bishop: see orders, holy.

Bishop, Sir Henry Rowley, 1786-1855, English operatic conductor, composer or arranger of 120 dramatic works. He is known today for a setting of Shakespeare's "Lo, here the gentle lark" and the melody of Home, Sweet Home from J. H. Payne's comic opera, Clari, or, The Maid of Milan (1823).

Bishop, John Michael, 1936-, American biologist, b. York, Penn., M.D. Harvard, 1962. He worked (1964-68) as a researcher at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., before joining the faculty of the Univ. of California at San Francisco, where he has been chancellor since 1998. Bishop and his colleague Harold E. Varmus discovered the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes, for which they were awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Bishop, Isabella Lucy (Bird), 1831-1904, English traveler and writer, first woman member of the Royal Geographical Society. She traveled extensively and wrote a number of books, including The English Woman in America (1856), The Hawaiian Archipelago (1875), A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879), Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880), Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan (1891), and Korea and Her Neighbors (1898). She founded several hospitals in China and Korea.

Bishop, Isabel, 1902-88, American painter, b. Cincinnati, Ohio. Influenced by the New York City painters of the 1930s, Bishop produced numerous paintings of working women. Her pensive nude studies, such as Nude—1934, demonstrate her understanding of delicate effects of light and shade.

Bishop, Elizabeth, 1911-79, American poet, b. Worcester, Mass., grad. Vassar, 1934. During the 1950s and 60s she lived in Brazil, eventually returning to her native New England, where she taught at Harvard (1970-77). Her first volume of poetry, North and South (1946), was reprinted with additions as North and South—A Cold Spring (1955; Pulitzer Prize). Her poetic vision is penetrating and detached; her style is subtle yet conversational. Without straining for novelty, she finds symbolic significance in objects and events quietly observed and scrupulously described. Among her other works are her Complete Poems (1979), The Collected Prose (1984), Geography III (1985); several travel books, notably Questions of Travel (1965) and Brazil (1967); and the posthumously published Edger Allan Poe & the Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts and Fragments (2006). With Emanuel Brasil she edited An Anthology of Twentieth Century Brazilian Poetry (1972) and she also translated the works of several Brazilian poets.

Bishop Auckland, town (1991 pop. 23,560), Durham, NE England, on the Wear River. It is a busy market area, and the town's industries include textiles and engineering. Located near the site of a Roman fort, Auckland has been a seat of the bishops of Durham since the 12th cent. The present palace was largely constructed in the 16th cent.

In some Christian churches, the chief pastor and overseer of a diocese, an area containing several congregations. From the 4th century AD until the Reformation, bishops held broad secular and religious powers, including the settling of disputes, ordination of clergy, and confirmation of church members. Some Christian churches (notably the Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox churches) continue the bishop's office and the doctrine of Apostolic succession. Others, including some Lutheran and Methodist churches, retain bishops but not the principle of apostolic succession; still others have abolished the office altogether. Popes, cardinals, archbishops, patriarchs, and metropolitans are gradations of bishops. In Roman Catholicism, the pope selects the bishop; in Anglicanism, the dean and chapter of the cathedral of the diocese elect the bishop; in Methodism a synod chooses the bishop. Seealso episcopacy.

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(born Feb. 22, 1936, York, Pa., U.S.) U.S. virologist. He graduated from Harvard Medical School. In 1970 he and Harold Varmus tested the theory that healthy body cells contain oncogenes (cancer-causing genes). Further research showed that such genes can cause cancer even without viral involvement. By 1989, the year Bishop and Varmus shared a Nobel Prize for their research, scientists had identified more than 40 oncogenes in animals.

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(born Feb. 8, 1911, Worcester, Mass., U.S.—died Oct. 6, 1979, Boston, Mass.) U.S. poet. Bishop was reared by relatives in Nova Scotia, Can., after her father died and her mother was institutionalized. In the 1950s and '60s she lived principally in Brazil with the Brazilian woman she loved. Her first book of poems (1946) contrasts her New England origins and her love of hot climates; reprinted with additions as North & South: A Cold Spring (1955), it received the Pulitzer Prize. Her works are celebrated for their formal brilliance and their close observations of everyday reality. They have elicited much admiration from other poets. Posthumous publications include The Collected Prose (1984) and One Art (1994), a collection of her letters.

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(born Feb. 22, 1936, York, Pa., U.S.) U.S. virologist. He graduated from Harvard Medical School. In 1970 he and Harold Varmus tested the theory that healthy body cells contain oncogenes (cancer-causing genes). Further research showed that such genes can cause cancer even without viral involvement. By 1989, the year Bishop and Varmus shared a Nobel Prize for their research, scientists had identified more than 40 oncogenes in animals.

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(born Feb. 8, 1911, Worcester, Mass., U.S.—died Oct. 6, 1979, Boston, Mass.) U.S. poet. Bishop was reared by relatives in Nova Scotia, Can., after her father died and her mother was institutionalized. In the 1950s and '60s she lived principally in Brazil with the Brazilian woman she loved. Her first book of poems (1946) contrasts her New England origins and her love of hot climates; reprinted with additions as North & South: A Cold Spring (1955), it received the Pulitzer Prize. Her works are celebrated for their formal brilliance and their close observations of everyday reality. They have elicited much admiration from other poets. Posthumous publications include The Collected Prose (1984) and One Art (1994), a collection of her letters.

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