Friendship with Principal Leonard Humphrey at Amherst Academy
Poet involved
What happened
In 1846, Leonard Humphrey, a young educator in his early twenties, became principal of Amherst Academy in Amherst, Massachusetts. Emily Dickinson grew close to him as a friend and mentor, one of several older men she would later refer to as a 'master' in her letters.
Literary impact
Humphrey's intellectual encouragement during Dickinson's formative school years helped shape her confidence as a thinker and writer. His sudden death in 1850 would become one of her early adult griefs, and the 'master' figure he represented would recur throughout her poetry as an idealized, often unattainable object of devotion and instruction.
Source: Wikipedia
