short biography emily dickinson

Emily Dickinson

(1830-1886)

Who Was Emily Dickinson?

Emily Dickinson left school as a teenager, eventually living a reclusive life on the family homestead. There, she secretly created bundles of poetry and wrote hundreds of letters. Due to a discovery by sister Lavinia, Dickinson's remarkable work was published after her death — on May 15, 1886, in Amherst — and she is now considered one of the towering figures of American literature.

Early Life and Education

Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her family had deep roots in New England. Her paternal grandfather, Samuel Dickinson, was well known as the founder of Amherst College. Her father worked at Amherst and served as a state legislator. He married Emily Norcross in 1828 and the couple had three children: William Austin, Emily and Lavinia Norcross.

An excellent student, Dickinson was educated at Amherst Academy (now Amherst College) for seven years and then attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary for a year. Though the precise reasons for Dickinson's final departure from the academy in 1848 are unknown; theories offered say that her fragile emotional state may have played a role and/or that her father decided to pull her from the school. Dickinson ultimately never joined a particular church or denomination, steadfastly going against the religious norms of the time.

Family Dynamics and Writing

Among her peers, Dickinson's closest friend and adviser was a woman named Susan Gilbert, who may have been an amorous interest of Dickinson's as well. In 1856, Gilbert married Dickinson's brother, William. The Dickinson family lived on a large home known as the Homestead in Amherst. After their marriage, William and Susan settled in a property next to the Homestead known as the Evergreens. Emily and sister Lavinia served as chief caregivers for their ailing mother until she passed away in 1882. Neither Emily nor her sister ever married and lived together at the Homestead until their respective deaths.

Dickinson's seclusion during her later years has been the object of much speculation. Scholars have thought that she suffered from conditions such as agoraphobia, depression and/or anxiety, or may have been sequestered due to her responsibilities as guardian of her sick mother. Dickinson was also treated for a painful ailment of her eyes. After the mid-1860s, she rarely left the confines of the Homestead. It was also around this time, from the late 1850s to mid-'60s, that Dickinson was most productive as a poet, creating small bundles of verse known as fascicles without any awareness on the part of her family members.

In her spare time, Dickinson studied botany and produced a vast herbarium. She also maintained correspondence with a variety of contacts. One of her friendships, with Judge Otis Phillips Lord, seems to have developed into a romance before Lord's death in 1884.

Death and Discovery

Dickinson died of heart failure in Amherst, Massachusetts, on May 15, 1886, at the age of 55. She was laid to rest in her family plot at West Cemetery. The Homestead, where Dickinson was born, is now a museum .

Little of Dickinson's work was published at the time of her death, and the few works that were published were edited and altered to adhere to conventional standards of the time. Unfortunately, much of the power of Dickinson's unusual use of syntax and form was lost in the alteration. After her sister's death, Lavinia discovered hundreds of poems that Dickinson had crafted over the years. The first volume of these works was published in 1890. A full compilation, The Poems of Emily Dickinson , wasn't published until 1955, though previous iterations had been released.

Dickinson's stature as a writer soared from the first publication of her poems in their intended form. She is known for her poignant and compressed verse, which profoundly influenced the direction of 20th-century poetry. The strength of her literary voice, as well as her reclusive and eccentric life, contributes to the sense of Dickinson as an indelible American character who continues to be discussed today.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Emily Dickinson
• Birth Year: 1830
• Birth date: December 10, 1830
• Birth State: Massachusetts
• Birth City: Amherst
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Female
• Best Known For: Emily Dickinson was a reclusive American poet. Unrecognized in her own time, Dickinson is known posthumously for her innovative use of form and syntax.
• Fiction and Poetry
• Writing and Publishing
• Astrological Sign: Sagittarius
• Mount Holyoke Female Seminary
• Amherst Academy (now Amherst College)
• Interesting Facts
• In addition to writing poetry, Emily Dickinson studied botany. She compiled a vast herbarium that is now owned by Harvard University.
• Death Year: 1886
• Death date: May 15, 1886
• Death State: Massachusetts
• Death City: Amherst
• Death Country: United States

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Emily Dickinson Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/emily-dickinson
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: May 7, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• 'Hope' is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tunes without the words - And never stops - at all -
• Dwell in possibility.
• The Truth must dazzle gradually/Or every man be blind.
• Truth is so rare, it is delightful to tell it.
• If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way?
• Success is counted sweetest/By those who ne'er succeed./To comprehend a nectar/Requires sorest need.

William Shakespeare

How Did Shakespeare Die?

Christine de Pisan

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

14 Hispanic Women Who Have Made History

10 Famous Langston Hughes Poems

5 Crowning Achievements of Maya Angelou

Amanda Gorman

Langston Hughes

7 Facts About Literary Icon Langston Hughes

Maya Angelou

Biography of Emily Dickinson, American Poet

Famously reclusive and experimental in poetic form

Culture Club / Getty Images 

• Favorite Poems & Poets
• Poetic Forms
• Best Sellers
• Classic Literature
• Plays & Drama
• Shakespeare
• Short Stories
• Children's Books

• M.F.A, Dramatic Writing, Arizona State University
• B.A., English Literature, Arizona State University
• B.A., Political Science, Arizona State University

Emily Dickinson (December 10, 1830–May 15, 1886) was an American poet best known for her eccentric personality and her frequent themes of death and mortality. Although she was a prolific writer, only a few of her poems were published during her lifetime. Despite being mostly unknown while she was alive, her poetry—nearly 1,800 poems altogether—has become a staple of the American literary canon, and scholars and readers alike have long held a fascination with her unusual life.

Fast Facts: Emily Dickinson

• Full Name:  Emily Elizabeth Dickinson
• Known For:  American poet
• Born:  December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts
• Died: May 15, 1886 in Amherst, Massachusetts
• Parents:  Edward Dickinson and Emily Norcross Dickinson
• Education:  Amherst Academy, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary
• Published Works: Poems (1890), Poems: Second Series (1891), Poems: Third Series (1896)
• Notable Quote:  "If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry."

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born into a prominent family in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her father, Edward Dickinson, was a lawyer, a politician, and a trustee of Amherst College , of which his father, Samuel Dickinson, was a founder. He and his wife Emily (nee Norcross ) had three children; Emily Dickinson was the second child and eldest daughter, and she had an older brother, William Austin (who generally went by his middle name), and a younger sister, Lavinia. By all accounts, Dickinson was a pleasant, well-behaved child who particularly loved music.

Because Dickinson’s father was adamant that his children be well-educated, Dickinson received a more rigorous and more classical education than many other girls of her era. When she was ten, she and her sister began attending Amherst Academy, a former academy for boys that had just begun accepting female students two years earlier. Dickinson continued to excel at her studies, despite their rigorous and challenging nature, and studied literature, the sciences, history, philosophy, and Latin. Occasionally, she did have to take time off from school due to repeated illnesses.

Dickinson’s preoccupation with death began at this young age as well. At the age of fourteen, she suffered her first major loss when her friend and cousin Sophia Holland died of typhus . Holland’s death sent her into such a melancholy spiral that she was sent away to Boston to recover. Upon her recovery, she returned to Amherst, continuing her studies alongside some of the people who would be her lifelong friends, including her future sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert.

After completing her education at Amherst Academy, Dickinson enrolled at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. She spent less than a year there, but explanations for her early departure vary depending on the source: her family wanted her to return home, she disliked the intense, evangelical religious atmosphere, she was lonely, she didn’t like the teaching style. In any case, she returned home by the time she was 18 years old.

Reading, Loss, and Love

A family friend, a young attorney named Benjamin Franklin Newton, became a friend and mentor to Dickinson. It was most likely him who introduced her to the writings of William Wordsworth and Ralph Waldo Emerson , which later influenced and inspired her own poetry. Dickinson read extensively, helped by friends and family who brought her more books; among her most formative influences was the work of William Shakespeare , as well as Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre .

Dickinson was in good spirits in the early 1850s, but it did not last. Once again, people near to her died, and she was devastated. Her friend and mentor Newton died of tuberculosis, writing to Dickinson before he died to say he wished he could live to see her achieve greatness. Another friend, the Amherst Academy principal Leonard Humphrey, died suddenly at only 25 years old in 1850. Her letters and writings at the time are filled with the depth of her melancholy moods.

During this time, Dickinson’s old friend Susan Gilbert was her closest confidante. Beginning in 1852, Gilbert was courted by Dickinson’s brother Austin, and they married in 1856, although it was a generally unhappy marriage. Gilbert was much closer to Dickinson, with whom she shared a passionate and intense correspondence and friendship. In the view of many contemporary scholars, the relationship between the two women was, very likely, a romantic one , and possibly the most important relationship of either of their lives. Aside from her personal role in Dickinson’s life, Gilbert also served as a quasi-editor and advisor to Dickinson during her writing career.

