The Letters of Sylvia Plath Vol 2
Page 132
*Probably Thomas Mabry Cranfill (1913–95), who according to SP’s address book was living at 89 Albion Gate, London.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘Flute Notes from a Reedy Pond’, Texas Quarterly 3 (Winter 1960): 120; Ted Hughes, ‘The Caning’ and ‘Lines to a Newborn Baby’, Texas Quarterly 3 (Winter 1960): 27–37 and 214; Sylvia Plath, ‘Witch Burning’, Texas Quarterly 4 (Autumn 1961): 84; Ted Hughes, ‘Miss Mambrett and the Wet Cellar’, ‘The Captain’s Speech’, and ‘The Gibbons’, Texas Quarterly 4 (Autumn 1961): 46–55 and 146–7.
*János Csokits (1928–2011). Csokits later worked with TH on a translation of the poet Jańos Pilinszky.
*The Entertainer (1960) was shown at the Odeon Marble Arch, Edgware Road, London.
*Australian writer Alan Moorehead (1910–83); his Gallipoli (London: New English Library, 1963); SP’s copy held by Emory University.
*Jean-Paul Sartre, Le Diable et le Bon Dieu (1951).
*SP’s recent poems were ‘Sleep in the Mojave Desert’ (5 July), and ‘Two Campers in Cloud Country’ and ‘On Deck’ (before 9 July 1960).
*Yale rejected The Colossus on 2 August 1960; manuscript and rejection notice held by Lilly Library.
*TH added a note on the return address side of the letter, which has not been transcribed. TH wrote about a visit to Hampstead Heath for a picnic and his gratitude for his birthday socks. He commented that Frieda was sleeping and SP drinking tea.
*The photographs are no longer with the letter.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘On Deck’ New Yorker (22 July 1961): 32, and ‘Two Campers in Cloud Country’, New Yorker (3 August 1963): 28–9. Plath submitted the poems on 9 July 1960, along with ‘Sleep in the Mojave Desert’ and ‘You’re’.
*Sutcliffe’s Inn, then in Colden, approximately two miles from the Hughes family home.
*The photographs are with the letter: SP holds Frieda in front of their Isis reproduction; TH, seated, holds Frieda Hughes.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘Metaphors for a Pregnant Woman’ [‘Metaphors’], Partisan Review 27 (Summer 1960): 435.
*Ted Hughes, ‘Hawk Roosting’, Partisan Review 27 (Spring 1960): 271–2.
*American poet Stanley Kunitz (1905–2006); his ‘The New Books’, Harper’s (September 1960): 96–103.
*Ted Hughes, ‘Thistles’ and ‘A Fable’, Times Literary Supplement (9 September 1960): xli and lxx. TH’s picture appeared in ‘Signs of an All Too Correct Compassion’, Times Literary Supplement (9 September 1960): xiii.
*British dramatist Sir Arnold Wesker (1932–2016); his I’m Talking About Jerusalem and Chicken Soup With Barley; performed on alternating nights at the Royal Court Theatre, London, England.
*An exhibition of Picasso’s work at the Tate Gallery, London, 6 July–18 September 1960.
*The deed of sale for 26 Elmwood Road, Wellesley, dated 24 October 1942, lists a mortgage balance of $5,904.10.
*Hurricane Donna, which made landfall on 12 September 1960 and affected the east coast of the United States from Florida to Maine.
*The photographs are no longer with the letter.
*The photographs are no longer with the letter.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘You’re’ Harper’s 222 (June 1961): 40; and ‘Sleep in the Mojave Desert’, Harper’s 224 (February 1962): 36. See R. B. Silvers to SP, 12 September 1960; held by Smith College.
*John Lehmann, 31 Egerton Crescent, London S.W.3.
*English novelist and broadcasting administrator P. H. (Percy Howard) Newby (1918–97).
*Ted Hughes, ‘Part 6, “The Storm” (Book V)’, BBC Third Programme (10 November 1960).
