. She meet her dearest friend Charles Wadsworth in Philadelphia. He was a famous minister of the Arch Street Presbyterian Church.
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Emily's brother Austin marries Susan Gilbert. Susan was one of Emily;s best friends. They move into a house next door. Susan's marrige to Austin wasn't very good.
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Edward (Ned) Dickinson is born to Austin and Susan Dickinson. Emily and Ned were very close. They played word games. He called her Uncle Emily.
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Emily begins writing to Thomas Wentworth Higginson. He was a writor and a social activist. He was against slavery and was for womens rights. He becomes Emily's mentor.
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The Brooklyn Daily Union publishes one of Emily's poems. The title of the poem is "Sunset '. This poem was probably published anomonusly to raise money for the Union soldiers medical expenses.
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Emily goes to Boston, Massachusetts to stay with her two cousins. She is going there to see an eye doctor for an infection in her eye. She was forbidden to read or write during this time. She was told she needed to rest her eyes.
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While in Boston on June 16, 1874, Edward Dickinson suffered a stroke and dies suddenly. Which only makes Emily's seclusin worse. She stays in her room while the funeral was being held in the home.
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Emilys mother falls ill from a stroke and is completely bed ridden. Emily and her sister Lavinia cared for their mother around the clock. During this time Emilys father dies suddenly from a stroke.
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Seven years after her mother suffers from her first stroke Emily Norcross Dickenson dies. These seven years were trying times on her daughter Emily both physically and mentally. Emily has grown completely recluse now only venturing out to tend to the garden.
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Emily Dickinson died at the age of 53. She had been afflicted with Brights disease. A disease that affects the kidneys which causes cronic pain and severe aswelling. This is thought to be the reason for her seclusion.
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After Emily's death, Lavinia "Vinnie" kept her promise to burn most of the letters Emily had written over the years. However she found forty notebooks and loose sheets in a locked chest. Lavinia immediately knew that she wanted to publish them.
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The first volume of Dickinson's works is edited and by Emily's long-time friend T.W. Higginson. The main changes were punctuation and capitalization. The actual poems were not changed.
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After the success of the first series of Dickinson's poems the friends decided they would not be able to stop at one book. They continued to publish her writings which are still in circulation today.
