The Letters of Sylvia Plath Vol 2
Page 82
After both Ted’s & my first shock at having a boy, we think he is marvelous. He did look grim & cross at first, his head all dented where he had caught high up & had to really push to get out, but overnight his head & features altered. Already I can sense a very different temperament from Frieda’s---where she was & is almost hysterically impatient, he is calm & steady, with big dark eyes & a ruddy complexion. Very restful & dear.
Well, Ted’s going to post befor the weekend so I’ll say goodbye for now. Do write me lots of newsy letters now you are more free.
Lots of love,
Sivvy
TO Aurelia Schober Plath
Wed.–Sat. 24–27 January 1962
TLS (aerogramme), Indiana University
Wednesday: Jan. 24
Dear mother,
Well, Nicholas is a week old, and I have spent my first whole day up. Things have calmed down considerably, and by next week I think we will be placidly back to schedule. I’ve had a rather tiring week as the first night the baby was born I couldn’t sleep for the excitement, & the nights after that the baby cried all night (I suppose this is the one advantage of a hospital or home nurse!), but now he is settling down to more of a schedule & the doctor gave me a couple of relaxing pills to get me to sleep till I get rested up again. It is wonderful having all this room. While the baby was up nights, I slept with him in the guest room so Ted could have an unbroken night in our room & be ready to cope with Frieda & the cooking & washing up the next day. Now I am back to cooking again, sitting on my stool. I will go on having my nap every afternoon & sitting in my study in the morning. This morning I took a hot bath first thing, put on proper clothes & felt very fresh. I simply wore through the seams of all the underwear & maternity skirts & tights I wore in the last months & looked like a great patchy monster at the end. It is heavenly to have a whole wardrobe to choose from again.
Your red sweater arrived just in time for me to christen it today. It is wonderful! Ted & I just gaped at it. The cuffs and yoke neck are so becoming & the color a tonic after my funereal maternity blacks. I shall probably wear this sweater out before you come! It is ideal for nursing because it is a cardigan & I have no cardigans, so I can wear it over all my button-down-the-front blouses, & it is so deliciously warm! Did it take you ages? I’d like to order another some day. In dusty rose or wedgewood blue. The self-covered buttons are very handsome. I’m so relieved you’re done with your courses. Was the exam Saturday very hard? Will you have time now for more visiting with people & friends?
My favorite midwife, who delivered the baby, was only with us for one day alas. Her 80 year old father who lives in a neighboring town, was very ill with pneumonia so she took a “holiday” to nurse him. The 2nd midwife was Irish & had been a “society” midwife at one point---even worked with Grantly Dick-Read, the natural childbirth man, for a while. She’s been pleasant, but not with the immense moral force and calm of Mrs. Davies---I was so lucky to have her! I have all sorts of little neighborly attentions---the bankers wife brought oranges yesterday & a custard today. The bank manager himself dropped in to collect her---poor man has had 2 heart attacks already, very sweet person. I do enjoy Marjorie Tyrer, his wife. She seems to be a bit of a lone wolf---she is Irish, with a very funny, sharp tongue, full of gossip & evidently not loved much in the town, & I am a good listener. She has a pretty daughter of 15 at private school in Oxford. They found Ted’s picture in Vogue* in a dentist’s office, & a poem of mine in this week’s Sunday Observer,* so we are more or less discovered, & have a kind of pleasant status. Rose Key brought a lovely roast beef dinner for us all Sunday. I think we’re incredibly lucky to have fallen in a place that isn’t all “locals”---these are all “foreigners”, like us. But the local people are awfully nice too. I’ll make up plates of Xmas cookies next year as my kind of hospitality, after your custom.
One bit of practical advice I’d like to ask. Ted wrote a life insurance broker firm after an ad in the paper. We know nothing about rates or kinds of insurance, but this sounded very good to us. What do you think of it? “£6,500 immediate family protection, which includes a with-profits endowment estimated to produce £2,500 payable to you at age 65 with an annuity alternative of £280 at an annual premium of £47. 3. 11. Assuming incoming tax allowance at the standard rate, this works out at 15/5 (just over $2) a week.” This is the sort of policy we would like, with choice of a lump sum or annual “pension” at the end, as of course our job is not pensionable. Multiply by 3 or $2.80 for a rough or specific American translation. Of course we’d need a lot of savings as well, by that time! Let me know what you think.
