by Sylvia Plath
*Over time Arundell was governor of the Windward Islands, governor of Barbados, and acting governor-general of the West Indies.
*Peter Davison to TH, 18 September 1961; (photocopy) held by Yale University.
*Peter Davison, ‘Self-Revelation in the New Poetry’, The Atlantic (November 1961): 170–4. In addition to reviewing Lupercal, Davison also reviewed Merwin’s The Drunk in the Furnace.
*The poems sent were: ‘Sugar Loaf’, ‘Last Lines’, ‘Fishing at Dawn’, ‘The Rescue’, ‘Memory’, and ‘Wodwo’.
*Possibly Ted Hughes, ‘Capturing Animals’, Listening and Writing, BBC Home Service (Schools), 6 October 1961; ‘Writing a Novel – Beginning’, Listening and Writing, BBC Home Service (Schools), 20 October 1961; and ‘Writing a Novel – Going On’, Listening and Writing, BBC Home Service (Schools), 25 November 1961.
*TH and Anthony Thwaite were co-judges for the 1962 Poetry Book Society selections.
*Thom Gunn and Ted Hughes, Selected Poems (London: Faber & Faber, 1962). SP’s presentation copy, signed and dated by TH, appeared at auction via Bonhams on 21 March 2018.
*Fainlight had experienced a miscarriage. This recalls the first stanza of ‘Elm’, the poem which SP would dedicate to Fainlight: ‘I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root: / It is what you fear. / I do not fear it: I have been there’ (Collected Poems: 192).
*Judith Jones to SP, 22 August and 19 September 1961; held by University of Texas at Austin.
*W. Roger Smith to Judith Jones, 4 September 1961; held by University of Texas at Austin.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘A Winter Ship’, Encounter 15 (February 1961): 23; and ‘The Colossus’, Encounter 18 (April 1962): 56.
*It is likely the poems and periodicals listed on the verso of the letter to Jennifer Hassell, 16 September 1961, correspond to this list.
*St Peter’s Church, Essington, North Tawton.
*Probably Antoinette Rose, listed in SP’s address book, who was an editor at Woman’s Realm, then at 189 High Holborn, London.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘Medallion’, The London Bridge Book of Verse (London: Heinemann, 1962): 88–90.
*A reference to Dr Seuss’s Horton Hatches the Egg (1940).
*SP’s attendance at the mother’s groups inspired her story ‘Mothers’; typescript held by Smith College. Posthumously published as ‘The Mothers’ Union’, McCall’s (October 1972): 81, 126, 128, 130, 142.
*The rector of St Peter’s Church at this time was Reverend William Lane (d. 1973).
*Sybil Merton Hamilton (d. 1963), widow of Francis Monteith Hamilton (d. 1935). According to SP’s journals, Mrs Hamilton lived at ‘Crispens’, 5 Market Street, North Tawton.
*According to SP’s Collected Poems, she had recently written ‘Wuthering Heights’ (September 1961); ‘Blackberrying’ (23 September 1961); and ‘Finisterre’ and ‘The Surgeon at 2 a.m.’ (29 September 1961).
*American poet Howard Nemerov (1920–91).
*Jamaican-American poet Louis Simpson (1923–2012).
*See TH to Dido and W. S. Merwin, c. 20 October 1961; held by Morgan Library.
*SP and TH travelled to Bangor University in Wales on 26 July 1962 to participate in a joint reading for the Critical Quarterly on 28 July 1962.
*The poem is no longer with the letter. Possibly ‘My Father in the Night Commanding No’ from New Yorker (21 October 1961): 56 or ‘A Farm in Minnesota’, New Yorker (9 September 1961): 121. TH mentioned ‘My Father in the Night Commanding No’ in the letter to the Merwins cited above.
*Date supplied from internal evidence.
*Edward Albee, The American Dream (1961) and The Death of Bessie Smith (1959), performed on Wednesday 1 November 1961, at the Royal Court Theatre.
*‘extra $260??? ’ appears in the original.
*François Villon (trans. Robert Lowell), ‘The Great Testament’, Harper’s Bazaar (October 1961): 154–5.
*Marianne Moore, ‘My Crow Pluto, the True Plato’, Harper’s Bazaar (October 1961): 184–5.
*SP was given two books by R. S. Thomas, Tares (1961) and Song at the Year’s Turning (1960) with gift inscription by TH. Both appeared at auction via Bonhams on 21 March 2018.
*Ted Hughes, ‘A Few Sweet Words’, New Statesman (10 November 1961): 704–5; reviews of Dr Seuss, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back; Lydia Pender, Barnaby and the Horses; Lilli Koenig, Timba; Lilli Koenig, Gringolo; and George Selden, The Cricket in Times Square.
*Joy Adamson, Living Free (London: Collins and Harvill, 1961); Ted Hughes, ‘According to Elsa’, New Statesman (10 November 1961): 712.
*The Guardian and The Observer, among other newspapers, reported daily on radioactive fallout and its effects. See for example, ‘Fall-Out Shelter Hazard’, The Guardian (30 October 1961): 9.
*According to the Devon Historic Environment Record, the castle motte on the property is thirty-five metres in diameter, two metres high, and probably dates to the twelfth century.
