Elizabeth BishopElizabeth Bishop was born on February 8, 1911 in Worcester, Massachusetts to Gertrude Bulmer and William Thomas Bishop, the owners of the JW Bishop contracting firm. Her father died when she was eight months old due to Bright's disease. Her mother lost her citizenship because of this and they were forced to move to Nova Scotia (Anne A. Colwell). Bishop's mother spent the next five years constantly in and out of mental hospitals. When Bishop was five, her mother suffered a complete nervous breakdown and was admitted to a public sanatorium in Dart Mouth, Nova Scotia, where she was diagnosed with lifelong insanity. Bishop never saw her again (“Elizabeth Bishop”). He lived with his grandparents in Worcester where, “in isolated affluence, Bishop felt deeply his lack of relatives” (Anne A. Colwell). He then moved in with his aunt in South Boston where he suffered from eczema, asthma, St. Vitus dance, and nervous disorders. Bishop did not go to school until she was fourteen when she attended Walnut Hill School for Girls. She joined the class of 1934 at Vassar College, where she met Marianne Moore who influenced her to begin writing poetry (Anne A. Colwell “About Elizabeth Bishop”). Gubler 2Moore also recommended Bishop for the Houghton Mifflin Prize, and his first collection titled North and South was published in 1946. In 1950, Robert Lowell helped Bishop obtain the position of poetry consultant for the Library of Congress while he was working on his second book. Also during this year, she won the Lucy Martin Donnelly Scholarship from Bryn Mawr College (Anne A. Colwell “About Elizabeth Bishop”). In 1951 Bishop traveled to South America, where he planned to explore the Amazon when he found himself at...... middle of paper ......rutable house (Sestina). Works Cited Colwell, Anne A. “Bishop, Elizabeth. " American National Biography Online. 2000.05 March 2014 .Colwell, Anne A. “About Elizabeth Bishop”. Modern American Poetry. 11 March 2014. “Elizabeth Bishop”. A City of Words: The Worcester Writers' Project. 05 March 2014. "Writings of Elizabeth Bishop honored by the Library of America". PBS. 11 March 2014. "Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979)". Ed. Kathleen Daniel, et al. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1997. Print 1034.