Dickinson did not travel much outside of Amherst, slowly developing the later reputation for being reclusive and eccentric. She cared for her mother, who was essentially homebound with chronic illnesses from the 1850s onward. As she became more and more cut off from the outside world, however, Dickinson leaned more into her inner world and thus into her creative output.

Conventional Poetry (1850s – 1861)

I'm nobody who are you (1891).

I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you — Nobody — too? Then there's a pair of us! Don't tell! they'd advertise — you know. How dreary — to be — Somebody! How public — like a Frog — To tell one's name — the livelong June — To an admiring Bog!

It’s unclear when, exactly, Dickinson began writing her poems, though it can be assumed that she was writing for some time before any of them were ever revealed to the public or published. Thomas H. Johnson, who was behind the collection The Poems of Emily Dickinson , was able to definitely date only five of Dickinson's poems to the period before 1858. In that early period, her poetry was marked by an adherence to the conventions of the time.

Two of her five earliest poems are actually satirical, done in the style of witty, “mock” valentine poems with deliberately flowery and overwrought language. Two more of them reflect the more melancholy tone she would be better known for. One of those is about her brother Austin and how much she missed him, while the other, known by its first line “I have a Bird in spring,” was written for Gilbert and was a lament about the grief of fearing the loss of friendship.

A few of Dickinson’s poems were published in the Springfield Republican between 1858 and 1868; she was friends with its editor, journalist Samuel Bowles, and his wife Mary. All of those poems were published anonymously, and they were heavily edited, removing much of Dickinson’s signature stylization, syntax, and punctuation. The first poem published, "Nobody knows this little rose,” may have actually been published without Dickinson’s permission. Another poem, “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers,” was retitled and published as “The Sleeping.” By 1858, Dickinson had begun organizing her poems, even as she wrote more of them. She reviewed and made fresh copies of her poetry, putting together manuscript books. Between 1858 and 1865, she produced 40 manuscripts, comprising just under 800 poems.

During this time period, Dickinson also drafted a trio of letters which were later referred to as the “Master Letters.” They were never sent and were discovered as drafts among her papers. Addressed to an unknown man she only calls “Master,” they’re poetic in a strange way that has eluded understanding even by the most educated of scholars. They may not have even been intended for a real person at all; they remain one of the major mysteries of Dickinson’s life and writings.

Prolific Poet (1861 – 1865)

“hope” is the thing with feathers (1891).

"Hope" is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all And sweetest in the Gale is heard And sore must be the storm — That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm — I've heard it in the chillest land — And on the strangest Sea — Yet, never, in Extremity, It asked a crumb — of Me.

Dickinson’s early 30s were by far the most prolific writing period of her life. For the most part, she withdrew almost completely from society and from interactions with locals and neighbors (though she still wrote many letters), and at the same time, she began writing more and more.

Her poems from this period were, eventually, the gold standard for her creative work. She developed her unique style of writing, with unusual and specific syntax , line breaks, and punctuation. It was during this time that the themes of mortality that she was best known for began to appear in her poems more often. While her earlier works had occasionally touched on themes of grief, fear, or loss, it wasn’t until this most prolific era that she fully leaned into the themes that would define her work and her legacy.

It is estimated that Dickinson wrote more than 700 poems between 1861 and 1865. She also corresponded with literary critic Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who became one of her close friends and lifelong correspondents. Dickinson’s writing from the time seemed to embrace a little bit of melodrama, alongside deeply felt and genuine sentiments and observations.

Later work (1866 – 1870s)

Because i could not stop for death (1890).

Because I could not stop for Death— He kindly stopped for me— The Carriage held but just Ourselves— And Immortality. We slowly drove—He knew no haste, And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility— We passed the School, where Children strove At recess—in the ring— We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain— We passed the Setting Sun— Or rather—He passed Us— The Dews drew quivering and chill— For only Gossamer, my Gown— My Tippet—only Tulle— We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground— The Roof was scarcely visible— The Cornice—in the Ground— Since then—'tis centuries— and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity—

By 1866, Dickinson’s productivity began tapering off. She had suffered personal losses, including that of her beloved dog Carlo, and her trusted household servant got married and left her household in 1866. Most estimates suggest that she wrote about one third of her body of work after 1866.

Around 1867, Dickinson’s reclusive tendencies became more and more extreme. She began refusing to see visitors, only speaking to them from the other side of a door, and rarely went out in public. On the rare occasions she did leave the house, she always wore white, gaining notoriety as “the woman in white.” Despite this avoidance of physical socialization, Dickinson was a lively correspondent; around two-thirds of her surviving correspondence was written between 1866 and her death, 20 years later.

Dickinson’s personal life during this time was complicated as well. She lost her father to a stroke in 1874, but she refused to come out of her self-imposed seclusion for his memorial or funeral services. She also may have briefly had a romantic correspondence with Otis Phillips Lord, a judge and a widower who was a longtime friend. Very little of their correspondence survives, but what does survive shows that they wrote to each other like clockwork, every Sunday, and their letters were full of literary references and quotations. Lord died in 1884, two years after Dickinson’s old mentor, Charles Wadsworth, had died after a long illness.

Literary Style and Themes

Even a cursory glance at Dickinson’s poetry reveals some of the hallmarks of her style. Dickinson embraced highly unconventional use of punctuation , capitalization, and line breaks, which she insisted were crucial to the meaning of the poems. When her early poems were edited for publication, she was seriously displeased, arguing the edits to the stylization had altered the whole meaning. Her use of meter is also somewhat unconventional, as she avoids the popular pentameter for tetrameter or trimeter, and even then is irregular in her use of meter within a poem. In other ways, however, her poems stuck to some conventions; she often used ballad stanza forms and ABCB rhyme schemes.

The themes of Dickinson’s poetry vary widely. She’s perhaps most well known for her preoccupation with mortality and death, as exemplified in one of her most famous poems, “Because I did not stop for Death.” In some cases, this also stretched to her heavily Christian themes, with poems tied into the Christian Gospels and the life of Jesus Christ. Although her poems dealing with death are sometimes quite spiritual in nature, she also has a surprisingly colorful array of descriptions of death by various, sometimes violent means.

On the other hand, Dickinson’s poetry often embraces humor and even satire and irony to make her point; she’s not the dreary figure she is often portrayed as because of her more morbid themes. Many of her poems use garden and floral imagery, reflecting her lifelong passion for meticulous gardening and often using the “ language of flowers ” to symbolize themes such as youth, prudence, or even poetry itself. The images of nature also occasionally showed up as living creatures, as in her famous poem “ Hope is the thing with feathers .”

Dickinson reportedly kept writing until nearly the end of her life, but her lack of energy showed through when she no longer edited or organized her poems. Her family life became more complicated as her brother’s marriage to her beloved Susan fell apart and Austin instead turned to a mistress, Mabel Loomis Todd, who Dickinson never met. Her mother died in 1882, and her favorite nephew in 1883.

Through 1885, her health declined, and her family grew more concerned. Dickinson became extremely ill in May of 1886 and died on May 15, 1886. Her doctor declared the cause of death to be Bright’s disease, a disease of the kidneys . Susan Gilbert was asked to prepare her body for burial and to write her obituary, which she did with great care. Dickinson was buried in her family’s plot at West Cemetery in Amherst.

The great irony of Dickinson’s life is that she was largely unknown during her lifetime. In fact, she was probably better known as a talented gardener than as a poet. Fewer than a dozen of her poems were actually published for public consumption when she was alive. It wasn’t until after her death, when her sister Lavinia discovered her manuscripts of over 1,800 poems, that her work was published in bulk. Since that first publication, in 1890, Dickinson’s poetry has never been out of print.

At first, the non-traditional style of her poetry led to her posthumous publications getting somewhat mixed receptions. At the time, her experimentation with style and form led to criticism over her skill and education, but decades later, those same qualities were praised as signifying her creativity and daring. In the 20th century, there was a resurgence of interest and scholarship in Dickinson, particularly with regards to studying her as a female poet , not separating her gender from her work as earlier critics and scholars had.

While her eccentric nature and choice of a secluded life has occupied much of Dickinson’s image in popular culture, she is still regarded as a highly respected and highly influential American poet. Her work is consistently taught in high schools and colleges, is never out of print, and has served as the inspiration for countless artists, both in poetry and in other media. Feminist artists in particular have often found inspiration in Dickinson; both her life and her impressive body of work have provided inspiration to countless creative works.

