89. Diary, 18 June 1947.
90. Diary, 30 June 1947.
91. SP to AP, 1–3 July 1947. L1, 94.
92. SP, high school scrapbook. 10.O3, Lilly.
93. Diary, 9 July 1947.
94. Diary, 6 July 1947.
95. Diary, 12 July 1947.
96. Ibid.
97. Diary, 16 Aug. 1947.
98. Diary, 25 July 1947.
99. AP, “For the Authors’ Series Talk—Wellesley College Club,” 16 Mar. 1976. 30.58, SPC, Smith.
100. Diary, 25 July 1947.
101. Diary, 27 July 1947.
102. Diary, 12 July 1947.
103. Diary, 21 Aug. 1947.
104. Diary, 1 Sept. 1947.
105. Diary, 19 Sept. 1947.
106. SP, high school scrapbook. 10.O3, Lilly.
107. HC interview with Betsy Powley Wallingford, Feb. 2013, Sudbury, Mass.; Ruth Freeman Geissler to HC, 30 Nov. 2012.
108. HC interview with Perry Norton, Oct. 2012, Auburndale, Mass.
109. HC interview with Betsy Powley Wallingford, Feb. 2013, Sudbury, Mass.
110. Stevenson, Bitter Fame, 14; Andrew Wilson, Mad Girl’s Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted (New York: Scribner, 2013), 51.
111. Dr. Ruth Beuscher interview with AP, 15 Sept. 1953. 3.10, MSS 1489, Emory.
112. Diary, 27 Sept. 1947.
113. Diary, 3 Oct. 1947.
114. Diary, 7 Nov. & 22 Dec. 1947.
115. SP to AP, 9 Sept. 1947. L1, 108.
116. Diary, 9 & 25 Jan. 1948.
117. Diary, 1 Feb. & 25 Jan. 1948.
118. Diary, 18 Mar. 1948.
119. Diary, 14 Mar. 1948.
120. HC interview with Perry Norton, Oct. 2012, Auburndale, Mass.
121. Dr. Ruth Beuscher interview with AP, 15 Sept. 1953. 3.10, MSS 1489, Emory.
122. Diary, 1 Oct. 1947.
123. Diary, 11 Oct. 1947.
124. Diary, 13 Nov. 1947.
125. Diary, 30 Oct. 1947.
126. Diary, 13 Dec. 1947.
127. Diary, 31 Dec. 1947.
128. SP, “Party Girl.” MS notes for short story. Filed under “Star Island.” 15.29, SPC, Smith.
129. Diary, 14 Dec. 1947.
130. Ibid.
5. THE VOICE WITHIN
1. Douglas T. Miller and Marion Nowak, The Fifties: The Way We Really Were (New York: Doubleday, 1977), 38.
2. Ibid., 44.
3. Plath called Tommy Duggin “atomic” in her diary and wrote that she “dropped a hint, as gentle as an A-bomb that I wasn’t busy Thursday A.M.” to a boy she wanted to date.
4. Miller and Nowak, The Fifties, 62–63.
5. Ibid., 63.
6. SP, “The United States and the World,” Mar. 1946. 20.5, SPC, Smith.
7. SP, “A War to End All Wars,” Feb. 1946. 20.3, SPC, Smith.
8. The pen-pal program was organized by the US government as part of a broader postwar reconciliation effort, and administered through local schools.
9. SP to Hans-Joachim Neupert, 14 June 1948. L1, 110; SP to Hans-Joachim Neupert, 20 Dec. 1948. L1, 137.
10. Ibid., 10 Oct. 1949. L1, 152.
11. Ibid., 24 Sept. 1948. L1, 135.
12. Ibid., 13 Apr. 1947. L1, 87–88.
13. SP, high school scrapbook. 10.O3, Lilly.
14. SP to Hans-Joachim Neupert, 12 Aug. 1950. L1, 168–69.
15. Ibid., 24 Dec. 1950. L1, 250–51.
16. Ibid., 12 Aug. 1950. L1, 168.
17. Ibid., 24 Dec. 1950. L1, 251.
18. Ibid., 24 Aug. 1949. L1, 151–52. SP’s ellipses.
19. SP, “Witchcraft in America,” English 21 (part of Hawthorne paper), 1947–48. 10.1, Lilly.
20. SP and Perry Norton, “Youth’s Plea for World Peace,” Christian Science Monitor (16 Mar. 1950), 19.
21. HC interview with Perry Norton, Oct. 2012, Auburndale, Mass.
22. 8.5, Lilly. The poem was published as “April: 1949” in The Bradford on 28 Mar. 1949.
