Added to Vassar Library Since 1981

For the information of scholars who have visited the Bishop collection in the intervening years, below is a listing in chronological order of papers added since 1981.

1982

  • Baumann, Anny, M. D. -- 139 letters and postcards from EB, 1947-79 -- (restricted access)
  • Bell, Pearl K. -- 93 letters and postcards from EB, 1949-196
  • Merrill, James -- 90 letters and postcards from EB, 1951-79

1983

  • Booth, Philip -- 5 letters and postcards to Booth from EB, 1973, 1978-79

1984

  • Estees, Sybil -- 8 letters from EB, 1976-77
  • Laughlin, James -- photocopies of 33 letters and postcards from EB, 1937-49-- originals still in the possession of Laughlin

1986

  • Nemer, Linda -- 67 letters and postcards to and from EB and Nemer in Portuguese, 1970-76, typescripts of essays and poems, 1 diary and 2 notebooks, 1 address book, photographs
  • Bowers, [Aunt] Grace Bulmer -- 261 letters, postcards, and clippings, and photographs from EB, 1950-77

1989

  • Bowie, Dorothy (University of Washington) -- 129 letters, postcards, and telegrams, from EB to Bowie, 1966-79 (restricted access)
  • Frankenberg, Lloyd and Loren MacIver -- 247 letters and postcards from EB,1942-79
  • Muser, Frani Blough (VC 1933) -- 190 letters, postcards, and telegrams from EB, 1928-30, 1932-41, 1962-65, 1967-69 -- represents earliest letters by EB in collection
  • Summers, Joseph and U. T. (VC 1941) -- 85 letters, postcards, and annotated cookbook (The Wine Cook Book) from EB, 1947-79

1991

  • Chittick, Victor L.O. & Edna -- 9 letters and postcards from EB, 1958-79
  • Hanson, Pauline (Yaddo) -- 48 letters from EB, 1950-77
  • Muchnic, Helen (VC 1925) -- 24 letters and postcards from EB, 1948, 1968-74, 1977-79

1992

  • Olney, Austin (Houghton Mifflin), mainly re: Poems, North & South - A Cold Spring -- 13 letters from Bishop to Olney, among others, 1954-57
  • Thomas, Harriet Tompkins (VC 1935) -- 5 letters and postcards from EB, 1935-36

1993

  • Bishop, [Aunt] Florence [Jane] Bishop -- 103 letters and postcards from Bishop, 1955-66
  • Brasil, Emanuel -- 19 letters and postcards to Brasil from EB, 1971, 1974-78
  • Sargent, [cousin] Kay Orr -- 43 letters and postcards from EB, 1952-70

1995

  • Ciardi, John -- 7 letters from EB, 1955-69
  • Pereira, Estella Maria Ruy Barbosa Baptista -- 18 letters and postcards from EB, 1956, 1967-69

1997 - 1999

Acquired from Emanuel Brasil, co-editor with Bishop of An Anthology of Twentieth-century Brazilian Poetry, published in 1972 by Wesleyan University Press:

The collection includes:

  • 34 letters and postcards from Elizabeth Bishop to Emanuel Brasil between 1967 and 1972;
  • one manuscript will, dated 22 July 1972;
  • one letter from Roxanne Cumming (Mrs. Johnson Cumming) to Emanuel Brasil, dated 24 July 1971;
  • one letter from Carlos Drummond de Andrade to Emanuel Brasil, dated 31 March 1974;
  • one letter from Paulo Rocha Freire, Esq. to Elizabeth Bishop with a statement of her income and expenses in 1970 and 1971, dated 12 June 1972;
  • and three of Bishop's miscellaneous lists, a hotel bill, and a prescription.

In these letters Bishop talks about the anthology that she and Brasil worked on, her personal life, especially right after the death of Lota de Maceda Soares, some miscellaneous items and a manuscript will that she drew up in 1972 when she believed she was dying.

Acquired from Lilli Correia de Araujo of Ouro Prêto, owner of the hotel, Chico Rey:

The collection (totaling 130 items) spans the years 1964 into 1972 and includes

  • 81 letters,
  • 16 postcards and a telegram from Elizabeth Bishop to Lilli,
  • as well as notes (that Bishop used to slip under Lilli's door)
  • and lists of directions for caring for the house and cats,
  • several photographs and recipes,
  • and two letters from Lota to Lilli.

This is an important collection of material in that it shows a side of Bishop not seen before in her correspondence and also shows the changes in Bishop's feelings toward one person (Lilli) over a period of years.

Supplementary/Complementary Collection

Camp Chequesset Collection of Esther Merrell Stockton:

Acquired from Betsy Stockton Chamberlin, the daughter of Esther Merrell Stockton who was a friend of Bishop's at the camp during the summers of 1915-1929. Bishop was about 2 years younger than Stockton. Stockton graduated from Syracuse University, became an interior designer in Boston, married and had two daughters, and eventually moved with her family to Elmira where she became known as an artist and poet. She died in 1996.

The collection includes (among other things) some early poems of Bishop's published in The Camp Chequesset Log, the camp's newsletter (Fall 1925-December 1930) and a photograph album, including some photographs of the youthful (and perhaps the most relaxed ever seen) Elizabeth Bishop, known to her campmates as 'Bishie.'