by Sylvia Plath
*The photograph is with the letter.
*Judith Jones to SP, 28 April 1961; held by Smith College.
*SP slightly misquotes Jones’s letter which reads ‘I have also checked to see if the collection would not be eligible for the Lamont Poetry Award because I sincerely doubt that they are going to find a better first volume this year.’ Because it had been published in Britain The Colossus was not eligible.
*On ‘Point Shirley’, Jones wrote, ‘I like those that seem to come out of your New England past and it strikes me as a very well-made poem with many lines of startling vigor and sharp observation leading up to a beautifully cadenced ending.’
*Roy Fuller, London Magazine (March 1961): 69–70; Fuller wrote: ‘The language of this poetry is unusual but not eccentric, with a great gift for the right epithet, the metaphoric noun. The following examples come from an excellent poem called “The Ghost’s Leavetaking” . . .’ (70).
*The Lamont Poetry Selection was given for a poet’s first published book by the Academy of American Poets.
*British literary critic and lecturer A. E. (Anthony E.) Dyson (1928–2002).
*Sylvia Plath, ‘I Am Vertical’ and ‘Private Ground’, Critical Quarterly 3 (Summer 1961): 140–1. Plath also submitted ‘Heavy Women’, ‘Whitsun’, ‘Small Hours’ [‘Barren Woman’], ‘Parliament Hill Fields’, ‘The Hanging Man’, ‘In Plaster’, ‘Stillborn’, ‘Leaving Early’, and ‘Zoo Keeper’s Wife’.
*English poet Philip Larkin (1922–85). The poem is no longer with the the letter but may have been Larkin’s ‘Naturally the Foundation will Bear Your Expenses’.
*American beat poet Gregory Corso (1930–2001); Corso was not included in the anthology.
*Richard Wilbur, ‘Potato’, American Poetry Now (1961): 9.
*American poet William Stafford (1914–93); his West of Your City (Los Gatos, Calif.: Talisman Press, 1960); his ‘In the Oregon Country’, ‘The Well Rising’, and ‘A Survey’, American Poetry Now (1961): 6–7.
*Ted Hughes, ‘Snow’, Harper’s Bazaar (October 1961): 183, 216–17, 221.
*Probably the Welsh Opera Company in Giuseppe Verdi’s La Battaglia di Legnano; the first night was 8 May 1961 at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Rosebery Avenue, London E.C.1.
*British musicologist and composer Eric Walter White (1905–85). White was Secretary of the Arts Council of Great Britain.
*Edith Dorothy ‘Dodo’ White (1909–77); married 15 December 1939.
*Verdi, Rigoletto, performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on 22, 26, 29 April, and 1 May 1961.
*Clive Hall Hotel, 27 Fellows Road, London N.W.3.
*Australian writer and critic Charles Osborne (1927– ); assistant editor of London Magazine, 1958–66.
*Sponsored by the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art, the Baskin exhibition opened at the Boymans/van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 7 May–2 July 1961. It then travelled to Berlin (Amerika-Haus, 16 September–15 October 1961) and Paris (Centre Culturel Américain, 13 November–15 December).
*American poet May Sarton (1912–95).
*May Swenson, Another Animal (New York: Scribner, 1954) and A Cage of Spines (New York: Rinehart, 1958).
*May Swenson, ‘Almanac’, A Cage of Spines (New York: Rinehart, 1958): 9.
*Swenson’s ‘At Breakfast’ ends ‘a seamless miracle / Ate a sun-germ / Good.’ ASP sent typescripts to SP, which are held by Smith College.
*May Swenson was not included in SP’s American Poetry Now.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘The Living Poet’, BBC Third Programme (8 July 1961); recorded on 5 June 1961. SP read poems with American-born actor and author Marvin Kane (1929–2012): ‘The Disquieting Muses’ (SP), ‘Sleep in the Mojave Desert’ (Kane), ‘Suicide Off Egg Rock’ (Kane), ‘Spinster’ (SP), ‘Parliament Hill Fields’ (SP), ‘You’re’ (Kane), ‘Magi’ (Kane), ‘Medallion’ (Kane), and ‘The Stones’ (SP).
