One Art: Letters

by Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Giroux (Editor)

Overview

Robert Lowell once remarked, "When Elizabeth Bishop's letters are published (as they will be), she will be recognized as not only one of the best, but one of the most prolific writers of our century." One Art is the magificent confirmation of Lowell's prediction.

From several thousand letters, written by Bishop over fifty years—from 1928, when she was seventeen, to the day of her death, in Boston in 1979—Robert Giroux, the poet's longtime friend and editor, has selected over five hundred missives for this volume. In a way, the letters comprise Bishop's autobiography, and Giroux has greatly enhanced them with his own detailed, candid, and highly informative introduction. One Art takes us behind Bishop's formal sophistication and reserve, fully displaying the gift for friendship, the striving for perfection, and the passionate, questing, rigorous spirit that made her a great artist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466889439
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	01/13/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	696
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

The modern American poet Elizabeth Bishop (1911-79) received the Pulitzer Prize in 1956 for her collection Poems: North & South. A Cold Spring, the National Book Award for The Complete Poems (1969), the National Book Critics' Circle Award in 1976, and many other distinctions and accolades for her work.

Robert Giroux is also the editor of Elizabeth Bishop's The Collected Prose.

Editorial Reviews

This selection of poet Elizabeth Bishop's (1911-1979) letters is, as Giroux observes, a virtual autobiography. And though large, the book contains only a fraction of her correspondence. Among the most interesting letters are those to literary friends, including Robert Lowell, Randall Jarrell and Marianne Moore; among the most disturbing are the anguished letters concerning personal tragedies, letters she asked the recipients to destroy but which the editor has printed because they ``have remained extant.'' The letters show a continuity with the character presented in Bishop's poems: apparently, she really was a brilliant, modest and kind person. They also show the poet's eye and ear for detail (``Someone asked my landlord . . . if he didn't have an `author' living in his house, and he replied, `No, not an author, a writer' ''). There is also a disarming, even dogged sense of humor, striking given the fact that much in the letters is dark: the poet's struggles against alcoholism, loneliness and a 15-year relationship that ended in the suicide of her lover, Lota Soares. Bishop's correspondence may have been a bulwark against emptiness; the letters engage the reader not with startling revelations, but with everyday acts of courage. Thus Bishop pleads with Lowell in 1960, ``Please never stop writing me letters--they always manage to make me feel like my higher self.'' (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Of her generation, Bishop (1911-79) is among the poets least known to the public, even though she was regarded with great affection by the most celebrated of her peers and exercised a striking influence over them as well as many poets living today. These letters to Robert Lowell, Marianne Moore, James Merrill, and a host of others depict an often ingenuous, self-absorbed writer, one constantly struggling with physical infirmities (asthma, alcoholism) as well as an acute sensitivity to the praises and slights of the eccentric, sometimes difficult friends and lovers she attracted. Yet Bishop's most arresting characteristics are self-knowledge, which is essential to a full knowledge of the world, and a total immersion in every aspect of her craft. She wrote Lowell: ``If after I read a poem, the world looks like that poem for 24 hours or so, I'm sure it's a good one.'' An important collection historically as well as a rewarding one to read for its own sake.-- David Kirby, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee

Library Journal

As Bishop's editor and friend, Giroux is more than qualified for the task of culling some 500 letters from the several thousand Bishop wrote over the course of 50 years. His no doubt judicious selections create an intimate if inadvertent autobiography that illuminates all the main events in Bishop's prolific and well-lived life. They also show off to great effect Bishop's wonderful wit, elan, humility, and solid common sense. Bishop's main correspondents were her mentor Marianne Moore and friend and colleague Robert Lowell, but she also wrote regularly to her doctor and dear friend Anny Baumann, the painter Loren MacIver, poets Randall Jarrell, May Swenson, and James Merrill, and a host of other friends and acquaintances. Bishop describes her travels, bouts with asthma and anxiety, and the mix of pleasure and embarrassment she experienced each time she received a literary award. Bishop also loved describing pets, household vignettes, and her responses to poetry. A private person graced with impeccable manners, Bishop nevertheless felt free to discuss the "happiest years of her life," when she lived with Lota Soares in Brazil, as well as more trying times. In sum, this is an exceptional volume.

Donna Seaman

A remarkable collection . . . True magic.” —Richard Locke, The Wall Street Journal

“What a touching and pleasing book . . . Bishop's letters are keys to her art and her life.” —Margo Jefferson, The New York Times

“These letters, funny, touching, and occasionally harrowing, remind us that this great poet was a remarkable woman as well. Don't miss them.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World

“The compiler of [this volume], Robert Giroux, was Bishop's editor and close friend. His abiding affection for her and his skillful editorial hand are everywhere at work here, from his eloquent introduction to his deft arrangement and excisions. Mr. Giroux has had a long and distinguished career in service to literature; this volume—which he probably considered a labor of love—may well prove to be his most valuable contribution . . . One Art does not quite substitute for an autobiography; there are too many important facts missing. Instead, it stands as a sort of golden treasury, to be gone through in one enthralled reading and then browsed in ever after.” —J. D. McClatchy, The New York Times Book Review

“The publication of Elizabeth Bishop's selected letters is a historic event, a bit like discovering a new planet or watching a bustling continent emerge, glossy and triumphant, from the black ocean . . . Let us celebrate the appearance of this extraordinary, this quite exceptional and wonderful work.” —Tom Paulin, The Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher