by Sylvia Plath
Do be sure and take it easy now you have all this statistics testing and make Warren and Margaret cook you meals on the weekend, instead of the other way round.
Lots of love from all of us,
Sivvy
TO Ruth Fainlight
Friday 6 October 1961
ALS, Ruth Fainlight
Court Green
North Tawton
Devonshire
Friday: October 6
Dear Ruth,
A small note to say you are an angel for the terrific apple recipes & how I hope you are all right. It’s difficult & in a way impertinent to tell you how very much I am wishing things to go well for you, because noone can ever really identify deeply enough with someone else’s special predicament to make the words ‘I know how you feel’* carry their full weight. But our sad & confusing experience of losing a baby last winter has made me feel much closer to the difficulties & apprehensions of childbearing & much more profoundly involved with them. Please tell me if I am descending on you at a lousy time. Or let me know at any time if you’d rather be left in peace. I’d love to see you in any case & will come as planned unless you tell me best not. We are liking our place more & more. When you are able you & Alan must come for a bucolic country weekend & live on apples & fat cream.
Lots of love,
Sylvia
TO Judith Jones
Saturday 7 October 1961
TLS (aerogramme), University of Texas at Austin
Court Green
North Tawton
Devonshire, England
October 7, 1961
Mrs. Judith B. Jones
ALFRED A. KNOPF
501 Madison Avenue
New York 22, New York
USA
Dear Mrs. Jones:
Thanks very much for your two letters of August 22nd and September 19th.* I’ve been up to my ears in moving our household from London to Devon (the above address should be permanent for a long while), or I would have answered them sooner.
I have today sent off letters to the 17 or so American magazines in which my poems have appeared asking that the assignment of copyright be sent to you at Knopf. One or two of the magazines (Chelsea Review, Grecourt Review, Hornbook and Smith Alumnae Quarterly) are pretty small, so I don’t know if they are copyrighted, but I wrote them, just in case.
I had called W. Roger Smith at Heinemann to find out if the British permissions extend to American publication, but he seemed to know less about copyrights than I did, which was very little help. I guess my call was the occasion of his letter to you.* He said he would “take care of everything”, but there seems to be a good bit of fog in the London publishing offices.
I don’t know your form for acknowledgment pages, but I’d like just to head the page Acknowledgments & list alphabetically the magazines that published the poems: ARTS IN SOCIETY, THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, AUDIENCE, CHELSEA REVIEW, CRITICAL QUARTERLY, ENCOUNTER,* GRECOURT REVIEW, HARPERS, HORNBOOK, HUDSON REVIEW, KENYON REVIEW, LONDON MAGAZINE, MADEMOISELLE, NATION, NEW YORKER, OBSERVER, PARTISAN REVIEW, POETRY (CHICAGO), SEWANEE REVIEW, SPECTATOR, TEXAS QUARTERLY and TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT. I would also like to thank Elizabeth Ames and the Trustees at Yaddo, where many of the poems were written.*
I’m delighted with the contents of the book as they now stand & so happy it has been pruned.
Sincerely,
Sylvia Plath
TO Copyright Department, Hudson Review
Saturday 7 October 1961
TLS (aerogramme), Princeton University
Court Green
North Tawton
Devonshire, England
October 7, 1961
Copyright Department
THE HUDSON REVIEW
439West Street
New York 14, New York
USA
Dear Sir:
Alfred A. Knopf, publishers of my forthcoming book of poems, have asked me to obtain the assignment of copyright for my poems Moonrise, Ouija and Suicide Off Egg Rock which appeared in THE HUDSON REVIEW.
I wonder if you would be so kind as to send the assignment of copyright to:
Mrs. Judith B. Jones
Alfred A. Knopf
501 Madison Avenue
New York 22, New York.
