perlaolmi's review against another edition
3.0
At least it has given me an insight of how a proper penfrienship is supposed to be.
angiehoer7's review against another edition
4.0
I like this book! It is all the correspondence between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell over their lifetimes. They shared poetry and reviewed poetry of other poets of the time. It's a snapshot of literature history. It's romantic that they had a longstanding relationship, deep and true but were never lovers. Sometimes I read the pining in between the lines of their letters or their poetry. My favorite poem is by Lowell for Bishop, just a bit of it below
Have you seen an inchworm crawl on a leaf, cling to the very end, revolve in air,
feeling for something to reach to something? Do
you still hang your words in air, ten years
unfinished, glued to your notice board, with gaps
or empties for the unimaginable phrase--
unerring Muse who makes the casual perfect?
Have you seen an inchworm crawl on a leaf, cling to the very end, revolve in air,
feeling for something to reach to something? Do
you still hang your words in air, ten years
unfinished, glued to your notice board, with gaps
or empties for the unimaginable phrase--
unerring Muse who makes the casual perfect?
joannawnyc's review
4.0
Only 4 stars because I thought the editing could have been better (I am using the Virginia Woolf letters & diaries as my standard). I read quite a lot of Lowell and Bishop in high school, though by the time I got to college I was academically interested in other things, so I never studied them formally. But it was wonderful to meet them again as humans rather that abstracts. Must read some bios and other collections of correspondence.
featherbooks's review
4.0
This is a book I'll keep dipping into in front of the fire, the poems at hand, without concern for finishing.
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