Emily Dickinson

1830 – 1886 · died at about 56^[1][2]

Literature

Fun Facts About Emily Dickinson

• Emily Dickinson was perhaps better known as a gardener than as a poet in her lifetime. Her herbarium held 424 pressed flowers that she classified using the Linnaean system.^[1]
• Only 10 of Dickinson's nearly 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime. Her sister Lavinia discovered the poems after her death.^[1]
• From about 1867 Dickinson spoke to visitors from the other side of a door instead of face to face, and when she was seen she was usually dressed in white.^[1]
• Dickinson made her sister promise to burn her papers. Lavinia burned most of the letters, but Dickinson had left no instructions about the 40 notebooks of poems in a locked chest.^[1]
• Infrared technology revealed that some of Dickinson's poems had been deliberately censored to remove the name of Susan, her sister-in-law, to whom she dedicated 11 poems.^[1]
• Dickinson wrote that her father bought her books but begged her not to read them, because he feared they would joggle the mind.^[1]
• Emily Dickinson was alive at the same time as Andrew Jackson — their lives overlapped for 15 years (1830–1845).^[1][2][3][4]
• Emily Dickinson shares a birthday with Ada Lovelace: both were born on December 10.^[1][2][5][6]

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Largely unpublished and unknown during her lifetime, her work is now widely regarded as canonical. Her poems have a unique style, piercing intelligence and wit.^[1]

Contemporaries

Giuseppe Verdi

56 yr overlap

Otto von Bismarck

56 yr overlap

Frederick Douglass

56 yr overlap

Herman Melville

56 yr overlap

Queen Victoria

56 yr overlap

Susan B. Anthony

56 yr overlap

Florence Nightingale

56 yr overlap

Harriet Tubman

56 yr overlap

Louis Pasteur

56 yr overlap

Jules Verne

56 yr overlap

Leo Tolstoy

56 yr overlap

Walt Whitman

56 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About Emily Dickinson

When was Emily Dickinson born?

Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, and died on May 15, 1886.

How old was Emily Dickinson at death?

Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, and died on May 15, 1886, at age 55.

What was Emily Dickinson known for?

Emily Dickinson was known for: Reclusive poetic genius. Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Largely unpublished and unknown during her lifetime, her work is now widely regarded as canonical. Her poems have a unique style, piercing intelligence and wit.

Who was alive at the same time as Emily Dickinson?

Emily Dickinson's closest contemporary was Giuseppe Verdi. Their lives overlapped for 56 years.