Emily Dickinson

 

Emily Dickinson

Wasatch Range Writing Project

Teachers Workshop

Timeline of Emily Dickinson

  • 1830-Emily Dickinson is born on December 10 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Named after her mother, she is the second child for Edward and Emily Dickinson.
  • 1833-Dickinson's little sister, Lavinia, is born. The girls remain close friends and constant companions throughout their entire lives.
  • 1840-Dickinson begins her total of seven years attending the prestigious girl's school, Amherst Academy. At only 10 years old, Dickinson already displays a fragile constitution that causes her frequent absences.
  • 1847-Dickinson attends Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, but she leaves for personal reasons after only a year. The only known photograph of Dickinson is taken during this period.
  • 1855-Dickinson travels outside her state of birth for the first and only time. She visits Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia with her mother and sister.
  • 1856-Dickinson's brother marries her dear friend Susan Gilbert. Emotional letters from Dickinson to Susan have led some scholars to question whether her feelings for Susan were of a romantic nature.
  • 1862-After reading an essay to young writers authored by Thomas Higginson, Dickinson writes to him. He becomes her mentor and friend through years of letter writing.
  • 1866- "A narrow fellow in the Grass" printed in Springfiled Republican.
  • 1872-Dickinson meets Otis Phillips Lord, a Massachusetts Supreme Court Judge. Emotional letters from Dickinson to Lord cause some scholars to question whether her feelings for the judge were of a romantic nature.
  • 1874-Dickinson's father dies on June 16. Already well into seclusion, Dickinson does not attend the funeral.
  • 1875- Mother stricken with paralysis. Emily becomes her constrant attendant.
  • 1882-On November 14, after decades of ill health and years in a bed-ridden state, Dickinson's mother passes away.
  • 1884-Judge Otis Phillips Lord, a dear friend and potential romantic interest of Dickinson, passes away.
  • 1886-On May 15, after a long kidney illness, Dickinson passes away. Her will dictates a departure from the traditional religious service and instead, per her wishes, her coffin is carried through a field of buttercups to the interment site.
  • 1890-Dickinson's sister, Lavinia, finds a cache of over 1,700 poems after Dickinson's death. By 1890 the first book of Dickinson's work is published, edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and thomas W. Higginson.

(See: http://www.life123.com/arts-culture/american-authors/emily-dickinson/timeline-of-emily-dickinson.shtml)
American Transcendentalism
American transcendentalism was an important movement in philosophy and literature that flourished during the early to middle years of the nineteenth century (about 1836-1860).  It began as a reform movement in the Unitarian church, extending the views of William Ellery Channing on an indwelling God and the significance of intuitive thought. It was based on "a monism holding to the unity of the world and God, and the immanence of God in the world" (Oxford Companion to American Literature 770). For the transcendentalists, the soul of each individual is identical with the soul of the world and contains what the world contains.
Dickinson and her Times

As a group, the transcendentalists led the celebration of the American experiment as one of individualism and self-reliance. They took progressive stands on women's rights, abolition, reform, and education. They criticized government, organized religion, laws, social institutions, and creeping industrialization. They created an American "state of mind" in which imagination was better than reason, creativity was better than theory, and action was better than contemplation. And they had faith that all would be well because humans could transcend limits and reach astonishing heights.

Dickinson's recipes Dickinson had a bit of a reputation as a baker in her hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts. In fact, she was particularly known for her gingerbread (and Rye and Indian bread), and would lower a basket of it to children below.

Dickinson's Garden

Bibliography

  • Philip F. Gura, American Transcendentalism, A History (2007)
  • Lawrence Buell, The American Transcendentalists: Essential Writings (2006)
  • Barbara L. Packer, The Transcendentalists (2007)