• Habegger, Alfred.  My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson . New York: Random House, 2001.
• Johnson, Thomas H. (ed.).  The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson . Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1960.
• Sewall, Richard B. The Life of Emily Dickinson . New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1974.
• Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. Emily Dickinson . New York. Alfred A. Knopf, 1986.
• Emily Dickinson's Mother, Emily Norcross
• Emily Dickinson's 'If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking'
• Biography of Emily Brontë, English Novelist
• Emily Dickinson Quotes
• Poems to Read on Thanksgiving Day
• 42 Must-Read Feminist Female Authors
• Phillis Wheatley
• Dickinson's 'The Wind Tapped Like a Tired Man'
• Biography of Hilda Doolittle, Poet, Translator, and Memoirist
• Biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay
• Biography of Anne Brontë, English Novelist
• Feminist Poetry Movement of the 1960s
• Phillis Wheatley's Poems
• Biography of Charlotte Brontë
• Sarah Josepha Hale

Biography Online

Biography Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson, regarded as one of America’s greatest poets, is also well known for her unusual life of self-imposed social seclusion. Living a life of simplicity and seclusion, she yet wrote poetry of great power; questioning the nature of immortality and death, with at times an almost mantric quality. Her different lifestyle created an aura; often romanticised, and frequently a source of interest and speculation. But ultimately Emily Dickinson is remembered for her unique poetry. Within short, compact phrases she expressed far-reaching ideas; amidst paradox and uncertainty, her poetry has an undeniable capacity to move and provoke.

Early Life Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson was born on 10th December 1830, in the town of Amherst, Massachusetts. Amherst, 50 miles from Boston, had become well known as a centre for Education, based around Amherst College. Her family were pillars of the local community; their house known as “The Homestead” or “Mansion” was often used as a meeting place for distinguished visitors including, Ralph Waldo Emerson. (although it unlikely he met with Emily Dickinson)

Religious Influence on the Poetry of Emily Dickinson

A crucial issue at the time was the issue of religion, which to Emily was the “all important question” The antecedents of the Dickinson’s can be traced back to the early Puritan settlers, who left Lincolnshire in the late 17th Century. Her antecedents had left England so that they could practise religious freedom in America. In the nineteenth- century, religion was still the dominant issue of the day. The East coast, in particular, saw a revival of strict Calvinism; developing partly in response to the more inclusive Unitarianism. Amherst College itself was founded with the intention of training ministers to spread the Christian word. Calvinism. By incrimination, Emily Dickinson would probably have been more at ease with the looser and more inclusive ideology of Unitarianism. However, the “Great Revival” as it was known, pushed the Calvinist view to greatest prominence.

Religious Belief – Emily Dickinson

The Calvinist approach to religion believed that men were inherently sinful and most humans were doomed to hell. There was only a small number who would be saved, and this could only be achieved by the adherent proclaiming his faith in Jesus Christ, as the true Saviour. There was a subtle, but concerted effort, to encourage people to declare themselves saved. Both, at school and at college, there would have been much of this subtle pressure put on Emily to join the “saved”; but this she never did. She always retained an independent view towards the matter of religion.

“Faith” is a fine invention For gentlemen who see , But Microscopes are prudent In an emergency!

– Emily Dickinson

Her father was not too concerned with the religious views of his children even though, later in his life, he also accepted this belief. Thus, on the crucial issue of the day, Emily was relatively isolated. Amongst other reasons, Emily could never accept the doctrine of “original sin”. Despite remaining true to her own convictions, Emily was left with a sense of exclusion from the established religion, and these sentiments inform much of her poetry. There is frequent reference to “being shut out of heaven”. Yet despite this rejection of the orthodox religion, there is much in her poetry which reveals a profoundly religious temperament. For Emily religious experience was not a simple intellectual statement of belief; it could be more accurately reflected in the beauty of nature, and the experiences of ecstatic joy. Yet, although her poetry expressed intense inner experiences, this separation from established religion is a factor in her uncertainties and fluctuations in sentiment, evident in many poems.

It is a matter of speculation to what extent her poems could be considered autobiographical, but this poem gives an indication of the fleeting joy of spiritual experience, and also the more painful reality of life.

For each ecstatic instant We must an anguish pay In keen and quivering ration To the ecstasy. For each beloved hour Sharp pittances of years – Bitter contested farthings – And Coffers heaped with Tears!

Emily was a bright, conscientious student. At Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, she was able to study a range of subjects from Latin to English Literature. However, her studies were often interrupted by ill health. After a persistent cough developed, her father decided to remove her from college and bring her back home. Thus she left without any formal qualifications, but she had at least been able to broaden her education and vocabulary.

The poetry of Emerson was introduced to Emily by one of her brother’s friends, Benjamin Newton. Newton was a young law student, who was well versed in contemporary literature. He was one of the first people to recognise the poetic capacities of Emily and encouraged her to write poetry. The works of other poets, in particular, Emerson, were important for Emily Dickinson in opening up spiritual ideas beyond the strict Calvinism. Emily had innovative views and unorthodox beliefs, but she often doubted her own convictions; thus influences of Emerson and other poets were of great importance.

On returning home from college, Emily Dickinson learnt much of the domestic chores, helping her mother with cleaning, sewing and entertaining. She sought as much as possible to maintain the ideals of the early American travellers following principles of honesty, simplicity and high minded morals. Emily was said to be beautiful, with a soft voice and dark eyes. She dressed in a relatively simple way, and surviving photos show she kept her hair in a simple straightened style (somewhat like the Puritan style).

Emily was quick-witted and intelligent; she had a good sense of humour but was often ill at ease in other people’s company. She gave the impression of being somewhat agitated and intense. Her friend and literary critic, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, would later say how tense the meeting with her was.

“ I was never with anyone who drained my nerve power so much. ” However, he did comment that this “little plain woman” was also ingenious, childlike and seemed very thoughtful of others.” Also, although she did feel awkward in some social situations, with her close friends and sisters, she could easily indulge in innocent, childlike humour.

Emily herself often thought of herself like a child; even tomboy and she referred to this in many of her poems. In this frame of mind, she portrayed a degree of vulnerability looking to others for protection. This was particularly marked in her relationship with her authoritarian father, whom she was eager to defer to.

For a time, her father served in the House of Representatives, and on occasion, Emily visited Washington. It was here that she was able to come into contact with the charismatic preacher, the Reverend Charles Wadsworth. From her letters, it is clear she held him in high esteem, despite their apparent differences in theological beliefs.  The two exchanged letters for many years, including responses to Emily’s request for spiritual guidance.

Emily Dickinson’s Seclusion

Because of her discomfort and shyness in social situations, Emily gradually reduced her social contacts, going out less and less into society. By her late twenties, this has led to an almost complete seclusion; spending most of her time in the family house, rarely meeting others from outside a close family circle. Her sister explains this wasn’t a sudden decision, but a gradual process that happened over a period of time. However, despite the physical seclusion, Emily still maintained written contact with a variety of thought-provoking people. It is also clear from her poetry that her decision to live life as a recluse did not close her mind, but in many ways allowed the flow of new avenues of thought and inner experiences.

Despite her family’s strong political tradition, Emily appeared unconcerned with politics. At the start of the American Civil War, she commented little on the event, and choose not to help the war effort, through making bandages. To be fair, this attitude of distancing from the war was quite common in the north. For example, her brother Austin choose to pay $500 to avoid military service; however as the war years advanced and Amherst experienced its first casualties of war, inevitably its citizens were drawn further into the conflict. Emily and her family were particularly affected when friends of the family were killed in battle. Death of close friends was a significant feature of Emily’s life; many close to her were taken away. This inevitably heightened her interest, fascination and perhaps fear of death, which informed so much of her poetry. The Civil War years were also the most productive for Emily; in terms of quantity of poems, it appears Emily Dickinson was influenced imperceptibly by the atmosphere of War, even if it appeared somewhat distant to her.

As well as writing over 1,700 poems, Emily was a prolific letter writer; these letters giving her the opportunity for contact with others, which in other respects she denied herself. Her letters show her love of language and are often not too dissimilar to her style of poetry. She went to great length to express her personal sentiments of gratitude and love to others, though it should be remembered this emotional style of writing and communicating was fairly common at the time. They should also be seen in regard to Emily’s other letters, which freely express intense emotional sentiments.

Many of her poems refer to an invisible lover, – an object of devotion. Biographers have inevitably speculated about who this is. There is strong evidence that towards the end of her life she had some kind of emotional relationship with Judge Otis Lord (many years her senior and highly respected within the community). However, the poetry of Emily Dickinson was often deliberately vague. The object of her devotion may have been no person in particular, but some unknown aspect of the divine.

Emily Dickinson died at the age of 55 from Bright’s disease, which is caused by kidney degeneration. Her doctor suggested that the accumulation of stress throughout her life contributed to her premature death.

Despite Emily’s seclusion and frail health, her poetry reveals that she did experience moments of great joy. Through nature and life she was able to glimpse into a mystic dimension beyond worldly distractions; although it is also clear, this did not become a permanent feeling. For every ecstatic joy, there seems to be a contrasting doubt and uncertainty. But she was able to offer a concise and direct revelation of thought-provoking ideas through a powerful command of language. Even critics of her poetry, who point to inconsistencies in style and form, cannot deny the inherent power of her poetry and this explains the enduring popularity and success of her poetry.

My life closed twice before its close. It yet remains to see If immortality unveil A third event to me, So huge, so hopeless to conceive As these that twice befell, Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell.

