Elizabeth Bishop and The New Yorker: The Complete Correspondence

A rare glimpse at the artistic development of one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated poets I sort of see you surrounded with fine-tooth combs, sandpaper, nail files, pots of varnish, etc.—with heaps of used commas and semicolons handy, and little useless phrases taken out of their contexts and dying all over the floor,” Elizabeth Bishop said upon learning a friend landed a job at The New Yorker in the early 1950s. Bishop published the vast majority of her poems in the magazine’s pages, and her relationship with the magazine went back to 1933 and continued until her death in 1979. During forty years of correspondence, hundreds of letters passed between Bishop and her editors, Charles Pearce, Katharine White, and Howard Moss. In these letters Bishop discussed the ideas and inspiration for her poems while sharing news about her travels and life in Brazil, while her editors offered generous support, commentary, and friendship. Their correspondence provides an unparalleled look into Bishop’s writing process, the relationship between a poet and her editors, the internal workings of The New Yorker, and the process of publishing a poem. As these poems and stories move from manuscript page to print, Elizabeth Bishop and The New Yorker gives us a rare glimpse into the artistic development of one of the twentieth century’s greatest poets.