Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02940-8 - The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop Edited by Angus Cleghorn and Jonathan Ellis Frontmatter More information The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop is increasingly recognized as one of the twentieth century’s most important and original poets. Initially celebrated for the minute detail of her descriptions, what John Ashbery memorably called her “thinginess,” Bishop’s reputation has risen dramatically since her death, in part owing to the publication of new work, including letters, stories, and visual art, as well as a controversial volume of uncollected poems, drafts, and fragments. This Companion to Elizabeth Bishop engages with key debates surrounding the interpretation and reception of Bishop’s published and unpublished writing in relation to questions of biography, the natural world, and politics. Individual chapters focus on well-known texts such as North & South, Questions of Travel , and Geography III , while offering fresh readings of the signifi cance of Nova Scotia, Massachusetts, and Brazil to Bishop’s life and work. With a chronology and guide to further reading, this volume explores the full range of Bishop’s artistic achievements and the extent to which the posthumous publications have contributed to her enduring popularity. Angus Cleghorn is professor of English and Liberal Studies at Seneca College, Toronto. Since 2004, he has served as the editor of the Elizabeth Bishop Bulletin for the Elizabeth Bishop Society. He has published articles on Bishop and Wallace Stevens, as well as the book Wallace Stevens’ Poetics: The Neglected Rhetoric (2000); guest-edited two issues of the Wallace Stevens Journal (1999, 2006); and co-edited the volume Elizabeth Bishop in the Twenty-First Century: Reading the New Editions (2012). Jonathan Ellis is senior lecturer in American Literature at the University of Sheffi eld, England. He is the author of Art and Memory in the Work of Elizabeth Bishop (2006), as well as articles on Michael Donaghy, Paul Muldoon, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Stevenson. His next book, for which he received a British Academy Research Development Award in 2008, is on twentieth-century letter writing. He is currently editing a collection of essays on poets’ letters, Letter Writing Among Poets: From William Wordsworth to Elizabeth Bishop . A complete list of books in the series is at the back of this book. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02940-8 - The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop Edited by Angus Cleghorn and Jonathan Ellis Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02940-8 - The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop Edited by Angus Cleghorn and Jonathan Ellis Frontmatter More information THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO ELIZABETH BISHOP © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02940-8 - The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop Edited by Angus Cleghorn and Jonathan Ellis Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02940-8 - The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop Edited by Angus Cleghorn and Jonathan Ellis Frontmatter More information THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO ELIZABETH BISHOP Edited by ANGUS CLEGHORN Seneca College JONATHAN ELLIS University of Sheffi eld © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02940-8 - The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop Edited by Angus Cleghorn and Jonathan Ellis Frontmatter More information 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107672543 © Cambridge University Press 2014 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2014 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Cleghorn, Angus J. and Ellis, Jonathan S. The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop / Angus Cleghorn, Seneca College; Jonathan Ellis, University of Sheffi eld. pages cm. – (Cambridge Companions to Literature) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-02940-8 (hardback) – ISBN 978-1-107-67254-3 (pbk.) 1. Bishop, Elizabeth, 1911–1979 – Criticism and interpretation. I. Cleghorn, Angus, 1966– II. Ellis, Jonathan, 1975– III. Title. PS3503.I785Z59 2014 811′.54–dc23 2013027355 ISBN 978-1-107-02940-8 Hardback ISBN 978-1-107-67254-3 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02940-8 - The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop Edited by Angus Cleghorn and Jonathan Ellis Frontmatter More information CONTENTS List of Figures page ix List of Contributors xi Acknowledgments xv Note on Abbreviations xvii Chronology xix Introduction: North and South 1 Angus Cleghorn and Jonathan Ellis Part I Contexts and Issues 1 Bishop and Biography 21 Thomas Travisano 2 Bishop, History, and Politics 35 Steven Gould Axelrod 3 Bishop: Race, Class, and Gender 49 Kirstin Hotelling Zona 4 Bishop and the Natural World 62 Susan Rosenbaum 5 Bishop and the Poetic Tradition 79 Bonnie Costello Part II Major Works 6 In the Village: Bishop and Nova Scotia 97 Sandra Barry vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02940-8 - The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop Edited by Angus Cleghorn and Jonathan Ellis Frontmatter More information Contents 7 Becoming a Poet: From North to South 111 Bethany Hicok 8 Home, Wherever That May Be: Poems and Prose of Brazil 124 Barbara Page 9 Back to Boston: Geography III and Other Late Poems 141 Lloyd Schwartz 10 Bishop’s Correspondence 155 Siobhan Phillips 11 Bishop and Visual Art 169 Peggy Samuels 12 Bishop’s Posthumous Publications 183 Lorrie Goldensohn Bibliography and Guide to Further Reading 197 Index 209 viii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02940-8 - The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop Edited by Angus Cleghorn and Jonathan Ellis Frontmatter More information FIGURES 1. Max Ernst, “L’evade/The Fugitive” (1926). page 76 2. Leonor Fini, “Sphinx Regina” (1946). 77 ix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02940-8 - The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop Edited by Angus Cleghorn and Jonathan Ellis Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02940-8 - The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop Edited by Angus Cleghorn and Jonathan Ellis Frontmatter More information CONTRIBUTORS Steven Gould Axelrod is distinguished professor of English at the University of California, Riverside. He is the author of Robert Lowell: Life and Art (1978), Robert Lowell: A Reference Guide (1982), and Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words (1990). He is the editor or co-editor of Robert Lowell: Essays on the Poetry (1986); Critical Essays on Wallace Stevens (1988); Critical Essays on William Carlos Williams (1995); The Critical Response to Robert Lowell (1998); The New Anthology of American Poetry, Volume 1, Beginnings to 1900 (2002); The New Anthology of American Poetry, Volume 2, 1900–1950 (2005); and The New Anthology of American Poetry, Volume 3, 1950–Present (2012). He has also published more than sixty scholarly articles in such journals as American Literature , American Quarterly , and Contemporary Literature . Sandra Barry is a poet, independent scholar, and freelance editor. She is the author of Elizabeth Bishop: An Archival Guide to Her Life in Nova Scotia (1996) and Elizabeth Bishop: Nova Scotia’s “Home-Made” Poet (2011) and co-editor of Divisions of the Heart: Elizabeth Bishop and the Art of Memory and Place (2001). She is co-founder and past president of the Elizabeth Bishop Society of Nova Scotia and a co-owner and the administrator of the Elizabeth Bishop House in Great Village, Nova Scotia. Angus Cleghorn is professor of English and Liberal Studies at Seneca College in Toronto. Since 2004, he has served as the editor of the Elizabeth Bishop Bulletin for the Elizabeth Bishop Society. He has published articles on Bishop and Stevens, as well as the book Wallace Stevens’ Poetics: The Neglected Rhetoric (2000), and he has guest-edited two issues of the Wallace Stevens Journal (1999, 2006) and co-edited the volume Elizabeth Bishop in the Twenty-First Century: Reading the New Editions (2012). Bonnie Costello is professor of English at Boston University. She is the author of numerous