After her death, her close sister Vinnie had been instructed to burn her letters. In doing so, she came across a box of 1,700 of Emily’s poems. Thankfully Vinnie ignored any request to burn old manuscripts. After a couple of years, Vinnie handed them to a family friend, Mabel Todd. Although Mabel had never met Emily, she had often been to Evergreens, the Dickinson family home. She typed up 200 letters becoming increasingly enthusiastic about the beauty and power of the poems. With the help and encouragement of Terrence Higginson, Emily’s long-standing friend, the first edition of poems was published in 1893. Her poems soon received extraordinary praise from leading magazines and newspapers. The New York Times claimed Emily Dickinson would soon be known amongst the immortals of English speaking poets.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “ Biography of Emily Dickinson” , Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net 26 June 2006. Last updated 18 Feb 2018.

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson at Amazon

The Life of Emily Dickinson

The Life of Emily Dickinson at Amazon

Bibliography

• Emily Dickinson – Marnie Pomeroy ISBN 1-871551-68-4
• The Life of Emily Dickinson by Richard B Sewell (1974)
• The Poems of Emily Dickinson edited by R.W.Franklin (1998)
• Facts Emily Dickinson
• Poems Emily Dickinson
• Emily Dickinson Poetry at Poetseers
• The Spirituality of Emily Dickinson
• Quotes of Emily Dickinson

Related pages

T his section of the website introduces users to significant topics in Dickinson’s biography. Included here is information about the town where Dickinson lived, as well as essays about members of Dickinson’s family; important friends (including her dog Carlo); her impressive schooling; her loves of reading and of gardening; domestic life in the Dickinson household; Dickinson’s love life; her attitudes toward and experiences with religion, the Civil War, illness, and death; and her iconic white dress.

For general information about researching Emily Dickinson, please see  Resources & Bibliography .

Summary biography

• Childhood and Youth (1830-1855)
• The Writing Years (1855-1865)
• The Later Years (1865-1886)

Family and Friends

Special topics.

Culture History

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was an American poet renowned for her unique and innovative approach to poetry. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, Dickinson spent much of her life in relative seclusion, writing nearly 1,800 poems, though only a few were published during her lifetime. Her work often explores themes of death, nature, and the human experience. Dickinson’s distinctive style, characterized by unconventional punctuation and vivid imagery, has earned her a place among the most celebrated and studied poets in American literature.

Emily’s father, Edward Dickinson, was a lawyer and served as treasurer of Amherst College, providing the family with financial stability. Her mother, Emily Norcross Dickinson, played a significant role in shaping her character and fostering a love for literature. The Dickinson household was a hub of intellectual activity, with the family’s impressive library serving as a wellspring of inspiration for the budding poet.

Despite her privileged upbringing, Emily Dickinson’s life was not without challenges. She experienced the untimely death of her close friend and cousin, Sophia Holland, which left a lasting impact on her emotional and artistic sensibilities. This early encounter with mortality would become a recurring theme in Dickinson’s poetry.

Emily received her education at Amherst Academy, where she excelled academically and developed a deep appreciation for literature. However, her time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary was short-lived, and she returned home after just one year. The reasons for her departure remain a subject of speculation, with some suggesting issues of personal health or dissatisfaction with the seminary’s religious atmosphere.

Following her return home, Dickinson immersed herself in her studies, drawing on the vast collection of books available to her. Her reading encompassed a wide range of topics, including philosophy, science, and classical literature, shaping her poetic sensibilities and contributing to the unique voice that would later define her work.

While Emily Dickinson was a prolific letter writer, her poetic endeavors were initially private and known only to a select few. The 1850s marked the emergence of her poetic career, and she began producing a considerable body of work that explored themes of love, nature, death, and the human spirit. Despite her reclusive nature, Dickinson maintained a rich correspondence with friends and family, often expressing her thoughts and emotions through her letters.

The 1860s saw Dickinson’s poetic output intensify, with a focus on brevity, unconventional punctuation, and enigmatic language. Her poems, often characterized by their distinctive dashes and unconventional capitalization, challenged the norms of 19th-century poetic conventions. Dickinson’s exploration of the inner workings of the mind and her unique approach to language set her apart as a groundbreaking poet.

Despite her prolificacy, Emily Dickinson published only a handful of poems during her lifetime. The decision to keep her work private was intentional, and she carefully selected a few close confidantes with whom she shared her poetic creations. The reasons for her seclusion remain a subject of debate, with theories ranging from personal anxiety to a deliberate rejection of societal expectations.

Dickinson’s poetic style was both visionary and introspective, delving into the complexities of human emotions and the mysteries of existence. Her poems often contemplated the nature of death, immortality, and the ethereal aspects of life. The recurring theme of mortality in her work reflected her deep contemplation of life’s impermanence, perhaps influenced by personal losses and the broader context of 19th-century New England, marked by frequent outbreaks of illness and death.

In the 1880s, Dickinson’s health began to decline, and she withdrew further into seclusion. Despite her physical limitations, her poetic creativity endured. In 1886, Dickinson sent a selection of her poems to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a literary critic and editor. This marked the beginning of a correspondence that continued until her death and provided insight into her poetic process.

Emily Dickinson passed away on May 15, 1886, at the age of 55. Her death marked the end of a life largely lived in seclusion, but it also heralded the discovery of a treasure trove of poems—nearly 1,800 in total—meticulously preserved by the poet herself. Dickinson’s younger sister, Lavinia, discovered these poems in bundles, stitched together by the poet and often accompanied by handwritten notes.

Following Emily Dickinson’s death, her poetry gained recognition for its profound insights and unique expression. Lavinia Dickinson, determined to honor her sister’s legacy, collaborated with Higginson to publish a collection of Emily’s poems. The first volume, titled “Poems by Emily Dickinson,” was published in 1890, and subsequent editions followed.

Over the years, Emily Dickinson’s influence on American literature and poetry has grown exponentially. Her enigmatic style, unconventional use of language, and exploration of existential themes have made her a revered figure in the literary canon. The later part of the 20th century witnessed a surge in scholarly interest in Dickinson’s life and work, leading to various interpretations and analyses.

Dickinson’s poetry has been celebrated for its depth, emotional intensity, and profound observations on the human condition. Her legacy extends beyond the printed page, influencing poets, scholars, and artists across generations. The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts, where Emily spent the majority of her life, has been preserved as a museum, attracting visitors eager to connect with the poet’s unique spirit.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Emily Dickinson: A Biography

Emily dickinson (1830-1886).

Unknown as a poet during her lifetime, Emily Dickinson is now regarded by many as one of the most  powerful voices of American culture. Her poetry has inspired many other writers, including the  Brontes. In 1994 the critic, Harold Bloom, listed her among the twenty-six central writers of Western  civilisation.

After she died her sister found the almost two thousand poems the poet had written. As her poems  entered the public consciousness her reception concentrated on her eccentric, reclusive nature, but  since then she has become acknowledged as an original and powerful poet. It is fortunate that her  sister gained access to the poems as without them American culture would have been very much  poorer.

Emily Dickinson challenged the existing definitions of poetry and what the work of a poet is.  She experimented with language with the aim of freeing it from conventional restraints. She  created a new type of persona for the first person narrator: the speakers in Dickinson’s poetry  are observers who see the inescapable limitations of their societies as well as their imagined  and imaginable escape from that. To make the abstract concrete and to define meaning  without constraining it she created a distinctive language for expressing what was not yet  realized but possible. In her view while poetry liberated the individual, it also left her  ungrounded. When the first volume of her poetry was published in 1890, four years after her  death, it met with remarkable success. Going through eleven editions in less than two years,  the poems soon extended far beyond their first audiences to an international one. Indeed, both her poems and her many letters include many well known quoate and phrases – read more here about popular Emily Dickinson quotes .

Photograph of Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson’s poems are taught in the United States in classes ranging from middle school to  post graduate courses in universities and colleges. The poems appear widely in poetry anthologies and  have been use as texts and lyrics by several internationally renowned composers like John Adams,  Michael Tilson Thomas, Nick Peros and Aaron Copland. There are several schools named after her.  Some literary journals have been set up exclusively to examine her poems, notably The Emily  Dickinson Journal. The United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in her honour in  1971.

Emily Dickinson’s most famous poem is Because I could not stop for Death :

Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –

And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,

For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –

We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed Us –

The Dews drew quivering and Chill –

For only Gossamer, my Gown –

My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground –

The Roof was scarcely visible –

The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – ’tis Centuries – and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horses’ Heads

Were toward Eternity –

Read biographies of all of the 30 greatest writers ever >>

Interested in Emily Dickinson? If so you can get some additional free information by visiting our friends over at PoemAnalysis to read their analysis of Dickenson’s poetic works .

