Elizabeth Bishop

An item at American Writers Museum

Elizabeth Bishop's early life was marked by great losses-both father and mother before she was five-and disruptive moves through childhood and youth. After college, she befriended the older American poet Marianne Moore, a great describer of the physical world; this friendship evidently confirmed Bishop's inclination to create in words the keenest evocations of places, people, and objects.

For nearly 20 years, Bishop lived in Brazil, shunning the strong ambitions of other prominent poets of her generation to be noticed. By the time she returned to the U.S., her readers considered her one of the greatest poets of her time. She won the Pulitzer in 1956 and the National Book Award in 1970.

AMERICAN VOICES

An exhibit at American Writers Museum

American writing is distinctive, diverse, and comes in many forms from across the nation. The 100 authors featured here represent the evolution of American writing. Learn more about each writer on the timeline by turning the panels below their portraits. Explore centuries of writing by pulling, turning, and touching the interactive elements on the counter.

This is not meant to be a list of the greatest or most influential writers. Instead, we present authors and works as part of the American story as it grows and changes. Taken together, this rich literary heritage reflects America in all of its complexity: its energy, hope, conflict, disillusionment, and creativity.

American Writers Museum