Emily Dickinson

01 American poet, Emily Dickinson

born in 1830, is considered one of
the greatest poets in American
literature. Born in Massachusetts
to a successful family with strong
community ties, she lived a
mostly introverted and reclusive
life.

02 She stands outside the

mainstream of 19th-century
American literature. Before she
was 30, she began to withdraw
from village activities and
gradually ceased to leave home at
all. Often fled from visitors and
eventually lived as a virtual
recluse.

03 Dickinson published only seven

poems during her lifetime. After
her death in 1886, her sister
Lavinia Dickinson discovered over
1,000 poems in her bureau.
Dickinson left instructions that the
poems be destroyed, but her
family overrode that wish,
recognising that such a valuable
legacy must be shared.

04
In the years that followed the publication of her
work, she has become one of the main subjects
in plays, novels, and poems. Unfortunately her
early editors, including Thomas Wenthworth
diminished the power of her verse by changing
it to become more conventional in language
and style. Eventually though, in 1955 he came
out with his edition of Emily Dickinson’s poetry,
restoring original elements and giving us the
opportunity to read her poems as they are
meant to be read.

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