BISHOP, JOHN PEALE, Class of 1917 (1892-1944)

John Peale Bishop was a noted author, poet, and editor. Born in 1892 in Charles Town, West Virginia, Bishop entered Princeton University in 1913, where he edited the Nassau Literary Magazine. Upon graduation in 1917, he published his first volume of poetry, but his literary career was put on hold when he was commissioned in the United States Infantry during World War I. He returned to the United States in 1920 and joined the staff of Vanity Fair, where he later became managing editor. He began publishing his own poetry but met very little success, so he moved to a small town in France with his new wife. However, the European literary scene was similarly unreceptive to Bishop’s work, and he returned to the United States a few years later. Among his most known works are Many Thousands Gone, Now with His Love, Minute Particulars, Act of Darkness, and The Hours, an elegy for his dear friend, F. Scott Fitzgerald.