Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, the second of Edward and Emily Dickinson's three children. Emily grew up in Amherst, in a house built by her grandfather, leading a quiet and privileged life. Her father, known by some as "Squire" Dickinson, maintained a religious fervor that Emily failed to emulate, despite her father's insistence she attend weekly sermons in the Congregational church across the street. A religious revival she attended during the winter of 1845 stirred a response in Emily. When she attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (which later became Mount Holyoke College) during the school year of 1847-48, Emily experienced another religious revival that deeply moved her. She remained, however, unwilling to testify to a conversion experience.
Ben Newton, a law student working in her father's office, gave Emily a copy of Ralph Waldo Emerson's Poems for Christmas in 1850. Emily read and reread all of Emerson's books, which inspired many of her own poems. Other influences on the poems of Emily Dickinson include the Bible, the Protestant hymns, Shakespeare and Hawthorne. Emily considered Emerson her "validator," for he assured her that doubts about the orthodox religion she was raised with were not unreasonable. However, many of Emily's later poems speak of Jesus in terms that suggest that, despite her early doubts, she did find her way to her Savior.
Many have speculated over several love poems Emily wrote, but the object of those poems remains unknown. Emily never married, coming close only once. Judge Otis Lord died before he could marry Emily, however. Emily lived a passionate life devoted to her books, her garden, and various correspondences with friends and mentors. When her father died in 1874, Emily went into a long seclusion that earned her the title of the "Nun of Amherst" and lasted until her own death on May 15, 1886.
Emily Dickinson is now recognized as one of the greatest poets of 19th century America, however, during her lifetime only seven of her poems saw publication. After her death, over a thousand poems were found in her bureau. In all, she wrote 1,800 poems, only 24 of them bearing titles. Four years after Emily's death, "corrected" selections of her poems began to appear, published by friends and relatives. Her work did not appear as she had written it until Thomas H. Johnson published in 1955 a 3-volume edition of Emily's original, unedited poems.
Today, we can escape into Emily's world through her poems. She, herself, assigned much value to reading, as she testifies, below:
There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!
