The Letters of Sylvia Plath Vol 2

by Sylvia Plath

  The archivists, librarians, and curators responsible for photocopies and scans of Plath’s letters, as well as for research assistance, who must be thanked for their tireless and important work are: Christine Barber and Peter Nelson at Amherst College; Elizabeth Maisey at Assumption College; Louise North at the BBC Written Archives Centre; Andrew Gough and Helen Melody at the British Library; James Maynard at the University of Buffalo; Jacqueline Cox, Patricia McGuire, and Anne Thomson at the University of Cambridge; Rochelle Rubinstein at the Central Zionist Archives; Christine Colburn and Barbara Gilbert at the University of Chicago; James Merrick at Colby College; Tara C. Craig and Brigette C. Kamsler at Columbia University; Rebecca Parmer at Connecticut College; Allyson Glazier, Barbara L. Krieger, and Morgan R. Swan at Dartmouth College; Emily Erwin Jones at Delta State University; Claudia Frazer at Drake University; Seamus Helferty at University College, Dublin; Sara J. Logue and Kathy Shoemaker at Emory University; Robert Brown, archivist at Faber & Faber; Dr Caroline Oates, Folklore Society Librarian, Allison Haack at Grinnell College; the reference staff at Harvard University; Cara Bertram and Anna Chen at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Zachary T. Downy, David Kim Frasier, Sarah McElroy Mitchell, Cherry Dunham Williams, and the staff of the Lilly Library, Indiana University at Bloomington; Karen Cook at the University of Kansas; Alexander Koch at Kenyon College; Fran Baker at University of Manchester; Anne L. Moore and Caroline White at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Renu Barrett at McMaster University; Katie Wood at the University of Melbourne; James Moske at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Erin George at the University of Minnesota; Melina Baron-Deutsch and Deborah Richards at Mount Holyoke College; Michelle Harvey at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Lyndsi Barnes, Isaac Gewirtz, Tal Nadan, Lee Spilberg, Weatherly Stephan, and Kyle R. Triplett at the New York Public Library; Connor Gaudet at New York University; Brooke Guthrie at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Susan Liberator and Lindy M. Smith at Ohio State University; Sylvie Merian and Maria Isabel Molestina-Kurlat at Pierpont Morgan Library; James Booth at the Philip Larkin Society; AnnaLee Pauls and Gabriel Swift at Princeton University; Ellen Shea at the Radcliffe Institute; Natalie Ford and Jean Rose at the Random House Group Archive & Library; Laura Buchholz at Reed College; Jenifer Monger at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Blair A. Benson at the University of Rochester; Matthew Reynolds at Sewanee: The University of the South; Jason Wood at Simmons College; Kevin Auer, Jean Cannon, Susan C. Floyd, Kurt Johnson, Jordan P. Mitchell, Marian Oman, Emily Roehl, Richard B. Watson, and Richard Workman at the University of Texas at Austin; Milissa Burkart and Kristina Rosenthal at the University of Tulsa; Amanda Leinberger at the United Nations Archives; Lisa Jonsson and Lotta Sundberg at Uppsala University; Molly Dohrmann and Teresa Gray at Vanderbilt University; Victoria Platt at the Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum Archives; Sarah Schnuriger at Washington University, St Louis; Chery Kinnick and Carla Rickerson at the University of Washington; Sue Hamilos at the Wellesley Free Library; Kathleen Fahey at the Wellesley Historical Society; Linda L. Hall at Williams College; and Heather Abbott, Jessica Becker, Michael Frost, Nancy F. Lyon, and William Massa at Yale University. Smith College colleagues and former colleagues who deserve special thanks include Martin Antonetti, Barbara Blumenthal, Mary Irwin and her student assistant Erinn Summers ’16, Dr Meg Meiman, Christina Ryan, and Nanci Young.

