Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, more widely known simply as Emily Dickinson, was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10, 1830. In her time, she was known as the local eccentric who never left her house, loved gardening and baking, and always wore a white dress. In our time, she is known as one of the great pioneers of the American literary style alongside Shakespeare, Goethe, and Moliere. My English Professor at the University of St Andrews John Burnside called her Aunt Em – the matriarch of American poetry.
How does one’s reputation transform so radically after one’s death? This is the beauty of poetry. Like a horcrux, your soul is captured in words forever able to radiate and touch the lives of those who read it. To use Emily’s words, Poetry is like ‘”Hope”…the thing with feathers/ – that perches in the soul -/ and sings the tune without the words -/ and never stops – at all -‘. Emily’s unique circumstances provided her the opportunity to share her soul with the world. During her lifetime, she wrote nearly 1,800 poems. Fewer than a dozen poems were published while she was alive. While few in the world knew she was a prolific poet, Emily and her close friends and family knew.
The first circumstance that allowed Emily to write as many eloquent poems as she did was the fact that she was born into a well-educated, prominent family. They were basically Amherst royalty. Her father’s family arrived in America during the Puritan Great Migration 200 years earlier and her grandfather Samuel Dickinson was one of the founders of Amherst College. Her father Edward was a respected lawyer who went on to serve in the House of Representatives (1838-1839; 1873), the Senate (1842 – 1843), and in the 33rd US Congress (1853-55) for Massachusetts. He was also a trustee for Amherst College. Her father was very invested in all of his children’s education, including his two daughters, which is rare for their time period. Emily’s mother Emily Norcross was aloof and cold, and thus, Emily saw her brother as a mother figure. She was raised in a house that treated her as the intellectual equal of men.
Emily and her sister Vinnie were well-educated. They studied at Amherst Academy and briefly Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. She had full access to her father and brother’s library; her brother continued the family tradition of law. She was able to read the latest scientific research as well as contemporary literature. Through her studies, she met the young principal Leonard Humphrey and through her father, she met the young lawyer Benjamin Franklin Newton. They both recognized her gift and nurtured her education. It was Newton who introduced her to the work of William Wordsworth and Ralph Waldo Emerson and in Emily’s words allowed her to “[touch] the secret Spring.” Emily was also familiar with the Bible, and contemporary literature including Letter’s From New York by Lydia Maria; Kavanagh by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. She was influenced by the Bronte sisters, so much so she named her only dog Carlo after the dog of the character St John River’s in Jane Eyre. She was also a big fan of Shakespeare, and wrote about his work, “Why is any other book needed?”.
At this time, access to books, paper, and ink, the ability to read and write, and education for women were limited to the upper class. Thus, if she had not been born into such a well-regarded family, she would never have been able to write her poetry, nor to meet people who would have the means to publish her work and give it the spotlight it’s quality merited.
The second circumstance that supported Emily in writing her poetry was the personal challenges she faced in her life.
Emily was touched by death a few times early in her life, and thus her poetry often discusses the themes of death and mortality. At the age of 14, she experienced the death of her second cousin and close friend Sophia Holland died in April 1844. She wrote in her journal, “it seemed to me I should die too if I could not watch over her or even look at her face.” She was troubled by the ‘deepening menace of death’ and became so depressed that she was sent to stay in Boston with her family to recover. It was in Boston where she met Susan Gilbert, who would later become her sister-in-law and greatest advocate for her work. She had a difficult time making new friends, and was often very possessive, which caused people she cared about to push her away not responding to letters or maintaining relations once they moved away. She was removed from school twice for periods of melancholia, and at her final school, her brother picked her up and took her home. It is thought that these may be the start of her episodes of epilepsy. Her friend the Principal Leonard Humphry died young at 25 in 1850. Her nephew Ned died in 1877 at the age of 15. These were traumatic experiences for Emily and caused feelings of abandonment and fear.
It is also thought that Emily, while diagnosed in her time as having ‘nervous prostration’, with today’s medical research, it has been inferred that Emily most likely suffered from epilepsy. Researcher Lyndall Gordon looking at Emily’s prescriptions match with our contemporary treatments for epilepsy. In addition, two other family members most likely also suffered from epilepsy, her cousin Zebina and Emily’s favorite nephew Ned who died at 15. A woman diagnosed with epilepsy in the late 1800s would be forbidden to marry or have children for fear of passing on the disorder. The fact that seizures are thought to feel like gunshots from the brain into the body puts her poem “My life had stood – a loaded gun,” in perspective. Thus, Emily Dickinson is not an eccentric but a person with a disability. The fact that she lived a life of seclusion not under the eye of society allowed her work to be open and genuine, written without fear of criticism or observation, but out of her own need to express herself.
