9. HC interview with Terry Bragg, Aug. 2014, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass.
10. Women’s Belknap, where Plath eventually stayed when her condition improved, was located directly next to the central administration building.
11. Dr. Franklin Wood, “A Brief History of the McLean Hospital.” 1953 McLean Hospital Annual Report, McLean Hospital Archives.
12. HC interview with Terry Bragg, Aug. 2014, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass.
13. 1953 McLean Hospital Annual Report, McLean Hospital Archives.
14. BJ, 187.
15. Robert Lowell, Collected Poems, Frank Bidart and David Gewanter, eds. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), 183–84.
16. Sutton, Crossroads, 257.
17. Ibid.
18. HC interview with Terry Bragg, Aug. 2014, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass.
19. Sutton, Crossroads, 257.
20. HC interview with Terry Bragg, Aug. 2014, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass.
21. Dr. Franklin Wood, “Report of the Director of the McLean Hospital.” 1953 McLean Hospital Annual Report, McLean Hospital Archives.
22. BJ, 209.
23. Dr. Francis de Marneffe, deposition (1987 Bell Jar trial). Jane Anderson v. AVCO Embassy Pictures Corp. et al., in the United States District Court, District of Massachusetts, Civil Action no. 82-0752-K. Jane V. Anderson Papers, Series IV, Smith.
24. Ibid.
25. Beam, Gracefully Insane, 127.
26. Alex Beam interview with Dr. Ruth Barnhouse (formerly Beuscher), 9 Aug. 1997, Nantucket, Mass. 24.10, SPC, Smith.
27. Dr. Paul M. Howard, “Report of the Clinical Service.” 1953 McLean Hospital Annual Report, McLean Hospital Archives.
28. Electroshock treatment began at McLean in 1940–41. HC interview with Terry Bragg, Aug. 2014, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass.
29. Dr. Mark Altschule, “Report of the Director of Internal Medicine and of Research in Clinical Physiology.” 1953 McLean Hospital Annual Report, McLean Hospital Archives.
30. Sutton, Crossroads, 228.
31. Alex Beam interview with Dr. Ruth Barnhouse, 9 Aug. 1997, Nantucket, Mass. 24.10, SPC, Smith.
32. Beam, Gracefully Insane, 78.
33. Ibid., 75.
34. HC interview with Dr. Francis de Marneffe, Dec. 2014, Westwood, Mass.
35. Dr. Paul M. Howard, “Report of the Clinical Service.” 1953 McLean Hospital Annual Report, McLean Hospital Archives.
36. Ibid. Patients were deemed well when they regained the “ability to have warm relationships, the desire to be effective, the talent for making compromises and sublimations, the ability to reason and act, the willingness to endure anxiety and discomfort, capacity for self-perspective and a sense of humor.”
37. “I’m not an analyst myself,” she once said. “It would be very hard for me to be an analyst.” Alex Beam, interview with Dr. Ruth Barnhouse, 9 Aug. 1997, Nantucket, Mass. 24.10, SPC, Smith. Dr. Barnhouse (formerly Beuscher) told Beam she was turned down at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, though she eventually took a two-year extension course there. She did not provide dates. Karen Maroda, “Sylvia and Ruth,” Salon (29 Nov. 2004); HC interview with Dr. Francis de Marneffe, Dec. 2014, Westwood, Mass.
38. BJ, 224.
39. Dr. Ruth Barnhouse to Linda Wagner-Martin, 22 Oct. 1985. Ruth Tiffany Barnhouse Papers, Smith.
40. Alex Beam interview with Dr. Ruth Barnhouse, 9 Aug. 1997, Nantucket, Mass. 24.10, SPC, Smith.
41. Paul Alexander, Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath (New York: Da Capo Press, 1999), 130.
42. J, 491–92.
43. Maroda, “Sylvia and Ruth.”
44. Ibid.
45. HC interview with Dr. Francis de Marneffe, Dec. 2014, Westwood, Mass.
46. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 1970. 1.6, MSS 1489, Emory.
47. Dr. Ruth Barnhouse to Harriet Rosenstein, 22 May 1990. Ruth Tiffany Barnhouse Papers, Smith.
48. Beuscher later asked Rosenstein to return the letters and the tape, but she refused.
49. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 1970. 1.6, MSS 1489, Emory.
50. Dr. Francis de Marneffe, personal notes on Alex Beam’s Gracefully Insane (n.d., circa 2001) and HC interview, Dec. 2014.
51. SP to Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 4 Feb. 1963. L2, 968.
52. Dr. Ruth Beuscher, notes on SP, fall 1953. 3.10, MSS 1489, Emory.
53. SP, notes on The Bell Jar, 1961. 4.1, SPC, Smith.
54. Dr. de Marneffe did not know who made the recommendation for treatment, but he noted that if it had been Dr. Beuscher, the recommendation would have been discussed by the senior doctors before it was approved. HC interview, Dec. 2014, Westwood, Mass.