  The following array of scholars and friends have also provided assistance that in various ways greatly benefited this book: Anna Arays, Sir Jonathan Bate, Carol Bere, Laura Joy Broom, Sarah Funke Butler, Ruby Butler-Weeks, Jessica Butterworth, Heather Clark, Rosemary Clark; Vanessa Cook, Diane Demko, Suzanne Demko, Joseph J. Feeney, SJ, Gunnar Fernlund, Amanda Ferrara, Pamela Fox, Susan France, Gwen Fries, Peter Fydler, Andre Gailani, Mackenzie Garrity, Sarah George-Waterfield, Sara Georgini, Jonathan Glover, Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick, Julia Gordon-Bramer, Alix de Gramont, Nicholas M. Hasenfus, Kelly Holbert, Eric Homberger, Richard Honan, John Hopkins, Shaun Kelly, An Kieu, Jocelyne Kolb, Barbara F. Kozash, Arthur Languirand, Paul Lannon, Richard Larschan, Jane Lawrence, Carol Lewis, Amy S. Li, Maria R. Lichtmann, Annika J. Lindskog, Kim Maddever, Ieuan Mahony, Ann Safford Mandel, Sherry Marker, Laura Anderson Martino, Lisa Matchett, Gesa Matthies, Aubrey Menarndt, Mark Morford, Catherine Morgan, Abby Norman, Maeve O’Brien, Kevin O’Donnell, Laura de la Paz Rico, Cornelia Pearsall, Hannah Piercy, Dipti Ramnarain, Neil Roberts, Carl Rollyson, Harriet Rosenstein, Judith A. Salinas, Angelyn Singer, Ann Skea, Tristine Skyler, Nick Smart, Benjamin M. Stern, Jeffrey Summers, Angélique Thomine, Angeline Wang, Louise Watson, Reverend Nick Weldon, Ian Widdicks, Dianne Wieland, Lydia K. Wilkins, Andrew Wilson, Elizabeth Winder, and Mark Wormald.

  For permission to quote from published material, we gratefully acknowledge Carcanet Press Ltd.

  Our gratitude must extend to those at Faber & Faber who were instrumental in parts of this project, including Erica Brown, Emma Cheshire, Pauline Collingridge, Matthew Hollis, Hamish Ironside, Lavinia Singer, Camilla Smallwood, Donald Sommerville, and Martha Sprackland. The commitment of Matthew Hollis and his team at Faber & Faber to publish a complete edition of Sylvia Plath’s letters is greatly appreciated. We also thank Terry Karten and her colleagues at HarperCollins: Milan Bozic, Laura Brown, Lily Lopate, and Jennifer Murphy.

  Personally, Karen is grateful to Sylvia Plath’s friends who recognized her talent, preserved her letters, and donated them to Smith College where they are cherished. Generous support from President Kathleen McCartney, Provost Katherine Rowe, Dean of Libraries Susan Fliss, former President Ruth Simmons and alumnae, including Rachael Bartels, also added select letters to the collection. Karen also thanks Beth Myers, director of special collections, and Christopher Loring, former director of libraries, who extended all the resources of the Smith College Libraries for the duration of this independent project. In addition to former curator and mentor Ruth Mortimer, who collected the papers of Sylvia Plath for Smith College with the support of former President Jill Ker Conway, Karen would like to recognize her first professional mentor, Wilmarth S. Lewis, who edited the Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence and taught her the exacting art of editing letters. Karen is particularly indebted to her brilliant coeditor, Peter K. Steinberg, who completed the lion’s share of work on this edition with superior erudition and dedication. Most profoundly, Karen wishes to thank her extended Valuckas and Kukil families, especially her husband, Bohdan Kukil, for his humour and unwavering love and support during this intense editing project.

  Peter would like to thank his wife Courtney for her love, extraordinary patience, and support for the duration of this project. The love and understanding of the families Steinberg, Levine, Little, and Plocinski at home and during vacations over the last five years must be recognized. Peter would not have pursued his interest in Sylvia Plath were it not for the initial encouragement from Andrea Holland and Jamie Wasserman. Since meeting Karen V. Kukil in 1998, she has always been a mentor and inspiration, helping both personally and professionally. Peter would like to thank Karen for her complete belief and trust in him, which made his contribution to this project possible.

  Index

  The pagination of this digital edition does not match the print edition from which the Index was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your e-book reader’s search tools.

