Author Biography
Elizabeth Bishop was born on February 8, 1911,
in Worcester, Massachusetts, the only child of Wil-
liam Thomas Bishop and Gertrude May Bulmer.
Her father died when Bishop was eight months
old, and she was raised for a time by her mother,
who suffered from poor mental health. Bishop was
only four when her mother was institutionalized,
andfromthenonshewasraisedbyhermaternal
grandparents in Nova Scotia. Her time in Nova
Scotia was quite influential on Bishop’s respect
for, and fascination with, the natural world. The
country would often feature in her writings. By
the age of sixteen, however, Bishop’s wealthy
paternal relatives had her returned to Massachu-
setts, where she attended boarding school. Bishop
resented the move and, according to Temple Cone
inThe Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives
Thematic Series: The 1960s, ‘‘the resulting sense
of loss and homelessness became a central theme
in her writings and contributed to the depression,
asthma, and alcoholism that troubled Bishop
much of her life.’’
Bishop attended Vassar College from 1930 to- There, she met the poet Marianne Moore,
who remained a substantial influence on Bishop
throughout her lifetime. Around this time, Bishop
began writing in earnest, and by the early 1940s, her
poems were appearing regularly in such publica-
tions as thePartisan Reviewand theNew Yorker.
(‘‘The Fish’’ appeared in the former in 1940.) Fol-
lowing her graduation from Vassar, Bishop split
her time between New York City and Key West,
Florida. This pattern was reflected in her first pub-
lished poetry collection,North and South(1946), in
which ‘‘The Fish’’ also appeared. Based on the
success of this work, she was named consultant
in poetry to the Library of Congress (what is now
called the poet laureate of the United States), a post
she held from 1949 to 1950. Notably,North and
Southwas released again in 1955 as a tandem edi-
tion titledPoems:North&South—AColdSpring.
The reissued volume garnered Bishop a Pulitzer
Prize in 1956.
By 1951, Bishop found herself in Brazil, where
she stayed with the aristocrat Lota de Macedo
Soares. The two would ultimately begin an affair
that lasted for fifteen years. Because of this rela-
tionship, Brazil remained Bishop’s main residence
until 1968, and her 1965 poetry collection,Ques-
tions of Travel, was heavily influenced by her
extended stay in Brazil. The volume received a
National Book Award that same year.
In 1961, Soares and Bishop moved from Soar-
es’s country estate to Rio de Janeiro, but the move
strained the couple’s relationship. Bishop’s drink-
ing also increased dramatically at this time. She
spent most of 1966 teaching at the University
of Washington, where she began an affair with
Suzanne Bowen. It is likely that Soares knew of
the affair; when she rendezvoused with Bishop
in New York City in 1967, Soares overdosed on
sedatives and died within the week. Following
Soares’s death, Bishop resumed her relationship
with Bowen, and they traveled to San Francisco
together in 1968. That same year, her third poetry
collection,The Ballad of the Burglar of Babylon,
was released. It was her least successful work to
date. The couple next settled in Brazil, but in
1970, Bishop and Bowen parted ways.
Bishop’sThe Complete Poemswas published
in 1969 and was honored with the 1970 National
Book Award. That same year, Bishop accepted a
year-long teaching position at Harvard University.
She stayed in Boston for the remainder of her life.
Elizabeth Bishop(Library of Congress)
The Fish