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January 20, 1947
Dear Miss Bishop:
I was much interested in “Varick Street” and “Faustina” but the consensus is that they don’t belong in The New Yorker and might prove too
difficult for our readers. I’m therefore sending them on to Randall Jarrell
saying that you asked me to. To you I send our thanks for the poems and
very real regrets. We look forward to seeing the others you say you are
working on.1
Sincerely,
Katharine S. White
February 13, 1947
Dear Mrs. White,
Here is, I am afraid, another unusable poem [“At the Fishhouses”] that I
should like to get out of your way and mine. I am doing quite a bit of work
these days however and have quite a large group almost done, one or two of
which I feel you may like. Thank you so much for sending the things on to
Mr. Jarrell. As soon as I finish the group I mentioned I shall get to work on
the prose.
Sincerely yours,
Elizabeth Bishop
February 17, 1947
Dear Miss Bishop:
We think that “At the Fish Houses” is a very beautiful poem and one that
we are delighted to be able to buy and use when summer comes. Far from
being unusable it has given us a great deal of pleasure. The check and proof
will be along soon.
I look forward to the large group of poems you speak of and also the
prose when you get to it.
Sincerely,
Katharine S. White
1 The Nation published the poems in its February 22 and March 15, 1947, issues.
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Excerpted from ELIZABETH BISHOP AND THE NEW YORKER: The Complete Correspondence edited by Joelle Bielle.
Published in February 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Copyright © 2011 by the Alice H. Methfessel Trust.
Introduction and selection copyright © 2011 by Joelle Biele. All rights reserved.
Elizabeth Bishop-NY #2134 text.qxp:1
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February 25, 1947
Dear Miss Bishop:
O ur proofroom, which has a highly conventional idea of punctuation,
had scores of punctuation queries on the Fish Houses poem, but we have
eliminated the major portion of them, since your lack of punctuation is purposeful and adds to your effect. Will you please study the few commas now
suggested and see whether you approve. I only left in the ones I thought
would really help the reader but you may not agree. In this case it should be
as you want it.
Sincerely,
Katharine S. White
February 28, 1947
Dear Mrs. White,
I think the proof looks very nice and thank you for your help with the
punctuation. I have left in all your changes ex cept the commas between
“C old dark deep” that occurs twice. For some reason or other it seems more
liquid to me without them and I think in this case the sense is plain enough
without them, don’t you? I notice that quite a few tails of p’s, y’s, etc. are
missing but I imagine that is just because it’s proof.
Also, thank you for Miss Bogan’s number— she was very nice.
Sincerely yours,
Elizabeth Bishop
April 25, 1947
Dear Miss Bishop:
We are going to use your story “The Housekeeper”, which we bought so
long ago, this summer— or at least plan to now. I was amazed to find that it
had been held all these years. When it went through I was working at long
distance in Maine and I must disclaim having anything to do with the editing.
Since it’s not signed with your name it’s possible that you don’t care about
the way the piece was edited and possibly you gave permission for editing
changes at that time. I haven’t had a chance to look up the correspondence.
In any case I send it to you in fear and trembling lest it displease you terribly.
I hope it won’t. It suits the powers that be here and I myself reread it and
thought it a charming story. I hope it will reach you before you leave and that
you can let us have it back of course, or that if you wish to have changes
1947
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Excerpted from ELIZABETH BISHOP AND THE NEW YORKER: The Complete Correspondence edited by Joelle Bielle.
Published in February 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Copyright © 2011 by the Alice H. Methfessel Trust.
Introduction and selection copyright © 2011 by Joelle Biele. All rights reserved.
Elizabeth Bishop-NY #2134 text.qxp:1
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made you will call me up and we can get together on it. The insert at ( 1) was
put in for clarity because apparently most people misread the story and that
Mrs. Sennett was simply working as housekeeper in Mr. C urley’s summer
cottage. I’m sure you meant that she owned the cottage herself. If you can
think of a more adroit way of making this clear, I hope you won’t hesitate
to do it.
Faithfully yours,
Katharine S. White
D. B. MacL eod’s
Briton C ove, C ape Breton
Nova Scotia
July 8, 1947
Dear Sir:
I have just this minute realized that there is a bad mistake in my poem AT
THE FISH-HO U SES which you are going to publish sometime this summer. I’ve already corrected proof for the poem and only hope it is still possible to make these two very necessary corrections. I referred to layers of
codfish scales stuck to the tubs, etc., when actually codfish have rather negligible scales and it was herring scales that I meant. They fished for both fish at
the place I had in mind, and the scales of both were everywhere, but only
herring scales would produce the effect that particularly struck me.
L ines 21 and 22 should read:
The big fish tubs are completely lined
with layers of beautiful herring scales
and, etc. . . .
I hope it is not too late to make these changes and I am very sorry to have
been so careless.1
Thinking that Mrs. White may be away I am addressing this to the
“P oetry Editor” and hoping that it will reach the right person as soon as possible. My address will be the one above for the nex t three weeks at least.
Very truly yours,
Elizabeth Bishop
1 In the last ex tant draft, the lines read: “The big codfish tubs are completely lined / with layers of beautiful codfish
scales” ( Vassar C ollege L ibrary) .
30
Excerpted from ELIZABETH BISHOP AND THE NEW YORKER: The Complete Correspondence edited by Joelle Bielle.
Published in February 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Copyright © 2011 by the Alice H. Methfessel Trust.
Introduction and selection copyright © 2011 by Joelle Biele. All rights reserved.