  A. M. Heath Literary Agents, 548n, 650

  Aaron, Daniel, 149n, 156, 163, 165, 200

  Aaron, Stephen, 303

  ABC Television (Great Britain), 552

  Abbott, Christine, 178

  Abercrombie, North Dakota, 336

  Abse, Daniel, 190n

  Academy of American Poets, 388, 617n

  Accent, 83, 104, 331; SP’s correspondence with, 104, 331; SP’s work in, 104n, 131, 133, 325; TH’s work in, 83n

  Ackroyd, Graham, 481n; TH’s correspondence with, 481n

  Adams, John Kay, ‘The Reluctant Moles’, 696

  Adams, Phoebe Lou, 11,
581n

  Adamson, George, 285n

  Adamson, Joy, Living Free, 672n

  Addams, Charles, 154, 178, 747

  Addenbrooke’s Hospital (Cambridge, England), 12–13, 585–6

  Adobe Photoshop, 834n, 919n

  Aeschylus, 720; Agamemnon, 720

  Africa, 7, 665, 694, 783; Africa, North, 880

  ‘After the storm . . .’, 739n

  Albany, New York, 355, 357

  Albee, Edward, The American Dream, 670n, 676; The Death of Bessie Smith, 670n, 676

  Albion House, 894

  Albro, Mary, 315n

  Albuquerque, New Mexico, 351

  Aldermaston, England, 461

  Aldrich, Amy, 15n

  Aldrich, Ann, 15n

  Aldrich, C. Duane, 15, 25

  Aldrich, Duane, 15n, 593

  Aldrich, Elizabeth (‘Libby’), 15n, 52

  Aldrich, Elizabeth Cannon (‘Betty’), 15, 25, 63, 72, 482, 534, 561, 641, 769, 948, 963

  Aldrich, John, 15n

  Aldrich, Mark, 15n

  Aldrich, Peter, 15n

  Aldrich, Sarah, 15n

  Aldrich, Stephen, 15n

  Aldrich family, 15n, 26–7, 72, 113, 145, 176, 260–1, 453, 483, 593, 607, 745, 948

  Alexandria, Virginia, 119n

  Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 328–9, 343, 357n, 596n, 601–2, 614–16, 618, 641, 650n, 659–62, 701, 720, 723, 726, 757, 770, 819; SP’s correspondence with, see Jones, Judith

  Algeria, 880

  Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, 332–6

  Alitalia (airline), 756

  Alliston, Susan, 362, 920

  Allott, Kenneth, Penguin Book of Contemporary Verse, 1918–60 (quotation from), 560n

  Alps, 118

  Altadena, California, 366n

  Alvarez, A. (Alfred), 62n, 186, 187n, 385n, 443, 493n, 555, 607, 609, 786, 887, 890, 893, 896, 928, 936; ‘In the Picture’, 606n, 609; ‘An Outstanding Young Poet’, (quotation from) 443–4; ‘The Poet and the Poetess’, 555n; SP’s correspondence with, 800; ‘Tough Young Poet’ (quotation from), 186

  American, The, 80

  American Automobile Association (‘AAA’), 348

  American Legion, 697

  Americans, women, 261

  Amerika-Haus Berlin, 620n

  Ames, Elizabeth, 359, 361, 363, 660; SP’s correspondence with, 296, 298, 309, 354–6

  Amherst College, 20, 34, 43, 47, 54, 70, 75, 87, 100, 108n, 113, 149, 153, 182, 208, 240

  Amherst, Mass., 193, 240

  Amsterdam, Netherlands, 118n

  Amy Lowell Traveling Scholarship Fund, 596

  Anaheim, California, 526n

  Anderson, Alan, 483; SP’s correspondence with, 480–1, 497; TH’s correspondence with, 480n

  Anderson, Elizabeth, 928n

  Anderson, Hedli, 486

  Anderson, Judith Margaret Reutlinger, SP’s correspondence with, 369–70

  Anderson, Lee, 229–31, 461, 464, 466, 476n, 477; SP’s correspondence with, 232, 297

  Andresen, Carl H., 373n

  Andrews, Harry, 108n

  Anglo Continental Bureau, 960n

  Animal Rescue League of Boston, 316

  ‘Another Operation for Sir Anthony?’, 111n

  Antaeus, 135, 153, 177, 273, 301, 419, 519

  Antioch Review, The, 83; SP’s work in, 83n, 104, 112, 117, 131, 168, 325, 424–5

  April Fools’ Day, 443, 457, 479, 519, 554

  Arabian Peninsula, 7

  Arabic language, 609, 614

  Arb, Siv, 764, 766

  Archer, Isabel (fictitious character), 136, 301

  Ariel (SP’s horse), 931

  Arizona, 352–3, 785

  Arnold, Matthew, 26n, 27; Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism (quotation from), 26n;