23. J, 470.
24. SP’s copy of Emerson: The Basic Writings of America’s Sage, Eduard C. Lindeman, ed. (New York: Pelican 1947), 50. 825 P696L, SPC, Smith.
25. Ibid., 163.
26. Up until the 1950s, Nietzsche was viewed in the United States as a “prophet of the Third Reich,” labeled “half a Nazi” in a 1941 study by the Harvard historian Crane Brinton. See Peter Gay, “Introduction,” Basic Writings of Nietzsche, Walter Kaufmann, trans. (New York: Modern Library/Random House, 2000), xi. It was not until Walter Kaufmann’s Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist (1950) that the academy began to reassess Nietzsche.
27. The class was History 38b, with Mrs. Koffka.
28. HC interview with Mel Woody, Sept. 2018, Lyme, Conn.
29. SP to Mel Woody, 26 Jan. 1955. L1, 871.
30. HC interview with Phil McCurdy, May 2016, Ogunquit, Maine.
31. HC interviews with Perry Norton (2012), Phil McCurdy (2016), and Louise Giesey White (2014).
32. HC interview with Phil McCurdy, May 2016, Ogunquit, Maine.
33. HC interview with Perry Norton, Oct. 2012, Auburndale, Mass.
34. Frank Irish email to HC, 9 Dec. 2012.
35. HC interview with Louise Giesey White, Aug. 2014, Jamestown, R.I.
36. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Pat O’Neil Pratson, 1972. 3.12, MSS 1489, Emory.
37. Anne-Marie Smolski, “Wellesley High School Library Rededicated to Wilbury Crockett,” Wellesley Townsman (17 May 2012).
38. Harold Kolb Jr., “Mr. Crockett,” Virginia Quarterly 78.2 (Spring 2002): 312–23, 317.
39. SP to AP, 9 Sept. 1947. L1, 108.
40. Diary, 10 Oct. 1947.
41. Harriet Rosenstein interview with AP, 1970. 3.3, MSS 1489, Emory.
42. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Pat O’Neil Pratson, 1972. 3.12, MSS 1489, Emory.
43. HC interview with Louise Giesey White, Aug. 2014, Jamestown, R.I.
44. Kolb, “Mr. Crockett,” 312.
45. HC interview with Perry Norton, Oct. 2012, Auburndale, Mass.
46. Kolb, “Mr. Crockett,” 312.
47. HC interview with Louise Giesey White, Aug. 2014, Jamestown, R.I.
48. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Pat O’Neil Pratson, 1972. 3.12, MSS 1489, Emory.
49. HC interview with Phil McCurdy, May 2016, Ogunquit, Maine.
50. Bob Tremblay, “Wilbury Crockett Revisited,” Wellesley Townsman (20 Aug. 1981).
51. Beth Hinchliffe, “Sylvia Plath’s Wellesley Years,” 21 Feb. 2013, http://www.wickedlocal.com/wellesley; Beth Hinchliffe, “Sylvia Plath—Legacy Lives in the Wake of Tragedy,” Wellesley Townsman (2 Apr. 1981).
52. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Wilbury Crockett, 1971. 1.19, MSS 1489, Emory.
53. SP to Hans-Joachim Neupert, 26 Nov. 1949. L1, 158.
54. Kolb, “Mr. Crockett,” 318.
55. SP to Eddie Cohen, 6 Aug. 1950. L1, 164.
56. AP, “Biographical Jottings about Sylvia Plath.” 30.57, SPC, Smith.
57. SP to AP, 4 Dec. 1956. L2, 27.
58. SP, untitled assignment for Crockett, English 21, 1947–48. 10.1, Lilly.
59. SP, “The Atomic Threat,” Bradford (26 Apr. 1948), 1.
60. 8.3, Lilly.
