Dear Elizabeth: A Play in Letters from Elizabeth Bishop to Robert Lowell and Back Again: A Play in Letters from Elizabeth Bishop to Robert Lowell and Back Again

"A moving, innovative play based on one of the greatest correspondences in literary history From 1947 to 1977, Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop exchanged more than four hundred letters. Cataloging the composition of their poems, their travel and daily routines, the pyrotechnics of their romantic relationships, and the profound affection they had for each other, these letters are the most intimate record of both poets and one of the greatest correspondences in American letters. Sarah Ruhl is one of the most lauded and produced playwrights working today, with plays beloved for their unembarrassed lyricism, casual surrealism, and naked emotional force. In Dear Elizabeth, Ruhl attempts the impossible: adapting Lowell and Bishop's thirty-year correspondence into a stage play. And she succeeds brilliantly, re-embodying the letters and poems in human voices, elegantly suggesting the poets' lives outside of the letters, and poignantly depicting the emotional closeness and geographical distance that defined their thirty-year relationship. Dear Elizabeth offers a reading experience as engaging as a live performance, one that will entrance anyone curious about the lives of these legendary poets"-- Provided by publisher

From playwright Sarah Ruhl, Dear Elizabeth is a moving, innovative play based on one of the greatest correspondences in literary history--the letters of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop.

From 1947 to 1977, Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop exchanged more than four hundred letters. Describing the writing of their poems, their travel and daily illnesses, the pyrotechnics of their romantic relationships, and the profound affection they had for each other, these missives are the most intimate record available of both poets and one of the greatest correspondences in American literature.

The playwright Sarah Ruhl fell in love with these letters and set herself an unusual challenge: to turn this thirty-year exchange into a stage play, and to bring to life the friendship of two writers who were rarely even in the same country. As innovative as it is moving, Dear Elizabeth gives voice to a conversation that lived mostly in writing, illuminating some of the finest poems of the twentieth century and the minds that produced them.

A moving, innovative play based on one of the greatest correspondences in literary history From 1947 to 1977, Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop exchanged more than four hundred letters. Describing the writing of their poems, their travel and daily illnesses, the pyrotechnics of their romantic relationships, and the profound affection they had for each other, these missives are the most intimate record available of both poets and one of the greatest correspondences in American literature. The playwright Sarah Ruhl fell in love with these letters and set herself an unusual challenge: to turn this thirty-year exchange into a stage play, and to bring to life the friendship of two wrtiers who were rarely even in the same country. As innovative as it is moving, Dear Elizabeth gives voice to a conversation that lived mostly in writing, illuminating some of the finest poems of the twentieth century and the minds that produced them. "Between 1947 and 1977, Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop exchanged more than four hundred letters. Cataloging the composition of their poems, their travel and daily routines, the pyrotechnics of their romantic relationships, and the profound affection they had for each other, these letters are the most intimate record of both poets and one of the greatest correspondences in American letters."--Back cover.