• Pinterest 0

Nothing I might add is new to lovers of Emily Dickinson, which is everyone, I believe. But I am sometimes puzzled that she does not get more explicit credit or mor effusive praise for her pioneering use of vernacular language, or more precisely, a conversational format with a vernacular syntax and pace. I feel we are privileged to hear her thinking out loud, as she employs, an almost cavalier conceit of pretense—that no-one can hear her musing. And, ironically, no-one really did, as long as she lived. And yet her poetry is so polished, so clearly written for an appreciative audience. And appreciative we are, as every metaphor stings our eyes with salty-hot precision, and every phrase that’s turned is dipped as well in cold concision, washing our ears with tears of grief, ennobled by the mere but sweet, sheer calamity of Me & You, a grand dawning of Modernist sense, and self-reflexive sight, from which she shares, with us, her view.

Leave a Reply

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• National Poetry Month
• Materials for Teachers
• Literary Seminars
• American Poets Magazine

Main navigation

• Academy of American Poets

User account menu

Emily Dickinson: Suggested Reading

Page submenu block.

• literary seminars
• materials for teachers
• poetry near you

Collected Poems

Johnson, Thomas H., ed. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson . Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1960. The definitive collected poems, with restoration to the original punctuation and capitalization, arranged, as much as possible, in chronological order.

Franklin, R.W., ed. The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press/Harvard University, 1981. The most recent incarnation of Dickinson’s poems, presented as she wrote them, with all their variants of punctuation, capitalization, and arrangements on the page. Many do not fall into such neat hymn patterns as earlier publications suggested.

Biography and Letters

Habegger, Alfred. My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson . Modern Library: New York, 2001. This recent biography includes the significant feminist scholarship accrued since Richard B. Sewall’s lauded 1972 biography, and is worth reading for this perspective as well as a devotion to overlooked Dickinson poems.

Howe, Susan . My Emily Dickinson . North Atlantic Books: Berkeley, California: 1986. A personal, poetic, and accessible entrance into the world of Emily Dickinson that mixes biography and criticism.

Johnson, Thomas H., ed. Emily Dickinson Selected Letters . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1971. Edited by Thomas Johnson, who compiled the definitive collected poems, these letters show an astounding variety of wit, poetics, and personality, giving us perhaps the truest biography—though, following her own rule, she chose in the many letters of her lifetime to “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant,” revealing more moods and modes of thought than concrete biographical detail.

Sewall, Richard B. The Life of Emily Dickinson . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1972. Winner of the National Book Award. Widely considered to be the best biography for accuracy and richness of biographical detail.

Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. Emily Dickinson . Perseus Books: New York, 1986. A good critical biography and exploration of the intersection between her life and works.

Martin, Wendy, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2002. A collection of essays by notable Dickinson scholars that address historical, thematic, and poetic issues over the scope of her poetry.

Farr, Judith, ed. Emily Dickinson: A Collection of Critical Articles . New Century Views: Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 1996. A collection of essays, mostly focused on Dickinson’s poetics.

Anderson, Charles R. Emily Dickinson’s Poetry . Holt, Rinehart and Winston: New York, 1960. A classic critical work on Dickinson’s poems that explores what Anderson believes to be the "major" poems from various angles such as "wit," "circumference," and "process."

Translating Emily: Digitally Re-Presenting Fascicle 16 . Traces historical publishing variants of an entire fascicle and presents a scanned version of the pages. A great way to study the regularization of the dash in a handful of poems.

Suggested Poems

After great pain, a formal feeling comes (352) Because I could not stop for Death (712) Fame is a fickle food (1659) I cannot live with You (640) I dwell in possibility (657) I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280) I heard a Fly buzz (465) I measure every Grief I meet (561) I taste a liquor never brewed (214) I'm Nobody! Who are you? (288) The Soul selects her own Society (303) The Soul unto itself (683) There's a certain Slant of light (258) They shut me up in Prose (613) To make a prairie (1755) What Soft Cherubic Creatures (401) We play at Paste (320)

Learn more about Emily Dickinson

Newsletter Sign Up

• Academy of American Poets Newsletter
• Academy of American Poets Educator Newsletter
• Teach This Poem

(92) 336 3216666

[email protected]

Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American Poet, now considered as a powerful and popular literary figure in American Culture. She is known for her innovative and proto-modernist poetic style.

A Critic, Harold Bloom has placed her name in the list of major American poets. Her works are widely anthologized and she is a source of inspiration for artists today, especially those artists who are feminist-oriented.

Emily Dickinson’s poetry falls in three periods:

The poetry that has written before 1861 is conventional and sentimental in nature while the time between 1861 and 1865 is the most creative period when much of her creative work was written. This was the period when she wrote on the themes of life and mortality.

About two-third of Emily’s poetry was written after 1866.

Emily Dickinson’s poetry is taught in literature classes in the United States in middle schools and colleges. Several schools are also established in her name. Few journals, such as The Emily Dickinson Journal , are published in her name.

Many of her works have been translated into different languages including Spanish, French, Farsi, Chinese, Russian, Georgian, Mandarin and Kurdish etc.

A Short Biography of Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born into a prominent but not a wealthy family, on the 10th of December 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States.

She studied English and classical literature, Latin, botany, geology, history, arithmetic and mental philosophy during her seven years at Amherst Academy. She was a well-behaved child and an excellent student. She then attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary for one year.

Emily began writing at an early age and among those who influenced her to include Leonard Humphrey, a young principal of the Amherst Academy, and Benjamin Franklin, a family friend, who introduced her to the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Wordsworth. 

In 1855, Emily went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where she befriended Charles Wadsworth, who remained a correspondent for a long time.

Susan Gilbert, Emily’s sister-in-law, was her best friend and many of Emily’s poems are written for Susan.

Emily Dickinson was a very reserved person, she rarely went out of the house. Among her, few acquaintances were Otis Phillips Lord, a judge in the Massachusetts judicial court, and Samuel Bowles, the owner of the Springfield Republican .

Emily never married and spent the later years of her life in seclusion. She died on 5th of May 1886, at the age of 55.

Little of Emily Dickinson’s poems were published during her lifetime. Her sister Lavinia discovered her poetry after her death. The first volume of her poetry was published in 1890.

The Dickinson family Homestead was turned into The Emily Dickinson Museum in 2003.

Emily Dickinson’s Writing Style

Emily Dickinson’s poems are lyrics, expressing thoughts and feelings. She was a keen observer and wrote about everything that she observed. Her themes are universal. Her style of writing is not a conventional one, she did not typically follow the poetic rules but had a unique writing style of her own. 

There is no such theme that has not been discussed in Emily Dickinson’s poetry. She has talked about life, death and emotions which show her aesthetic intentions. Sometimes she wrote with humour while other times she used strong wit. 

She had strong imaginative power, she used to dwell in her imaginary world for hours which seemed concrete to her. It would then lead her to write something unique.

The literary techniques that she has used in her poetry include irony , humour , puns and satire .

Emily’s unique style of expression added oddness to her writings which made her different from other poets of her time. She was a prolific and influential poet who focused more on her word choice rather than following the conventional syntax of writing poetry that made her popular even among today’s literary world.

Short lines

Emily writes short and brief lines that make her poetry compact. She conveys her idea in a small number of words. Her style is so compact that she delivers a great theme in a few numbers of lines that are not very lengthy but brief. Such as:

Success is counted sweetest

By those who ne’er succeed

A reader can understand the main idea of the poem by reading these two short lines.

Lack of Titles

Emily Dickinson’s poems do not have titles. The first line of her poems is used as the title for example, the poem Success is counted sweetest is actually the first line of the poem that is used as its title.

Slant rhyme

Though Emily uses perfect rhymes for second and fourth lines, she also sometimes uses slant rhymes, also called approximate rhyme, the rhyme that has similar but not identical sounds). For example in the below lines from Emily Dickinson’s “Not any higher stands the Grave” , Queen and Afternoon show an example of slant rhyme.

“This latest Leisure equal lulls

The Beggar and his Queen

Propitiate this Democrat

A Summer’s Afternoon –”

Unconventional Capitalization and Punctuation

Emily’s poetry has an unconventional use of Capitalization which emphasizes a particular theme and puts stress on it. This unconventional Capitalization and Punctuation sometimes slow down the pace and sometimes it speeds it up. 

The extensive use of dashes in her poetry indicates pauses, to join two thoughts or to push them apart. It also shows her individual style of line break and makes her works unique. For example;

“Not any higher stands the Grave

For Heroes than for Men –

Not any nearer for the Child

Than numb Three Score and Ten –”

Grave , Men , Child and Ten are capitalized in the above lines. The excerpt also shows the use of dashes.

Major Themes

Emily has discussed a variety of themes in her works such as religion , home and family , death , nature and love .

She has talked about flowers and gardens in her poetry. She has associated flowers with certain emotions, for example, she associated gentias and anemones with youth and insight.

She has also discussed morbidity and death in her poetry. She has talked about different methods of death such as crucifixion, drowning, hanging, suffocation, shooting, stabbing etc.

She has also written Gospel poems in which she has addressed Jesus Christ and has reflected his teachings.

She often uses the ballad stanza in her poems, a form which is divided into quatrains where the first and the third lines use tetrameter while the second and the fourth line use trimeter. The second line rhymes with the fourth line in such a way that the rhyme scheme becomes ABCB.