  ArtNews, 212, 215, 223

  Arts Council of Great Britain, 619, 638, 657, 883–4, 891

  Arts in Society, 325; SP’s work in, 325n, 424–5, 660

  Arundell, Joan Ingles, Lady, 649n, 675

  Arundell, Constantine Harris, 633n

  Arundell, Katharine Juliana Harris, 633n

  Arundell, Robert Duncan Harris, Sir, 633, 635, 637, 640, 643, 645, 647, 655, 675, 692, 747–8

  Arvin, Newton, 208n, 215, 220, 233

  Ary, S., The Oxford Book of Wild Flowers, 593

  Ashcroft, Peggy, 578

  Astor family, 848, 892

  Atheneum Books, 651

  Atlantic, 11, 15–17, 19, 33, 39, 61, 63, 71, 73, 78, 83, 109n, 112, 123, 133, 185, 228, 248, 330n, 371n, 379, 388, 397, 418, 429, 458, 464, 468, 483, 509, 581, 593, 655n, 698, 739, 897, 903, 940, 954; SP’s correspondence with, 537, see also Davison, Peter; Lawrence, Seymour; McLeod, Emilie; Weeks, Edward; SP’s work in, 35, 39n, 50, 62, 76, 104, 117, 325, 372, 464n, 509, 581n, 660, 718, 940n; TH’s work in, 11n, 15, 39, 62, 78, 698n, 739

  Atlantic Monthly Press, 12n, 26, 30, 32n, 33, 35, 42, 84, 86, 111, 130, 227, 275, 285n, 304, 317–18, 326–7, 330, 650

  Atlantic Ocean, 124, 130, 177, 290, 306, 374, 629

  Atomic bomb, 461

  Auckland, New Zealand, 468

  Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh), 17, 21–2, 27, 35, 71–2, 77, 91, 106, 108, 110, 132, 136, 144–5, 155, 185, 263–4, 279, 304, 469, 473, 484, 485n, 486–8, 491, 493, 531, 576, 756; ‘As I Walked Out One Evening’, 279n; ‘Fish in the Unruffled Lakes’, 279n; ‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’, 279n; ‘Law, Say the Gardeners is the Sun’, 279n; ‘Look, Stranger’, 279n; ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’, 279n

  Audience, 287n, 307; SP’s work in, 287n, 307n, 325, 424–5, 660; TH’s work in, 307n

  Australia, 35, 79, 214, 27, 301, 322, 566

  Austria, 37, 357, 517, 531–2, 836n, 849, 856, 859–60, 893

  Automobile Association (Great Britain) (‘AA’), 755, 883

  Ave Maria (ship), 801

  Axelrod, George, 108n; Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, 108, 110

  Axworthy, Maureen, 649n, 709

  Axworthy, Nancy Norah Willcocks, 648, 652, 657, 665–6, 668, 675, 693, 709, 714, 722, 727, 730, 733, 748, 751, 765, 768–9, 810, 830, 834, 839, 864, 870, 874, 883, 892, 904–5, 911, 914–15, 918, 955–6, 958–9

  Axworthy, Terence L., 649n

  Axworthy, Walter, 648n, 657, 666

  Ayer, Jacqueline, A Wish for Little Sister, 676n

  Babson College, 62

  Babytalk, 448

  Babyminders, 461, 463–4, 469, 487, 630n, 927, 940, 958

  Bach, Johann Sebastian, 180

  Bachrach Photography, 709

  Back Bay (Boston, Mass.), 271, 297, 309

  Back, Mary Louise Vincent, SP’s correspondence with, 718

  Badlands, North Dakota, 340

  Bagg, Robert, 137n, 153

  Bahamas, 385, 655, 748

  Bailey, David, 716n

  Baker, Herschel Clay, 52

  Baker, Marcia Nozal, 339

  Baldner, Gaby, Joba and the Wild Boar, 676n; The Penguins of Penguin Town, 896n

  Baldwin, Shirley, see Norton, Shirley Baldwin

  Balfour, Susan, 650n

  Bali, 115

  Ballylee, Ireland, 846n, 924n, 951

  Baltimore Sun, 185

  Baltzell, Jane, see Kopp, Jane Baltzell Bandeen, Betty Isobelle, 62

  Bangkok, Thailand, 566

  Bangor, Wales, 625n, 667n, 803

  Bangor University, 625n, 667, 803

  Barbados, 655n

  Barbizon Hotel for Women (New York), 685

  Barclays Bank, 418

  Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book of the Dead), 441n, 496, 536

