by Sylvia Plath
Once the upheaval of her move is over, Plath begins to reminisce about the good times in her marriage and feels the finality and loneliness acutely, although on some level Plath realizes she is ‘mourning a dead man’ (29 September 1962). She agrees with mutual friend Daniel Huws that part of Hughes’s brutal behaviour is probably due to his guilt. She tells Prouty that Frieda in her innocence and heartbreak over her father’s absence holds a mirror up to Plath that reflects her ‘own sense of loss’ (22 January 1963). The last few weeks of Plath’s life are affected by the extreme winter weather of the time and her family’s acute sickness. Dr Horder orders Plath ‘a private day-nurse for 10 days’ when she and the children suffer ‘scalding fevers’ from the flu. Plath tells Paul and Clarissa Roche that, as a result, she ‘began having blackouts’ and thought she was dying (9 January 1963). She tells Marcia Brown Stern on 4 February 1963 that ‘Everything has blown & bubbled & warped & split---accentuated by the light & heat suddenly going off for hours at unannounced intervals, frozen pipes, people getting drinking water in buckets & such stuff---that I am in limbo between the old world & the very uncertain & rather grim new.’ On the same day she tells Father Michael Carey that she writes at present ‘in blood, or at least with it’. In her last letter to Beuscher, posted on 8 February 1963, Plath writes of the return of ‘my madness, my paralysis, my fear & vision of the worst---cowardly withdrawal, a mental hospital, lobotomies’ and of ‘wanting to give up’. Without psychological support or a devoted husband by her side, Plath cannot love herself enough to face the extraordinary demands of her current situation. She commits suicide on 11 February 1963 despite her earlier mantra: ‘I am stubborn. I am a fighter’ (9 October 1962). But the resistance that Plath could not muster for her own survival would be poured into her powerful poetry drafts, which she left on her desk in her bee-coloured bedroom for the ultimate benefit of her beloved children, Frieda and Nicholas Hughes.
Karen V. Kukil and Peter K. Steinberg
2018
Chronology
1932
27 October
Sylvia Plath born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Otto Emil and Aurelia Schober Plath; the family lives at 24 Prince Street, Jamaica Plain, a neighbourhood in Boston.
1935
27 April
Warren Joseph Plath born.
1936
Autumn
The Plaths move to 92 Johnson Avenue in Winthrop, Massachusetts.
1937
September
Enrols in the Sunshine School, Winthrop.
1938
September
Enters Annie F. Warren Grammar School, Winthrop.
1940
February
Writes first letters to her parents.
September
Enters E. B. Newton School, Winthrop.
October
Otto Plath admitted to the New England Deaconess Hospital, Boston; his left, gangrenous leg amputated.
5 November
Otto Plath dies from an embolus in his lung.
1941
10 August
‘Poem’ appears in the Boston Herald; her first publication.
1942
October
Moves with her mother, brother, and grandparents, Frank and Aurelia Schober, to 26 Elmwood Road, Wellesley, Massachusetts. Enters the Marshall Perrin Grammar School.
1943/4
Summers
Attends Camp Weetamoe in Center Ossipee, New Hampshire.
1944
January
Begins writing in a journal.
September
Enters Alice L. Phillips Junior High School, publishes in school paper.
1945/6
Summers
Attends Camp Helen Storrow in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
1947/8
Summers
Attends Vineyard Sailing Camp at Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard.
September
Enters Gamaliel Bradford Senior High School, Wellesley.
1948
June
Named co-editor of school newspaper, The Bradford.
1949
March
Publishes poem ‘Sea Symphony’ in Student Life.
Summer
Attends Unitarian conference at Star Island, New Hampshire.
1950
March
Publishes article ‘Youth’s Plea for World Peace’ in the Christian Science Monitor.
May
Accepted into Class of 1954 at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. Receives Olive Higgins Prouty scholarship.
Summer
Works at Lookout Farm with Warren Plath in Natick, Massachusetts.
August
Publishes short story ‘And Summer Will Not Come Again’ in Seventeen.
Autumn
Enters Smith College, resides at Haven House. Meets Prouty.
1951
February
Begins dating Richard ‘Dick’ Norton, a senior at Yale University and Wellesley resident.
March
Attends Yale Junior Prom with Norton. Meets Eddie Cohen.
Summer
Works as nanny for Mayo family in Swampscott, Massachusetts. Her friend Marcia Brown nannies nearby.
Autumn
Writes articles for local newspapers as Press Board correspondent for Smith College.
1952
Summer
Waitresses at the Belmont Hotel in West Harwich, Massachusetts. ‘Sunday at the Mintons” wins Mademoiselle short fiction contest. Works as nanny for the Cantor family in Chatham, Massachusetts.
September
Moves to Lawrence House, a cooperative house, at Smith College.
Autumn
Continues writing for Press Board. Dick Norton treated for exposure to tuberculosis in New York.
November
Meets Yale student Myron Lotz; relationship with Norton strained.
December
Visits Norton at Ray Brook, New York; breaks leg in skiing accident.
1953
February
Dates Lotz and Gordon Lameyer, a senior at Amherst College. Writes villanelle ‘Mad Girl’s Love Song’.
April–May
Harper’s accepts three poems; wins Guest Editor competition at Mademoiselle in New York City.
June
Lives at Barbizon Hotel in New York; works at Mademoiselle.
July–August
Treated for insomnia and exhaustion; counselled by psychiatrist; given poorly administered outpatient electro-convulsive shock treatments.
24–26 August
Attempts suicide in the basement of her house by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. When found, admitted to Newton-Wellesley Hospital.
September
Transfers first to Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, then to McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts. Begins treatment with Dr Ruth Beuscher.
1954
January
Re-enters Smith College; repeats second semester of her junior year.
April
Meets Richard Sassoon, a Yale student.
Summer
Attends Harvard Summer School and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Autumn
Senior year at Smith College on full scholarship; writes thesis on Dostoevsky.
1955
February
Accepted by Newnham College, University of Cambridge.
April
Competes in Glascock Poetry Contest, Mount Holyoke College, Hadley, Massachusetts.
May
Wins Fulbright scholarship to University of Cambridge.
6 June
Graduates Smith College, summa cum laude.
September
Sails on the Queen Elizabeth to UK.
October
Begins courses at Newnham College.
Winter
Travels to Paris and the south of France with Sassoon.
1956
25 Feb
ruary
Attends party at Falcon Yard, meets Edward ‘Ted’ James Hughes.
March–April
Travels through France, Germany, and Italy with Gordon Lameyer.
16 June
Marries Ted Hughes at St George-the-Martyr, Queen Square, London.
Summer
Honeymoons in Alicante and Benidorm; meets Warren Plath in Paris; lives at the Hughes home, The Beacon, in Heptonstall, Yorkshire.
Autumn
Begins second year at Newnham College; keeps marriage a secret.
December
Moves to 55 Eltisley Avenue, Cambridge, UK.
1957
23 February
Hughes’s poetry collection The Hawk in the Rain wins Harper’s poetry prize.
12 March
Smith College offers Plath teaching position on English faculty.
June
Finishes programme at Newnham and earns her second B.A. in English from University of Cambridge; sails on Queen Elizabeth to New York.
Summer
Vacations in Eastham, Massachusetts.
September
Moves to 337 Elm Street, Northampton, Massachusetts; begins teaching at Smith College.
1958
June
Leaves position at Smith College. Records poems for Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard. Receives first New Yorker acceptances for ‘Mussel Hunter at Rock Harbor’ and ‘Nocturne’ [‘Hardcastle Crags’].
9 August
‘Mussel Hunter at Rock Harbor’ appears in The New Yorker.
September
Moves to 9 Willow Street, Beacon Hill, Boston.
10 December
Resumes seeing Dr Beuscher, records details in her journals.
1959
February
Records more poems for Woodberry Poetry Room. Attends Robert Lowell’s poetry course at Boston University, meets Anne Sexton.
8 March
Visits father’s grave in Winthrop.
July–August
Travels across North America; becomes pregnant.
Autumn
Spends two months at the writer’s colony Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, New York. Has creative writing breakthrough.
December
Sails on the United States to UK.
1960
January
Rents flat at 3 Chalcot Square, Primrose Hill, London.
10 February
Signs contract with Heinemann in London to publish her first collection of poetry, The Colossus and Other Poems.
1 April
Daughter, Frieda Rebecca Hughes born.
31 October
The Colossus published in Britain.
1961
February
Suffers a miscarriage.
March
Has an appendectomy.
Spring
Begins writing The Bell Jar.
June
Records poems for BBC series The Living Poet. Aurelia Plath visits England from mid-June to early August.
