WILLIAM AUSTIN DICKINSON: Only brother to the poet, Emily Dickinson. Lived next door at The Evergreens in Amherst, Massachusetts
SUSAN (SUE) DICKINSON: Girlhood friend, sister-in-law and keen reader of Emily Dickinson’s poems. Shared books with the poet
LAVINIA (VINNIE) DICKINSON: Emily’s devoted younger sister
MABEL LOOMIS TODD: Co-editor and then editor of the first volumes of Emily Dickinson’s poems and letters. Austin Dickinson’s mistress
DAVID PECK TODD: Professor of astronomy at Amherst College and philandering husband of Mabel Todd
EDWARD DICKINSON: Formidable father of Austin, Emily and Vinnie
MRS DICKINSON: Emily Norcross Dickinson, wife of the above
COUSIN ZEBINA MONTAGUE: An invalid of sorts living in seclusion with his sister Harriet, almost opposite the Dickinsons
MARY LYON: Founder of Mount Holyoke College in 1836 and still presiding in 1847 when Emily Dickinson arrived
JANE HUMPHREY: Schoolmistress. Emily Dickinson’s beloved friend
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN NEWTON: Young lawyer in Edward Dickinson’s office and first mentor to the poet after college
MARTHA (MAT) GILBERT: Elder sister of Susan Gilbert. Confidential girlhood friend of Emily Dickinson
KATE SCOTT TURNER: A young widow, one-time school-friend of Susan Dickinson
SAMUEL (SAM) BOWLES: Editor of the Springfield Republican, who published some of the poet’s most daring works in the early 1860s
MARY BOWLES: Unhappy, invalidish wife of the above, alternately teased and comforted by Emily Dickinson
LOUISA (LOO) AND FRANCES (FANNY) NORCROSS: Cousins and intimates of Emily Dickinson
JAMES JACKSON: Distinguished Boston physician, consulted in difficult cases. Emily Dickinson saw him when she was twenty years old
THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON: Boston man of letters, sympathetic to aspiring women. Co-edited the first volumes of Dickinson’s poems
HELEN HUNT JACKSON: Amherst schoolfellow and supporter of Emily Dickinson. Well-known writer on the wrongs of Native Americans
JUDGE OTIS PHILLIPS LORD: Friend of the poet’s father, who became a suitor of Emily Dickinson
EDWARD (NED) DICKINSON: elder son of Austin and Susan Dickinson, nephew to Emily Dickinson
MARTHA (MATTIE) DICKINSON (MADAME BIANCHI): only daughter of Austin and Susan Dickinson. Loyal to mother and ‘Aunt Emily’
MAGGIE MAHER: Servant to the Dickinson sisters
MILLICENT TODD BINGHAM: Studious only child of David and Mabel Todd. Inherited her mother’s chest of Dickinson Papers
ALFRED LEETE HAMPSON: Companion to the poet’s niece Mattie Dickinson Bianchi. Heir of the Dickinson Papers. Married Mary Landis
WILLIAM (BILL) MCCARTHY: Agent for the Dickinson Papers
GILBERT MONTAGUE: Donor of the Dickinson Papers to Harvard
WILLIAM JACKSON: Curator of the Houghton Library, who acquired the bulk of the Dickinson Papers.
* It is difficult to know what to call writers who share surnames with men known in their own right. It is therefore often convenient to use first names but all reference to them as authors will use the names on their books