61. SP, “Romeo and Juliet,” English 31, 1948–49. 10.1, Lilly.
62. SP, “The Scarlet Letter: Book Review,” English 21, 1947–48. 10.1, Lilly.
63. SP, “Reports on Three Short Stories,” English 21, 1947–48. 10.1, Lilly.
64. Ibid.
65. SP, “Mrs. Dalloway,” English 31, 1948–49. 10.1, Lilly.
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br /> 66. J, 495.
67. Assignment on Schweitzer, Mormonism, and The Snake Pit for Crockett, English 41. 10.1, Lilly.
68. 10.1, Lilly.
69. Ibid.
70. All of Plath’s high school poems quoted in this chapter are in Boxes 7 and 8, Lilly.
71. SP, “T. S. Eliot.” 10.1, Lilly.
72. SP to Hans-Joachim Neupert, 10 Oct. 1949. L1, 157.
73. The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats, Richard J. Finneran, ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1989), 125.
6. SUMMER WILL NOT COME AGAIN
1. SP to AP, 2 July 1948. L1, 113.
2. SP to AP, 3 July 1948. L1, 114.
3. SP to AP, 5 July 1948. L1, 116; SP to AP, 2 July 1948. L1, 113.
4. SP to AP, 13 July 1948. L1, 121.
5. SP to AP, 11 & 12 July 1948. L1, 120.
6. SP to AP, 17 July 1948. L1, 125–26.
7. SP to AP, 20 July (#1) 1948. L1, 128.
8. SP to AP, 20 July (#2) 1948. L1, 128.
9. SP to AP, 21 July 1948. L1, 130.
10. SP, high school scrapbook. 10.O3, Lilly.
11. Harriet Rosenstein interview with AP, 1970. 3.3, MSS 1489, Emory.
12. SP, high school scrapbook, 10.O3, Lilly.
13. The story appeared in Seventeen (Jan. 1953): 64–65; 92–94. It was later published in JP, 137–47.
14. HC interview with Louise Giesey White, Aug. 2014, Jamestown, R.I.
15. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Pat O’Neil Pratson, 1972. 3.12, MSS 1489, Emory.
16. SP to Eddie Cohen, 6 Aug. 1950. L1, 164–65.
17. All stories quoted in this chapter are arranged alphabetically in Box 8, Folders 10–19, Lilly.
18. Harriet Rosenstein interview with AP, 1970. 3.3, MSS 1489, Emory.
19. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Pat O’Neil Pratson, 1972. 3.12, MSS 1489, Emory.
20. SP, high school scrapbook. 10.O3, Lilly.
21. Ibid.
22. Bradford (7 June 1949). 10.O2, Lilly.
23. Beth Hinchliffe, “Sylvia Plath’s Wellesley Years,” 21 Feb. 2013, http://www.wickedlocal.com/wellesley.
24. SP to Hans-Joachim Neupert, 24 Aug. 1949. L1, 151.
25. Diary, 19 June 1949.
26. “Far Horizons,” Star Island newsletter (1 July 1949). 10.O3, Lilly.
27. SP to Hans-Joachim Neupert, 4 July 1949. L1, 148.
28. Diary, 27 June 1949.
29. Diary, 5 July 1949.
30. Diary, 8 & 22 July 1949.
31. Diary, 22 July 1949.
32. Diary, 12 July 1949.
33. Diary, 16 July 1949.
34. Diary, 22 July 1949.
35. Diary, 2 Aug. 1949.
36. Diary, 3 Aug. 1949.
37. Diary, Aug. 1949, undated entries.
38. Seventeen (Aug. 1950): 191; 275–76.
39. 8.4, Lilly.