Yours sincerely,
Sylvia Plath
TO Copyright Department, Poetry
Saturday 7 October 1961
TLS (aerogramme), University of Chicago
Court Green
North Tawton
Devonshire, England
October 7, 1961
Copyright Department
POETRY
1018 North State Street
Chicago 10, Illinois
USA
Dear Sir:
Alfred A. Knopf, publishers of my forthcoming book of poems, have asked me to obtain the assignment of copyright for my poems Metamorphosis (now titled Faun), Sow and Strumpet Song, which appeared in POETRY.
I wonder if you would be so kind as to send the assignment of copyright to:
Mrs. Judith B. Jones
Alfred A. Knopf
501 Madison Avenue
New York 22, New York.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely yours,
Sylvia Plath
TO Edith & William Hughes
Monday 9 October 1961
TLS, Pierpont Morgan Library
Court Green
North Tawton, Devon.
Monday: October 9
Dear Edith & Willy,
I’ve been meaning to post a note every time Ted sends a letter, but he always gets them off too fast, so I’m writing one now on my own. We are wonderfully happy here. You would be so pleased if you could see Ted---he has his big dream come true, and at a very early time in life, as you say, Edith. He has a wonderful cosy attic study under the thatch, very warm, just over the immersion heater in the bathroom, and I have a study facing out front, with a view of our two laburnum trees & the sweet church.*
Frieda is in seventh heaven. She runs round, singing and playing---none of the fussing she used to do in our crowded two-room flat. In the morning I write & Ted carpenters or gardens with Frieda to keep him company. Then in the afternoon I cook and sew (on my 2nd-hand hand-wind Singer I bought for 12 pounds in London) and weed the flower garden and play with Frieda while Ted writes, and he writes in the evenings, too. So both of us get plenty of exercise and all the time to write we want, and Frieda always has company. Next year we shall try to sell our apples & make some money on them. We are getting lots of flower & fruit catalogues & gardening books, so we shall learn all about them.
Ted has already been to London to do his BBC Children’s Broadcasts, & I will go at the end of the month to pick up my 75 pound cheque for my poem at the Guinness Poetry Awards and also to see the fiction editor of WOMANS REALM,* you probably know it, the woman’s weekly magazine like Woman’s Own, who is interested in my short stories & wants to tell me what they want at their magazine.
I have a nice midwife & young doctor here, and we are looking forward to the new baby shortly after New Years. The woolly sheets are wonderful, Edith! They will keep us cosy through the winter. We keep the Aga going & it warms the house & heats the water nicely. The clean rags are so convenient. I always welcome them, as in a house as big as this with so much to fix up one is always wanting rags. I do have the recipe for tomato chutney you sent & shall make up a big lot now I’ve got apples in plenty.
After we get our first moving-in expenses sorted out, I shall spend some of my prize money and poem money on carpets, which will make a nice change from the bare boards. If I can get these Woman’s magazine stories going, a couple a month, I should be able to furnish the house beautifully in time!
Very best love to you both,
Sylvia
TO W. Roger Smith
Wednesday 11 October 1961
TLS, Random House Group Archive & Library
Court Green
&nb
sp; North Tawton
Devon.
October 11, 1961
Roger Smith, Esq.
WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD.
15/16 Queen Street
London W.1
Dear Mr. Smith,
Thanks very much for your letter of October 10th. I’m glad to hear “Medallion” will be included in THE LONDON BRIDGE BOOK OF VERSE.*
My birth date is October 27, 1932. Guard it well, because after I have reached the ripe age of 30, I shall never mention it again.
All good wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Sylvia Plath
TO Aurelia Schober Plath
Friday 13 October 1961
TLS, Indiana University
Court Green
North Tawton
Devonshire
Friday: October 13
Dear mother,
Enclosed is a small check for deposit to our Boston 5¢ Savings. We are resting that account a bit & depositing $ checks here until we get over the hump of our first year with all the big initial expenses. But this check is too small to have the exchange discount deducted! I have saved about $500, half gifts, half my own literary earnings this fall, for rugs, but will wait a month or so & look around while we pile up a bit more money for food & drink. I plan a bright red rug for my study (where no children will come, so it won’t need a pattern to hide dirt!), a forest green one to go under the small flowered Indian one we bought at auction for Frieda’s room, and a light pink & green & white floral for our bedroom. The red oriental for the livingroom is something worth waiting-for; and, eventually, red stair & hall carpets.
