by Yehuda Koren
Fifteen: Birth
F WALL esq.: TH Papers, Emory.
torn open: TH–AW, letter, undated, Emory.
‘they never wear them’: TH–AW, letter, 19 february 1965, Emory.
‘I emerged whole’: AW–LM, 13 March 1965, Emory.
Elise Bertha Gutmann: Assia’s mother’s full name varies from one document to another.
registered as the father: General Register Office, St Catherine’s House, London.
‘I suppose my parents’: Olwyn Hughes, letter exchange with the authors, August 2002–June 2003.
‘Assia was very interested’: DW, interview in Texas, November 2003, and email exchange, September 2002–December 2005.
‘She became soft’: Patricia Mendelson, interview in London, September 2001.
‘seriously flamed bitch-woman’: AW–Patricia Mendelson, letter, December 1965, The Tarn Papers.
‘two little ladies’: TH–AW, letter, undated, Emory.
to cast the horoscope: Ben Sonnenberg, ‘Ted’s Spell’, Raritan 21, no. 4, spring 2002.
ordered one for Shura: the two-page analysis of Shura’s horoscope, in private hands.
‘she showed me a book’: Michael Hamburger, letters to the authors, June–July 2002.
‘We lived like Americans’: AW–LM, letter, 15 July 1965, Emory.
‘no longer just human sea-weed’: AW–Patricia Mendelson, letter, December 1964, The Tarn Papers.
‘Cloud of gentleness’: Edward Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Jonathan Cape, 1964. The book, with Assia’s slogans for Lux soap, is in TH’s library, Emory.
Elida Gibbs’s Sea Witch: AW’s commercial, in the archives of J Walter Thompson, London.
leather bandolier: Edward Lucie-Smith, interview in London, October 2001, and email exchange, December 2001–August 2003.
wrote to Richard Murphy: TH–Richard Murphy, letter, 3 September 1965, Richard Murphy Letters, University of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
‘Very soon, you’ll just come’: TH–AW, letter, 14 September 1965, Emory.
Furnishing their nest: TH–AW, letter, November 1965, Emory.
‘Bomb number 1’: TH–AP, letter, December 1965, Lilly. AP wrote these words on the letter.
he preferred the Heddens: Brenda Hedden, interviews in England, September– October 2001.
‘We knew this was it’: DW, interview in Texas, November 2003, and email exchange, September 2002–December 2005.
Sixteen: Bliss
Ted had a dream: TH, ‘Poet, Pike and a Pitiful Grouse’, Guardian, 9 January 1999. This article contains excerpts from Hughes’s interview with Thomas Pero, ‘So Quickly It’s Over’, in Wild Steelhead & Salmon magazine, USA, 5, no. 2, winter 1999.
Thomas Hazell: information provided by the present owner of Doonreaghan House, Robert Jocelyn, Earl of Roden, interview in Ireland, March 2005.
‘whole tribe’: TH–LM, letter, undated, Emory.
‘my herds’: TH–Brenda and Trevor Hedden, spring 1966, in private hands.
Cashel had only one grocery shop: Ann Henning Jocelyn, interview in Ireland, March 2005.
‘The end of Europe’: AW’s diary, in private hands.
‘Assia Wevill-Hughes’: AW, postcard to Patricia and Michael Mendelson (Tarn), The Tarn Papers, Stanford.
‘Assia is here with me’: TH–GH, letter from Cashel, April 1966, Emory.
‘The house was known to be haunted’: Teresa Reilly, telephone interview, April 2005.
greatly taken to their half-sister: TH–LM, letter from Cashel, undated, Emory.
‘your daughter’: TH, ‘Descent’, in Capriccio, Collected Poems, p. 787.
‘her little girl’: TH–GH, letter, 4 May 1965.
‘Lines for Shura’: TH, unpublished poem, Emory.
‘the way he was finally able’: Diane Wood Middlebrook, Her Husband, p. 230.
two holiday cottages: information provided by Hugh Musgrave, owner of Cleggan Farm, interview in Ireland, March 2005.
ten houses: AW’s diary, in private hands.
would dine at Richard Murphy’s place: Richard Murphy, The Kick, p. 251.
‘seemed very happy together’: Barrie Cooke, telephone interviews in November 2002 and in March 2004.
to go to Germany: TH–AP and Warren Plath, letter, March 1966, Lilly.
Olwyn was exhausted: TH–GH, letter, 11 June 1966, Emory.
‘in sweet sweat’: AW’s diary, 31 November 1966, in private hands.
Goethe: Richard Friedenthal, Goethe: His Life and Times, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1965. The inscribed book is in TH’s library, Emory.
A General History of Quadrupeds: Thomas Bewick, printed by Edward Walker, 1811. The inscribed book is in TH’s library, Emory.
They entertained Allan Sillitoe: TH–GH, letter, undated, Emory.
she got pregnant: Teresa Reilly, telephone interview, April 2005.
Assia went into business: TH–Richard Murphy, letter, 21 July 1966, Richard Murphy Letters, McFarlin Library, Department of Special Collections, University of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Winifred Davies: Winifred Davies–AP, letter, 12 December 1966, Lilly.
‘nettle Emporium’: AW–Patricia Mendelson, letter, undated, The Tarn Papers.
he returned to Canada: CC, interview in Canada, May–June 2002, and subsequent emails, letters and telephone calls, July 2002–April 2006.
he would give her a loan: i.e. 3 June 1966: loan cash, Assia, £100; 18 April 1968; £42, loan, Assia W. TH notes, Emory.
The Muses’ Darling: Charles Norman, The Muses’ Darling: The Life of Christopher Marlowe, Falcon Press, 1947. The inscribed book is in TH’s library, Emory.
Assia’s inscription: the inscribed book is in TH’s library, Emory.
A Christ of the Ice-Floes: DW, Macmillan, 1966.
‘it’s a ghost of a book’: AW’s diary, 30 November 1966, in private hands.
‘Assia and I have separated’: DW–Earle Birney, letter, 19 April 1967, Earle Birney Papers, Tulsa.
Assia made a card: TH Papers, Emory.
‘begrudge him an affair’: AW’s diary, 31 November 1966, in private hands.
‘The woman is my real enemy’: AW–CC, letter, 11 March 1967, in private hands.
Assia was browsing: AW’s diary, 31 November 1966, in private hands.
‘how spoilt I am’: ibid.
His father could not bear the sight of Assia: TH–GH, letter, 25 April 1967, Emory.
Myers felt sorry: LM, email exchange, November 2001–December 2003.
refused to sit with her: AW–CC, letter, 11 March 1967, in private hands.
Hughes looks withdrawn: TH Papers, Emory.
Frieda Hughes has a vague memory: Frieda Hughes notes, TH Papers, Emory.
Elizabeth Compton saw: Elizabeth (Compton) Sigmund, interview in England, August 2001, and subsequent email exchange, September–Decembeer 2001.
‘I have these fits of huge love’: AW’s diary, 31 November 1966, in private hands.
‘head tilted’: AW–CC, letter, 11 March 1967, in private hands.
‘Shura is becoming’: TH–LM, letter, undated, Emory.
‘a silent and sad child’: Elizabeth (Compton) Sigmund, interview in England, August 2001, and subsequent email exchange, September–December 2001.
‘I don’t have the self confidence’: AW–CC, a letter, 11 March 1967, in private hands.
Celia recalls: CC, interviews in Canada, May–June 2002, and subsequent emails, letters and telephone calls, July 2002–April 2006.
Seventeen: Banished
International Festival of Spoken Poetry: TH Papers, Emory.
read the Bible: Daniel Weissbort, interview in London, May 2002, and letter exchange, April 2002–September 2005.
conversation around the table: Horatio Morpurgo, ‘The Table Talk of Ted Hughes’, Arete, issue 6, autumn 2001.
Judaism fascinated Hughes: Horatio Morpurgo, email exchange, April 2003.
most often took: TH, introduction in Amichai, Yehuda, Selec
ted Poems, Faber and Faber, 2000.
a rare personal interview: TH, interview in London, 8 October 1996.
‘My wife grew up in Israel’: TH–Yehuda Amichai, letter, 7 May 1967, Yale.
invited her and Ted: Ruth Fainlight–AW, postcard, 7 July 1967, Emory.
film-maker: Mira Hamermesh, interview in London, October 2001.
‘What an insane week’: AW–Yehuda and Hannah Amichai, letter, 18 July 1967.
‘they blow soap bubbles’: AW–Yehuda and Hannah Amichai, 19 August 1967, Yale.
‘to annoy [them] less’: ibid.
The Hawk in the Rain: TH, Faber and Faber, 1964.
and added a card: TH Papers, Emory.
‘a pitch of mild disaster’: AW–Patricia Mendelson, letter, 12 September 1967, in private hands.
‘All that remains’: AW–Patricia Mendelson, 12 September 1967, in private hands.
rush to London: ibid.
‘She told me’: Royston Taylor, email exchange, November 2001–February 2002.
Chatting with Assia: Janos Csokits, interview in Budapest, March 2006, and letter exchange, December 2003–September 2005.
