Hampshire College
- Local Atmosphere

Five Fun Facts about Amherst:
• Hampshire College’s Yiddish Book Center houses the world’s largest collection of Yiddish literature.
• Democrats outnumber Republicans in Amherst by more than eight to one.
• The student population of Amherst (including Amherst, Hampshire, and UMass) equals half the population of the entire town.
• Poet Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst and lived her entire life here. The house she was born in is now the site of a Mobil gas station and the house she lived in, the Dickinson Homestead, is now a museum.
• Unlike other towns its size, Amherst still governs itself in a town-meeting format, in contrast to the mayor-council or council-manager format.

Famous People from or Who Lived in the Amherst Area:
Lord Jeffery Amherst
Susan B. Anthony
Dr. Virginia Apgar
Madeline Blais
William Cullen Bryant
Eric Carle
Elaine Chao
Daniel Chester-French
Calvin Coolidge
Emily Dickinson
Jane Dyer
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
Martin Espada
Robert Francis
Robert Frost
Dr. Gloria Johnson-Powell
Joseph Langland
Herman Melville
Suzan-Lori Parks
Dr. Seuss
James Tate
Wendy Wasserstein
Noah Webster
Edith Whaton

Local Slang:
Am’erst – Locals drop the “h,” whereas new or resistant students will not. (“There’s an ‘h,’ it should be pronounced ‘Am-HERST’!”)
Beantown – Boston
Grinder – A submarine sandwich
Jimmies – Sprinkles
Pissa! – Massachusetts slang for “cool”
Sketchy – Suspicious; shady
The Cape – Cape Cod
The Pike – The Massachusetts turnpike
Wicked – Slang word used to emphasize a description, like “very” (“It’s wicked cold outside.”)