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Elizabeth Bishop

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Poet

The Resume

    (February 8, 1911-October 6, 1979)
    Born in Worchester, Massachusetts
    Wrote poetry collections 'North & South' (1946), 'A Cold Spring' (1956), 'Questions of Travel' (1965) and 'Geography III' (1976)
    Co-edited 'An Anthology of Twentieth Century Brazilian Poetry' (1972)
    Won Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1956), National Book Award (1969) and Neustadt International Prize (1976)

Why she might be annoying:

    She dropped her plans to study the piano because she afraid of performing in public.
    She was a perfectionist who would spend months on a single poem.
    John Ashbery called her ‘a writer’s writer’s writer.’
    She spent much of her life wandering from city to city and country to country.
    She was a heavy drinker in later years.
    Some of her friends shunned her after her lover’s suicide.

Why she might not be annoying:

    Her father died when she was a baby, and her mother was permanently institutionalized when she was five.
    At six she was taken from her beloved Canadian grandparents by her Bostonian relatives.
    When Vassar College's literary journal refused to publish her, she and her friends founded a rival magazine.
    She wrote ‘Visits to St. Elizabeth’s’ about Ezra Pound, who was confined there.
    She won several poetry prizes but said such awards did not mean much.
    Much admired for her precise, understated poetry, her critical reputation rose slowly but steadily.

Credit: Georgina


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 17 Votes: 5.88% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 6 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 10 Votes: 70.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 11 Votes: 63.64% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 47 Votes: 76.60% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 19 Votes: 47.37% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 13 Votes: 61.54% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 19 Votes: 63.16% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 36 Votes: 52.78% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 47 Votes: 63.83% Annoying