July
Travels to France; reads ‘Tulips’ at the Poetry at the Mermaid festival in London.
August
Purchases Court Green in North Tawton, Devonshire; sublets London flat to David and Assia Wevill.
1 September
Moves to Court Green.
1962
17 January
Son, Nicholas Farrar Hughes born.
May
Visits from Ruth Fainlight and Alan Sillitoe, as well as the Wevills.
Summer
Assia Wevill and Hughes begin an affair. Aurelia Plath visits Court Green.
September
Visits Irish poet Richard Murphy in Cleggan, Ireland; Hughes abruptly leaves.
October
Writes twenty-five poems; records ‘Berck-Plage’ for BBC and fifteen poems for British Council/Woodberry Poetry Room.
November
Rents flat at 23 Fitzroy Road, London, formerly a residence of W. B. Yeats.
10 December
Moves with Frieda and Nicholas into Fitzroy Road flat.
1963
January
Dubbed the ‘Big Freeze of 1963’, London experiences its coldest winter of the century.
10 January
Records review of Donald Hall’s Contemporary American Poetry for BBC.
14 January
Heinemann publishes The Bell Jar under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas.
4 February
Writes last known letters.
4–5 February
Writes last known poems.
7–10 February
Stays with Jillian and Gerry Becker at nearby 5 Mountfort Crescent, Islington.
11 February
Protects children then commits suicide by gas poisoning.
18 February
Laid to rest in Heptonstall.
Abbreviations and Symbols
AL
autograph letter (unsigned)
ALS
autograph letter signed
ASP
Aurelia Schober Plath
FH
Frieda Hughes
Lilly Library
Lilly Library, Indiana University at Bloomington
SP
Sylvia Plath
TH
Ted Hughes
TL
typed letter (unsigned)
TLS
typed letter signed
< >
editorial intervention – where ( ) and [ ] are printed in letters these are as used by SP
The Letters
1956–1963
1956
TO Aurelia Schober Plath*
Sunday 28 October 1956
TLS (aerogramme), Indiana University
sunday, october 28
Dearest mother . . .
What a lovely birthday I had! Your wonderful warm plaid brown jacket came which I shall delight wearing belted around the house over sweaters. Also Warren’s* hysterically funny card arrived Exactly On The Day; how I loved hearing from him. Dotty* sent $5 and Mrs. Freeman* an embroidered handkerchief (which I shall give to some little girl when I’m matronly enough). Do thank them both warmly and say I’ll write as soon as I can. Why don’t I send you a list of the people to whom to send engraved invitations announcing our wedding on Dec. 16th, or whatever you think best. I think our engagement should appear in the Townsman first, though. I’ve told my dear Dr. Krook* who is very reassuring and says she’ll find out the best way for me to approach the Newnham officials this week; I’m also making an appointment with the Fulbright officials this week. It will no doubt be arduous to get all the proper sanctions and consents but I have no doubt that they will be given.
Ted* came up to Cambridge after his recordings at the BBC Thursday and has been here since; I wish you could see his pay rates! It is probably the most lucrative free-lance work there is; he gets paid again each time they re-broadcast: they recorded much of Yeats* and one of his own poems;* they liked his recording of Yeats so much they are asking him back this Thursday to do some more! And these two days should amount to well over $150! I am so very proud. He is now trying to get a job teaching evenings at the American airbases which is also enormously lucrative and will see if he can also enter the program at Cambridge to get a teaching diploma in one year, even though he has missed the first term. In two or three weeks we should be certain of all these hanging question-marks.
We are looking for an apartment in Cambridge or, better still, Granchester. I hope to move out of here the day term ends: Dec. 7th. Ted is so magnificent; he wants me to get a First, the highest exam mark, and when we are finally together with all this red-tape over, in 6 weeks, I shall be able to study as I never have before. Also write. I have done so many good poems lately* and will send a mss. of 48 (11 more to be written) to the Yale Series of Younger Poets contest in February; Ted is amazingly struck by my “book” (all the poems I have together, very few “old” ones---only those which have p
reviously been published, in fact) and claims that it will be a best-seller because it is all song, but also logic in music; or something. We shall see. We celebrated my birthday yesterday: he gave me a lovely Tarot pack of cards and a dear rhyme with it, so after the obligations of this term are over your daughter shall start her way on the road to becoming a seeress & will also learn how to do horoscopes, a very difficult art which means reviving my elementary math.