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Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast

by Megan Marshall
Houghton Harcourt. Feb. 2017. 368p. photos. notes. index. ISBN 9780544617308. $30; ebk. ISBN 9780544618428. LIT
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Marshall, whose earlier works include Margaret Fuller (winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Biography) and The Peabody Sisters, here uses newly discovered letters by Elizabeth Bishop (1911-79) to offer a broader view of the life of the poet (who published only around 100 poems in her lifetime). Marshall, who studied with Bishop during the 1970s at Bishop's poetry workshop at Harvard University, is able to give readers both an academic view of her subject as well as glimpses into the poet's personae. Marshall brings the sometimes elusive writer, who spent significant periods of her life in Key West and Brazil, to life, offering a cohesive and novel look at the ways in which subject and biographer are intertwined and the value of understanding a poet's biography while reading their work.
VERDICT This study opens up a new way of looking at Bishop's life and her place in American letters. Recommended for poetry and literature lovers and fans of literary biography.
Reviewed by Pam Kingsbury, Univ. of North Alabama, Florence , Jan 01, 2017
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