Reader's guide about the American poet Elizabeth Bishop ( (1911–1979), which makes full use of the letters Elizabeth Bishop wrote to Anne Stevenson from Brazil in the 1960s. Two final chapters focus on the poet's Darwinian acceptance of evolutionary change and her steady look at the 'geographical mirror' that in her later work replaced the figure of the looking-glass as an emblem of imagination. A chronology and a set of maps serve as practical guides to the poet's life and travels.