  Bardot, Brigitte, 389

  Barnard College, 73n, 685

  Barnes, Joan Cantor, 4n

  Barnes, Joanna (‘Jody’), 108n

  Barnhouse, Donald Grey, 790n

  Barnhouse, Ruth Tiffany, see Beuscher, Ruth Barnhouse

  Barr, Ursula, 555n, 786

  Barron, Leon, 218n, 221

  Bartlett, Doris, 630, 635, 940

  Bartók, Béla, 304

  Baseball, 194
>
  Baskin, Esther, 284, 300, 512, 760–1; Creatures of Darkness, 294, 300, 316, 332n, 613; SP’s correspondence with, 284, 291–5, 315–16; TH’s dedications to, 316

  Baskin, Leonard, 156, 163, 292, 294, 316, 332n, 406, 479, 481, 512, 620–1, 758; ‘Avarice’, 292n; ‘Death Among the Thistles’, 284; ‘Gluttony’, 292n; Leonard Baskin: Woodcuts and Engravings, 758n; ‘Lust’, 292n; Pike: A Poem by Ted Hughes, 293n, 406; ‘Pride’, 292n; Sculptures Drawings Prints, 284n; ‘Seated Man With Owl’, 315; SP’s correspondence with, 284, 315–16, 613–14, 760–1; SP’s dedications to, 316n; TH’s correspondence with, 760n; ‘Tobias and the Angel’, 284, 406

  Baskin, Tobias Isaac, 284, 292, 294, 315–16, 613, 761

  Bate, Walter Jackson, 53, 56

  Bates, H. E. (Herbert Ernest), Achilles the Donkey, 896n

  Battaglia di Legnano, La, 619n

  Battery Park (New York), 153

  Battle, Dr, 632

  Baudelaire, Charles, 107

  Baughman, Richard DeWeese, 19–20

  Baxter, Kathleen Mary Carver, 492

  Beacon Hill (Boston, Mass.), 192–3, 200, 206, 213, 237, 250, 252–3, 273, 275, 281, 285, 287, 292, 309, 328, 365

  Bean, Orson, 108n

  Beaton, Dollie, 462

  Beatty, Clyde, 236, 241

  Bedford College, 407, 419

  Bedwell Community Association, 923n

  Beer, Patricia, 513n, 887, 890

  Beethoven, Ludwig van, 299, 323n; Piano Sonata No. 14 (‘Moonlight Sonata’), 299; Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 (‘Eroica’), 323

  Behan, Brendan, 428; The Hostage, 428

  Bell, Charles G. (Charles Greenleaf), 357n, 359

  Bell, Marie, 433

  Bellwood, Sarah Christie, 41, 69, 179

  Bell jars, 877

  Belmont, Mass., 684n

  Belstone, England, 865n, 883, 905

  Bemelmans, Ludwig, Madeline and the Gypsies, 676n

  Benidorm, Spain, 34, 212, 370, 377

  Bennett, James 934

  Bennett, Joan, 537n

  Bennington College, 666, 684

  Bennington, Vermont, 666

  Benotti, Dorothy Schober (SP’s aunt ‘Dot’/‘Dotty’), 3, 28, 47, 113, 149, 159, 176, 193–5, 199, 379, 384, 390, 394, 396, 430, 445, 453, 456, 462, 466, 502, 514, 531, 541, 545, 550, 558, 568, 572, 577, 591, 599, 657, 697–8, 703, 705, 707–8, 713–14, 725, 728–9, 733, 735, 738, 755, 768, 773, 814, 833, 844, 848–50, 859, 861–3, 866, 875, 884, 888, 906, 922, 928–9, 941, 949–50, 959, 963, 966n; SP’s correspondence with, 334, 342, 374, 380–1, 531n, 543–4, 597–8, 721–2, 929–31