Emily Dickinson was a woman of powerful voice, strong emotions, and incredible intellectual ability. With the help of her family background, education, and other life experiences, Emily was able to begin her life as a writer to clearly and sharply describe her emotions and life story during the period of the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was a time of many changes and adaptations for America as seen in the invention of the railroad, the appearances of monopolies, immigration increases, and many other radical observations of change and expansion. However, there was also an increase in literature during this time period and Emily Dickinson was one of the most prominent and influential writers of her time. Despite the fact that her works were not…show more content… Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 and lived her whole life in Amherst, Massachusetts on North Pleasant Street (“Emily Dickinson: Her Childhood and Youth”). Emily was the second child to be born into the Dickinson family and was named after her mother, Emily Dickinson. Emily and her mother did not have a strong relationship and young Emily would often write to her friends regarding her family dynamics. Emily’s broken relationship with her mother is seen in a letter that Emily wrote to her friend and mentor Thomas Wentworth Higginson, "Could you tell me what home is. I never had a mother. I suppose a mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled” (Lombardi, n.d.). Emily’s father, Edward Dickinson, and her mother also had two other children named William Austin Dickinson and Lavinia Norcross Dickinson. Edward Dickinson was a lawyer, participated in the Whig party, was part of the Massachusetts State Legislature and Senate, and was the Massachusetts representative for the United States Congress for one term. Following in his father’s footsteps, William Dickinson became a lawyer as well and later became a Treasurer for