*Sylvia J. (West) Crawford (1935– ); mother of Beverly A. (1956– ), Rebecca J. (1959– ), and Paula J. (1961– ); married to Maurice Gordon Crawford (1932–2006); lived at 25 North Street, North Tawton.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘General Jodpur’s Conversion’, New Statesman (10 November 1961): 696, 698; review of Janet Charters, The General; Jacqueline Ayer, A Wish for Little Sister; Gaby Baldner, Joba and the Wild Boar; Ludwig Bemelmans, Madeline and the Gypsies; Elizabeth Rose, Charlie on the Run; Joan E. Cass, The Cat Thief; Roger Duvoisin, A for the Ark; Françoise, The Things I Like; M. Sasek, This is Venice; and Elizabeth Poston, The Children’s Song Book.
*American playwright Edward Albee (1928–2016).
*Elizabeth Poston, The Children’s Song Book (London: Bodley Head, 1961).
*Howard Moss to SP, 27 October 1961; held by New York Public Library. Moss rejected ‘Wuthering Heights’, ‘Finisterre’, and ‘The Surgeon at 2 a.m.’
*Sylvia Plath, ‘Blackberrying’, New Yorker (15 September 1962): 48.
*In stanza three, lines 6–7 originally read, ‘To the hills’ northern face, and their faces are orange rock. / They look out on nothing, nothing but a great space . . .’; held by Lilly Library.
*Ruth Hill to SP, 6 November 1961; held by Smith College. SP’s award was for $2,080 and was paid $520 quarterly. Smith College holds two typescripts of SP’s quarterly progress reports from 1 May 1962 (chapters 9–12 of The Bell Jar) and 1 August 1962 (chapters 13–16).
*Better Buying Service, 56 Grosvenor Street, London W.1.
*The corrected proofs for American Poetry Now held by Smith College.
*A comparison of the letter to the printed pamphlet shows that not all of SP’s corrections were made.
*American poet Barbara Guest (1920–2006).
*American poet Anthony Hecht (1923–2004).
*In ‘“More Light! More Light!”’ Hecht modified the original line, ‘Thousands sifting down through the crisp air’ to ‘Ghosts from the ovens, sifting through crisp air’. There were no changes to the Rich poems.
*The list is held by Smith College.
*Page numbers correspond to a later typescript draft, held by Smith College. SP missed a couple of page numbers, thus when the proof of The Bell Jar was prepared the original protagonist’s name, ‘Miss Lucas’, appeared on pp. 187–8. These were corrected before the first edition was printed in late 1962.
*Deer Island Prison (c. 1880–1991) was located on the southernmost tip of Winthrop. The island is now a waste water treatment plant.
*Robert Lowell, ‘Waking in the Blue’, Life Studies (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1959). SP attempted suicide on 24 August 1953, was treated at several local hospitals, and spent most of her time at McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass. For letters written during this period, see Letters of Sylvia Plath, Vol. 1, 649–72.
*The Barbizon Hotel for Women was at Lexington Avenue and E 63rd Street, New York.
*SP may be referring to the barbiturate Soneryl, which was used to treat insomnia.
*These papers for
m ‘Plath mss’ at the Lilly Library.
*SP’s Victorian chair appeared at auction via Bonhams on 21 March 2018.
*Meima Bucha is a person Fainlight knew when growing up. Ruth Fainlight, ‘Meima Bucha: A Childhood Memory’, Woman’s Hour, BBC Light Programme (28 November 1961). See also Ruth Fainlight, ‘Meima-Bucha’, Canadian Jewish Review (28 March 1952): 8; and Ruth Fainlight, ‘Meima-Bucha’, Daylife and Nightlife: Stories (London: Deutsch, 1971).
*SP uses the phrase ‘bockle bockle bockle’ at the end of Chapter 11 of The Bell Jar.
*Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar.
*Stanford-Binet is an intelligence test.
*The reviews are still with the letter.
*Date supplied from internal evidence.
*François Billetdoux, Theéâtre (Paris: La Table Ronde, 1961).
*François Billetdoux, ‘Va Donc Chez Törpe’ (1961).
*See SP to ASP, 25 November 1960.
*Elsie Taylor lived at a Court Green cottage on Market Street. See Sylvia Plath, ‘Mystic’.
*Frank Harold Watkins (1884–1964); married to Leila Watkins (c. 1884–1965), lived in the first of the Court Green cottages.
*French writer and film director Marguerite Duras (1914–96). Duras is associated with the Nouveau Roman group. Duras, along with group members Alain Robbe-Grillet and Nathalie Sarraute, were featured in David Stuart Hull, ‘Russian Film Direction . . . and the French in Moscow’, The Guardian (10 August 1961): 4.
*Date supplied from internal evidence.
*Christmas card designed by J. F. Wilkes for the Gordon Fraser Gallery.
*Ted Hughes, ‘Writing in Britain Today’, BBC Overseas Service (5 December 1961); see Kay Fuller to TH, 30 November 1961; held by BBC Written Archives Centre.
*Date supplied from internal evidence.
*Christmas card designed by Sheila Parry for Libertys.
