Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on
December 10, 1830. The Dickinson family had been in America for
nearly two hundred years, an epoch for dwellers in such a young
country. The first Dickinsons arrived in America with John Winthrop
in 1630. The family spread across New England, eventually becoming deeply
entrenched in the Connecticut River Valley. The Dickinson name
became synonymous with power and prestige. Samuel Dickinson, Emily's
grandfather, was one of the founders of Amherst College. However,
Emily's parents, Edward Dickinson and Emily Norcross, belonged
to an impoverished branch of the Dickinson family. Before Emily
was born, Edward Dickinson took over his father's law firm. Many
years later, Austin Dickinson, Edward's son, would take the firm
over from his father.
In 1830, Amherst was a small farming village. In the next decades,
with Edward Dickinson's help, it would become an intellectual center
full of schools and colleges. But Amherst was still quite provincial
when Emily was born there, in the only brick house in town. Emily
was the middle child in the Dickinson family. Her brother Austin
was a year and a half older, and her sister Lavinia was two years
younger. Their father, Edward Dickinson, was a prominent Amherst
lawyer, the treasurer of Amherst College and, later, a U.S. Congressman.
A taciturn and sometimes cold man, he demanded a lot from his children.
He was so inexpressive that when his rare smiles were almost "embarrassing,"
as Emily wrote to a friend. Emily was Edward's favorite, although
he took pains to hide his affection for his middle child. Emily
Norcross Dickinson, Emily's mother, was also a detached and somewhat
absent- minded parent. She shared little in common with her daughter
Emily, and the two women remained wary of each other for most of
their lives.
The Dickinsons were a visibly spiritual family, attending
church every Sunday at the Congregational Church in Amherst. Early
in her life, Emily found she was ambivalent about religion and
could not commit to joining the church officially. Emily attended
West Middle District Public School, which was near her home. Despite frequently
missing classes due to frequent illness, Emily was a focused, competent
student who kept atop her studies. After graduating from West Middle
District, Emily attended Amherst Academy for six years. There she
studied philosophy, Latin, geology, botany, astronomy, theology,
church history, ancient history, geography, chemistry, grammar
and composition, among other subjects. Emily was particularly enchanted
by botany, and her proficiency in the subject attracted the attention
of Amherst Academy's young principal, Leonard Humphrey, himself
an avid botany scholar. He loaned Emily many books on botany from
his own library. Emily had to hide the books from her father, who
would have considered them unacceptably light reading.
Edward Dickinson was a free thinker and liberal in many
of his views, but he ascribed to the common views of his time,
many of which we would consider misogynist today. For example,
Edward supported educational opportunities for women, but he disparaged suffragists
who were demanding that women be allowed to vote in elections.
As his daughters grew older, Edward became slightly tyrannical.
Emily's mother seemed meek by comparison, and intellectually indifferent.
The three Dickinson siblings were extremely close, forming a bond
that perhaps gave them the emotional support they lacked from their
parents.
When Emily was sixteen, she began to prepare for Mount
Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, at that time one of the
best boarding schools in New England. Emily spent hours in her
room preparing for her admittance exam, studying mathematics, ecclesiastical
history, geometry, and science. Her father was an ardent believer
in the benefit of a girls' boarding school experience, even if it
meant his favorite daughter would spent much of the next year away
from home.
In the fall of 1847, Emily and her father traveled by
stagecoach to Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. When her father dropped
her off, Emily summoned her courage and tried to conquer her severe homesickness.
The headmistress of Mount Holyoke was a woman named Mary Lyon.
Noticing Emily's homesickness, Lyon assigned Emily to room with
her cousin, Emily Norcross. Lyon was a religious woman who hoped
that many of her pupils would become missionaries and travel to
distant lands to convert people to Christianity.
When Emily took the exhausting three-day entrance exam,
her scores placed her in the middle class of the school. Her day
was plotted out with almost military precision. When the girls
were not in classes, they were often completing chores. Each boarder
paid only sixty dollars a year in tuition, paying for the rest
of her board with domestic labor. Emily was assigned to polish silver.
Her handsome older brother, now a sophomore at Amherst College,
visited Emily and often brought her gifts and sweets from home.
As time passed, Emily's homesickness dissipated. She grew to enjoy
the routine of school, the stimulation of her studies, and the
friendships she made.