Saturday: Interrupted by a nasty bout with milk fever, a temperature of over 103 for 2 nights, much worse than that I had with Frieda.* I’d have sweated myself back to normal by morning when the nurse came, very annoying. They are shocked if you take your own temp here. Finally the doctor came across with some shots of penicillin---I’m sure if I’d had them immediately I’d not have got so burnt out, but this is not London. Now at last I am cool again, if a bit spent. Believe me, I shed some tears for our “grammy”. Ted’s been a saint, minding Frieda all day, making me mushrooms on toast, fresh green salads & chicken broth. I hope when you come we can give him a 6 week holiday from any babycare. He needs it---and we both need a few day excursions off on our own, fishing or boating. Margaret’s exquisite sweater set arrived. I think its the sweetest I’ve seen. If Warren makes her anywhere near as happy as Ted has made me, she will be the 2nd happiest girl in the world.
xxx
Sivvy
TO Mary Louise Vincent Black*
Tuesday 30 January 1962
TLS (aerogramme), Collection of Sarah Funke Butler
Court Green
North Tawton
Devonshire, England
January 30, 1962
Miss Mary Louise Vincent
Assistant to the Director, Meridian Books
119 West 57 Street
New York 19, New York
USA
Dear Miss Vincent,
Thank you very much for your letter of January 25th. I am forwarding it, as you suggested, to Heinemann, who I think probably control “Black Rook in Rainy Weather”---I can’t think who else would control it---and asking them to write you about it.
Here are the items you asked for meanwhile:
1. Date and place of birth: October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts.
2. Occupation: Housewife & mother of two small children.
3. Titles of books and names of magazines where published:
THE COLOSSUS (Poems), Knopf, 1962.
The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Mademoiselle, The New Yorker, The Hudson Review, The Kenyon Review, The Partisan Review, The Sewanee Review, The Nation, The London Magazine, Encounter, The Observer, The Spectator, The Times Literary Supplement, etc.
Sincerely yours,
Sylvia Plath
TO Aurelia Schober Plath
Wednesday 31 January 1962
TLS with envelope, Indiana University
Court Green
North Tawton
Devonshire, England
January 31, 1962
Dearest mother,
Enclosed is the precious negative of Frieda in her red nightie in the black chair for you to have made up for as many of your friends as want them. I wonder if you have it made up large for yourself, if you’d have a big one made for us too. I am already getting so much to miss the lovely little stages Frieda goes through and wish I could simply keep her little toddling baby-self as well as the growing girl. She seems enormous to me now that I have Nicholas. Let us have the negative if you will, when you’re done with it.
The two enclosed checks are part of this incredible yearly contract I have with the New Yorker, not for any special poem. The smaller is the “cost of living adjustment” for the last quarter, & the larger the adjustment of the cost of living adjustment for the whole year (for which I’ve already had some checks). I think this must be s
ome marvelous scheme on their part to avoid income tax. If I get all this for the few odd poems I send, I imagine the fiction writers must be able to buy penthouses! I just hope I can get back to writing poems soon again.
I now feel fully recovered from my milk fever. The penicillin did it. I still take long naps in the afternoon. Had my first night’s sleep last night unaided by pills---Nicholas still wakes an extra time besides his 2 o’clock feed, but is working from a 3 to a 4 hour schedule slowly.