Assia had returned to London: Hilda Farrar–AP, letter, 23 October 1967, Lilly.
she asked him: Richard Murphy, The Kick, p. 260.
‘a good feast’: Olwyn Hughes, letter exchange, August 2002–June 2003.
‘Please God’: AW card, TH Papers, Emory.
Eighteen: Love Me Back or Let Me Go
‘last-ditch panic’: AW–Yehuda Amichai, letter, 11 January 1968, Yale.
Vesta Curry: Tom Boyd, telephone interview, September 2004.
‘if you’re unhappy’: TH–Yehuda Amichai, 31 October 1967, Yale.
when Nathaniel Tarn edited: The Tarn Papers, Stanford.
‘he really tried to promote her’: Daniel Weissbort, interview in London, May 2002, and letter exchange, April 2002–September 2005.
‘Couldn’t the Israeli government’: AW–Yehuda Amichai, December 1967, Yale.
Watching a BBC documentary: AW–Yehuda Amichai, letter, 6 March 1968, Yale.
‘Dearest love, sweet Ted’: AW–TH, letter, 2 February 1968, Emory.
she assisted Ted: Martin Graham, interview in London, October 2001.
‘looks like an exhibit’: AW–Yehuda Amichai, 11 January 1968, Yale.
Assia’s playbill: TH’s library, Emory.
‘Emperor of the Barn’: AW–Yehuda Amichai, 11 January 1968, Yale.
Galateo: Giovanni della Casa, Penguin Books, 1958. The book is in TH’s library, Emory.
Draft Constitution: the two-page document is in TH Papers, Emory.
‘This is the ancient steel nib’: AW–TH, March 1968, Emory.
‘a home for Shura’: TH–AW, letter, undated, Emory.
‘In the event of my death’: AW’s will, in private hands.
‘she was fragile’: CC, interviews in Canada, May–June 2002, and subsequent emails, letters and telephone calls, July 2002–April 2006.
‘we both suffer’: CC–AW, letter, in private hands.
Assia bought a copy: Henri Troyat, Tolstoy, WH Allen, 1968. The inscribed book is in TH’s library, Emory.
Assia sent Ted: AW–TH, telegram, 14 May 1968, Emory.
monumental biography: Philipp Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach: His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany, 1685–1750, Dover Publications, 1951. The two volumes are in TH’s library, Emory.
Poet and critic Pat Kavanagh: ‘An Awkward Shyness’, Guardian, 12 July 1968.
BBC Radio 3 programme: a transcription of the programme is in TH Papers, Emory.
Potemkin: Sergei Eisenstein, The Battleship Potemkin, Lorrimer Pub. Co. 1968.
‘I agreed to take part’: Chris Roos, interview in London, October 2001.
‘It wasn’t a happy film’: Martin Baker, interview in Oxfordshire, October 2001, and email exchange, November 2001–January 2004.
the outdoor scenes: Fay Maschler and Jonny Gathorne-Hardy, interview in London, October 2001.
Assia was afraid of getting old: CC, interviews in Canada, May–June 2002, and subsequent emails, letters and telephone calls, July 2002–April 2006.
‘she put cream’: CC–AW, letter, 30 March 1968, in private hands.
‘Fanaticism’: TH, in Capriccio, Collected Poems, p. 789.
‘one of the most beautiful human beings’: Chris Wilkins, email exchange, October 2001.
‘How I want us to live together’: AW–TH, letter, 9 July 1968, Emory.
did not result in enough sales: Dan Ellerington, telephone interview, January 2002.
‘Ted will feel your panic’: Anne Semple to AW, letter, 15 July 1968, in private hands.
she decided to write to Mrs Plath: AP–TH, letters 7 April 1968 and 14 June 1968, Lilly.
‘I remember registering amazement’: Richard Larschan, interview in Massachusetts, USA, June 2004, and email exchange, September 2001–December 2005.
Nineteen: Despair
‘ought to marry’: TH, diary note, Emory.
Hughes did not want Assia: Royston Taylor, email exchange, November 2001– February 2002.
‘in Boppard’: AW’s diary, 7 August 1968, in private hands.
‘many locals’: TH–Yehuda and Hannah Amichai, postcard, 8 August 1968, Yale.
‘On the train’: AW–Yehuda Amichai, postcard, 8 August 1968, Yale.
‘had to strip off’: TH, ‘Descent’, in Capriccio, Collected Poems, p. 787.
overwhelmed by a dream: TH, diary note, 14–15 August 1968, Emory.
Nelly Sachs: Selected Poems, Jonathan Cape, 1968. The inscribed book is in TH’s library, Emory.
complimented her: TH–GH, letter, 20 August 1968, Emory.