Emily’s use of meter is sometimes regular while oftentimes it is irregular. She has used Hymn Meters which includes tetrameter and trimeter but not iambic pentameter , while dimeter is less commonly used by her.

She has also used Ballad Meter which is a variant of Hymn Meter. It is conversational in nature and is less strict than the Common Meter.

She uses the Common Meter of eight syllables followed by a line of six syllables while writing a hymn, with an 8/6/8/6 pattern however unlike traditional hymns, she has liberated herself from the common meter. She uses enjambment and takes breaks where there are no syntactic pauses or line breaks. For example, in I cannot live with you, she has paused unconventionally.

The Sexton keeps the Key to – 

     Putting up

     Our Life – His Porcelain – 

     Like a Cup –

Works Of Emily Dickinson

• Success is Counted Sweetest
• I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.

- By Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson and her Poems

Emily Dickinson was a 19th century poet from Amherst, Massachusetts. She was born into an affluent and successful family, but chose to live her life largely in the seclusion of her family home. Her introspective curiosity blended with literary and religious influences to create a large body of poetry throughout her lifetime.

Dickinson used poetry and letter writing as her creative vehicle, and formed decades long relationships with several individuals that would receive not only personal correspondence but also poetry. In many cases her poems read as confessions of her psyche. She blended multiple poetic forms to create a style that was impressively original.

Because Dickinson's work was extremely personal it seems she found her greatest influence in memories recounted. This introspection was heavily influenced by her Calvinist faith. Though Dickinson never underwent the conversion that is typical of Calvinists she did incorporate many facets of the religion into her interpretation of the world.

Dickinson's four-line stanzas and meter were inspired by religious hymns and psalms. Within this format she excelled at modifying the stanzas to include her own rhythmic pauses. She was capable of compressing a great deal of meaning into a small word count. The result is a unique but undoubtedly legitimate poetic style that has influenced generations of writers.

Despite using her own personal experiences as a basis for her work Dickinson was able to relate them in a universally accessible tone. Readers feel she describes their mental state as well as her own. Her poetry often reads like it is her stream of consciousness, but she spent time editing and refining her work as well. The work is not organized to be part of any philosophical school of thought, and instead reads as a natural interpretation of her own feelings.

Only ten of Dickinson's poems were published during her lifetime and she left no clear indication of what she hoped to achieve by writing. She secretly organized 1800 poems found after her death. It is probable she intended them to be published posthumously because of the diligence she put into both producing and preserving her poetry. Many poems were sent to pen-pals accompanying letters, but Dickinson also put work into alternate endings and stanzas that were found.

In her poem I taste a liquor never brewed Dickinson's ecstatic disregard for rhyme and grammar is evident. She shows her delight in the beauty of the outdoors through vivid imagery, and also comments on choosing a life as an outsider. This is a common theme in Dickinson's work and she often rejoices in her self-imposed isolation. One of her most famous pieces entitled I'm Nobody! Who are you? is a more direct example of her preference for solitude. What is more impressive is her ability to include her reader and justify the validity of their solitude as well.

Dickinson wrote in a keen observational tone and sought to describe the intangible elements of life. The lines between mortality and the afterlife were commonly explored. In Because I could not stop for Death , Dickinson describes the grim reaper in a melancholy yet romantic fashion. She does not express fear at the concept of death, but instead seems to meditate on the theme. Her description of the afterlife is concise and hopeful for the reader.

In many ways Dickinson seemed to have longed for death. It seems clear that she suffered from some variety of mental illness. It is also speculated she may have had epilepsy in addition to an anxiety disorder. In her poem I felt a Funeral, in my Brain , she imagines traveling from the mortal plain to one far beyond. She ends the poem with a trademark ambiguity leaving the reader to wonder which reality would be preferable.

Though Dickinson led a solitary existence she seemed to have experienced enough romantic stimulation to inspire a life's worth of poetry. Her pen pal and posthumous editor Thomas Wentworth Higginson was wary of including poems such as Wild nights-Wild nights! in the first collection of her poetry that was published after her death. He imagined Dickinson as a "virginal recluse" and feared readers would read the poem in a way she had not intended.

Higginson seemed convinced of Dickinson's virginity. He was either unaware or doubtful that the poet had been seen sitting in the lap of Judge Otis Lord. Lord also inspired Dickinson to write that she rejoiced in loving him. This is only one example of Dickinson's possible romances and indeed one that came after she wrote Wild Nights , but it illustrates Dickinson did have the capacity for romantic interaction. She also wrote of an individual she called "Master" frequently and expressed great affection for a few female friends.

Since her death readers and historians have had no choice but to speculate why Dickinson did not share more of her poetry with the world during her lifetime. She seemed to have had a fairly confident perception of her abilities as a poet, and had received praise from friends and fellow authors. It has been recorded that her father for whom she had great affection disdained female scholars. It could be that Dickinson perceived that any success she earned as a poet would upset her father. She wrote frequently about fame in poems such as Success is counted sweetest which was published anonymously in her lifetime.

Since the nineteenth century, American poetry has developed in two main streams; the first began with the free, pulsating, incantatory verse of Walt Whitman , while the second started with the experiment and innovation of Emily Dickinson. Dickinson's poems have been published posthumously in several collections and have garnered critical praise. She was successful in creating a widely accessible and universally appreciated body of work. Her talent was not widely known during her lifetime, but her legacy will live on forever.

• Literature & Fiction
• History & Criticism

Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Amazon Prime includes:

Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.

• Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
• Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
• Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
• A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
• Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
• Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access

Important:  Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.

Buy new: $8.99

Return this item for free.

Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges

• Go to your orders and start the return
• Select the return method

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the authors

The Lonely House: A Short Biography of Emily Dickinson Paperback – April 9, 2016

Purchase options and add-ons.

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 BookCaps(TM) 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.

• Book 2 of 14 Bio Shorts
• Print length 76 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Golgotha Press
• Publication date April 9, 2016
• Dimensions 5.5 x 0.18 x 8.5 inches
• ISBN-10 1621075338
• ISBN-13 978-1621075332
• See all details

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Golgotha Press (April 9, 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 76 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1621075338
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1621075332
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.18 x 8.5 inches

About the authors

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Start Selling with Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

• Grades 6-12
• School Leaders

FREE Poetry Worksheet Bundle! Perfect for National Poetry Month.

25 Famous Emily Dickinson Poems (Free Printable)

Get swept away by this famous American lyricists’ poetry.

Emily Dickinson remains one of the most mysterious poets. She didn’t leave an autobiography or journals, and she wrote many of her poems in secret. (After Emily Dickinson died, her sister found almost 1,800 poems in her bedroom.) So, without a lot of guidance from Dickinson about why she was writing or the meaning behind her poems, we have to read her poetry with an open mind. Perhaps that’s why her poetry is so profound—each reader brings themselves to her poems and connects with her words from where they are.

The 25 Emily Dickinson poems below are among her most popular. Get the full text of each poem as a free printable to use with your students by filling out the form on this page.

Who was Emily Dickinson?

25 famous emily dickinson poems.

Emily Dickinson was born in 1830 to a wealthy Massachusetts family. She was known for her individuality and “rebellious” attitude. She wrote poems with themes of death, immorality, faith, fame, and doubt. Her poetry is known especially for her originality and style with unconventional capitalization and dashes to move the poem along. She’s still an incredibly popular American poet and a wonderful poet to read to get students interested in poetry in general.

These 25 Emily Dickinson poems are a drop in the bucket (she wrote almost 1,800 poems ), but these are among the best and show her range, mastery of language, and innovation.

Get the full text of each poem as a free printable to use with your students by filling out the form on this page.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

“hope” is the thing with feathers – that perches in the soul – and sings the tune without the words – and never stops – at all –.

This Emily Dickinson poem is among her most famous. It reads like a song (characteristic of Dickinson’s poetry). This is a good poem to start a unit on poetry as it’s life-affirming and, well, hopeful.

Success is counted sweetest

Success is counted sweetest by those who ne’er succeed. to comprehend a nectar requires sorest need..

Fame was a theme in Dickinson’s work. This particular poem was published anonymously in an anthology (Dickinson’s father did not think women should publish, and she published few poems during her lifetime). This poem begs the question, did Dickinson avoid fame because she wanted to protect her name or because she had already tried to seek fame and been rejected?

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading – treading – till it seemed That Sense was breaking through –

Outside of the literary world, Dickinson is known for her poems on mental health. This poem is perhaps her most famous about mental health . After reading it, students can talk about what in Dickinson’s experience may have sparked this poem and what she wants to communicate about mental health.

I’m Nobody! Who are you?

I’m nobody who are you are you – nobody – too then there’s a pair of us don’t tell they’d advertise – you know.

Dickinson is known for her use of seemingly random capital letters. This poem is a great one to explore for why she capitalized some letters and how it influences the meaning of the poem. For example, when she capitalizes “nobody,” how does it change the meaning of the word?