40. J, 163.
41. Diary, Aug. 1949, undated entries.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid.
46. SP, high school scrapbook. 10.O3, Lilly.
47. Diary, 13 Nov. 1949. SP’s ellipsis.
48. Ibid.
49. Diary, 24 Nov. 1949.
50. Ibid.
51. William H. Young and Nancy K. Young, The 1950s (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004), 31.
52. Diary, 24 Nov. 1949. She probably agreed with an article in one of the Bradford editions she published in Mar. 1950 that argued going steady in high school was “a mistake” that posed “serious risk.” W. G. Stergios, “Going Steady II,” Bradford (24 Mar. 1950). 10.O2, Lilly.
53. 7.7, Lilly.
54. “When I’m a Parent,” Seventeen (Nov. 1949): 77.
55. SP to Hans-Joachim Neupert, 24 Aug. 1949. L1, 150.
56. HC interview with Betsy Powley Wallingford, Feb. 2013, Sudbury, Mass.
57. HC interview with Richard Larschan, May 2017, Manhattan.
58. AP, handwritten notes on letter from Mary Mensel to SP, 3 Jan. 1950, to scholarship applicants. Lilly.
59. SP to Hans-Joachim Neupert, 26 Nov. 1949. L1, 158.
60. Ibid., 20 Feb. 1950. L1, 161.
61. 7.13, Lilly.
62. SP, “Kristin Lavransdatter,” English 41, 1949–50. 10.1, Lilly.
63. Reference of Samuel M. Graves, principal of Gamaliel Bradford High School, Vocational Office, Smith College Archives.
64. From The Boston Globe, she won prizes for the Best News Story, Best Poem, and Best Write-Up of Editors’ Convention (1950).
65. Wilbury Crockett to John F. Malley, 25 Feb. 1952, “Elks Notebook.” 12.6, Lilly. Reference of Samuel M. Graves, Vocational Office, Smith College Archives.
66. Elizabeth Aldrich to Mary Mensel, 3 Feb. 1950, Vocational Office, Smith College Archives.
67. SP, “Family Reunion,” Bradford (29 Apr. 1950). 10.O2, Lilly.
68. AP, notes on “fact versus fiction” in SP’s poems, n.d. Courtesy of Richard Larschan.
69. Diary, 27 Nov. 1949.
70. SP to Hans-Joachim Neupert, 2 Jan. 1950. L1, 159.
71. Diary, 13 Nov. 1949.
72. Diary, Aug. 1949, undated entries.
73. Diary, 13 Nov. 1949.
74. SP, high school scrapbook. 10.O3, Lilly.
75. “ ‘The Admirable Crichton’ Senior Play Success,” Wellesley Townsman (20 Apr. 1950). The play was performed on April 14, 1950. 10.O2, Lilly.
76. “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered,” Bradford (4 Mar. 1950). 10.O2, Lilly. There is no byline, but Plath and Irish likely wrote the piece.
77. “So Long for a While,” Bradford (4 June 1950). 10.O2, Lilly.
78. AP to Judith Kroll, 1 Dec. 1978. 29.26, SPC, Smith.
79. SP, high school scrapbook. 10.O3, Lilly.
80. Ibid.
81. SP, 1949–50 report card for English 41, US History 31, College Biology, French 3, and Painting 3. 9.12, Lilly.
82. SP, “Elks Notebook.” 12.6, Lilly.
83. HC interview with Louise Giesey White, Aug. 2014, Jamestown, R.I.
84. SP’s copy of The Wellesleyan (1950 yearbook). 10.4, Lilly.
85. 10.1, Lilly.
86. SP, “Character Notebook” (notes for Falcon Yard), written on the back of TH’s Bardo Thodol, 116.1, MSS 644, Emory.
7. THE WHITE QUEEN
1. J, 9–10.
2. J, 9.
3. J, 22–23.
4. J, 8.
5. Plath wrote two short pieces about this summer, “The International Flavor” and “Rewards of a New England Summer.”
6. SP to Eddie Cohen, 6 Aug. 1950. L1, 164.
7. Ted Hughes would also spend a summer harvesting crops alongside German prisoners of war. Ruled blue school notebook, 1–2. Add MS 88918/1/55, BL.
