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Elizabeth Bishop

Life and the Memory of It
by Brett C. Millier (Author)
Paperback
Price: $38.95 / £33.00
Publication Date: Sep 1995
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 602
ISBN: 9780520203457
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About the Book

Elizabeth Bishop dedicated her poetry to telling “what really happened.” Yet what really happened in the life on one of the twentieth century's finest and most beloved American poets has eluded readers for years. In this first full biography, Brett Millier pieces together the compelling and painful story of Bishop's life and traces the writing of her brilliantly crafted poems.

About the Author

Brett C. Millier is Associate Professor of American Literature and Civilization at Middlebury College in Vermont.

Table of Contents

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I
THE SCREAM
1911-I930

2
"THE HIGHER TYPES"
1930-1934

3
THE U.S.A. SCHOOL OF WRITING
1934-1935

4
"EVERYTHING CONNECTED ONLY BY
'AND' AND 'AND'"
1935-1936

5
PITY SUCH SORROW
1937

6
"WELL, WE HAVE COME THIS FAR."
1938-1940

7
NORTH & SOUTH
1941-1946

8
"PLOUGHING THROUGH LIFE ALONE"
1947-1949

9
THE INDRAWN YES
1949-1951

IO
BRAZIL
1951-1952

II
"A DELUXE NOVA SCOTIA"
1952-1956

12
"SOBRIETY & GAYETY & PATIENCE & TOUGHNESS"
1956-1960

I3
AT WHAT ... COST
IN NERVOUS ENERGY?
1961-1963

14
"THERE IS NO RAILROAD NAMED DELIGHT."
1964-1965

15
THE ART OF LOSING
1966-1967

16
A TOTALLY WASTED STRETCH
1968-1970

I7
CRUSOE IN ENGLAND
1970-1971

18
"HALF GROAN, HALF ACCEPTANCE"
1972

19
ON THE WAY BACK
1973-1976

20
NORTH HAVEN
1977-1979

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Illustrations

Reviews

"An excellent biography."
— New York Times Book Review
"Unlike Lowell and other poets of her time, Bishop disdained the confessional, but Millier's authoritative reading of her poems suggests how they allude glancingly, through ironic veils of fable and allegory, to her homosexuality, her alcoholism, and her paralyzing depression. This biography will act as a powerful corrective to the impression of serene perfection engendered by the greatest of Bishop's poems; they were in no way as easy to write as their author made them seem."
— New Yorker