Because I could not stop for Death

Because i could not stop for death – he kindly stopped for me – the carriage held but just ourselves – and immortality..

This classic, melancholic poem is among the many Emily Dickinson poems that deal with death and the afterlife. Just the first two lines provide a lot to talk about. But the poem is not dark—on the contrary, it’s hopeful and meditative.

A Bird, came down the Walk

A bird, came down the walk – he did not know i saw – he bit an angle worm in halves and ate the fellow, raw … .

This poem is good for younger readers because it is an observation of nature, with details that children can understand.

My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun

My life had stood – a loaded gun – in corners – till a day the owner passed – identified – and carried me away –.

This poem has one of Dickinson’s strongest first lines (and she has a lot of strong first lines!). The actual topic of the poem is up for debate—is it the afterlife or her meditation on anger? Or is it Dickinson’s frustration with having to write in secret?

Tell all the truth but tell it slant –

Tell all the truth but tell it slant – Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth’s superb surprise …

In this more playful poem, Dickinson uses images to get the point across that one can be honest in a kind way. This poem is more didactic than other Emily Dickinson poems, which makes it interesting in its own right.

There’s a certain Slant of light

There’s a certain slant of light, winter afternoons – that oppresses, like the heft of cathedral tunes –.

This poem is a serious contemplation of the seasons changing, time passing, and endings, from a year ending to the ultimate ending, death.  

This is my letter to the World

This is my letter to the world that never wrote to me – the simple news that nature told – with tender majesty ….

In this poem, Dickinson takes a stronger stance on communicating with her readers. It’s one of her poems where the feelings (loneliness, frustration) leap right off the page. Read this poem alongside composer David Leisner’s version that puts the words to song.

I dwell in Possibility –

I dwell in possibility – a fairer house than prose – more numerous of windows – superior – for doors –.

This poem is a great one to connect to Dickinson’s life—she was a homebody. You can also read it for the use of imagery—the use of architectural references to create meaning in the poem, and the use of juxtaposition—the smallness of chambers against the expansive sky.

I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –

I heard a fly buzz – when i died – the stillness in the room was like the stillness in the air – between the heaves of storm –.

This poem is in the canon of poems about death, but with a little more humor and matter-of-factness than other poems. Students can analyze this poem with a focus on deciding when description is literal and when it is meant to be figurative.

It was not Death, for I stood up

It was not death, for i stood up, and all the dead, lie down – it was not night, for all the bells put out their tongues, for noon..

This poem is an objective observation of Dickinson’s state and her feelings on pain and hopelessness. Students can analyze the way Dickinson describes these feelings, and how she uses opposites (“it was not …”) to help set the tone and meaning of the poem. Read this analysis for more insight.

Before I got my eye put out –

Before I got my eye put out – I liked as well to see As other creatures, that have eyes – And know no other way –

Dickinson is known to have had bad eyesight and eyes that were light sensitive and sometimes painful. With that biographical information, it’s hard not to read this poem literally. Dickinson never had her eye put out, but we are reading the words of someone whose eyesight, or loss of eyesight, is a frustrating or even frightening topic.  

After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

After great pain, a formal feeling comes – the nerves sit ceremonious, like tombs – the stiff heart questions ‘was it he, that bore,’ and ‘yesterday, or centuries before’.

This poem is only 13 lines long, but it hits the emotional level that makes Dickinson unique. It’s about the numb feelings that come after strong emotions, like grief, and how short those feelings can be.

Dear March – Come in –

Dear march, how are you, and the rest – did you leave nature well – oh march, come right upstairs with me – i have so much to tell –.

This poem is about the coming of spring and is written as a letter between the poet and a guest, the month of March personified. It’s a good counterpoint to “There’s a certain Slant of light,” showing how Dickinson thought about various times in the year and periods of life.

My life closed twice before its close

My life closed twice before its close – it yet remains to see if immortality unveil a third event to me.

This poem provides a metaphor for death . “Close” shows both heartbreak and death, and Dickinson ends the poem with a note of sarcasm. This is a poem for which we’d love to know more about Dickinson’s personal life to understand.

To fight aloud is very brave

To fight aloud, is very brave – but gallanter, i know who charge within the bosom the cavalry of wo –.

This poem explores the honor in living and dying quietly . It recognizes that there is honor in fighting and dying with valor, but also in the unsung or quieter lives and fights.

Publication—is the Auction

Publication – is the Auction Of the Mind of Man – Poverty – be justifying For so foul a thing …

One of the questions about Dickinson is whether she wanted to be published at all . Much of her work was published after her death, and her poems convey that she may not have wanted fame or even publication. In today’s world of constant content creation, this poem is a great way to start a conversation about what’s worth sharing and when we might create just for the joy of it.

If I can stop one heart from breaking

If i can stop one heart from breaking, i shall not live in vain; if i can ease one life the aching, or cool one pain, or help one fainting robin unto his nest again, i shall not live in vain..

This is another famous Dickinson poem. The theme of wanting to make life worth living is another great one for middle and high schoolers who are starting to think about philosophical ideas.

The Heart asks Pleasure – first

The heart asks pleasure – first – and then – excuse from pain – and then – those little anodynes that deaden suffering –.

Another poem that is a meditation on what life is and what makes it meaningful. Students can analyze what Dickinson sees as important: pleasure, lack of pain, comfort.

I died for Beauty – but was scarce

I died for beauty – but was scarce adjusted in the tomb when one who died for truth, was lain in an adjoining room –.

One of the most well-known poems about death by Dickinson and one of the most lyrical, this poem is also about the meaning of life and what might come after death. Two dead people meet, each having lived and died for a different reason. In the end, we see that both got covered up, leaving the question of which is more important in the long-term.

As imperceptibly as Grief

As imperceptibly as grief the summer lapsed away – too imperceptible at last to seem like perfidy –.

Grief is often a theme in Dickinson’s poetry, and this poem tackles that theme head-on. In this poem, the rhythms of nature and details of the natural world are in parallel with human actions as summer ends.

A death-blow is a life-blow to some

A death-blow is a life-blow to some Who, till they died, did not alive become; Who, had they lived, had died, but when They died, vitality begun.

This short and sweet poem packs a punch. It’s all about people who are more impactful in death than in life (not unlike Dickinson’s own life). Students can analyze these four lines and connect them to other poems about death and fame, or to Dickinson’s biography.

I have not told my garden yet

I have not told my garden yet, lest that should conquer me; i have not quite the strength now to break it to the bee..

This poem is a perfect example of Dickinson’s tone, imagery, and understated prose. It’s a great poem to introduce or conclude a unit on Dickinson.

Now that students are intrigued, here are 24 famous poets students should know .

Get free printables of all of these Emily Dickinson poems.

Share your email address for instant access to full-text printable versions of all the Emily Dickinson poems on this list.

You Might Also Like

This Free Poetry Worksheet Bundle Is Perfect for Your Poetry Unit

Haiku, limerick, ode, and more! Continue Reading

Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. 5335 Gate Parkway, Jacksonville, FL 32256

Emily Dickinson - A Short Biography

• 5 Minutes. Short on Time - Long on Info!
• By: 5 Minute Biographies , George Fritsche
• Narrated by: George Fritsche
• Length: 6 mins

Failed to add items

Add to cart failed., add to wish list failed., remove from wishlist failed., adding to library failed, follow podcast failed, unfollow podcast failed.

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $1.43

No default payment method selected.

We are sorry. we are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method, publisher's summary.

Emily Dickinson, poet extraordinaire: Life and works in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!

PLEASE NOTE: when you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

• Unabridged Audiobook
• Categories: Biographies & Memoirs

More from the same

• Mark Twain - A Short Biography
• Anwar As-Sadat - A short biography
• Werner Heisenberg - A short biography
• Mikhail Gorbachev - A short biography
• Henry Ford - A short biography
• Paul Newman - A short biography

Related to this topic

Born a Crime

• Stories from a South African Childhood

By: Trevor Noah

• Narrated by: Trevor Noah
• Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
• Overall 5 out of 5 stars 213,248
• Performance 5 out of 5 stars 192,975
• Story 5 out of 5 stars 192,005

In this award-winning Audible Studios production, Trevor Noah tells his wild coming-of-age tale during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa. It’s a story that begins with his mother throwing him from a moving van to save him from a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters, then follows the budding comedian’s path to self-discovery through episodes both poignant and comical.

• 5 out of 5 stars

Great book and perfect narration

• By MarilynArms on 12-15-16

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

• A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed

By: Lori Gottlieb

• Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
• Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 42,567
• Performance 5 out of 5 stars 37,467
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 37,330

One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose of­fice she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.

• 2 out of 5 stars

It was like a hallmark movie being waterboarded into my ears for 15 hours

• By Amazon Customer on 10-01-19

American Dreamer: Who Was Jay Gatsby?

