This roundup of Elizabeth Bishop’s slim but sharp poetic output proves that some writers never produce a bad work. That goes for the selection of her prose (including a wonderfully telling reminiscence of Marianne Moore titled “Efforts of Affection”) and letters included here. In “The Colder the Air,” an early work, she wrote, “We must admire her perfect aim, / this huntress of the winter air / whose level weapon needs no sight, / if it were not that everywhere / her game is sure, her shot is right.” And so we admire Bishop herself.
Poems, Prose, and Letters
Elizabeth Bishop
Library of America
Out now
$40