Word Pirates

Terry Gross has an interview with Lloyd Schwartz, who recently co-edited Elizabeth Bishop: Poems, Prose and Letters. Schwartz established a friendship with the reclusive poet toward the end of her life.

At one point, Bishop was in the hospital, so she asked Schwartz to get some of her things from her home–including her notebook. At some point, he was left alone with the notebook in his hand. Well, who wouldn’t want a peek at a famous writer’s notebook?

When Schwartz opened the notebook, he read an unpublished poem Bishop had written called Morning Song. It moved him so much that he got a piece of paper and copied the poem out so he could keep it with him–without Bishop’s knowledge, of course. The poem was never published and didn’t show up with Bishop’s papers when she died. Schwartz finally sent the poem to her estate and it was subsequently published.

Gross asked him if he felt guilty for “borrowing” Bishop’s poem. He said:

She didn’t show me the poem so in some way I was doing something behind her back. I’m not exactly proud of that. On the other hand, I wasn’t doing it for gain or anything like that. I copied it because I loved the poem and I wanted to be able to read it and re-read it.

If someone did that to me, I would not like it. On the other hand, if he hadn’t done it, no one would have ever seen that poem. Bishop only published a small fraction of the poetry she wrote in her lifetime, which is a shame. However, she was the one who should have been able to decide what was publishable, not Schwartz or anyone else. On yet a third hand, the poem was released after her death, when it is typical of unpublished works to come out. So where does this leave us? Does it matter how the poem was acquired since we all ultimately benefit from it? Where does the writer’s wishes fit in here?

Oy… this kind of thing makes my brain hurt.

~ Joy