55. Dr. Max Fink, “Primary Sources: Insulin Coma Therapy,” A Brilliant Madness, American Masters, PBS documentary. Dr. de Marneffe said that in the 1950s McLean tended to prescribe sub-coma insulin for patients diagnosed as schizophrenic. HC interview with Dr. Francis de Marneffe, Dec. 2014, Westwood, Mass.
56. Dr. Ruth Beuscher, notes on SP, fall 1953. 3.10, MSS 1489, Emory.
57. Dr. Ruth Beuscher, notes on SP, fall 1953. 3.10, MSS 1489, Emory.
58. OHP to Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 14 Oct. 1953. Lilly.
59. OHP to Dr. William Terhune, 22 Oct. 1953. Lilly.
60. William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (New York: Modern Library, 1929). Held in SP’s library, 825 P696L, SPC, Smith.
61. OHP to AP, 22 Oct. 1953. Lilly.
62. Ibid.
63. OHP to AP, 26 Oct. 1953. Lilly.
64. OHP to Dr. William Terhune, 2 Nov. 1953. Lilly.
65. OHP to AP, 22 Oct. 1953. Lilly.
66. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Wilbury Crockett, 1971. 1.19, MSS 1489, Emory.
67. BJ, 202–203.
68. AP to Judith Kroll, 1 Dec. 1978. 29.26, SPC, Smith.
69. Ibid.
70. AP to Alan Simpson, 4 Jan. 1976. 29.43, SPC, Smith.
71. AP to Judith Kroll, 1 Dec. 1978. 29.26, SPC, Smith.
72. Ibid.
73. Ibid.
74. Dr. Ruth Beuscher, notes on SP, fall 1953. 3.10, MSS 1489, Emory.
75. OHP to Dr. William Terhune, 2 Nov. 1953. Lilly.
76. AP, handwritten notes on back of envelope from OHP, 3 Nov. 1953. Lilly.
77. Beam, Gracefully Insane, 154; Andrew Wilson, Mad Girl’s Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted (New York: Scribner, 2013), 226.
78. HC interview with Dr. Francis de Marneffe, Dec. 2014, Westwood, Mass.
79. OHP to AP, 27 Nov. 1953. Lilly.
80. OHP to AP, handwritten marginalia on OHP’s letter to Dr. Erich Lindemann, 21 Nov. 1953. Lilly.
81. OHP to Dr. William Terhune, 2 Nov. 1953. Lilly.
82. HC interview with Dr. Francis de Marneffe, Dec. 2014, Westwood, Mass.
83. OHP to AP, 22 Nov. & 27 Nov. 1953. Lilly.
84. Dr. Ruth Beuscher, notes on SP, fall 1953. 3.10, MSS 1489, Emory.
85. OHP to Dr. Franklin Wood, 23 Oct. 1953; quoted in Alexander, Rough Magic, 133.
86. Dr. Franklin Wood to OHP, 25 Oct. 1953; quoted in Alexander, Rough Magic, 133.
87. Dr. Ruth Beuscher, notes on SP, fall 1953. 3.10, MSS 1489, Emory; HC interview with Terry Bragg, 14 Aug. 2014, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass.
88. Dr. Ruth Beuscher, notes on SP, fall 1953. 3.10, MSS 1489, Emory.
89. OHP to AP, 18 Nov. 1953. Lilly.
90. OHP to Dr. Erich Lindemann, 15 Dec. 1953. Lilly.
91. OHP to Dr. William Terhune, 14 Dec. 1953. Lilly.
92. Ibid.
93. Ibid.
94. AP to OHP, 9 Dec. 1953. Lilly.
95. Dr. Ruth Beuscher to Linda Wagner-Martin, 22 Oct. 1985. Ruth Tiffany Barnhouse Papers, Smith.
96. Ibid.
97. Dr. Ruth Beuscher, notes on SP, fall 1953. 3.10, MSS 1489, Emory.
98. Alexander, Rough Magic, 134.
99. Alex Beam, interview with Dr. Ruth Barnhouse, 9 Aug. 1997, Nantucket, Mass. 24.10, SPC, Smith.
100. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 1970. 1.6, MSS 1489, Emory.
