Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. After studying at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she briefly attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's home in Amherst. Evidence suggests that Dickinson lived much of her life in isolation. Considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a penchant for white clothing and was known for her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even to leave her bedroom.
Dickinson never married, and most of her friendships were based entirely upon correspondence. Although Dickinson was a prolific writer, her only publications during her lifetime were one letter and 10 of her nearly 1, poems. Her poems were unique for her era; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Although Dickinson's acquaintances were most likely aware of her writing, it was not until after she died in βwhen Lavinia, Dickinson's younger sister, discovered her cache of poemsβthat her work became public.
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Her first published collection of poetry was made in by her personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd , though they heavily edited the content. A complete collection of her poetry first became available in when scholar Thomas H. Johnson published The Poems of Emily Dickinson. Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born at the family's homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts , on December 10, , into a prominent, but not wealthy, family.
Two hundred years earlier, her patrilineal ancestors had arrived in the New Worldβin the Puritan Great Migration βwhere they prospered. Samuel Dickinson's eldest son, Edward, was treasurer of Amherst College from to , served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives β; and the Massachusetts Senate β , and represented Massachusetts's 10th congressional district in the 33rd U. Congress β They had three children:. She was also a distant cousin to Baxter Dickinson and his family, including his grandson, the organist and composer Clarence Dickinson.
By all accounts, young Dickinson was a well-behaved girl. On an extended visit to Monson when she was two, Dickinson's Aunt Lavinia described her as "perfectly well and contentedβShe is a very good child and but little trouble. Dickinson attended primary school in a two-story building on Pleasant Street.