Assia would ring Lipsey: Richard Lipsey, interview in Canada, June 2002, and email exchange, July 2002–June 2003.
‘His new companion’: Martin Graham, interview in London, October 2001.
‘For a long time’: DW, interview in Texas, November 2003, and email exchange, September 2002–December 2005.
to remove himself from her life: DW–Patricia and Michael Mendelson, letter, 1 April 1969, The Tarn Papers.
‘she had this capacity’: DW, interview in Texas, November 2003, and email exchange, September 2002–December 2005.
Ted gave Brenda: Brenda Hedden, interviews in England, September–October 2001.
‘Lovesong’: TH, ‘Lovesong’, in Crow, Collected Poems, p. 256.
two snakes: TH Papers, Emory.
‘It is only inevitable’: AW, a torn-out page from her diary, in private hands.
Ted Hughes submitted to the Arts Council: Peter Porter, ‘Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath’, p. 24.
‘I’m really missing you’: TH–AW, letter, July 1968, Emory.
‘Standing in a smoky living-room’: Eavan Bowland, ‘Ted Hughes Recollections’, PN Review, Manchester 25, 5 May 1999.
‘a displaced person’: William Trevor, Excursions in the Real World, p. 119.
‘Being a single mother’: Fay Weldon, interview in London, September 2001.
‘fifteen years older’: John Chambers, interview in London, September 2001.
‘I fancied her’: Guy Jenkin, interview in London, October 2001.
‘It gives me such immense pleasure’: AW–Patricia Mendelson, letter, undated, in private hands.
Twenty: The Die Is Cast
razor-sharp diary entry: AW’s diary, 4 September 1968, in private hands.
to have tea with them: Janos Csokits, interview in Budapest, March 2006, and letter exchange, December 2003–September 2005.
with his camera: Martin Baker, interview in Oxfordshire, October 2001, and email exchange, November 2001–January 2004.
Frieda Hughes remembers: notes of Frieda Hughes from 6 September 2004, accompanying a list of her father’s letters to her, Emory.
invited her and Shura: Elaine Feinstein, Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poet, p. 169.
‘from killing them both’: Ruth Fainlight, ‘Sylvia and
Jane’, Times Literary Supplement.
‘Assia put the receiver down’: Martin Graham, interview in London, October 2001.
killing herself: Mira Hamermesh, interview in London, October 2001.
‘in the 1960s’: Martin Baker, interview in Oxfordshire, October 2001, and email exchange November 2001–January 2004.
to lunch with him: Royston Taylor, email exchange, November 2001–February 2002.
threaten to end her life: Edward Lucie-Smith, interview in London, October 2001, email exchange, December 2001–August 2003
arrived once: Guy Jenkin, interview in London, October 2001.
she confided: Chris Wilkins, email exchange, October 2001.
‘I wish you happiness’: DW, interview in Texas, November 2003, and email exchange, September 2002–December 2005.
imaginary monologue: DW’s ‘Dead One’, in Firebreaks, Macmillan, 1971.
‘They used to come’: Patricia Mendelson, interview in London, September 2001.
‘bloody artists’: AW–Patricia Mendelson, letter, undated, in private hands.
Shura’s fourth birthday: Patricia Mendelson, interview in London, September 2001.
invited him for lunch: Tom Boyd, telephone interview, September 2004.
angry and sullen: AW’s diary, 20 March 1969, in private hands.
they travelled around Yorkshire: TH’s poetic description of this trip is in ‘Flame’, in Capriccio, Collected Poems, p. 798.
‘A pity about the three children’: AW’s diary, 20 March 1969, in private hands.
felt criminal: AW’s diary, 21 March 1969, in private hands.
she tried to read: Zbigniew Herbert, Selected Poems, Penguin, 1968. TH’s library, Emory.
switched on the radio: AW’s diary, 21 March 1969, in private hands.
‘Mr Hughes didn’t want her’: statement of Else Ludwig to Det. Sgt J Loakman, Clapham Police Station, 23 March 1969.
smelled gas: statement of Margaret Jones to Det. Sgt J Loakman, Clapham Police Station, 27 March 1969.
He put his face against the door: statements of Goronwy Owen Roberts to Det. Sgt J Loakman, Clapham Police Station, 2 April 1969.
‘Mrs Wevill was lying on some blankets’: statement of Jennifer Margaret Bangs to Det. Sgt J Loakman, Clapham Police Station, 2 April 1969.
‘They were investigating’: Chris Wilkins, email exchange, October 2001.
‘I handled this one badly’: AL Alvarez, interview in London, September 2001.