3 - Turning History Under
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2009
Summary
In one of her first major “independent” publishing ventures, Bishop sent “In Prison” to Partisan Review in January 1938 when they wrote her asking for a story. They were sponsoring a $100 contest, Bishop informed Moore, almost apologizing for story and submission both:
I finished a story a few days ago which I wanted to send to you to see what you thought of it – but I had just received a letter from the “Partisan Review” asking for a story by February 1st, if possible. I sent it to them and now of course regret it very much and hope they will send it back. My motives were doubly corrupt: they are going to have a $100. “contest” and I thought I should like to try. It is called “In Prison” and is another one of these horrible “fable” ideas that seem to obsess me – (31 Jan. 1938, V:05:01, RM)
Slightly wounded, Moore replied: “It was very independent of you to submit your prize story without letting me see it. If it is returned with a printed slip, that will be why” (10 Feb. 1938, V:05:01, RM). The story did not win the prize but was given special note and published in Partisan Review's March issue. Reading the published version, Moore was both admirer and mentor:
Never have I […] seen a more insidiously innocent and artless artifice of innuendo than in your prison meditations. […]
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- Elizabeth Bishop's Poetics of Intimacy , pp. 74 - 106Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993