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    The Lonely House: A Biography of Emily Dickinson
    The Lonely House: A Biography of Emily Dickinson
    The Lonely House: A Biography of Emily Dickinson
    Ebook43 pages45 minutes

    The Lonely House: A Biography of Emily Dickinson

    By LifeCaps

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    About this ebook

    During her lifetime, Emily Dickinson did not seek out recognition or attempt to change the world around her, even in the smallest way. A private but not antisocial person, she kept her life’s work, and her innermost feelings, almost entirely to herself. Her life was rich in intellectual pursuits, and she had many friends with whom she exchanged witty and brilliant letters, but she rarely left the town of her birth. From the early 1860s onward, she became essentially a recluse.

    After her death in 1886, it was only the good judgment of her sister Lavinia that preserved the more than 1,700 poems Dickinson had secretly produced. Her poetry was so intensely individual that it immediately captivated a national audience. More than a century later, her special genius continues to surprise readers young and old.

    Read more about her fascinating book in this biography.

    LifeCaps is an imprint of BookCapsTM Study Guides. With each book, a lesser known or sometimes forgotten life is recapped. We publish a wide array of topics (from baseball and music to literature and philosophy), so check our growing catalogue regularly to see our newest books.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookCaps
    Release dateMar 19, 2013
    ISBN9781301577149
    The Lonely House: A Biography of Emily Dickinson

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      Book preview

      The Lonely House - LifeCaps

      LifeCaps Presents:

      The Lonely House

      A Biography of Emily Dickinson

      By Paul Brody

      By BookCaps Study Guides/Golgotha Press

      © 2011 by Golgotha Press, Inc.

      Published at SmashWords

      About LifeCaps

      LifeCaps is an imprint of BookCaps™ Study Guides. With each book, a lesser known or sometimes forgotten life is recapped. We publish a wide array of topics (from baseball and music to literature and philosophy), so check our growing catalogue regularly (www.bookcaps.com) to see our newest books.

      Introduction

      During her lifetime, Emily Dickinson did not seek out recognition or attempt to change the world around her, even in the smallest way. A private but not antisocial person, she kept her life’s work, and her innermost feelings, almost entirely to herself. Her life was rich in intellectual pursuits, and she had many friends with whom she exchanged witty and brilliant letters, but she rarely left the town of her birth. From the early 1860s onward, she became essentially a recluse. After her death in 1886, it was only the good judgment of her sister Lavinia that preserved the more than 1,700 poems Dickinson had secretly produced. Her poetry was so intensely individual that it immediately captivated a national audience. More than a century later, her special genius continues to surprise readers young and old.

      Chapter 1: An Unremarkable Childhood

      Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on December 10, 1830. She was a middle child – William Austin (Austin) had been born the year before, while little sister Lavinia Norcross (Vinnie) was born three years later. The Dickinson family descended from some of the earliest Puritan settlers of New England. In the 19th century, the Dickinsons of Amherst were respected, but not exactly wealthy. Her father, Edward, was a lawyer and occasionally threw himself into politics. Her mother, Emily Norcross, was a farmer’s daughter from the neighboring village of Monson. In some respects, Dickinson’s childhood was free of many of the hardships and heartaches so common in 19th century America. She suffered no debilitating childhood illness, and the family had money enough to ensure a good quality of life. On the other hand, the household was not without strife and dysfunction. It is likely that the unique power of Dickinson’s adult poetry may have owed something to these hidden family problems, but of course no one can know for certain. Biographical information from her youth is scattered, inconsistent and often inferred from relatives’ letters.

      Edward Dickinson suffered from a case of too much ambition and not enough time in his day. He worked tirelessly at his own law practice while also picking up the slack of his father’s business. Frequently away on business trips to Philadelphia, Washington or Boston, his wife and children saw relatively little of their breadwinner. He served multiple terms as a state legislator, and even a term as a state representative in the US

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