The fact that Emily lived in seclusion and never married is entwined with the expression of her sexuality. Academics discuss whether Emily was in fact lesbian, as her letters to her sister-in-law Susan can be quite sexual, possessive, and romantic. A line includes, “Susie, will you indeed come home next Saturday, and be my own again, and kiss me… I hope for you so much, and feel so eager for you, feel that I cannot wait, feel that I must have you – that the expectation once more to see your face again, makes me feel feverish and my heart beats so fast … my darling, so near I seem to you, that I disdain and wait for a warmer language.” This idea is explored in the new TV show Wild Nights with Emily. It is tough to prove as, well, we’d have to catch Emily up on the sexual revolutions of the 20th and 21st century, and then ask her whether she would like to claim that label to identify herself. When Emily was living, it was common for women to have very intimate relationships. It was also common for women to die from childbirth. Susan’s mother died from childbirth, and thus Emily and Susan discussed this fear. She might also consider herself bisexual or asexual, as there are a number of letters she wrote to a man she called “Master” that have sexual content and also, while she did have relationships in letters, they were never physically consumated as far as records prove. Either way, as sexual energy is one expression of creative energy, Emily had a lot of creative energy to channel into her writing.
Emily also had a challenging relationship with her parents. When Emily’s father died, she did not leave the house or her bedroom to attend the ceremony. She describes his heart as “pure and terrible and I think no other like it exists.” As for her mother, she was a serious and aloof woman. In the mid-1850s, Emily’s mother became effectively bed-ridden with various chronic illnesses until her death in 1882. Thus, for thirty years, Emily served as her mother’s carer as one person always had to remain there for her. In a letter Emily wrote, “I do not go out at all, lest father will come and miss me, or miss some little act, which I might forget, should I run away – Mother is much as usual. I know not what to hope of her.” Spending her days with a sick and dying woman I think would give Emily plenty to reflect on about death, immortality, and the meaning of life.
The third, and final circumstance, is just how connected Emily was to the literary world and the champions that built Emily Dickinson’s legacy. As a member of one of the families that founded Amherst, Emily was basically an American princess. Her sister-in-law Susan, a mutual literature lover, transformed her and Austin’s home into a literary salon. Leading authors and academics of the time came to have dinner at their house, including one of Emily’s favorites Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emily wrote over 300 letters to Susan, and recognized her as her “most beloved friend, influence, muse and adviser” as well as stating that, “With the exception of Shakespeare, you have told me of more knowledge than any one living.” Susan’s support was vital in Emily Dickinson’s creative output.
Emily was also friends with two influential literary men Samuel Bowles and Thomas Wentworth Higginson who both recognized the talent of Emily Dickinson and supported her in her career as a poet.
Samuel Bowles was the owner and editor of the Springfield Republican, New England’s most influential newspaper of the day. It is thought that Samuel may have been one of the “Masters” Emily wrote to. Emily sent Bowles about 40 poems, of which he published seven after editing to meet modern tastes.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson was also a friend. Higginson was a man of many talents and a true political activist who advocated for the abolition of slavery and women’s rights. In his lifetime he published more than 500 essays and 35 books with forms including memoir, novels, political tracts, and biographies. He also wrote regularly for the Atlantic Monthly, which is how Emily Dickinson reached out to him. When Emily was 31, she sent him a few poems. They continued their correspondence until the poet’s death sending over 70 letters and about 100 poems. They met twice, and he read the poem “No Coward Soul is Mine” by Emily Brontë at her funeral. With Higginson and Bowles support, the literary merit of Emily Dickinson’s poetry was validated, strong enough to build a legacy on.
But oddly, it is perhaps the fight over Emily Dickinson’s legacy between her brother’s wife Susan Gilbert and her brother’s mistress Mabel Loomis Todd, and the commitment of Mabel that did the most to secure Emily’s place in literary history. Though Emily and Mabel never truly met, and Emily chose Susan’s side when the affair became known, Mabel was the PR and Marketing mastermind behind the recognition of Emily Dickinson as a poet. Originally, Susan was in charge of organizing and publishing Emily’s poems, however, after two years Vinnie became impatient and asked Mabel to help publish her sister Emily’s poems. Mabel spent the next nine years ordering, transcribing, editing, and publishing the poems into three volumes Poems by Emily Dickinson: 1890, 1891, and 1896. Mabel also involved Higginson in the selection process, and thus listed him as co-editor of the collection. They both worked hard to promote the volumes. Mabel was fundamental in creating the original myth of Emily Dickinson, as she gave lectures about the eccentric and mysterious poet of Amherst and later when on a lecture tour all over the northeast of the United States. When Austin passed away in 1895, Mabel Todd’s family and the Dickinson’s filed a lawsuit fighting over a piece of land. In her anger after losing the case, Mabel locked away all of the unpublished poems and Dickinson family papers she had in her possession. The rivalry between Susan and Mabel even continued into the next generation with their daughters releasing rival publications of Emily’s work in 1932. Millicent Todd Bingham went so far as to hire a biographer for Emily Dickinson in order to preserve the Mabel’s version of Emily Dickinson. There have been numerous biographies and academic papers that are closer to the truth of what actually happened in recent years as Susan’s version is revealed in private letters becoming public. There have also been different interpretations of her poetry as society continues to question and change our version of what it means to be human.
Emily Dickinson’s impact continues into the modern day. Not only can you visit the Emily Dickinson Museum, which opened in 2003 in her original home and her brother’s The Homestead and The Evergreens. Emily’s poems are always there to be read, filled with the warmth, wisdom, and spirit of Emily – more true than any biography.