Timeline Emily Dickinson

The life of Emily Dickinson (1830–1886), who wrote nearly 1,800 poems in her room in Amherst, published only a handful, and became one of the most original voices in American poetry after her death.

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Dashed left edge = started before this timeline · Dashed right edge = still ongoing

Emily Dickinson 14

1830 Emily Dickinson born in Amherst Emily Dickinson is born in the family Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts.
1840 Dickinson enters Amherst Academy Emily Dickinson begins seven years at Amherst Academy, studying literature, botany and geology.
1847 Dickinson at Mount Holyoke Emily Dickinson spends a year at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning home for good.
1855 Dickinson visits Washington and Philadelphia Emily Dickinson travels to Washington and Philadelphia, the farthest she ever goes from Amherst.
1856 Dickinson's brother marries Susan Gilbert Austin Dickinson marries Susan Gilbert, Emily's closest friend and reader, and the couple move next door.
1858 Dickinson begins her fascicles Emily Dickinson starts copying her poems into small hand-sewn booklets, eventually some forty of them.
1862 Dickinson writes to Higginson Emily Dickinson sends four poems to the critic Thomas Wentworth Higginson, asking if her verse is alive. Their correspondence lasts the rest of her life.
1863 Dickinson's most productive years In the Civil War years Emily Dickinson writes hundreds of poems, among them Because I could not stop for Death.
1864 Dickinson's eye treatment in Boston Emily Dickinson spends months in Boston for treatment of an eye condition, her last time away from Amherst.
1866 Dickinson's A narrow Fellow in the Grass printed One of Emily Dickinson's few poems published in her lifetime appears anonymously, and edited, in the Springfield Republican.
1874 Dickinson's father dies Edward Dickinson dies suddenly in Boston. Emily, now rarely leaving the house, does not attend the funeral downstairs.
1886 Emily Dickinson dies in Amherst Emily Dickinson dies at the Homestead. Her sister Lavinia finds nearly 1,800 poems in a locked chest.
1890 Dickinson's Poems first published Mabel Loomis Todd and Higginson publish a first selection of Emily Dickinson's poems, heavily edited. It goes through eleven printings.
1955 Dickinson's complete poems published Thomas H. Johnson publishes the first complete edition of Emily Dickinson's poems with her original dashes and capitals.