*Patricia Beer, Ted Hughes, and Vernon Scannell (eds.), New Poems, 1962: A PEN Anthology of Contemporary Poetry (London: Hutchinson, 1962).
*In 1960, the Berlitz School of Languages was at 321 Oxford Street, London W.1.
*Marcia Van de Carr Momtchiloff (1930– ); B.A. 1951, University of Rochester; married John W. Wideman, 7 September 1955; married Constantine N. Momtchiloff, 2 August 1960. There are two British addresses listed in SP’s address book: 7 Ellesmere Court, Ellesmere Road, Weybridge, and Tangleways, Sheets Heath, Brookwood, Surrey.
*Ted Hughes, ‘Thistles’ and ‘A Fable’, Mademoiselle (March 1961): 204, 206.
*Ted Hughes, ‘Arnold Wesker: “A Sort of Socialism’”, The Nation 191 (19 November 1960): 402–4.
*American playwright and director Clifford Odets (1906–63).
*Ted Hughes, The Calm (unpublished play).
*Date supplied from internal evidence.
*Italian poet Maria Luisa Spaziani (1924–2014).
*In the chapter of Childbirth without Fear entitled ‘Philosophy of Childbirth’, Dick-Read writes, ‘Childbirth is not a physical function’ (11). In SP’s copy, she has underlined this sentence and added an exclamation mark in the left margin.
*Lynne Lawner, ‘Where are the Wings?’, ‘Fix Me a Batch . . .’, ‘His Lament’, ‘Purgatory’, and ‘Proof’, Botteghe Oscure 25 (1960): 216–31. ‘Proof’ is prose, the other contributions are poems.
*‘The Rain Horse’ was re-broadcast on Friday 14 October 1960, at 8 p.m.
*The Poets Theatre, then at 24 Palmer Street, Cambridge, Mass., gave a staged reading of TH’s The House of Aries, 2–4 December 1960.
*Added by SP by hand in the margin of the first page of letter.
*According to SP’s address book, the Goodmans lived at 7 West 96th Street, New York.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘The Fifth-Ninth Bear’, London Magazine 8 (February 1961): 11–20. See Alan Ross to SP, 12 October 1960; held by Smith College.
*The photographs are no longer with the letter. However, Momtchiloff shared a photograph she took of SP and Frieda with the editors, which is reproduced in this volume.
*According to SP’s address book, the Heinrichs moved to 130 Thor Road, 1844 Haster Street, Anaheim, California.
*SP submitted ‘Leaving Early’, ‘Magi’, ‘Candles’, and ‘Love Letter’. Sylvia Plath, ‘Candles’ and ‘Leaving Early’, The Poet’s Voice (20 November 1960); recorded, 26 October 1960. Sylvia Plath, ‘Candles’, The Listener (17 November 1960): 877.
*New Zealand-born writer and radio broadcaster Owen Leeming (1930– ).
*Letter misdated by SP.
*‘Italian for Beginners’ aired on Mondays at 7:10 p.m. and Fridays at 6:40 p.m. on the BBC Third Programme.
*‘Mussel Hunter at Rock Harbor’ (‘air thatching’ for ‘airy thatching’) and ‘Sculptor’ (‘soldier repose’ for ‘solider repose’) contain the typographical errors. See SP to Judith Jones, 5 April 1961.
*SP wrote a cheque to Heinemann for £5 for her books on 27 October 1960. Signed copies were sent to or given to the following: Aurelia Schober Plath, Warren Plath, Ted Hughes, Olive Higgins Prouty, Charles Monteith, Ruth Beuscher, Wilbury Crockett, and Theodore Roethke (each now held privately); William and Edith Hughes (sold via Christie’s auction in 1998 for $11,500); Olwyn Hughes (held by Washington University, St Louis); the Merwins (held by Morgan Library); Mike and Marcia Plumer (held by Smith College); Maíre and Jack Sweeney (University College, Dublin); and Lucas Myers (offered for sale in 2017).