*Molly Raybould, identified in a letter from ASP to Warren Plath, 30 July 1961; held by Lilly Library.
*SP’s driving licence and other identification and membership cards appeared at auction via Bonhams on 21 March 2018.
*British poet C. (Cecil) Day Lewis (1904–72).
*Marvin Kane.
*Americans featured in ‘The Living Poet’ series, with broadcast dates, were: Richard Wilbur (1 January 1961); Theodore Roethke (8 February 1961); Robert Lowell (5 March 1961); Randall Jarrell (10 April 1961); and Stanley Kunitz (12 May 1961).
*According to SP’s address book, probably E. J. Edwards of Pawley & Maylon, Chartered Accountants, 42 Welbeck Street, London W.1.
*The proofs, probably for ‘I Am Vertical’ and ‘Private Ground’, are no longer with the letter.
*See SP to A. E. Dyson, 3 May 1961; held by University of Kansas.
*Refers to Dyson’s employer, Bangor University, Wales, where he was an assistant lecturer in English literature.
*Probably Howard Moss to SP, 14 June 1961; copy held by New York Public Library. Moss rejected ‘Insomniac’ and ‘Widow’, which according to SP’s submissions list she sent on 29 May 1961. Sylvia Plath, ‘Tulips’, The New Yorker (7 April 1962): 40.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘Tulips’, Poetry at the Mermaid (London, 1961): 53–4. SP read ‘Tulips’ to an audience on 17 July 1961. The reading was recorded by the British Library. Introducing the poem, Plath said: ‘The poem I’m going to read tonight is called “Tulips” and it was occasioned quite simply by receiving a bouquet of red, spectacular tulips while convalescing in hospital.’
*The typescript SP submitted included: ‘The Stoic: For Laura von Courten’ by Edgar Bowers; ‘A Dreamed Realization’ by Gregory Corso; ‘The Way’ by Robert Creeley; ‘The Brown Studio’ by Barbara Guest; ‘“More Light! More Light!”’ by Anthony Hecht; ‘Love Fast’ by Sandra Hochman; ‘An Armada of Thirty Whales’ by Daniel G. Hoffman; ‘Another Year Come’, ‘The Native’, and ‘Pedigrees’ by W. S. Merwin; ‘Fools Encountered’ by E. Lucas Myers; ‘Concerning the Painting “Afternoon in Infinity” by Attilio Salemme’ by Hyam Plutzik; ‘The Evil Eye’, ‘Living in Sin’, and ‘Moving in Winter’ by Adrienne Rich; ‘Kind Sir: These Words’ and ‘Some Foreign Letters’ by Anne Sexton; ‘Carentan O Carentan’ and ‘The Dream House’ by Louis Simpson; ‘The Marsh’ and ‘Operation’ by W. D. Snodgrass; ‘In the Oregon Country’, ‘A Survey’, and ‘The Well Rising’ by William Stafford; ‘Ab Ovo’ by George Starbuck; ‘Almanac’ by May Swenson; ‘Potato’ by Richard Wilbur; ‘A Late Afternoon in Western Minnesota’ by James Wright. Typescript held by University of Manchester. The anthology ultimately had several different poems. Excluded were those by Corso, Hochman, and ‘Carentan O Carentan’ by Louis Simpson. Included were ‘I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee’ and ‘The Vacuum’ by Howard Nemerov, and ‘The Five-Day Rain’ by Denise Levertov.
*‘where I found it the poem’ appears in the original.
*SP’s working papers for American Poetry Now are scattered. One document has ‘Moi (Magi)’ which shows that ‘Magi’ may have been the poem she considered.
*Date supplied from postmark by Warren Plath.
*Jean Giraudoux, Ondine, performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych Theatre, 49 Aldwych, London.
*Date supplied from postmark.
*Postcard numbered 1 in unknown hand, possibly by SP.
*SP’s passport indicates she and TH sailed from Dover to Boulogne.
*Probably the beach at Berck-sur-Mer, which became the subject of SP’s poem ‘Berck-Plage’.
