Emily Dickinson was a brilliant American poet and an obsessively private writer. Only seven of his eighteen hundred poems were published during his lifetime. Dickinson withdrew from social contact at the age of twenty-three and devoted herself to secretly writing poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on December 10, 1830. There he spent much of his life living in the house built in 1813 by his grandfather. , Samuel Fowler Dickinson. His role in founding Amherst College in 1821 began the family tradition of public service continued by Dickinson's father, Edward, and his brother Austin. All of the men in the Dickinson family were lawyers, and the Dickinson house was a center of Amherst society and the site of Amherst College's annual initiation receptions. (Crumbley par.2) Growing up in a family with such domineering men had a negative impact on Dickinson. She longed to be a political figure like her father and brothers, but the only thing holding her back was the fact that she was a woman. Dickinson wanted to have a life dedicated to political action and public service, but that too was an impossible dream. This, however, was a perfect push for her to make herself known and prepare her for her life as a poet. Dickinson's mother, Emily Norcross Dickinson, was not such a powerful presence in her life; it seems he wasn't as emotionally accessible as Dickinson would have liked. Her daughter is said to have called her not the kind of mother "you rush to when you're upset." 1848. (Literature Network par.2) There Emily was known for her reluctance to publicly confess her faith in Christ. Being defined as a person with "no hope" of salvation, Dickinson began to feel isolated from other students. In 1848, Dickinson wrote to her friend Abiah Root: "I am not happy and regret the last quarter, when that golden opportunity was mine, that I did not give up and become a Christian." In 1850, Emily wrote similar sentiments to her friend Jane Humphrey: "Christ is calling all here, all my companions have answered, even my dear Vinnie thinks he loves and trusts him, and I am alone in the rebellion." (Crumbley par.4) Dickinson's experience at Mount Holyoke discovered her independence which fueled her writing and led her to stop attending church in her thirties.