Who was Emily Dickinson?

Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10, 1830. She had one older brother named William Austin and one younger sister Lavina. Emily's father, Edward, was a prominent attorney in Amherst. Her mother, Emily, was very active in the Amherst community and best known for her cooking.

After attending Mt. Holyoke seminary for only 7 months, Emily returned to the homestead and began to write poetry. She wrote most of her poems from 1858 to 1865 and collected them into small packets (fascicles). After Emily's father died in 1874, she did not venture out of her home, keeping in touch with family and friends with cards and letters. She attended to her extravagant gardens, baked for the family and helped her sister Lavina take care of her ailing mother. Emily and Lavina lived at the homestead, unmarried, until Emily's death in May of 1886.

In 1890, the first edition of her poems were published, but they were edited by Mabel Todd. Two more editions were published in 1891 and 1896. Emily's original poems were locked away after these edited versions were published. It was not until 60 years later, in 1955 when Thomas Johnson rediscovered the original poems, that Emily's original style was published. Emily wrote over 1700 poems, and, although Emily did not venture far from her home in the Connecticut River valley, her poetry offers worldly perspectives on a variety of topics. Many of the poems reflect Emily's close observation of and admiration for nature. Here’s one about Butterflies:

Two butterflies went out at noon

Two butterflies went out at noon
And waltzed above a stream,
Then stepped straight through the firmament
And rested on a beam;
And then together bore away
Upon a shining sea,--
Though never yet, in any port
Their coming mentioned be.
If spoken by the distant bird,
If met in either sea
By frigate or by merchantman,
Report was not to me.

"Though she wrote many letters, notes and poems to her friends and neighbors, very few were published during her lifetime and all were published anonymously. Ten poems and one letter published during Dickinson's lifetime have thus far been identified. Some of the poems were printed in more than one source at different times and places. It was only after her death on May 15, 1886 that Emily Dickinson became widely known as a poet. With the publication of the first series of Poems in 1890, her reputation in the world of literature was assured."

(Source: The Jones Library Online)