*Postcard numbered 2 in unknown hand, possibly by SP.
*Situated at the Pointe du Raz; see SP’s poem ‘Finisterre’, written 29 September 1961.
*Doris Bartlett was employed by United Diaries at 126 Regent’s Park Road, as well as by Babyminders, the service SP and TH used for babysitting. Bartlett lived nearby at 27 King Henry’s Road.
*Justin Frankfort and Thomas Frankfort.
*Quimper, Brittany, south of Douarnenez.
*Frieda’s blue
French coat appeared at auction via Bonhams on 21 March 2018.
*Margot Pitt-Rivers.
*Jean Lurçat (1892–1966).
*Date supplied from internal evidence.
*SP’s letter is at the end of a letter begun by TH, which has not been transcribed.
*American publisher and writer Ben Sonnenberg (1936–2010).
*SP sent a cheque to W. S. Merwin on 20 October 1961.
*According to SP’s address book, Dr H. J. Wallace consulted at 80 Harley Street, London.
*According to SP’s address book, Dr Battle consulted at 61 Wimpole Street, London.
*In a letter to Warren Plath, ASP indicated the visit to the Tower of London was planned for Monday, 31 July 1961.
*Letter misdated by SP.
*British diplomat Sir Robert Duncan Harris Arundell (1904–89), son of Constantine Harris Arundell (1863–1945) and Katharine Juliana Harris Arundell (1866–1957), who lived at Court Green, North Tawton, Devon.
*‘would it be impossible for’ appears in the original.
*The photographs are no longer with the letter.
*The advertisement read: ‘PRIMROSE HILL Unfurn. 2 rms. k. & b 6 gns. p.w. F. & F £100. 17 mth lse., renewable. PRI 9132 after 6 p.m.’, London Evening Standard (10 August 1961): 10.
*Canadian poet and translator David Wevill (1935– ) and his wife Assia Wevill (1927–69), who was employed in the advertising industry and was a translator.
*Flemish Baroque artist Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641).
*Sylvia Plath, ‘Insomniac’, winner of the 1961 Guinness Poetry Award and first prize at the 1961 Cheltenham Festival of Art and Literature. SP’s award was £75; the ceremony was held at Goldsmith’s Hall, London, on 31 October 1961. The judges for the competition were Elizabeth Jennings, Laurie Lee, and Anthony Thwaite. Second and third prizes were awarded to Herbert Lomas for ‘The Fear’ and Alastair W. Thomson for ‘Date Palms’. A typescript of SP’s poem, which was submitted under the pseudonym ‘Saratoga Smith’ and received a grading of B++ by the judges, is held by the Victoria and Albert Museum Archives.
*G. A. M. Wilkinson.
*SP read ‘Tulips’ at the Poetry at the Mermaid Festival. On 27 July 1961 Sweeney wrote to Stephen Fassett, ‘And it was for me very moving to hear and see Sylvia – the only woman on the stage that evening and the only American on the stage! She read with great grace and clarity and command and the poem she read is a humdinger . . . And Sylvia has promised to lend the Poetry Room the worksheets of the poems she read’; letter held by Houghton Library. Sweeney displayed ‘Tulips’ in the Woodberry Poetry Room October–December 1961. The worksheets for ‘Tulips’ are held by Houghton Library.
*An addendum to their address, by TH, has not been transcribed.
*TH added twelve lines of verse (two stanzas of six lines each) on the back page of the letter, which have not been transcribed. Ted Hughes, ‘To F. R. at Six Months’ (Section I), Collected Poems of Ted Hughes (London: Faber & Faber, 2003): 97.
*‘the five “extras”’ appears in the original.
*‘Love Fast, Song in the Studio of Paul Klee)’ appears in the original. Paul Carroll, ‘Song in the Studio of Paul Klee’, The Nation (4 March 1961): 192.
*Judith Jones to SP, 22 August 1961; held by University of Texas at Austin.
*Portuguese writer, scholar, and political activist Helder Macedo (1935– ) and his wife, literary translator and teacher Suzette Macedo (1931– ). The Macedos lived at 24 Fitzjohn’s Avenue, London N.W.3.