After 2 years suffering from that radio that was no radio, utterly unable to get the Third Program here or in London, we treated ourselves to a gorgeous radio. Like all good things, it turned out to come from North Tawton. Just as in desperation Ted was going to Exeter to buy one, George Tyrer, the bank manager came over & told us about this wonderful electrician here, who called & said he had two fine VHF radios. He brought them over, & it was a treat to hear music pouring out of them without a touch of static. We chose the best model which just gets the 3 British stations, not all these foreign stations, which I’d never listen to really. He installed it & rigged up a huge permanent ariel on the roof. The cabinet is handsome, small, of mat-finished walnut, no great garish chrome or knobs. We listened to a new translation of the Agamemnon by Aeschylus last night,* almost in tears of joy. It came clear and resonant. Now I will be able to hear all sorts of music & plays & language lessons. The real reason for my hurry was that Ted’s next play “The Wound” has its first broadcast tomorrow night & after my heartache at hearing his last through impossible static & interference, I wanted to enjoy this one. He is brimming with ideas for plays, books, etc. And getting interesting books to review from his friend at the New Statesman---one on the 6 great snakes of the world,* for instance.
Please give me some notion of what Maggie & Warren would like for a wedding present. I’d like to set aside about $50 for them. I’m only afraid my taste isn’t traditional enough for them & would love your guidance. Could I get something here in Exeter they’d like in the way of silver, or send you a check & have you get something? I’d like it to be something really special.
I have got awfully homesick for you since the last baby---and for the Cape & deep snow & such American things. Can’t wait for your visit.
Love to all,
Sivvy
PS: Thank you so much for the bras & pants which came today! A lifesaver. Nicholas looks darling in your pink sweaters. Have written Margaret about her lovely white sweater-set. Do you think you could teach me to knit this summer.
PS: My book should be coming out from Knopf on April 23rd in time for your birthday. And I should have 6 poems in a paperback anthology* there in May by Meridian Books – NEW POETS OF ENGLAND & AND AMERICA: 2nd selection. Ted’s in it too.
TO Dorothy Benotti
Wednesday 31 January 1962
TLS (aerogramme), Indiana University
Court Green, North Tawton
Devonshire, England
January 31, 1962
Dear Dotty,
I’ve been meaning to write you for ages, but after Christmas I thought ‘I’ll just wait till the baby comes’, and then the last two weeks have just flown, midwives in and out, the usual sleepless nights until the baby settles down to a feeding schedule, with Ted minding Frieda and cooking meals till I was up and about again. Now at last things have settled down and I begin to feel my old self. We were overwhelmed with your wonderful Christmas package, Dotty! You’ve got the knack of picking out just what I would myself---I love my dark blouse, so refreshing to have something new & special after months of the same old maternity clothes! And the sweaters for Frieda were just the thing---we all go around buttoned up into sweaters till spring here. And Ted is wearing his lovely socks, & baby Nicholas enjoying his towel and the other very convenient things. We had such a nice Christmas, although it was our first alone---we felt we wanted to start our own little traditions. I made a 10 pound turkey, my first, and it came out fine. And your carrot cake, which has become a part of our holidays. We had a little evergreen which we decorated, partly with cookies, which Frieda could pick off and eat. Her big moment was discovering the baby doll mother sent, and a white elephant from Ted’s sister. She still won’t be parted from either---they go with her everywhere. Ted had made her a cradle out of wood which I painted white & enameled with hearts & flowers, so now she can “play baby” with me.
Mother sounded to have such a wonderful time with you all at Christmas. Her letter about it just glowed. I am so relieved she is done with all that awful course work. Now maybe she will relax, and knit, and visit more. We look so forward to having her with us---she will find it a vacation, I think, not like London, sitting out in our garden in a deck chair with her grandchildren, discovering the local beaches with us, and picnicking on Dartmoor. I adore our house. We do have a job keeping it warm---a big coal stove heats the large kitchen-diningroom, where I dry all my clothes. Small electric fan heaters heat the rooms we use most. We have wood fires in the livingroom in the evenings, very cheery. Everybody says our place is gorgeous when the daffodils and cherry and apple trees are in bloom. I can’t wait. It will be so nice to get the children out of doors & out of heavy woolens. I miss the snow---we never have any here, just grey rain which gets boring after 6 months of it.
