What was Emily Dickinson's life like?

Documentary materials providing a context for Dickinson's life may be found in Jay Leyda, The Years and Hours of Emily Dickinson (1960), and Polly Longsworth, The World of Emily Dickinson (1990), which provides a pictorial record of the poet's environment. read more

Born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson left school as a teenager, eventually living a reclusive life on the family homestead. There, she secretly created bundles of poetry and wrote hundreds of letters. read more

Emily Dickinson's life and works have been the source of inspiration to artists, particularly to feminist-oriented artists, of a variety of mediums. A few notable examples are as follows: The feminist artwork The Dinner Party, by Judy Chicago, first exhibited in 1979, features a place setting for Dickinson. read more