The series, which stars Hailee Steinfeld as the titular Dickinson, is certainly based on fact, but a whole lot of fiction has come into play, too. For one, much of Dickinson's life was filled with more death and tragedy that it was Lizzo and Billie Eilish songs. But looking back at the timeline of her life, things are a bit spotty. Dickinson only achieved fame after her death, when over a thousand of her poems finally saw the light of day. Considering that she wasn’t a figure of note during her lifetime — and the fact that she removed herself from society for the later half of her life — there’s not a ton of concrete evidence to go off of when it comes to what she was like and how she lived, but there letters. Loads and loads of letters.