Petersburg to a Finnish-Swedish family, wrote her first poems in German, French and Russian. When she turned to her native Swedish she introduced modernist poetry to Scandinavia, to almost universal scorn from the critics. Today she is recognized as one of the greatest poets in Scandinavia literature.Bilingual Edition.

    In this first full biography, Brett Miller pieces together the compelling and painful story of Bishop's life and traces the writing of her brilliantly crafted poems.

    Primitive cultures identified edible and poisonous plants by a process of trial and error, and then began to exploit the toxic materials for hunting, euthanasia, executions, and murder. Other plants were found to have stimulatory or hallucinogenic effects: these not only formed the basis of magico-religious rites, they also encouraged experimentation which led to the identification of plants with useful medicinal properties. This absorbing account of the evolution of modern medicine from its roots in folk medicine will entertain and inform both scientist and general reader alike. It explains the chemical basis of modern pharmacology, and provides a fascinating description of how the use and abuse of natural products in various societies throughout the ages has led to the development of many of the drugs we now take for granted. Many plants and animal species remain undiscovered, and much native folk medicine has yet to be investigated.