A poet who won the Pulitzer Prize took a two-week trip that accidentally lasted fifteen years.
What everyday object did Elizabeth Bishop's wealthy paternal family use to essentially buy her back from her maternal grandparents?
Money. The Bishop family paid her aunt Maude to house and educate Elizabeth after removing her from her beloved grandparents' farm in Nova Scotia.
Which medical profession did poet Elizabeth Bishop briefly enroll in before a famous mentor talked her out of it?
Medical school. Marianne Moore, the established poet who became Bishop's mentor, convinced her to abandon Cornell Medical School and focus on poetry instead.
Elizabeth Bishop planned a two-week visit to South America in 1951. How long did she actually end up staying?
Fifteen years. What started as a brief stop in Brazil became a decade-and-a-half romance with both the country and architect Lota de Macedo Soares.
What childhood health condition forced Elizabeth Bishop to switch from studying music to studying poetry?
Terror of performing. Though she entered Vassar planning to become a composer, her fear of performing made her abandon music for English literature and poetry.
What inheritance gave Elizabeth Bishop the freedom to travel the world and write poetry without worrying about a day job?
Her father's money. The inheritance from her father, who died when she was just eight months old, funded her wandering lifestyle until near the end of her life.
