Elizabeth Bishop
Page 42
flew to New York: EB datebook, 1977, VC 120.6.
280 “Those are bulls’ eyes”: MS to EB, February 13, 1956, WU.
“Miss Elizabeth”: Henry Rosovsky to David Perkins, May 13, 1976, VC 40.8.
“creativity”: EB, “IF YOU WANT TO WRITE WELL ALWAYS AVOID THESE WORDS,” facsimile in BPR 252. The word “creativity” is underlined in this 1975 list for EB’s prose-writing class.
refused to teach: EBC 141.
“age of poet-teachers”: WIA 202.
281 “new home, alone”: WIA 757.
“looked awfully well”: OA 606.
“a lot of your”: WIA 761.
“looked tragic”: WIA 684.
“quite sensitive, low-keyed poems”: WIA 686.
group that included: WIA 685.
“my best pupils”: BNY 353.
282 “LAMB”: EB datebook, 1977, March 1 entry, VC 120.6.
“it seemed as if thirty”: WIA 793.
“talking emotionally”: WIA 780.
“lonely warmth”: WIA 764.
“hurt”: EB datebook, 1977, March 5 entry, VC 120.6.
superintendent: Sandra Barry, “Lifting Yesterday: Elizabeth Bishop & Nova Scotia,” (unpublished ms., copyright 2014), chapter 5, 23.
283 “motherly” feelings: WIA 766.
“trees & lilacs”: EB datebook, 1977, May 15 entry and following, VC 120.6.
“I think on clear”: WIA 793.
“Santarém”: BP 207–8.
284 “When you are dying”: RL, “Artist’s Model 2,” LP 682.
historic marker: WIA 791.
“your dishevelment”: WIA 778.
“shy but full of”: WIA 776.
285 “done”: WIA 796–97.
“spoiling”: WIA 757.
“I already miss their presence”: WIA 793.
“You command your words”: WIA 785.
folded in his wallet: “The Armadillo,” WIA 324; “Under the Window: Ouro Prêto,” WIA 613; “Five Flights Up,” WIA 762.
“we were swimming”: WIA 776.
“thin and arty”: WIA 181.
“One does use”: WIA 758.
“the pleasure of pure”: WIA 760.
“never met a woman”: Frank Bidart in conversation with the author, April 20, 2015.
“White Goddess”: LP 432.
286 “gay . . . Shakespearian”: BNHJ 41.
“Buttercups, Red Clover”: EB, “North Haven,” BP 210–11.
“talk . . . with confidence”: WIA 298.
“My Darling receding”: WIA 234.
“Hadn’t two rivers”: EB, “Santarém,” BP 207.
“truth”: OA 618.
287 “It had a bit of”: Amram Shapiro email to the author, December 1, 2015.
“books everywhere”: OA 594; Cosí fan tutte: Daniel Kessler, Sarah Caldwell: First Woman of Opera (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008), 231.
“house of my dreams”: EB to AM, July 9, 1971, VC 115.5.
288 “unknown relatives”: Mildred J. Nash, “Elizabeth Bishop’s Library: A Reminiscence,” EBC 136.
“just never worked out”: Nash, “Elizabeth Bishop’s Library,” 136.
“decrepit”: EB to AM, March 31, 1971, VC 114.40.
“someone’s grandmother”: EB to Robert Fitzgerald, March 1, 1979, Robert Fitzgerald Papers, Box 4, Folder 131, YCAL.
“Robert Fitzgerald’s older”: Nash, “Elizabeth Bishop’s Library,” 136.
“a grandfather”: EB to Robert Fitzgerald, March 1, 1979, Robert Fitzgerald Papers, Box 4, Folder 131, YCAL.
289 “booze and groceries”: OA 628.
“stray dogs”: EB datebook, 1978, December 6 entry, VC 120.7.
wild poppies: EB travel journal, Greece, 1979. This small Vassar College notebook has a “blood-red” poppy pressed into it, along with other notes on the color of poppies. VC 121.3.
“in a sort of daze”: BNY 397.
“our beach”: EB datebook, 1978, July 18 entry, VC 120.7.
“intensely quiet”: BNHJ 41.
“millions of blueberries”: BNHJ 41.
“Moon Pudding”: BNHJ 44.
“badly written”: BNHJ 42.
290 “in many editions”: OA 498.
“eye to eye”: BNHJ 43.
“Such fogginess seems to make”: OA 637.
“The Foggy Summer”: BNHJ 47.
“The sun has come out!”: BNY 400.
English 582: OA 637.
“‘nice’ to an old lady”: EB to AM, March 31, 1971, VC 114.40.
