Colm Tóibín writes:

It is notable that despite the closeness of their friendship, there were things that could not be easily mentioned. When Lowell wrote to her in 1950, for example, to say that his father had died, there is no evidence that Bishop made any reference to the death in return. Her long letter to him after his mother’s death in 1954 began: ‘What a joy to hear from you! Heavens – I’ve felt much better ever since; I hadn’t realised just how worried I had been, I guess. I had heard vaguely, perhaps from Zabel, about the death of your mother and felt I should have written about that but scarcely knew what to say and of course do not even now.’ She made no other reference to the death in a letter filled with news and trivia.

(LRB 14 May 2009)

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