Q 01/05

In which US state was Emily Dickinson born, and did she spend almost her whole life?

A) New Hampshire

B) Vermont

C) Massachusetts

D) Connecticut

Answer · why

C) Massachusetts

The family Homestead in Amherst, built by her grandfather in 1813, is now the Emily Dickinson Museum.

Q 02/05

Roughly how many poems did Dickinson write?

A) About 300

B) More than 5,000

C) About 800

D) Nearly 1,800

Answer · why

D) Nearly 1,800

Only ten of them appeared in print during her lifetime, all anonymously and heavily edited.

Q 03/05

How many of Dickinson's poems were published in her lifetime?

A) About a hundred

B) None

C) Ten

D) Twenty-five

Answer · why

C) Ten

Five of them ran unsigned in a Springfield newspaper between 1852 and 1866.

Q 04/05

Who discovered Dickinson's poems in her desk after her death?

A) Her brother Austin

B) Her younger sister Lavinia

C) Her editor Higginson

D) Her sister-in-law Susan

Answer · why

B) Her younger sister Lavinia

Lavinia had promised to burn her sister's papers, and did burn most of the letters, but recognised the poems' worth.

Q 05/05

Which two people edited the first selection of Dickinson's poems, published in 1890?

A) Samuel Bowles and Josiah Holland

B) Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd

C) Helen Hunt Jackson and Ralph Waldo Emerson

D) Austin Dickinson and Susan Gilbert

Answer · why

B) Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd

They altered punctuation and capitalisation to suit the taste of the day; the 115-poem volume went through eleven printings in two years.