Benjamin F. NewtonWhen Emily Dickinson was eighteen years, the family befriended a young attorney who had been employed by her father named Benjamin F. Newton. Although their relationship was said to not be romantic, he had a colossal impact on Emily's writings.
He was a formative influence and would become the second in a series of men that Emily referred to as her tutor and preceptor. He introduced her to the classical literature works of William Wordsworth and presented the gift of a collection of Ralph Waldo Emerson's Poetry that liberated her interest. He was the first to encourage her to write. Newton held her in high regard and viewed her as a poet. When Newton was dying, he wrote to her and told her to continue to live until she achieved the greatness that he foresaw in her. In the following statement written in 1862, it is believed that it was describing Newton: "When a little Girl, I had a friend, who taught me Immortality – but venturing too near, himself – he never returned" |