The Bendix has arrived! Huge and beautiful. Now I await the men to install it---everything is done separately here! The plumbers did a lovely job & my new kitchen sink unit is very handsome. I have been painting shelves Ted built in the playroom alcove for Frieda’s toys and sewing things. The second blue crisp fall day after lots of rain---very invigorating. Our apples are delicious, better than any I’ve tasted.
Delighted to hear you’ve ordered dungarees! The package for Frieda arrived this week & it was the best yet---the tights are just wonderful, and the gorgeous-colored snap-in corduroy suit! She looks like a pixie in the red coat, and the pajamas are very very roomy & bunny-soft. Thank you a billion times! F. is impossible about training. She won’t sit on her seat for 2 seconds & has the habit of having her movement during her nap, or very irregularly. I’ve sat & I’ve sat & I’ve sat like Horton the Elephant,* but still have to get her to go once. Then I’m sure she’d catch on. Oh well, there’s no rush.
Frieda’s Christmas doll sounds heavenly. I’ll get Ted to make a wooden cradle for our Christmas present & I’ll paint it.
I’ve decided the best way to grow into the community here is to go to our local Anglican church, & maybe belong to its monthly mother’s group.* I wrote the rector*---a Protestant Irishman with very broad background (Chicago, Africa) about this & he came & said he’d go through the creed & order of service with me, but that I’d be welcome (I’m afraid I could never stomach the trinity & all that!) to come in the spirit of my own Unitarian beliefs. I like the idea of Frieda going to Sunday school nextdoor---the church is “low” (like our Episcopal, I guess), & has a champion crew of 8 bellringers who delight us every Sunday. My cleaning woman’s husband is one of them. I’m having Mrs. Hamilton* the wife of the dead coffee plantation owner & local power, to tea today. She is old, booming, half-deaf, with a dachshund named Pixie. I’m having Ted come to help me out! He’s just finished the radio play he’s been working on, & I’ve a couple of good poems.*
Lots of love,
Sivvy
TO Brian Cox
Tuesday 17 October 1961
TLS, University of Kansas
Court Green
North Tawton
Devonshire
October 17, 1961
Dear Brian,
Thanks very much for your letter. I do hope you sell more copies of American Poetry Now! I’m glad most places are being reasonable about permission charges.
Ted suggests you send copies of your letters to Howard Nemerov,* c/o The Department of English, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, and to Louis Simpson,* c/o Thom Gunn, 975 Filbert Street, San Francisco, California. These may be more direct routes than via publishers. Adrienne Rich is traveling about Europe on a Guggenheim this year, so probably that’s why you haven’t heard from her. We are dropping a note to Merwin at his French address about the two poems.* I don’t know a thing in the world about Gregory Corso, unfortunately. I hope O.U.P works out the copyright formula all right.
I’d be grateful if you could leave out all the poems not on my definite list.
Ted & I would like very much to make it to Bangor.* Tony’s flat sounds heavenly. Ideally, my mother might be here to care of our hopefully by then 2 infants, and if so, there should be no complications.
I’ll include some brief introductory notes.
Best wishes,
Sylvia
PS: How about saying simply:
AMERICAN POETRY NOW is a selection of poems by new and/or youngish American poets for the most part unknown in England. I’ll let the vigor and variety of these poems speak for themselves.
I’m also including a new poem by Simpson I wish you could fit in.* (It seems to me “American” in a particularly fine sense.) But I suppose you’re all set up.
S.
