According to Michael Ryan of the John Hopkins University Press, "There is no information in Emily Dickinson's poems that separates her from us. Instead of merely referring to the experience of the writer, the poem is made to be an experience for the reader. He would like to have a fraction of her focus: the most intense focus ever of any writer I know. She is a model of devotion to the practice of poetry. Writing poems for her was life-sustaining, even life-creating. It created the place in which she fully experienced her experience.  What she made in her poems she used in her life"

HOW POPULAR WAS EMILY DICKINSON? According to Roy Harvey Pearce, "Emily Dickinson is one of the most widely read and well known American poets. Dickinson kept her writing, as well as her writerly intentions, as simple as possible. She is simply and starkly concerned with being herself and accommodating her view of the world to that concern

DID SHE MAKE A LIVING AT OR DID SHE WALLOW IN POVERTY? According to Richard B Sewall's, "Emily Dickinson gradually withdrew from the world and spent much of her life secluded in the family home. She helped with all the work of a large 19th-century household, rising before dawn every day to make the fires and prepare the family breakfast and looking after the conservatory and garden. With her sister Lavinia, she nursed their mother in her final illness. Emily Dickinson had only a handful of poems published during her lifetime. After her death she became an overnight sensation. Only eight of her poems were published during her lifetime, the rest being circulated in manuscript form among her friends and family. Only eight of her poems were published during her lifetime, the rest being circulated in manuscript form among her friends and family.”

WHAT IMPACT DID THEIR POETRY HAVE?  According to sister lavinia of the Amherst Library “Dickinson's poetry reflects her loneliness and the speakers of her poems generally live in a state of want, but her poems are also marked by the intimate recollection of inspirational moments which are decidedly life-giving and suggest the possibility of happiness. The people with whom she did come in contact, however, had an enormous impact on her thoughts and poetry.”

GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS?  According to Esther Lombardi, “Emily Dickinson contributed a great deal to the world of literature. With the extra time being isolated in her room, gave her more then just time to write and reflect. Dickinson had a unique perspective on life, death, love, nature, and friendship. She didn't need titles. Her lines spoke volumes”.

WHAT BOOKS WERE THE MOST POPULAR? Collected Poems Of Emily Dickinson (hardcover), by Emily Dickinson (Author), Mabel Loomis Todd (Editor), T.W. Higginson (Editor).  Poems: Second Series was published in 1891 and ran to five editions bye 1893; a third series was published in 1895 of Dickinson’s letters.