*In addition to the poems SP submitted to MacBeth on 9 July 1960, she sent: ‘The Eye-mote’, ‘Aftermath’, ‘Ouija’, ‘The Beekeeper’s Daughter’, ‘The Ghost’s Leavetaking’, ‘Departure’, ‘Frog Autumn’, and ‘Moonrise’; undated on her submissions list.
*English novelist Rosamond Lehmann (1901–90).
*English actress Beatrix Lehmann (1903–79).
*Welsh Liberal politican David Lloyd George (1863–1945), British prime minister 1916–22.
*See SP to Joseph and Dorothy Benotti and Frank Schober, 19 November 1960.
*Date supplied from internal evidence.
*SP’s letter is at the end of a letter begun by TH, which has not been transcribed.
*János Csokits.
*SP’s copy of the Tolkien trilogy, inscribed by TH, appeared at auction via Bonhams on 21 March 2018.
*This sentence and
the next added in the margin by SP.
*The photographs are no longer with the letter.
*Poet Laureate John Betjeman (1906–84); his series John Betjeman as the Book Man. The Yorkshire episode aired on 20 November 1960.
*Goldsmith’s Hall is located at Foster Lane and Gresham Street, London. The winners were Thomas Blackburn, David Wright, Louise MacNeice, and R. S. Thomas.
*Probably Catherine Frankfort and Johannes B. Frankfort, who lived at 18 Chalcot Crescent.
*Possibly John Sherwood (1913– ) and Joan M. Sherwood, who lived at 2 Chalcot Crescent.
*SP attended the second day of the obscenity trial for Lady Chatterley’s Lover, held on 27 October 1960 at the Old Bailey in London. Witnesses for the defense included Graham Goulden Hough, Dame Helen Louise Gardner, Joan Bennett, Dame Rebecca West, John A. T. Robinson (bishop of Woolwich), Vivian de Sola Pinto, Rev. Alfred Stephan Hopkinson, and Richard Hoggart. See SP’s notes in Journals of Sylvia Plath: 595–9.
*Date supplied.
*Letter typewritten on piece of scrap paper; possibly an envelope.
*The poems Plath submitted were: ‘Leaving Early’, ‘Candles’, ‘Magi’, ‘Love Letter’, ‘Home Thoughts from London’, and ‘Words for a Nursery’. SP’s submissions list records that the poems were sent on 7 November 1960. The only extant typescript of ‘Home Thoughts from London’ is on the verso of her later poem ‘Wuthering Heights’; held by Lilly Library.
*The photograph is no longer with the letter.
*See journal 12 December 1958–15 November 1959 in The Journals of Sylvia Plath (2000).
*The clipping is no longer with the letter.
*Philip Day’s ‘A Pride of Poets’ (cited earlier) reads, in part, ‘Waiters with trays edge through the talkative throng. “What, off to New York tomorrow?” “Give America my love-hate.” . . . “My dear, I’m so pleased your husband won the award. When are you going abroad to celebrate it?” “Well, not till the baby can appreciate Europe a bit better.”’ (6).
*Irish-born barrister and High Court judge Sir Laurence Byrne (1896–1965).
*TH added a note at the bottom of the letter, which has not been transcribed. TH commented that although he had sent off the story that SP mentions to a magazine he thought Leeming might be interested in seeing it as well.
*Probably Ted Hughes, ‘The Harvesting’.
*The readers for House of Aries included Diana Olsson, Peter Woodthorpe (The Caretaker by Harold Pinter), and Norman Wooland (A Passage to India; E. M. Forster’s novel adapted for the stage by Santha Rama Rau).
*‘A Dramatic Poem About Violence’, The Times (17 November 1960): 16.
*Reviewed by Cyril Ray, The Critics, BBC Talks Department (20 November 1960).
*Reviewed by Karl Miller, Comment, BBC Talks Department (17 November 1960).
*Paul Ferris, ‘Radio Notes’, The Observer (13 November 1961): 30.