I was very lucky to have the head midwife of the 3 covering our district deliver Nicholas before she went on a 2 week “holiday” to nurse her very sick old father of 80. She was wonderful, very comforting. I had a cylinder of gas-and-air to breathe when I wanted it, & in between she & Ted & I gossiped happily about the local people & affairs. The neighbors have been so sweet---I hardly know many of them, & they brought flowers, a knitted suit for the baby, fruit, & one woman made a roast beef dinner for us the Sunday after Nicholas was born. I felt so touched by all this kindness, especially as we’re so new here.
I have a very vigorous red-cheeked country-woman come in 2 or 3 mornings a week to do the heavy cleaning---one morning she does the bedrooms & bathroom & stair, vacuuming, changing beds, washing the tub & floor etc. The other day she washes my acres of kitchen floor & does the rest of the downstairs. Now the baby is here, I have her in an hour or two extra to help with the mountains of ironing. My Bendix is a real blessing now. She only costs about 35 cents an hour! Even as it is, I have my hands full, with cooking & two little babies---I don’t know what I would do without her.
How much fun your New Year’s party sounds! You are all so lucky to have such a big, close-knit family. That’s what I miss most about being in England---not having the reunions with all my relatives and friends every year. Thank goodness mother is able to get over; I hope Warren gets a job or position that enables him to come over, too. We are dying to see Margaret. I’m so glad you like her. She certainly does sound devoted and a fine girl for Warren. I do hope we get the chance to meet her!
Frieda seems so big to me, now I have the little baby. She is very heavy to lift. I find myself missing already all the little cute stages she has outgrown and looking forward to them in little Nicholas---I can’t believe Nancy and Bob have grown up so fast. I remember Bob as a darling little dark-eyed baby in diapers.
Well, give my love to the family. Every time I write you, Ted starts remembering those wonderful barbecues in your back yard and the horse & buggy rides. Maybe someday we’ll fill our own stable with a pony!
Lots of love to all,
Sylvia
TO James Michie
Wednesday 31 January 1962
TLS, Random House Group Archive & Library
Court Green
North Tawton
Devon.
January 31, 1962
Dear James,
I wonder if you’d be so good as to pass the enclosed letter on to your person in charge of permissions.
Meridian Books want to print my poem “Black Rook in Rainy Weather” (not in the Knopf edition) in an anthology and want to know if you control permissions rights and, if so, wha
t is your fee and what credit should be used.
They sound in rather a hurry about this, and as I imagine Heinemann does control the permission rights to the poems in my book, I’m passing their letter on as they request.
All good wishes,
Sylvia
TO Marion Freeman
Wednesday 31 January 1962
ALS (aerogramme), Smith College
Court Green
North Tawton
Devonshire, England
January 31, 1962
Dear Aunt Marion,
Happy New Year to you! I hope this letter finds you well on the mend from pneumonia, which mother says got you into hospital. Do take care and don’t do too much even though you feel lots better---I learned this when I had pneumonia while teaching at Smith.
By now you have probably heard about the birth of Nicholas Farrar Hughes on January 17th. I had him at home, delivered by a local midwife, and he’s just a darling. I think it is wonderful that Ruthie manages 4. Right now, a new baby, and Frieda at the age where she can just reach another stage of shelves and tables, I feel to have my hands full. Do tell Ruthie how I loved the pictures of her family---they are such handsome children, every one so bright and pretty. We did like the cute boy & girl pictures she sent---they will decorate the babies room.
I want to say thank you so much for the lovely engagement calendar---I so enjoy keeping my days recorded with pictures to remind me of America. I wish it were possible to fly back for visits with the speed of thought! You have no idea what a hit the Woman’s Days made here! There simply are no magazines like this in England. They came just as Ted & I were puzzling how to make a cradle for Frieda’s christmas present. On the off chance I opened to the How-To section, and sure enough, there was a pattern for a lovely wood cradle, which Ted proceeded to cut out. I got ideas from the wonderful colored section on quilting patterns & enameled the cradle with hearts and flowers.* So you are indirectly responsible for what we think, and Frieda thinks, is a very nice cradle!