*Date supplied from internal evidence.
*Jomo Kenyatta (1894–1978); leader of Kenya, 1964–78, and a member of the Kikuyu, Kenya’s largest ethnic group.
*Fred J. Cook, ‘Juggernaut: The Warfare State’, The Nation (28 October 1961): 299–307.
*Roger Hagan, ‘When the Holocaust Comes’, The Nation (4 November 1961): 341; and John Kay Adams, ‘The Reluctant Moles’, The Nation (4 November 1961): 341–8.
*The card is no longer with the letter.
*Ted Hughes, ‘The Rescue’, Atlantic Monthly 209 (March 1962): 65; and Ted Hughes, ‘Sugar Loaf’, Atlantic Monthly 209 (May 1962): 69. See Peter Davison to TH and SP, 4 December 1961; held by Yale University.
*Carol Truax, ‘The Apples You Couldn’t Resist’, Ladies’ Home Journal (October 1961): 88, 90.
*Karin Sonja Thorgerson Galmarino (c. 1930– ); 1948, Wellesley High School; lived at 381 Weston Road, Wellesley; married Alberto R. Galmarino (1928–2004), c. September 1961.
*Ruth Geisel (1932– ); friend of SP; attended Wellesley High School and Dana Hall School; B.A. 1953, English, Wellesley College; lived at 5 Durant Road, Wellesley, Mass.
*The cover of American Poetry Now was designed by T. E. Burrill.
*[G. S. Fraser], ‘American Poetry’, Times Literary Supplement (8 December 1961): 881; Fraser reviewed the pamphlet favourably.
*Judith Jones to SP, 22 November 1961; held by University of Texas at Austin.
*Heinemann was in touch with William A. Koshland.
*A lawyer and former vice president and assistant secretary of the New Yorker, Milton Greenstein (c. 1912–91).
*Milton Greenstein to SP, 17 October 1961; held by University of Texas at Austin.
*See SP to Elizabeth Kray, 26 April 1961.
*Letter misdated by SP.
*Christmas card designed by J. F. Wilkes for the Gordon Fraser Gallery, Bedford, England.
*The photographs are no longer with the letter.
*Marjorie Pearson Tyrer (1912–89); married to George Dugdall Tyrer (1906–75), who was the manager of the National Provincial Bank at the corner of North Street and Market Street, North Tawton.
*Nicola Tyrer (1946– ). Tyrer was enrolled at the Headington School, Oxford.
*Howard Moss to SP, 8 December 1961; held by New York Public Library.
*SP was a judge for the prize along with George Hartley and John Press.
*Christmas card designed by J. F. Wilkes for the Gordon Fraser Gallery, Bedford, England.
*The photographs are no longer with the letter.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘The Moon and the Yew Tree’ and ‘Mirror Talk’ [‘Mirror’], New Yorker (3 August 1963): 29. Howard Moss to SP, 12 December 1961; held by New York Public Library.
*Frieda Lawrence, The Memoirs and Correspondence (London: Heinemann, 1961); SP’s copy held by Emory University.
*SP wrote cheques to Waltons for red corduroy, Tanis Brothers for a sweater for TH, Canor Brothers for a bathrobe, and Colsons for a blanket.
*Howard Moss to SP, 12 December 1961; held by New York Public Library; Moss requested the title change because of a preference against poems with the word ‘Talk’ in the title, a Rodgers and Hammerstein song entitled ‘Happy Talk’ being the reason. SP had also submitted ‘Last Words’ and ‘The Babysitters’, which were rejected.
*See SP to Marion Freeman, 31 January 1962.
*Possibly Peter Spier, The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Evening (New York: Doubleday, 1961).
*See SP to Olwyn Hughes, 20 November 1961.
*Kenneth Garnett Neville-Davies (1943– ).
*Bachrach photography, 647 Boylston Street, Boston.
*Melitta Hey Magendantz (1906–86); married to Dr Heinz Magendantz (1899–1972); residents of Newton, Mass.
*Thom Gunn and Ted Hughes (eds), Five American Poets (London: Faber & Faber, 1963); featured Edgar Bowers, Howard Nemerov, Hyam Plutzik, Louis Simpson, and William Stafford.
*See SP to Dorothy Benotti, 31 January 1962.
*Nicholas Farrar Hughes (1962–2009), son of SP and TH, was born on 17 January 1962.
*English radio producer and bookseller, Douglas Cleverdon (1903–87).
*Ted Hughes, The Wound, BBC Third Programme (1 February 1962).
*Probably ‘Miss Wetzel, Warren Plath Are Engaged’, The Townsman (Wellesley), (11 January 1962): 3.
*Filene’s was a department store chain with its flagship branch in Boston.
*Probably in John Wain, ‘The Popular Art of Poetry’, Vogue (July 1961): 72–3, which featured individual photographs of TH (taken by David Bailey), William Empson, Thomas Kinsella, and Louis MacNeice.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘The Rival’, The Observer (21 January 1962): 31.
*This bout of milk fever inspired SP’s abandoned poem with alternative titles ‘Fever’, ‘Fever in Winter’, and ‘Fever 103’; held by Smith College.