Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson lived for most of her life in the family home known as Homestead. Her sister Lavinia also lived at the house, which was built by her grandfather. A prolific writer, Dickinson wrote more than 1,800 poems during her lifetime, but never published a single book of poetry. The dozen or so poems that were published were done so anonymously. Why she never published under her own name is unclear to this day. Dickinson would produce hundreds of poems in a year, especially in the early 1860s. Her failing eyesight and other health problems curtailed…