Bishop, Elizabeth, 1911–79, American poet, b. Worcester, Mass., grad. Vassar, 1934. During the 1950s and 60s she lived in Brazil, eventually returning to her native New England, where she taught at Harvard (1970–77). Her first volume of poetry, North and South (1946), was reprinted with additions as North and South—A Cold Spring (1955; Pulitzer Prize). Her poetic vision is penetrating and detached; her style is subtle yet conversational. Without straining for novelty, she finds symbolic significance in objects and events quietly observed and scrupulously described. Among her other works are her Complete Poems (1979), The Collected Prose (1984), Geography III (1985); several travel books, notably Questions of Travel (1965) and Brazil (1967); and the posthumously published Edger Allan Poe & the Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts and Fragments (2006). With Emanuel Brasil she edited An Anthology of Twentieth Century Brazilian Poetry (1972) and she also translated the works of several Brazilian poets.

Bibliography

See her One Art: Letters, selected correspondence ed. by R. Giroux (1994); biographies by A. Stevenson (1966), B. C. Millier (1993), and G. Fountain and P. Brazeau (1994); C. L. Oliveira, Rare and Commonplace Flowers: The Story of Elizabeth Bishop and Lota de Macedo Soares (2002); studies by R. D. Parker (1988), T. J. Tavisano (1988), B. Costello (1991), L. Goldensohn (1992), C. Doreski (1993), S. McCabe (1994), M. M. Lombardi (1995), A. Colwell (1997), A. Stevenson (1998), and X. Zhou (1999).

Bishop, Elizabeth

(born Feb. 8, 1911, Worcester, Mass., U.S.—died Oct. 6, 1979, Boston, Mass.) U.S. poet. Bishop was reared by relatives in Nova Scotia, Can., after her father died and her mother was institutionalized. In the 1950s and '60s she lived principally in Brazil with the Brazilian woman she loved. Her first book of poems (1946) contrasts her New England origins and her love of hot climates; reprinted with additions as North & South: A Cold Spring (1955), it received the Pulitzer Prize. Her works are celebrated for their formal brilliance and their close observations of everyday reality. They have elicited much admiration from other poets. Posthumous publications include The Collected Prose (1984) and One Art (1994), a collection of her letters.

Bishop, Elizabeth (1911–79) poet, writer; born in Worcester, Mass. She graduated from Vassar College (B.A. 1934), traveled widely, was the Consultant in Poetry, Library of Congress (1949–50), spent many years in Brazil (1951–c. 1972), and taught at Harvard (1970–79). She is known for her meditative and personal poetry, as seen in the collection, North and South—A Cold Spring (1955).