291 on the floor of her bedroom: Brett Millier writes that Alice Methfessel found Elizabeth collapsed in her Lewis Wharf study, “the telephone off the hook beside her, when she arrived to take her to dinner at Helen Vendler’s.” EBL 550. Frank Bidart, who was called to the scene, confirms the account given in REB: “Bishop died in her apartment . . . while she was dressing for dinner at Helen Vendler’s. Methfessel found her on the floor in her bedroom when she came to Lewis Wharf to pick her up.” REB 349. Frank Bidart email to Lloyd Schwartz, March 14, 2016. Bidart adds: “Her face was calm, wiped of any expression of pain or dismay.”
“veiled confession”: EBL 545.
292 “Caught—the bubble”: EB, “Sonnet,” BP 214.
“Woms. Lib.”: EB to AM, February 21, 1971, VC 114.32.
“Sapphic”: EB to AM, July 4, 1972, VC 115.13.
“really a sick book”: EB to AM, March 23, 1971, VC 114.36.
293 “Santarém”: BP 207.
Through the early 1970s: John D’Emilio and Estelle B. Freeman, Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 324.
“delighted”: BNY 391.
“a gay drunken party”: EB datebook, 1978, October 11 entry, VC 120.7.
294 “Where Courtesy Prevails”: EB to AM, February 25, 1971, VC 114.34.
“Closets, closets”: REB 330.
“life-style”: EB, “IF YOU WANT TO WRITE WELL ALWAYS AVOID THESE WORDS,” BPR 252.
“restore . . . gay”: Schwartz, “Elizabeth Bishop: Sonnet.”
“just under water”: BNHJ 41.
295 “it may be what everyone”: BPPL 896. EB also included “to have sex” on her list, “IF YOU WANT TO WRITE WELL ALWAYS AVOID THESE WORDS,” BPR 252.
documentary filmmaker: Jill Janows, Elizabeth Bishop: One Art. Written, produced, and directed by Jill Janows. Produced by the New York Center for Visual History for Voices & Visions, its thirteen-part documentary film series on modern American poetry. Running time: 60 minutes. PBS broadcast: 1988. Distributor: Annenberg Learner.
“Close close all night”: EAP 141.
296 “Once in the night”: EAP 336.
“mind in action”: EBC 26.
“go whistling by”: EB, “Behind Stowe,” BPPL 184.
“This is just the sketchiest”: EB to Anne Stevenson, March 23, 1964, BPR 433.
297 “What one seems”: EB to Anne Stevenson, January 8, 1964, BPR 414.
“looking for something”: EB, “Sandpiper,” BP 129.
ENVOY: JANUARY 23, 2014, PATOU THAI, BELMONT CENTER
298 “poetry department”: letter from “The Editors” of the New Yorker (“To Our Contributors”) to the author, May 23, 1977.298
“The manuscript we are returning”: The Editors of the Atlantic Monthly to the author, November 15, 1977.
299 “Crusoe in England”: BP 185.
300 “wonderfully sculptural”: Joe Gonnella to the author, postmarked February 6, 1977.
“Fog”: Amy Clampitt, The Collected Poems of Amy Clampitt (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999), 7.
301 “I really don’t know”: OA 596.301
nature preserve: Habitat Education Center and Wildlife Preserve, Belmont, Massachusetts.
302 “discontinuity of female”: Adrienne Rich, “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision,” College English 34, no. 1 (October 1972), 23.302
“I am just not made”: EB to AB, Washington’s Birthday, 1970, VC 23.7.
303 Hundreds of pages: EB’s letters to AM from the early 1970s were not among those locked in the file box, although they were withheld by AM from the collection she sold to Vassar College in 1981. These were acquired by VC from AM’s heir in 2010, the contents of the locked file box in 2011. David Hoak emails to the author, October 4, 5, and 8, 2016.
304 “geographic curiosity”: OA 386.304
“something slightly unpleasant”:OA283.304
“you have to pretend”: OA 363.304
“Henry James did it”: OA 375.304
“all too vague”: EB to AM, May 7, 1971, VC 115.2.304
“just can’t write”: EB to AM, April 1, 1971, VC 115.1.
“Have you a few minutes?”: EB to AM, June 26, 1972, VC 115.11.
“grit my teeth”: OA 314.
305 “immortal”: WIA 380.
“short, but immortal, poem”: EB, “In Prison,” BPR 23.
“If you squint a little”: OA 601.
Index
* * *
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.
