"no detail, no weed or stone or cat or old woman was unimportant to him"

2 September 2023: A random tidbit from one of my "Year's Work" articles--Elizabeth Bishop talking about John Dewey: "[H]e had almost the best manners I have ever encountered, always had time, took an interest in everything,—no detail, no weed or stone or cat or old woman was unimportant to him” (qtd. in Potts 808). Apparently they were neighbors when Dewey lived in Key West.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Dewey, connected in part to using his philosophy for part of my Masters Thesis. To think of him this way makes that spot even softer.

Pott's piece is pretty cool overall--a really neat reading of Bishop's poetry through the lens of her admiration for Buster Keaton.

Work Cited

Potts, George. “The Stoic Comedy of Elizabeth Bishop and Buster Keaton.” ELH vol. 89, no. 3, 2022, pp. 807–32.