Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet, born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts. Little-known during her lifetime, she has since become a central figure in American poetry.

She was born into a prominent family with strong ties to their community. After studying at the Amherst Academy for seven years, she briefly attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's home in Amherst. Known for her reclusive lifestyle, she often dressed in white and was reluctant to greet guests or leave her room.

Though not widely recognized during her lifetime, Dickinson was a prolific writer. Her only publications during her life were one letter and 10 of her nearly 1,800 poems, which were often heavily edited to fit conventional poetic rules. Her poetry is unique for its short lines, lack of titles, and use of slant rhyme and unconventional punctuation. Many of her works explore themes of death and immortality, as well as aesthetics, society, nature, and spirituality.

After her death in 1886, her younger sister, Lavinia, discovered her cache of poems, leading to their eventual publication. The first collection of her work was published in 1890, heavily edited by Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd. A complete collection first appeared in 1955, published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson.