by Yehuda Koren
the police were unpleasant: Brenda Hedden, interviews in England, September–October 2001.
Twenty-one: Agony
‘I knew she would’: CC–Patricia Mendelson, a letter, 31 March 1969, in private hands.
‘hoarse, grave voice’: Eda Zoritte-Megged, ‘Intersections’, Mosnayim, no. 9, September/October 1984 (in Hebrew).
‘Send flowers’: Richard Murphy, The Kick, p. 274.
‘Lullaby’: ibid, p. 275.
wrote a note: Brenda Hedden, interviews in England, September–October 2001.
Dr Gutmann visited the flat: CC, interviews in Canada, May–June 2002, and subsequent emails, letters and telephone calls, July 2002–April 2006.
‘he was extremely distraught’: Chris Wilkins, email exchange, October 2001.
his sweater was worn-out: John Wainwright, a later tenant in Assia’s flat, interview in London, October 2001.
crushed and disconsolate: Peter Porter, interview in London, September 2001, and letters, October–December 2001.
eulogise Assia and Shura: Edward Lucie-Smith, interview in London, October 2001, email exchange, December 2001–August 2003.
‘A Requiem for Two Daughters of Israel’: in Nathaniel Tarn, Selected Poems 1950–2002, USA, Middletown, Wesleyan University Press, 2002.
‘two white coffins’: Peter Porter, interview in London, September 2001, and letters, October–December 2001.
inviting all to lunch: Edward Lucie-Smith, interview in London, October 2001, email exchange, December 2001–August 2003.
The following day: Brenda Hedden, interviews in England, September–October 2001.
taken to Harrod’s: Olwyn Hughes, letter exchange, August 2002–June 2003.
‘He invited me’: Martin Baker, interview in Oxfordshire, October 2001, and email exchange, November 2001–January 2004.
go over the things: Patricia Mendelson, interview in London, September 2001.
In a crate: CC, interviews in Canada, May–June 2002, and subsequent emails, letters and telephone calls, July 2002–April 2006.
the last edition: Vasco Popa, Selected Poems, Penguin, 1969. Assia’s copy is in TH’s library, Emory.
he kept the urns in his bedroom: Brenda Hedden, interviews in England, September–October 2001.
‘a permanent emergency’: TH–Janet Malcolm, letter, 2 March 1992, Emory.
Assia had asked Fay: Fay Weldon, interview in London, September 2001.
‘back into her body’: SP, ‘Edge’, in Ariel, The Restored Text, Faber and Faber, 2005.
‘Medea-like’: Richard Larschan, interview in Massachusetts, USA, June 2004, and email exchange, September 2001–December 2005.
‘the unpardonable crime Plath had committed’: Anita Helle, ‘Family Matters: An Afterword on the Biography of Sylvia Plath’, Northwest Review, 26, no. 2, 1988.
60 murder-suicide incidents: Brian Barraclough and E Clare Harris, ‘Suicide preceded by murder: the epidemiology of homicide-suicide in England and Wales, 1988–1992’, Psychological Medicine, 2002, 32, 577–84. Cambridge University Press.
five types of filicide: Philip J Resnick, ‘Child murder by parents: a psychiatric review of filicide’, American Journal of Psychiatry, 1969; 126:325–34. Also in an email interview with Dr Resnick in April 2004.
‘much higher incidence’: Philip J Resnick, in Nancy Wride ‘A Mother’s Final Deadly Act’, Los Angeles Times, 12 January 1992.
‘The mother knows’: Philip J Resnick, in Ken Hausman ‘Classification Tries to Make Sense of Often Inexplicable Crime,’ Psychiatry News, 20 December 2002, vol. 37, no. 24.
‘another motherless child’: Al Alvarez’s diary, 2 May 1969, quoted in Elaine Feinstein, Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poet, p. 256.
‘Thank God Assia took her’: Patricia Mendelson–CC, letter, 13 April 1969, in private possession.
‘only way of outdoing her’: Al Alvarrez, Where Did It All Go Right?, p. 209.
‘because it is more like her’: TH–Pat Torney, letter, undated, Emory.
He told Aurelia Platt: TH–AP, letter, 14 April 1969, Lilly.
‘very true of Assia’: TH–GH, letter, May 1969, Lilly.
‘insane decisions’: TH–LM, letter, Emory.
‘given her hope’: TH–CC, letter, 14 April 1969, Emory.
When interviewed: Ted Hughes, interview with the authors in London, 8 October 1996.
Cooke was rushing around: Barrie Cooke, telephone interviews in November 2002 and in March 2004.
‘Effect of A’s’: TH notebook, c. 1968–1969, Emory.
When his father asked Olwyn: TH–AP, letter, 10 July 1969, Lilly.
‘the sort of place’: TH–CC, letter, 11 March 1970, in private hands.
Dr Gutmann’s blood pressure: CC, interviews in Canada, May–June 2002, and subsequent emails, letters and telephone calls, July 2002–April 2006.
‘longcold oven’: TH, ‘The Locket’, in Capriccio, Collected Poems, p. 784.
‘Why did you kneel’: TH, ‘The Error’, in Capriccio, Collected Poems, p. 795.
‘The times were against Assia’: Fay Weldon, interview in London, September 2001.
Twenty-two: Aftermath
In the summer of 1969: Brenda Hedden, interviews in England, September– October 2001.
‘but some women’: Hilda Farrar–AP, letter, 6 November 1969, Lilly.
‘It happened again’: Brenda Hedden, interviews in England, September– October 2001.
to have the dedication in Hebrew: TH Papers, Emory.
‘red hot’: TH–CC, letter, 11 March 1970, in private hands.
they entertained Seamus Heaney: Brenda Hedden, interviews in England, September–October 2001.
learned of the marriage: Hilda Farrar–AP, letter, 15 October 1970, Lilly.
‘Beat a woman with a hammer’: TH-LM, letter, February 1971, Emory.
‘He was a real hunter’: Brenda Hedden, interviews in England, September– October.
‘greylag goose’: Emma Tennant, Burnt Diaries. Canongate Books, 1999, p. 105.
‘she wasn’t so sure’: TH–CC, letter, 11 March 1970, in private hands.
five-inch tiger’s tooth: Jeremy Robson, ‘Copy for Mr Feinstein’, London Magazine, June–July 1971.
‘Don’t cuddle your wife’: Peter Porter, ‘Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath’, Australian Book Review, August 2001.
Poets Reading Their Work: playbill and publicity material in TH Papers, Emory.
‘The most electrical place’: TH–Peter Redgrove, undated, Emory.
‘live there’: TH–LM, February 1971, Emory.
showed him a number of houses: TH–GH, undated, Emory.
‘It’s the most sacred’: TH, interview in London, 8 October 1996.
‘edge’: Sylvia Plath, Ariel, The Restored Text, 2005.
Murphy sent an elegy: Richard Murphy–TH, a letter, 5 March 1965, McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.
asked him to delete: TH–Richard Murphy, a letter postmarked 8 April 1965, Tulsa.
‘demonic possession’: AL Alvarez, The Savage God: A Study in Suicide, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971.
‘Arraignment’: Robin Morgan, Monster: Poems, New York, Random House, 1972, and also in Upstairs in the Garden: Poems Selected and New, New York, W W Norton, 1990.
‘I can’t understand’: ‘The Death of Assia G.’ in Songs of Jerusalem and Myself, Harper & Row, New York, 1973.
‘who the other woman was’: Iain Walker, ‘Poetic Justice? The Trials of Ted Hughes’, Australia, The Advertiser, 7 May 1987.
‘the right woman failed to materialise’: TH–Leonard Scigaj, letter, 28 July 1989, Emory.
‘a woman to replace their mother’: TH–Janet Malcolm, letter, 2 March 1992, Emory.
Already in 1986: Leonard Baskin–TH, letter, 18 November 1986, Emory.
‘After forty I’ll end it’: ‘Fanaticism’, in Capriccio, Collected Poems, p. 789.
‘baby daughter’, ‘German au pair’, ‘Six full calendar years’, ‘Her grave’, a
ll in ‘The Error’, in Capriccio, Collected Poems, p. 796.
He was relieved: TH, interview in London, 8 October 1996.
‘I wrote many poems’: ibid.
Select Bibliography
Interviews
Immediate Circle
Celia (Gutman) Chaikin, telephone interview January 1999, email exchange January 1999–May 2002; interviews in Canada, May–June 2002, and subsequent emails, letters and telephone calls, July 2002–April 2006.
Arnold Chaikin, interviews in Canada, May–June 2002.
John Steele, letter exchange, July 2002–January 2004.
Richard (Dick) Lipsey, interview in Canada, June 2002, and email exchange July 2002–June 2003.
Thirell (Lipsey) Weiss, email exchange, August–December 2002.
David Wevill, interview in Texas, November 2003, and email exchange, September 2002–December 2005.
Ted Hughes, interview in London, 8 October 1996.
Olwyn Hughes, letter exchange, August 2002–June 2003.
Palestine–England–Canada, 1940–52
Leila Andreas, interview in Israel, November 2001.
Wedad Andreas, interview in Israel, November 2001.
Hannah Weinberg-Shalitt, interview in Israel, January 1999.
Mira Hamermesh, interview in London, October 2001.
Keith Gems, interview in London, December 2003, and letter exchange, August 2002–February 2004.
John Bosher, telephone interview and email exchange, July–August 2002.
Esther Birney, telephone interview, December 2001, and letter January 2002.
England–Burma, 1953–60
Lilian Archibald, interview in London, March 2003.
Alton Becker, email exchange, March–July 2002.
Marilyn Corry, email exchange, September 2002.
Pam Gems, interview in London, December 2003, and letter exchange, August 2002–February 2004.
Martin Graham, interview in London, October 2001.
Philip Hobsbaum, email exchange, October 2001–May 2003.
Edward Lucie-Smith, interview in London, October 2001, email exchange, December 2001–August 2003.
Patricia Mendelson, interview in London, September 2001.
Don Michel, email, September 2002.
Ian Montagnes, email exchange, September–October 2002.
Roger Philips, email exchange, November 2001.
Peter Porter, interview in London, September 2001, and letters, October– December 2001.
Jo (Reed) Price, email exchange, September–October 2002.
Kenneth Reed, letter November 2002.
England–Ireland, 1961–9
Al Alvarez, interview in London, September 2001.
Anne (Adams) Alvarez, interview in London, October 2001.
Martin Baker, interview in Oxfordshire, October 2001, and email exchange November 2001–January 2004.
Kathleen Becker, interview in London, September 2001.
Tom Boyd, telephone interview, September 2004.
Anna (Owen) Bramble, interview in London, October 2001.
Sue Byrne, email exchange, November 2001.
John Chambers, interview in London, September 2001.
Douglas Chowns, email exchange, November 2001–June 2003.
Barrie Cooke, telephone interviews in November 2002 and in March 2004.
Janos Csokits, interview in Budapest, March 2006, and letter exchange, December 2003–September 2005.
Jane Donaldson, email and letter exchange, November 2003–February 2004.
Dan Ellerington, telephone interview, January 2002.
Ruth Fainlight, email exchange, January–February 2004.
Jonny Gathorne-Hardy, interview in London, October 2001.
Michael Hamburger, letters June–July 2002.
Brenda Hedden, interviews in England, September–October 2001.
Guy Jenkin, interview in London, October 2001.
Ann Henning Jocelyn, interview in Ireland, March 2005.
Robert Jocelyn, Earl of Roden, interview in Ireland, March 2005.
Angela Landels interview in London, October 2001.
Richard Larschan, interview in Massachusetts, USA, June 2004, and email exchange, September 2001–December 2005.
Fay Maschler, interview in London, October 2001.
Julia Matcham, interview in London, September 2001, and letter and email exchange, September 2001–December 2002.
Horatio Morpurgo, email exchange, April 2003.
Lucas Myers, email exchange, November 2001–December 2003.
Hugh Musgrave, interview in Ireland, March 2005.
Keith Ravenscroft, email exchange, October 2001.
Teresa Reilly, telephone interview, April 2005.
Philip Resnick, email exchange, April 2004.
Clarissa Roche, interview in England, September 2001.
Chris Roos, interview in London, October 2001.
David Ross, interview in London, March 2003.
Ann Semple, telephone interview, January 2002.
Elizabeth (Compton) Sigmund, interview in England, August 2001, and subsequent email exchange, September–December 2001.
Ben Sonnenberg, email exchange, August 2002.
Royston Taylor, email exchange, November 2001–February 2002.
John Wainwright, interview in London, October 2001.
Daniel Weissbort, interview in London, May 2002, and letter exchange, April 2002–September 2005.
Fay Weldon, interview in London, September 2001.
Chris Wilkins, email exchange, October 2001.
Archives
The Department of Manuscripts, The British Library, London.
Ted Hughes Papers; Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Sylvia Plath Collection, the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.
Sylvia Plath Collection, Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, USA.
The Nathaniel Tarn Papers, Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California, USA.
Earle Birney Papers, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, Canada.
Richard Murphy Letters, McFarlin Library, Department of Special Collections, University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.
Yehuda Amichai Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
The Eric Walter White Papers, Miles Memorial Library, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
General Register Office, St Catherine’s House, London.
Tel Aviv Municipality Archives; files of the Hospitality Committee and of the Religious Council, 1940–1947, Israel.
Poetry and Letters
Amichai, Yehuda. Poems. New York, Harper & Row, 1968.
— Selected Poems. Penguin, 1971.
— Selected Poems. Introduction, Ted Hughes, Faber and Faber, 2000.
— Songs of Jerusalem and Myself. New York, Harper & Row, 1973.
Hughes, Ted. Collected Poems. Keegan, Paul ed., London, Faber and Faber, 2003.
Plath, Sylvia. Ariel, The Restored Text. Faber and Faber, 2005.
— Collected Poems. Faber and Faber, 1981.
— Journals of Sylvia Plath, 1950–1962. Kukil, Karen V ed., Faber and Faber, 2000.
— Letters Home: Correspondence. Faber and Faber, 1999.
Tarn, Nathaniel. Selected Poems 1950–2000. USA, Middletown, Wesleyan University Press, 2002.
Wevill, David. Birth of a Shark. Toronto, Macmillan, 1964.
— Casual Ties. Prose Sketches. USA, Curbstone Press, 1986.
— A Christ of the Ice-Floes. Macmillan, 1966.
— Departures, Selected Poems. Shearsman Books, 2003.
— Firebreaks. Macmillan, 1971.
— Solo with Grazing Deer. Toronto, Exile Editions, 2001.
Criticism and Memoirs
Books
Alexander, Paul ed., Ariel Ascending: Writing about S
ylvia Plath. New York, Harper & Row, 1985.
— Rough Magic, 2nd ed. New York, Da Capo, 1969.
Alvarez, A. The Savage God: A Study in Suicide. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971.
— Where Did It All Go Right? Richard Cohen Books, 1999.
— Ariel Ascending in ‘Sylvia Plath: A Memoir’, Alexander, Paul ed.
Becker, Jillian. Giving Up: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath. Ferrington, 2002.
Bennett, Bruce. Spirit in Exile: Peter Porter and his Poetry. Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1991.
Blumenthal, Susan J ed., Suicide Over the Life Cycle. American Psychiatric Publishing Inc., 1990.
Brain, Tracy. The Other Sylvia Plath. New York, Longman, 2001.
Bundtzen, Lynda K. The Other Ariel. USA, University of Massachusetts Press, 2001.
Butscher, Edward. Sylvia Plath: Method and Madness. New York, Simon & Schuster, 1976.
—, ed., Sylvia Plath: The Woman and the Work. New York, Dodd, Mead, 1977.
Cameron, Elspeth, Earle Birney – a Life. New York, Viking, 1994.
Candell, Tim. Sylvia Plath – a Critical Study. Faber and Faber, 2001.
Efron, John. Medicine and the German Jews. USA, Yale University Press, 2001.
Farberow, Norman L and Shneidman Edwin. ed., The Cry for Help, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1965.
Feinstein, Elaine. Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poet. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001.
Gammage, Nick ed., The Epic Poise, A Celebration of Ted Hughes. Faber and Faber, 1999.
Goodwin, Isobel. May You Live to Be 120! The Story of Tabeetha School, Jaffa, 1863–1983. Saint Andrew Press, 2000.
Hamermesh, Mira. The River of Angry Dogs – A Memoir. Pluto Press, 2004.
Hayman, Ronald. The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath. Sutton Publishing, 2003.
Kater, Michael. Doctors Under Hitler. USA, University of North Carolina Press, 1989.
Kroll, Judith. Chapters in a Mythology: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath. New York, Harper Colophon, 1976.
Lucie-Smith, Edward. The Burnt Child: An Autobiography. Victor Gollancz, 1975.
— ed., A Group Anthology. Oxford University Press, 1963.
Malcolm, Janet. The Silent Woman. Picador, 1994.
Middlebrook, Diane Wood. Her Husband: Hughes and Plath – A Marriage. New York, Viking, 2003.
Morgan, H G. Death Wishes? John Wiley, 1979.
Morgan, Robin. Monster: Poems, New York, Random House, 1972.
— Upstairs in the Garden: Poems Selected and New. New York, W W Norton, 1990.