A
Adams House, 41–42
Aeneid (Virgil, trans. Fitzgerald), 191, 193
Agassiz House, 1–4
Aiken, Conrad, 22
alcohol
Bishop’s drinking and, 57–62, 70–74, 80–90, 100–101, 108–9, 114, 149, 164–65, 182–86, 197–200, 207–8, 217–21, 226–27, 240–43, 258–59, 261, 264–69, 277–78, 289, 347 n262
Bishop’s father and, 85, 262
Dylan Thomas and, 87–88, 129–30, 347 n262
Fitzgerald’s father and, 191–93, 347 n262
Aleijadinho, 119
Allen, Clifford, 175–76
All the King’s Men (Warren), 235
Almyda, Hannah, 118
Amazon Town (Wagley), 150
An American Dream (Mailer), 292
“Americanism” (Bishop), 19
Amy Lowell Traveling Scholarship, 116, 152
“Anaphora” (Bishop), 75
Anhembi, 119
Anorexyl, 222
Antabuse pills, 149, 167–70, 173, 183, 197–98, 264
APA (American Psychiatric Association), 107, 175–76
Araújo, Lilli Correia de, 157, 157, 158, 170–86, 182, 195–205, 218–21
Araújo, Pedro Correia de, 157–58
Archera, Laura, 84, 144, 144–45, 145, 146, 170, 200, 209, 290
“The Armadillo” (Bishop), 130, 134, 327 n130
“Arrival at Santos” (Bishop), 111
Arvin, Newton, 294
Ashbery, John, 1–4, 280
asthma, 15–18, 25, 53–54, 64, 77, 84–90, 112–14, 126–27, 195–96, 264, 282–83
Atlantic Monthly, 75, 298–300
Marshall’s submission to, 298
Atlas, James, 281, 284
“At the Fishhouses” (Bishop), 81–83, 113, 129, 137, 228–29, 260, 319 n82
Auden, W. H., 60, 86, 116, 228, 247
Aunt Sally, 137–38
autobiographical poetry, 54–55, 129, 149, 206–221, 258–259, 295–296, 339 n207
awards (for EB), 74–90, 98–102, 106, 115–116, 123, 132, 161, 184, 203, 221–222, 278–279, 286–287
See also specific awards and fellowships
B
Bandeira, Manuel, 117, 277
Barker, Kit and Ilse, 322 n104
Barnes, Djuna, 175
Baumann, Anny, 77, 80, 88–89, 108–10, 115, 199–204, 216–19, 224–26, 261, 275–77, 286–87
Beauvoir, Simone de, 107
“Behind Stowe” (Bishop), 28–29, 296
Bellargel pills, 88–89
“Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter” (Ransom), 332 n165
Bennington College, 38–44, 91–93, 188
Berg, Charles, 176
Berryman, John, 206, 276, 339 n207
Bidart, Frank, 43, 136–37, 140–41, 256, 265–70, 277–84, 290–91, 298, 304, 352 n291
Biele, Joelle, 326nn126–27
Bigelow, Florence, 26
“The Bight” (Bishop), 113–14, 260
“Birthdays” (Marshall), 136–37, 298–300
Bishop, Elizabeth
alcohol and, 57–58, 61–62, 70–74, 80, 84–86, 88–90, 100–101, 108–9, 149, 164–65, 182, 184–86, 197–200, 207–8, 217–21, 226–27, 242–43, 258–59, 264, 269, 277–78, 289, 347 n262
autobiographical poetry and, 54–55, 129, 149, 206–21, 258–59, 295–96, 339 n207
awards and fellowships for, 74–90, 98–102, 106, 115–16, 123, 132, 161, 184, 203, 221–22, 278–79, 286–87
childhood of, 7–21, 31
death of, 286, 288–91, 296–97, 352 n291
education of, 21, 24–34, 45–46
illnesses of, 15–16, 18, 25–26, 53–54, 57–58, 64, 70–71, 77, 102–3, 112, 114, 126–27, 149, 166–70, 195–96, 204, 222, 240–41, 264, 267–68, 282–84, 349 n277
images of, 9, 15, 23, 25, 33, 37, 56, 58, 63, 73, 85, 109, 116, 144, 163, 182, 231, 241, 266, 280
inheritance of, 24, 49, 58
Marianne Moore and, 51–60, 62–63, 65–70, 72–75, 77, 106–9, 111–12, 115, 122–23, 126, 137, 177, 221, 228–29
memorial service for, 1–4, 310 n1
music and, 16, 29–30, 36, 50, 88
as Poetry Consultant, 85–88, 146–47
Portuguese language and, 116–17, 171, 186
psychoanalysis and, 18, 28, 74–83, 107, 125, 201–6, 220–21, 312 n18