*American poet Ruth Fainlight (1931– ). The Sillitoes met SP and TH at the Hawthornden Prize ceremony on 31 May 1961 and lived at 24 Pembridge Crescent, London W.11.
*Percy Key (1894–1962) and Rose Emma Key (1900–72), who lived at Number 4 Court Green Cottage, the nearest to the house.
*SP’s doctor in North Tawton was Hugh Basil G. Webb (1926–2006), who lived at Mistlemead with his wife, Joan M. Cairns Webb, and two daughters, Holly and Claire. His surgery was just down the lane from Court Green, off Market Street.
*Howard Moss to SP, 29 August 1961; held by New York Public Library. In the letter Moss suggests revisions to ‘The Rival’ and rejects SP’s ‘Face Lift’ and ‘Stars Over the Dordogne’. Moss later rejected ‘The Rival’ in a letter dated 26 September 1961; held by New York Public Library.
*Woolavington Wing, then part of the Middlesex Hospital, Mortimer Street, London W.1.
*Alan Sillitoe, Key to the Door (London: W. H. Allen, 1961); SP’s copy held by Emory University bearing the inscription ‘To Sylvia and Ted, for their new house! Love, Alan & Ruth’.
*Warren Plath wrote to his mother on 10 September 1961 and drew plans of the house and grounds at Court Green; held by Lilly Library.
*This writing table is held by Smith College.
*Burton Hall was originally built in Norway; it was dismantled in 1872 and brought to Bouchiers Hill, North Tawton.
*Charwoman Nancy Norah Willcocks Axworthy (1918–81); married to Walter Axworthy (1915–87), who was a carpenter, bellringer at the church, head of the North Tawton fire brigade, and teacher of woodworking at the local school; two children: Terence L. (1939– ) and Maureen (1941– ); lived at 39 Fore Street, North Tawton, Devon.
*Lady Joan Ingles Arundell (1904–84).
*See SP’s ‘Blackberrying’. In ‘The Beach’ (Birthday Letters), TH identifies the location as Hartland, Devon.
*Winifred Mary Hope Davies (1908–81).
*On the verso of this letter draft is a handwritten list of American periodicals and SP’s poems published therein, likely for the Acknowledgements in the Knopf edition of The Colossus.
*SP lists the literary agents Mark Hamilton and Susan Balfour in addition to Jennifer Hassell under A. M. Heath & Company in her address book.
*Letter misdated by SP; dates supplied from internal evidence.
*Probably Hurricane Esther, which affected New England in late September 1961.
*See SP to Margaret Cantor, 30 September 1961.
*Ted Hughes, ‘Fire’, Woman’s Hour, BBC (25 September 1961); ‘Air’, Woman’s Hour, BBC (2 October 1961); ‘Earth’, Woman’s Hour, BBC (9 October 1961); and ‘Water’, Woman’s Hour, BBC (16 October 1961).
*Ted Hughes, The Wound.
*Ted Hughes, ‘Nessie’, Vogue (December 1961): 165.
*Ted Hughes, ‘Mainly for Children’ [Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince], Sunday Times (25 February 1962): 45; ‘Mainly for Children’ [Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows], Sunday Times (15 April 1962): 34; ‘Mainly for Children’ [H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds], Sunday Times (24 June 1962): 29; ‘Mainly for Children’ [Henry Williamson, Tarka the Otter], Sunday Times (16 September 1962): 18; and ‘Mainly for Children’ [Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World], Sunday Times (18 November 1962): 27.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘The Perfect Place’, My Weekly 2498 (28 October 1961): 3–7, 31. SP’s typescript (carbon), with original title ‘The Lucky Stone’, has annotation ‘Sold £15. 15. 0 by Jennifer Hassell’; held by Smith College.
*Alan Sillitoe was arrested with 1,300 other pacifists in an anti-nuclear sit-down demonstration at Trafalgar Square on 17–18 September 1961.
*Katherine Cantor married Scott William Miller, 13 June 1959, at the Cantors’ home in Waban, Mass.