Elizabeth Bishop (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

Readers unfamiliar with Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry may find the first chapter of this biography slow going. Brett Millier begins almost immediately by analyzing the autobiographical contents of Bishop’s stories and poems. This works well only for readers already familiar with Bishop’s oeuvre. Nevertheless, Millier presents a compelling narrative of her subject’s life. One of the pleasures of the biography is observing the biographer grow in confidence: as she gets to know her subject better, she provides a deeper sense of Bishop as a person.

It is significant that one of Bishop’s greatest poems is are telling of the Robinson Crusoe story, for she was obviously drawn to the solitary individual creating his own world. This is what she had done in her poetry without ever conceding to the fashions of her day or worrying about her place in the cutthroat literary world of her contemporaries. Yet she was not an escapist—at least not in terms of her writing. Poetry gave her what she knew as reality: “Tomorrow, we shall have to invent,/ once more,/ thereality of the world.” Creating poetry kept her sane—a vital belief for Bishop, who saw not only her mother succumb to mental illness but also three of her lovers: Robert Seaver, LotaSoares, and Suzanne Bowen.

Bishop made enormous demands on her friends, especially in her last years, when she was particularly needy (for affection and for money), but it is a tribute to her wonderful friendships that so many first-rate writers were willing to help her. She was a very giving person and almost totally devoid of the jealousy and backbiting that often spoils relationships between writers. The words she wanted put on her tombstone sound a little facetious, yet they do sum up a complex person who was never sentimental about herself or about the world: “Awful, but cheerful.”

Sources for Further Study

Belles Lettres. IX, Fall, 1993, p. 49.

The Christian Science Monitor. September 8, 1993, p.15.

London Review of Books. XV, March 11, 1993, p.6.

The Nation. CCLVI, April 19, 1993, p.530.

New Directions for Women. XXII, May, 1993, p.27.

The New York Times Book Review. XCVIII, April 4, 1993, p.15.

The New Yorker. LXIX, March 29, 1993, p. 107.

Publishers Weekly. CCXL, January 11, 1993, p.45.

The Washington Post Book World. XXIII, March 21, 1993, p. 9.

Women’s Review of Books. X, June, 1993, p.7.