Elizabeth Bishop was a well-known poet and author from the 20th century. Her work won several merits and awards throughout her lifetime. Though she did not live a particularly long life, she did many different things and left behind a strong influence in the world of poetry as well as short stories. In this essay, I will be going through her life, literary works, and the reputation these works established. Elizabeth Bishop was born on February 8th, 1911 in Worcester, Massachusetts to father William Bishop and mother Gertrude Bulmer-Bishop. Both of Elizabeth’s parents were immigrants from Canada. Her father died when Bishop was just eight months old and her mother unfit to raise her due to mental illness (and in 1916 permanently insane due to breakdowns caused by this). …show more content…
After finishing at Walnut, Bishop goes on to study at Vassar from 1930 up until her graduation in 1934. That very same year her mother passes away and she meets Marianne Moore who becomes a close friend of Bishop’s. Fast forward a year later and that close friend writes the introduction to Elizabeth’s first poems. In 1935 Bishop moves to New York and begins to travel. Between 1935-1938 she uses her inheritance to travel to France, England, North Africa, Spain, and Italy, In 1939 Bishop packs up and moves to Key West. In 1946 she receives her first award, The Houghton Mifflin Poetry award, for her first book “North and South”. A year later she forms a friendship with another well-known author, Robert Lowell as well as Randall Jarrell. In the years 1949-1950 Bishop found herself fulfilling the job of Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress. The following year she settles down in Brazil with Lota de Macedo Soares. In 1955 Elizabeth Bishop publishes her second book, “Poems”, which goes on to receive the Pulitzer Prize. Bishop’s domestic partner Lota de Macedo Soares died in 1967. Two years later,