From the Archives: Archive Fever in the Midst of a Pandemic

Abstract

When archives across the world closed last year, the author turned to images from Elizabeth Bishop’s papers stored on her laptop, tucked away in a folder that, if it were not for a global pandemic, probably would have stayed in the cloud. The folder contained a small collection of postcards and letters that Bishop sent to her friend Chester Page in the early 1970s. While some might find this little collection insignificant, the author argues that these objects nevertheless present us with a small, illuminated window into the poet’s world and art.