Remembering Elizabeth Bishop: An Oral Biography

by Gary Fountain, Peter Brazeau, Bonnie Costello (Afterword)

This book interweaves more than 120 interviews with relatives, friends, colleagues, and students of Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), one of America's finest poets. Among the interviewees are numerous intellectual and artistic figures, including John Ashbery, Robert Fitzgerald, Robert Giroux, Clement Grenberg, Thom Gunn, John Hollander, Mary McCarthy, James Merrill, Katha Pollitt, Ned Rorem, Lloyd Schwartz, Anne Stevenson, Rosalyn Turek, Helen Vendler, and Richard Wilber.

Genres: Biography

432 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1994

Reviews

[Sebastian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The excellence of this book is due entirely to its editor Gary Fountain. My reactions to the composition of an oral biography speaks to the way people are liable to testify to encounters, conversations, and significant events from a "negative" standpoint, i.e. sad and traumatic events comprise a large amount of this biography, differing significantly from a more traditional biography. Fountain's organization of the biography, highlighting certain events and detailing others, is considerate and conscientious.

[Virg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and heartbreaking.