Elizabeth Bishop centennial
After 100 years, who couldn鈥檛 use a facelift?
That seems to be the idea behind a new line of Elizabeth Bishop books being released today to mark the centennial of Bishop鈥檚 birth. The publishing project repackages material from previous books but also includes other material that hasn鈥檛 been brought between covers before. The book releases coincide with public celebrations of Bishop鈥檚 birthday centennial this week in New York City and Boston.
Born in Worcester, Mass. on Feb. 8, 1911, Bishop had become known as one of America鈥檚 leading poets before her death in Boston on Oct. 6, 1979. Bishop also penned a number of prose pieces, including travelogue, and she was a boundlessly prolific letter writer, too.
6 books to beat the winter blues
Farrar, Straus and Giroux is releasing three books today that hint at Bishop鈥檚 productivity across multiple genres.
鈥�,鈥� issued in a $16 softcover, includes all of the poems that Bishop saw into print and a selection of unfinished, posthumously published work.
鈥�,鈥� a $20 softcover, features pieces from an earlier collection of Bishop鈥檚 prose, but also includes 鈥� for the first time 鈥� the original draft of 鈥�Brazil,鈥� a travelogue that she repudiated in its initially published version after a dispute over editorial changes.
A third book, 鈥�,鈥� collects within a $35 hardcover the letters that Bishop exchanged over many years with New Yorker editors Charles Pearce, Katharine White, and Harold Moss. The magazine frequently published Bishop鈥檚 work and greatly enhanced her profile.
Although Bishop was born in Massachusetts and eventually died there, family circumstances and a wandering spirit took her far beyond her native state. After her father died and her mother was committed to a mental asylum, Bishop was sent to live with her mother鈥檚 parents in Nova Scotia, and she later lived with her father鈥檚 family in Worcester and Boston. Stints in Europe and Florida followed, and she lived for many years in Brazil after falling ill there in 1951 and decided to extend her stay.
The physical and emotional displacements of Bishop's youth often gave her poems the distinct perspective of an outsider, and her work is known for its detached, exactingly precise sense of observation. A prot茅g茅 of the poet Marianne Moore, Bishop also embraced Moore's sharp attention to the natural world.
For readers who want to know more about Bishop鈥檚 life and work, the offers a brief biography of the poet and a sampling of her poems.
Readers in the New York City and Boston areas can also sample her work at two public readings this week. On Tuesday, Feb. 8, at 7 pm, The Great Hall at New York City's Cooper Union will feature 20 poets, each reading a favorite Bishop poem. More information is available at the site of the .
On Thursday night at 7, another group of poets will gather at the to read from Bishop鈥檚 poetry.
Both events are free and open to the public.
Danny Heitman, a columnist for The Baton Rouge Advocate, is the author of 鈥淎 Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House.鈥�
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