TO Aurelia Schober Plath
Sunday 22 October 1961
TLS (aerogramme), Indiana University
Sunday: October 22
Dear mother,
Well, the connections are connected, the gorgeous white machine works! I spent all Wednesday morning with the Bendix demonstrator, doing a sample wash (mine!) and he testing all the parts. My wash looked millions of times whiter than my usual wash, partly I think because I always cram those commercial Bendixes too full, not wanting to make the lengthy trip to Exeter more than once a week, so the clothes never had a chance to shake out and swish about. I am delighted with the machine, and look forward to starting my Birthday week with a bright white Monday wash. I’ll probably wash twice a week, or twice every other week now, so things don’t pile up. I got the man to recommend good commercial suds & am thinking of buying a 56 pound bag they sell which Bendix launderettes use. You can imagine what a lot off my mind (and back) this Bendix is! I have no worries about managing the new baby now & will probably be able to have Nancy a couple of hours extra then to do all the ironing of nappies. Thank you endlessly for this.
I have delayed my usual Friday letter because I, too, have been feeling tired this last week or so, although I have nowhere the reason you have! Ted is so good. I lie down for an hour after our lunch, now, before Frieda gets up from her nap, and he insists I do so every day. Then I can face the busywork of the afternoon. It seems impossible one can get tired doing something one loves to do, but I suppose writing is strenuous, and I should consider my mornings at my desk as work, rather than play. We do go to bed in good time---lights out by 10 or 10:30, and Frieda generally lets us sleep till 8ish. I guess the baby is getting perceptibly heavy now, too, and I am grateful for Ted’s nightly hypnotizing which put me straight to sleep.
Frieda is sweeter and more winsome than ever. She gets the best of each of us, I think---neither of us having to mind her when we want to write, but while we’re doing things she can watch and participate in. I went out to see the two of them in the garden this morning, and Ted was planting strawberries and Frieda was following him with her little shovel, religiously imitating his every gesture, looking like an elf in that wonderful cotton red coat and hood you sent. I’m awfully glad you got size 3 dungarees. I’ll be able to pad her with sweaters and so on through the winter and not fear her muddying herself.
So glad you liked “Snow”. I haven’t seen HARPERS BAZAAR yet. Hope they send us a copy. Actually, I think you’re closest to Ted’s meaning---it’s not a philosopicial equation so much as just the feelin
g of being lost and struggling against terrific unknowns and odds, something most people feel at one time or another. I find it the most compelling of Ted’s stories because it fits one’s own experience so beautifully. It’s incredible how moving it is, with just one character, the snow & the chair, but I feel it has a deep psychic insight into the soul’s battles.
If you happen to think of it, or ever, get a holiday or minute, could you pack me off a Ladies’ Home Journal or two? I get homesick for it (no other, Mcall’s or Womans Day will do!) It has a special Americanness which I feel to need to dip into, now I’m in exile, and especially as I’m writing for women’s magazines a small way now. I shall have fulfilled a very longtime ambition if a story of mine ever makes the LHJ.
Later: A wild, blowy night, with gusts of rain. Went to my first Anglican service with the lively retired London couple down the lane. It’s a sweet little church, and I found the service so strange. I suppose it would be very familiar to you, like a sort of watered Catholic service. The choir & congregation singing is amazingly strong and good for the small number of people there, and I do like hymn-singing. I think I will probably go to Evensong off and on and then send Frieda to Sundayschool. I’m sure as she starts thinking for herself she will drift away from the church but I know how incredibly powerful the words of that little Christian prayer “God is my help in every need” which you taught us has been at odd moments of my life, so think it will do her good to feel part of this spiritual community: so she’ll have known it. I must say I think I am a pagan-Unitarian at best! The songs and psalms and responses and prayers are fine, but the sermon! How a bad or a good sermon can determine one’s reaction! I suppose there aren’t many Bill Rices in the world. Our little Irish rector is very simple. When he talks of sinfulness, I have to laugh. It’s a pity there aren’t more fiery intellectuals in the ministry. It seems to draw meek, safe, platitudinous souls who I am sure would not face the lions in the Roman arena at any cost. And in these more elaborate services what a lot of kneeling standing and sitting there is! Like a class in bible calisthentics.///I’ll send off a statement for breakage. DO tell me what DATE your statistics courses are DONE. I want to look forward to it & count the days!