By: Blanchard House

• Narrated by: Joe Nocera
• Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
• Original Recording
• Overall 5 out of 5 stars 37
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 35
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 35

Just before the small-time bootlegger Max Gerlach died, he tried to reveal his secret: he was the inspiration for the mysterious Jay Gatsby. It’s a nice story, but was he telling the truth? Veteran reporter Joe Nocera and producer Poppy Damon investigate this century-old literary mystery and uncover untold secrets about the Great American Novel.

• By Amazon Customer on 04-11-24

• The Ashley Madison Hack
• By: Sophie Elmhirst, Maria Luisa Tucker
• Narrated by: Sophie Nélisse
• Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 684
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 667
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 667

Millions of people–looking to cheat on their partners–signed up for Ashley Madison in the early 2000s, seeking a private space to share their public desires. The promise of discretion was shattered in the summer of 2015, when anonymous hackers stole the company’s cache of user information and published it worldwide. The result? One of the most shocking data breaches of the internet age. Overnight, millions of unfaithful spouses had their real names, addresses and sexual preferences published online in a searchable database that anyone could browse.

• 4 out of 5 stars

No mind change

• By Joshua on 02-13-24

By: Sophie Elmhirst , and others

Trace of Doubt

By: Samantha Weinberg

• Narrated by: Samantha Weinberg
• Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
• Overall 4 out of 5 stars 1,316
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,296
• Story 4 out of 5 stars 1,296

In the summer of 1985, a brilliant young British DNA scientist Helena Greenwood is found murdered in her front garden in a quiet suburb in California. The police believe they know the killer’s identity but there’s no evidence against him, and the only thing linking him to the crime is the fact he’d been charged with sexually assaulting Helena just a few months previously.

• 3 out of 5 stars

Frustrating

• By Amazon Customer on 01-28-24

Going Infinite

• The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon

By: Michael Lewis

• Narrated by: Michael Lewis
• Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
• Overall 4 out of 5 stars 1,726
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,573
• Story 4 out of 5 stars 1,571

When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side? In Going Infinite Lewis sets out to answer this question, taking listeners into the mind of Bankman-Fried.

• 1 out of 5 stars

really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis

• By Wowhello on 10-04-23

Elvis and Me

By: Priscilla Beaulieu Presley

• Narrated by: Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
• Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,950
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,669
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,662

The inspiration for the major motion picture Priscilla directed by Sofia Coppola, this New York Times best seller reveals the intimate story of Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley, told by the woman who lived it.

What a story!

• By Pen Name on 08-28-22

Sorry for Your Loss

By: Michael Cruz Kayne

• Length: 1 hr and 23 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,181
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,102
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,100

A sidesplitting, heartrending look at life—and death. This powerfully personal production, recorded live from the Minetta Lane Theatre, cuts through the platitudes, directly reaching out to anyone who has ever experienced loss—or will. So...everyone.

A Must Listen for the Grieving

• By Chris on 09-25-23

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

By: Jack Weatherford

• Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Jack Weatherford
• Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 19,645
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 16,245
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 16,242

The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization.

Golden Horde/Platinum Listen

• By Cynthia on 12-11-13

Deputy Mayor Putin

By: Maeve McQuillan

• Narrated by: Fiona Shaw, Gwilym Lee
• Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 175
• Performance 5 out of 5 stars 168
• Story 5 out of 5 stars 168

How did a once faceless bureaucrat, a man whose own wife said he was born under the sign of the vampire, become the idealized face of Russian manhood and its authoritarian leader? Deputy Mayor Putin examines the man behind the myth. We will explore how Putin’s formative years shaped and drove him and how the supporting cast of characters he gathered along the way helped him get to the Kremlin’s inner sanctum.

Interesting

• By T J on 03-02-24

The Demon Next Door

By: Bryan Burrough

• Narrated by: Steve White
• Length: 2 hrs and 45 mins
• Overall 4 out of 5 stars 30,682
• Performance 4 out of 5 stars 27,472
• Story 4 out of 5 stars 27,364

Best-selling author Bryan Burrough recently made a shocking discovery: The small town of Temple, Texas, where he had grown up, had harbored a dark secret. One of his high school classmates, Danny Corwin, was a vicious serial killer. In this chilling tale, Burrough raises important questions of whether serial killers can be recognized before they kill or rehabilitated after they do. It is also a story of Texas politics and power that led the good citizens of the town of Temple to enable a demon who was their worst nightmare.

Odd narration choice

• By Amanda Fredericks on 03-08-19

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

• As Told to Alex Haley
• By: Malcolm X, Alex Haley
• Narrated by: Laurence Fishburne
• Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
• Overall 5 out of 5 stars 12,032
• Performance 5 out of 5 stars 10,699
• Story 5 out of 5 stars 10,639

Experience a bold take on this classic autobiography as it’s performed by Oscar-nominated Laurence Fishburne. In this searing classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and Black empowerment activist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Human Rights movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American dream and the inherent racism in a society that denies its non-White citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.

Audible Masterpiece

• By Phoenician on 09-10-20

By: Malcolm X , and others

Two Women Walk into a Bar

By: Cheryl Strayed

• Narrated by: Cheryl Strayed
• Length: 51 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 243
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 231
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 231

Twenty-one years after Cheryl Strayed set off on the Pacific Crest Trail to heal from the death of her beloved mother, Cheryl’s mother-in-law, Joan, is given weeks to live. As she and her husband help see Joan through her final days, Cheryl reckons with their complicated relationship, determined to connect with a woman who both showed her love and (sometimes hilariously) held her at a distance. Cheryl reflects on their two decades together as she comes to a deeper understanding of the secrets and sorrows in Joan’s complicated past.

Cheryl tells a great story!

• By Amazon Customer on 01-01-24

Under the Bridge

By: Rebecca Godfrey

• Narrated by: Rebecca Godfrey, Erin Moon, Mary Gaitskill - introduction
• Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
• Overall 4 out of 5 stars 66
• Performance 4 out of 5 stars 54
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 54

One moonlit night, 14-year-old Reena Virk went to join friends at a party and never returned home. In this “tour de force of crime reportage” ( Kirkus Reviews ), acclaimed author Rebecca Godfrey takes us into the hidden world of the seven teenage girls - and boy - accused of a savage murder. As she follows the investigation and trials, Godfrey reveals the startling truth about the unlikely killers. Laced with lyricism and insight, Under the Bridge is an unforgettable look at a haunting modern tragedy.

Powerful Account of 8 Young Teens Killing Another

• By Mary Burnight on 08-16-19

The Debutante

By: Jon Ronson

• Narrated by: Jon Ronson
• Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,298
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,077
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,074

Thirty years ago, award-winning journalist Jon Ronson stumbled on the mystery of Carol Howe—a charismatic, wealthy former debutante turned white supremacist spokeswoman turned undercover informant. In 1995, Carol was spying on Oklahoma’s neo-Nazis for the government just when Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.

Interesting but not compelling

• By Gail Jester on 04-15-23

Queen of Cuba

• An FBI Agent's Insider Account of the Spy Who Evaded Detection for 17 Years
• By: Peter J. Lapp, Kelly Kennedy - contributor
• Narrated by: George Newbern
• Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 82
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 72
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 72

Ana Montes had spent seventeen years spying for the Cubans. She had been raised in a patriotic Puerto Rican household: Her father, a psychiatrist, was a former colonel in the US Army. Her sister worked as a translator for the FBI and helped break up a ring of Cuban spies in Miami. Her brother was also a loyal FBI agent. Montes impressed her bosses but in secret spent her breaks memorizing top-secret documents before sending them to the Cuban government. Retired FBI agent Peter J. Lapp explains the clues that led their team to catch one of the United States’ most dangerous spies.

Narrator was great

• By Tasha on 01-21-24

By: Peter J. Lapp , and others

George Orwell: The Man and the Mind Behind 1984

• By: Michael Shelden, The Great Courses
• Narrated by: Michael Shelden
• Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins
• Overall 5 out of 5 stars 3
• Performance 5 out of 5 stars 3
• Story 5 out of 5 stars 3

In George Orwell: The Man and the Mind Behind 1984 , Professor Michael Shelden will show you how 1984 presents a plausible reality of thought control and totalitarian power that feels contemporary even as it reflects its own time.

By: Michael Shelden , and others

Memories, Dreams, Reflections

By: Carl Jung

• Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
• Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,095
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,791
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,774

In 1957, four years before his death, Carl Gustav Jung, psychiatrist and psychologist, began writing his life story. But what started as an exercise in autobiography soon morphed into an altogether more profound undertaking.

Dr. Jung's Life Would Make A Good Movie

• By M. Clarke on 05-17-16

What listeners say about Emily Dickinson - A Short Biography

Reviews - please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews., audible.com reviews, amazon reviews.

• Help Center
• Redeem promo code
• About Audible
• Business Inquiries
• Audible in the News
• Accessibility
• ACX for Creators
• Bestsellers
• New York Times Best Sellers
• New releases
• Non-English Audiobooks
• Latino & Hispanic Voices
• Audible in Chinese
• How to listen
• Listen on Apple Devices
• Listen in the car
• Whispersync for Voice