National Book Award Non Fiction Winner

The Life of Emily Dickinson

by Richard B. Sewall

Summary

A massive, two-volume biography that situates the "Belle of Amherst" within the social and intellectual context of her family and 19th-century New England.

Historical Context & Significance

Sewall chose to spend the first 300 pages of the biography discussing Dickinson's family and community, arguing that her "reclusion" was a social choice, not a sickness.