Document Type
Book
Publication Date
1987
Abstract
Amherst, Massachusetts, is noted as the birthplace of Emily Dickinson, universally recognized as one of America’s finest poets. Yet in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Amherst was better known as the birthplace of Helen Hunt Jackson, who had been a childhood friend of Emily Dickinson’s and had become a prominent writer while Dickinson remained in obscurity. Emily and Helen were two of the “Amherst girls,” an unusual group of offspring of Amherst College faculty, administrators, and trustees. One of the group, Emily Fowler, who acquired some brief notice as an author, wrote about her youth, “There was a fine circle of young people in Amherst, and we influenced each other strongly. We were in the adoring mood, and I am glad to say that many of those idols who composed this group had talent enough for twice their number, and in their respective spheres of mothers, authors, or women, have been notable and admirable” (Sewall, Life 369).
Recommended Citation
Whitaker, Rosemary. Helen Hunt Jackson. Boise, ID: Boise State University, 1987. Digital. Western Writers Series, 78.