Edgar Allan Poe & the Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments

The question regarding whether to publish the unpublished work of great authors is indeed a vexing one, especially in this case since the poet evidently chose not to release these. However, just as in the case of the notebooks of great philosophers such as Kant and Nietzsche, one often gleans riches from their fragments. Elizabeth Bishop is a great poet, and there are treasures of all kinds here--images, rhythms, narratives.

This rather strangely titled book is a tribute to the demand for Elizabeth Bishop's work. It is a set of pieces gleaned from some 3,500 pages in the Vassar College library collection. Not exactly random (but almost) here are 108 poems, some prose, notes she took, some sketches, some facimilies of her papers, some sketches she made, and other pieces harder to describe. Obviously this is a book that will appeal most to people who are already Elizabeth Bishop fans. This is more of a work in process. It tells more about her as a person, it illustrates the great effort she went to get her poems just right before sending them off for publication. It shows something of the way her mind worked. The work here is not Ms. Bishop's best. It's unfinished. Some of the shorter pieces, fragments really, make you wonder where she might have taken it.

Elizabeth Bishop published less than 100 poems prior to her death in 1979. This new collection is similiar to a box CD set of studio out-takes of a rock musician : not essential for the causal reader but a must for a true believer of the artist. It is the definitive edition of her unpublished work with extensive notes and annotations. Some of her private poetry is considerably more erotic and emotional than her previously published work and the new poems (over 100+) are the reason to buy this edition. Having said this, the reader is referred to "The Complete Poems, 1927-1979" (1983) of Elizabeth Bishop.