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The Letters of Sylvia Plath Vol 2

Page 5

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.

 

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