Biography of Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson, one of America?s most famous poets, was born in Amherst on December 10, 1830, to a very prominent family. Her parents were Edward Dickinson and Emily Norcross Dickinson. The family included three children: Austin, Emily, and Lavinia. Emily was educated at Amherst Academy, the institution her grandfather helped found. She spent a year at the Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary, but left because she did not like the religious environment and …showed first 75 words of 524 total…

…showed last 75 words of 524 total…some of her poems were edited out at this time. Mabel happened to be Austin?s mistress and as Susan?s direct rival she had every reason to down play Susan?s involvement in Emily?s work. Mabel Todd published a small portion of the poems in 1890 and her daughter and Emily?s niece followed with more poems later on, but because of a feud in the family the entire collection was not published until 1955.