Emily Dickinson: Why She Wrote the Way She Did.
Emily Dickinson was blessed with having a "career" of being a writer throughout her life. She made the most difficult kind of choices, many were directed to her remarkable poetic gift. She emerged into full light of literary history and belongs not only to Amherst, not only to America either, but to the whole world that reads her remarkable poetry. Dickinson's work reflected her vulnerable state of mind and her innermost thoughts.
Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts where she lived her entire life. She was born on December 10, 1830. Her father, Edward Dickinson, was a prosperous lawyer who served as treasurer of Amherst College and also held many different political offices. Her mother, Emily Norcross Dickinson, has been said to be a quiet and fragile woman. Dickinson's "formal" education began in 1835 with four years of primary school. She started Amherst Academy in 1840, where she graduated from in 1847. She spent one year at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary after graduation. She studied many different courses in sciences, literature, history, and philosophy. Dickinson was not able to accept the teachings of the Unitarian church, which her family attended. She had a strong desire to experience a religious awakening, but did not succeed.
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After completing her only one year of her "college" education, Dickinson moved back home to live with her parents and her younger sister, Lavinia, in the family's home. Her older brother, Austin and his wife, Susan, lived next door. Many people believed she started writing poetry in the early 1850s. Her quiet life was sometimes interrupted by shirt visits to Boston, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia in the years from 1851 to 1852. During one of her trips to Philadelphia, Dickinson fell in love with a married minister, Reverend Charles Wadsworth, and that major disappointment in love started her withdrawal from society.