*Howard Moss to TH, 22 November 1960; held by New York Public Library; for Ted Hughes, ‘Still Life’, New Yorker (15 July 1961): 24.
*Ted Hughes, ‘The Harvesting’, BBC Third Programme (17 December 1960); re-broadcast (24 January 1961).
*François Billetdoux, Tchin-Tchin (1959); performed under the title Chin-Chin from 3 November 1960 to 25 March 1961 at Wyndham’s Theatre, 32 Charing Cross Road, London.
*English actor and dramatist John Robert Whiting (1917–63)
*W. S. Merwin, The Gilded West, performed at Belgrade Theatre, Coventry.
*Marie Elizabeth Jeffreys Myers (1925– ) and Calhoun Winton (1927– ); married 30 June 1948 in Sewanee, Tennessee. Their son, Jeffreys Winton (1959– ).
*Argentinian surrealist painter Leonor Fini (1907–96); exhibition at the Kaplan Gallery, 6 Duke Street, London, 2 November–3 December 1960.
*Dr John P. Horder (1919–2012). Horder lived at 98 Regent’s Park Road, London.
*Margaret Hendella Waley (1896–1988) and her husband Hubert David Waley (1892–1967) lived at 4 Chalcot Crescent according to the 1960 London Electoral Register.
*English orientalist Arthur David Waley (1889–1966).
*In SP’s address book, there is an address for Mrs Waley, which is Beachy Ride, Great Cheverell, near Devizes, Wiltshire.
*According to the 1960 London Electoral Register, Agnes M. Hankin was a resident of 4 Chalcot Crescent with the Waleys.
*Probably Jennifer Hassell, who worked for A. M. Heath & Co., 35 Dover Street, London.
*Date supplied from internal evidence.
*SP’s letter is at the end of a letter begun by TH, which has not been transcribed.
*Date supplied from postmark.
*Christmas card printed by Greenslade & Co. (Reading).
*Edward Lucie-Smith, New Poetry, BBC Third Programme (18 December 1960); included in the programme were ‘A Winter Ship’ and seven lines from ‘The Colossus’. The BBC booking form states that rehersal and pre-recording took place on 13 December 1960.
*See TH to ASP and Warren Plath, [early December 1960], printed in Letters of Ted Hughes: 170–7.
*SP sent ‘Candles’ to Olive Higgins Prouty with the following inscription: ‘for Mrs. Prouty / with love – / Sylvia / December 10, 1960’; held by Lilly Library. The location of the card and letter is unknown.
*Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, ‘Two of a Kind: Poets in Partnership’, BBC Home Service (31 January 1961); re-broadcast 19 March 1961. The series aired from 25 August 1959 to 27 October 1964.
*Date supplied from internal evidence.
*Christmas card depicting three kings bearing gifts; designed by Sheila Parry for Libertys.
*English author and illustrator Edward Lear (1812–88).
*A former British television company, which operated in northern England.
*TH added a note on the left inside page of the greeting card, which has not been transcribed. TH wrote about the illustration of the three kings depicted on the front of the card and made a reference to SP’s current pregnancy. TH commented on Ann’s book Let’s Draw, and wishes them well in 1961. He ends on a string of adulatory adjectives regarding Frieda.
*Date supplied from internal evidence.
*Christmas card depicting two shepherds and five sheep; designed by Sheila Parry for Libertys.
*TH added a note on the back of the card, which has not been transcribed. TH composed a story about the scene depicted on the card.
*Date supplied from internal evidence.
*Sold at auction with a signed/inscribed copy of Sylvia Plath, The Colossus and Other Poems (London: Heinemann, 1960) by Sotheby’s on 14 July 2009.
*A. Alvarez, ‘The Poet and the Poetess’, The Obsever (18 December 1960): 21.
*Ursula Barr, married in 1956; divorced in 1961.
*Frieda Lawrence’s first husband was British philologist Ernest Weekley (1865–1954); married in 1899, divorced 1914.