8. HC telephone interview with Phil McCurdy, 6 Dec. 2014.
9. SP to Eddie Cohen, 11 Aug. 1950. L1, 167.
10. Ibid.
11. J, 10–11.
12. SP, “The Latvian.” 8.14, Lilly.
13. J, 13.
14. J, 16; 20.
15. J, 18; 21.
16. J, 16–17.
17. SP to Eddie Cohen, 6 Aug. 1950, L1, 164; J, 38.
18. J, 16.
19. Eddie Cohen to SP, 3 Aug. 1950. Lilly.
20. SP to Eddie Cohen, 6 Aug. 1950. L1, 165.
21. Eddie Cohen to SP, 8 Aug. 1950. Lilly.
22. Eddie Cohen to SP, 29 Sept. 1950. Lilly.
23. SP to Eddie Cohen, 11 Aug. 1950. L1, 165–66.
24. Eddie Cohen to SP, 8 Aug. 1950. Lilly.
25. SP to Eddie Cohen, 11 Aug. 1950. L1, 165.
26. Eddie Cohen to SP, 28 Sept. 1950. Lilly.
27. SP to Eddie Cohen, 11 Aug. 1950. L1, 167.
28. Ibid., L1, 165.
29. Eddie Cohen to SP, 8 Dec. 1950. Lilly.
30. Eddie Cohen to SP, 25 Aug. 1950. Lilly.
31. Eddie Cohen to SP, 5 Oct. 1950. Lilly.
32. Eddie Cohen to SP, 24 Oct. 1950. Lilly.
33. Eddie Cohen to SP, 15 Sept. 1950. Lilly.
34. Ibid. Eddie quotes SP’s words in this letter.
35. Ibid.
36. Eddie Cohen to SP, 2 Sept. 1950. Lilly.
37. Eddie Cohen to SP, c. autumn 1950; 7 Nov. 1950. Lilly.
38. SP to Eddie Cohen, c. 11 Sept. 1950. L1, 172 (copy re-sent to SP from Eddie Cohen at SP’s request, 14 May 1951).
39. Eddie Cohen to SP, 15 & 21 Sept. 1950. Lilly.
40. SP to Hans-Joachim Neupert, 12 Aug. 1950. L1, 168.
41. SP to Eddie Cohen, c. 11 Sept. 1950. L1, 171.
42. SP to Eddie Cohen, 6 Aug. 1950. L1, 164.
43. Eddie Cohen to SP, n.d. (early Sept. 1950). Lilly.
44. SP to Eddie Cohen, c. 11 Sept. 1950. L1, 172.
45. Eddie Cohen to SP, 19 Aug. 1950. Lilly.
46. Eddie Cohen to SP, 5 Oct. 1950. Lilly. Eddie quotes SP’s words in this letter.
47. J, 22.
48. J, 17.
49. HC interview with Louise Giesey White, Aug. 2014, Jamestown, R.I. Another Smith friend, Janet Salter Rosenberg, remembered that while the faculty were very liberal, the student body was “80 percent Republican.” Interview, Sept. 2015, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
50. Nancy Hunter Steiner, A Closer Look at Ariel: A Memory of Sylvia Plath (New York: Harper’s Magazine Press, 1973), 35–36.
51. SP to Marcia Brown, 12 June 1951. L1, 337.
52. SP to AP, 18 Apr. 1951. L1, 306.
53. Steiner, A Closer Look, 77.
54. Adlai Stevenson, Commencement Address, 6 June 1955. Commencement Speech files, Class of 1955 records, Smith College Archives.
55. Steiner, A Closer Look, 81.
56. HC interview with Louise Giesey White, Aug. 2014, Jamestown, R.I.
57. Margaret Shook, “Sylvia Plath: The Poet and the College,” Smith College Alumnae Quarterly 63.3 (April 1972): 4–9; 7.
58. HC interview with Elinor Friedman Klein, Oct. 2015, South Salem, N.Y.
59. SP to Ann Davidow, 20 May 1951. L1, 327–28.
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