Emily Dickinson's Reading
Emily Dickinson's Reading
Emily Dickinson's Reading
Emily Dickinson
1
Table of Contents
The Poetry of
Emily Dickinson
Preface
Emily Dickinson is not only one of the supreme lyric poets of
American literature. She has also come to symbolize the
purest kind of artistic vocation. Not merely unrecognized but
virtually unpublished in her own lifetime, she developed her
genius in the utmost privacy, invisible to all except a small
circle of family and friends. Driven only by her own
imagination, she created a body of work unsurpassed in its
expressive originality, penetrating insight, and dark beauty. What is the NEA Big Read?
A program of the National Endowment for the Arts, The Big
Read broadens our understanding of our world, our
communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a
good book. Managed by Arts Midwest, this initiative offers
grants to support innovative community reading programs
designed around a single book.
A great book combines enrichment with enchantment. It
awakens our imagination and enlarges our humanity. It can
offer harrowing insights that somehow console and comfort
us. Whether you’re a regular reader already or making up
for lost time, thank you for joining The Big Read.
Religious revival permeates Amherst once more. 1884: Writer Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885), a
Dickinson’s father, sister, and future sister in-law friend of Dickinson's, publishes the bestselling novel
recount their conversion experiences and join the Ramona. She was the only writer who urged Dickinson
church. Emily Dickinson declares: “I am standing to publish her poems.
alone in rebellion.”
1853: Amherst-Belchertown Railroad opens through
efforts of Edward Dickinson.
1855: The Dickinson family moves back to the
Homestead.
1857: As banks begin to collapse, the Panic of 1857
leads to a severe economic depression in America that
lasts three years.
1858-1865: Dickinson’s most prolific years as a poet.
www.poetryfoundation.org
Visit the Poetry Foundation's website for a biography and
bibliography of Dickinson, along with many of her poems.
NEA Big Read Reader’s Guides are licensed under a Creative Commons
Acknowledgments
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Writer: Erika Koss for the National Endowment for the Arts
© Arts Midwest
“Emily Dickinson, 1830–1886” and “The Homestead and The
Evergreens” used with permission of the Emily Dickinson
Museum.
The Gardens of Emily Dickinson used with permission from
Judith Farr.
The creation of Emily Dickinson educational materials has
been made possible, in part, with support from the Poetry
Foundation.
Cover image: Derivative of "Kerosene lamp" by Okorok (Own
work), CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. Cover image
licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 by Arts Midwest.