Poet Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts. Dickinson was born into a prominent, but not a wealthy family. Her grandfather had helped found Amherst College and her father was a lawyer. As a child, Dickinson was well behaved and displayed a talent for music, especially the piano. Dickinson attended Amherst Academy and briefly Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, but returned home after just 10 months. For a while, she enjoyed the local events of the college town of Amherst and took pleasure in household activities, particularly baking. However, by the mid-1850s, her mother was bedridden with illness and Dickinson took on additional household responsibilities in addition to caring for her mother. This gave her little time to leave the house, but Dickinson found refuge in her books and nature.