Description: 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 due 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 This Companion engages with key debates surrounding the interpretation and reception of Bishop's published and unpublished writing in relation to questions of biography, the natural world, and politics.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 significance 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.
Brief description: 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).