Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) Elizabeth Bishop is born in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her


1911 1916


father dies when she is eight months old. Bishop and her mother move to Great Village, Nova Scotia, after his death.


After being hospitalised several times following her husband’s death, Bishop’s mother, Gertrude, is permanently institutionalised. Bishop never sees her again. The loss of her mother devastates Bishop, and the theme of loss is one she returns to again and again in her poetry. It is believed that this early trauma contributed to the alcoholism that Bishop grappled with her entire adult life. After her mother’s hospitalisation, Bishop lives with her maternal grandparents in Nova Scotia.


1917 1918


Bishop’s paternal grandparents gain custody of Bishop, and take her to live with them in Worcester. This lack of stability causes Bishop anxiety and stress, and she suffers from asthma, eczema and bronchitis.


Bishop is sent to live with her Aunt Maud in Boston. Just before Bishop turns seven she has a personal awakening (she describes this experience in ‘In the Waiting Room’).


Bishop attends Walnut Hill School, a boarding school 1927 for girls, in Massachusetts.


1930– 1934


Bishop attends Vassar College, an exclusive private university in Poughkeepsie, New York. She graduates with a degree in English literature in 1934.


1935– extensively through Europe and North Africa. 1938


With a legacy bequeathed to her by her father, Bishop travels


1939 Bishop moves to a bohemian community in Key West, Florida. 1945 Bishop wins the Houghton Mifflin poetry award.


Bishop’s first collection of poetry, North and South, is 1946 published. It is well received by critics.


Bishop travels to Brazil for a short trip, but ends up staying 1951 there for fifteen years with her Brazilian partner, Lota Soares.


1956 Bishop wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.


Bishop returns to America. Soares follows her but tragically 1967 commits suicide the day she arrives in New York.


1970 Bishop wins the National Book Award for Poetry. Bishop meets Alice Methfessel, with whom she spends the 1971 rest of her life.


1973– Bishop teaches creative writing at Harvard University. 1977


1979


Bishop dies suddenly of a brain aneurysm, at the age of sixty-eight. Her legacy as one of the great American poets is already assured.


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