readings by, 43, 87, 130, 231, 232–38, 244
Robert Lowell and, 76, 83–90, 125–34, 147–48, 150–52, 159, 161, 163–70, 210, 217–18, 225–31, 245–46, 251–57, 277, 284–86, 304–5, 339 n207
romantic relationships of, 47–49, 51, 56–66, 70–75, 79–85, 99–112, 144, 146–47, 154–64, 170–81, 195–201, 206–31, 239–45, 262–65, 267–68, 270–76, 278, 290–91, 294–95, 321 n103
short fiction of, 65, 84–85, 89–90, 103–4, 127–29, 207, 305, 315 n51
shyness of, 3–4, 17, 27, 30–31, 64, 84–85, 125–27, 149, 162, 171
translation work of, 58, 115, 122, 126, 128, 223–24, 276–77
wills of, 214–15, 268–77
works of. See specific titles
writing courses of, 93–97, 135–41, 187–94, 225–26, 236–37, 239–46, 255, 266–67, 275–76, 278–84, 298–305
See also alcohol; asthma; mental illness; specific friends, places, and romantic partners
Bishop, Florence (aunt), 16, 27–28, 123, 208–9
Bishop, Gertrude (mother), 7–18, 11, 28, 44–46, 79–81, 89–90, 125, 165
Bishop, Jack (uncle), 15–16, 21–24, 27, 46, 58
Bishop, John W. (grandfather), 8, 14, 86
Bishop, Ruby (aunt), 21
Bishop, Sarah Foster (grandmother), 14–17
Bishop, William (father), 7–8, 12, 45
Black Orpheus (film), 119
Blackwood, Caroline, 43, 254–55, 281–84
Bloomfield, Morton, 246
Blough, Frani, 25, 28–29, 44–46, 59, 63, 170, 259–60, 290
Blue Pencil, 25, 26, 28–29, 101
Bly, Robert, 304
Blythewood Sanitarium, 85
Bogan, Louise, 75, 123, 264
Bollingen Prize, 87
Boogie (Cumming’s son), 219–22
Booth, Philip, 131
Boston, 8, 19, 261, 284–86, 288–91
Bowplate (ship), 98–99, 101
Boys, C. V., 21
Bradley, Louise, 312 n22
Brant, Alice. See Morley, Helena
Brasília, 143, 146, 171, 203
Brave New World (Huxley), 143
Brazil
Bishop’s travels in, 98–102, 119–20, 142–47, 150, 152–54, 203–5
homosexuality and, 107–8, 294
political upheaval in, 117, 143, 159–60, 172–73, 199, 213
work composed in, 112–25, 149–70<
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See also Ouro Prêto; Petrópolis; Rio de Janeiro; Samambaia; specific people and poems
Brazil (Bishop), 167–70, 178, 211
“Breakfast Song” (Bishop), 251
Breton, André, 58
Briggs-Copeland Lectureship, 245
Bright’s disease, 8
Brinnin, John Malcolm, 260, 289
Brooks, Cleanth, 236
Brooks, Paul, 113
Brown, Ashley, 174, 177
Brown v. Board of Education, 118–19
Bulmer, Elizabeth and William (grandparents), 9–10, 13, 20, 56
Bulmer, Frank (cousin), 20, 165
Bulmer, Grace (aunt), 18, 18, 19, 24, 52, 54, 160, 229–31, 282, 288
Bulmer, Maud (aunt), 17, 18, 18–21, 24–25, 27, 121–22, 129, 230–31
C
cachaça, 151–52, 167, 197, 241
See also alcohol
Calamity Jane’s Letters to Her Daughter (pamphlet), 235
Calder, Alexander, 102, 104, 188, 212
Caldwell, Sarah, 287
“Calling” (Lowell), 225
Camp Chequesset, 22–24, 36, 75
“Campus Chat” (column), 32
Cantos (Pound), 87
Can You Hear Their Voices? (drama), 31
car accidents, 62–64, 79, 112–13, 199–200
Carlyle, Jane, 180
Carlyle, Thomas, 180
“The Carlyles” (Bishop), 180
Carnival, 120, 158, 186, 224–25
Caroline Shop, 71–72, 71
Carson, Rachel, 147
Carter, Elliott, 141, 278
Carter, Jimmy, 137
Carver, Catharine, 213
Casal, Mary, 50
Casa Mariana, 204, 221–24, 262, 268, 287–88
See also Ouro Prêto
Castelo Branco, Humberto, 173, 183, 213
Caudwell, Christopher, 78
“The Change of Philomel” (Marshall), 138–39
Charles Darwin Research Center, 271