101. Alex Beam interview with Dr. Ruth Barnhouse, 9 Aug. 1997, Nantucket, Mass. 24.10. SPC, Smith.
102. HC interview with Dr. Francis de Marneffe, Dec. 2014, Westwood, Mass.
103. Ibid.
104. BJ, 189.
105. BJ, 205.
106. BJ, 215–16.
107. Alexander, Rough Magic, 134.
108. Ibid., 132.
109. Dr. Ruth Beuscher, notes on SP, fall 1953. 3.10, MSS 1489, Emory.
110. SP to AP, 17 Dec. 1953. L1, 651.
111. Dr. Ruth Beuscher, notes on SP, fall 1953. 3.10, MSS 1489, Emory.
112. HC phone interview with Jillian Becker, 18 Apr. 2017.
113. TH to Rosemarie Rowley, 4 Dec. 1997. Add MS 88918/35/28 BL. See Rosemarie Rowley, “Electro-Convulsive Treatment in Sylvia Plath’s Life and Work,” Thumbscrew 10 (Spring 1998), for further discussion about Plath and ECT. Ted Hughes called this article “one of the most important things I’ve read about S. P.” in his 4 Dec. 1997 letter to Rowley.
114. SP to Eddie Cohen, 28 Dec. 1953. L1, 657.
115. SP to Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 4 Feb. 1963. L1, 967.
116. J, 455.
117. Beam, Gracefully Insane, 155.
118. Alexander, Rough Magic, 134.
119. HC interview with Dr. Francis de Marneffe, Dec. 2014, Westwood, Mass.
120. Dr. Jane Anderson, deposition (1987 Bell Jar trial). Jane Anderson v. AVCO Embassy Pictures Corp. et al., in the United States District Court, District of Massachusetts, Civil Action no. 82-0752-K. Jane V. Anderson Papers, Series IV, Smith.
121. Ibid.
122. Ibid.
123. Ibid.
124. HC interview with Dr. Francis de Marneffe, Dec. 2014, Westwood, Mass. In his deposition (1987 Bell Jar trial), de Marneffe said, “I think Jane felt that Sylvia was in a sense taking a shortcut to getting out of McLean.” Jane Anderson v. AVCO Embassy Pictures Corp. et al., in the United States District Court, District of Massachusetts, Civil Action no. 82-0752-K. Jane V. Anderson Papers, Series IV, Smith.
125. Dr. Francis de Marneffe, deposition (1987 Bell Jar trial). Jane Anderson v. AVCO Embassy Pictures Corp. et al., in the United States District Court, District of Massachusetts, Civil Action no. 82-0752-K. Jane V. Anderson Papers, Series IV, Smith.
126. Ibid.
127. BJ, 216.
128. SP to Eddie Cohen, 28 Dec. 1953. L1, 657.
129. Gordon Lameyer to SP, 22 Nov. 1953. Lilly.
130. SP to Eddie Cohen, 28 Dec. 1953. L1, 657.
131. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 25 Dec. 1953. L1, 653.
132. SP to Eddie Cohen, 28 Dec. 1953. L1, 654–58.
133. Karen Kukil confirms that Dr. Ruth Beuscher told her she had prescribed Plath a diaphragm. Kukil added that, according to birth-control laws in 1954, a second doctor would have had to sign the prescription. Conversation with Karen Kukil, 20 Nov. 2015, at the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College.
134. BJ, 223.
135. No letters from him during this time appear in the Plath archives.
136. SP to Eddie Cohen, 28 Dec. 1953. L1, 658.
137. See Butscher, Alexander, and Wilson.
138. HC phone interview with Phil McCurdy, 6 Dec. 2014. In 1975, McCurdy wrote to Butscher, “ ‘Physically exploring’ would probably be more apt than ‘screwing’ which suggests more sophistication than we both possessed. She seemed to have a firm, yet sweet and gentle, grasp of what should take place, but my ardor matched hers only intellectually—not, sad to say, romantically or physically.” Philip McCurdy to Edward Butscher, 11 Feb. 1975. 1.47, EBC, Smith.
139. HC interview with Phil McCurdy, May 2016, Ogunquit, Maine.
140. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 25 Dec. 1953. L1, 652. SP’s ellipsis.
141. Dr. Ruth Beuscher, notes on SP, fall 1953. 3.10, MSS 1489, Emory.
142. Ibid.
143. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 1970. 1.6, MSS 1489, Emory.
144. Ibid.
145. Anne Harrington, Mind Fixers: Psychiatry’s Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness (New York: W. W. Norton, 2019), 144.
146. AP, notes on “Sylvia’s Copyright.” 30.57, SPC, Smith.
147. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 1970. 1.6, MSS 1489, Emory.
148. Dr. Ruth Beuscher, notes on SP, fall 1953. 3.10, MSS 1489, Emory.
149. HC interview with Janet Salter Rosenberg, Sept. 2015, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
150. Ora Mae Orton to Edward Butscher, 26 Sept. 1973. 2.57, EBC, Smith.
151. LH, 5.
152. TH, “Trial,” section 14. Add MS 88993/1/1, BL.
153. BJ, 202.
154. HC phone interview with Peter Aldrich, 4 Nov. 2014.
155. SP to Marion Freeman, 16 Jan. 1954. L1, 664.
156. Alexander, Rough Magic, 134.
157. HC interview with Dr. Francis de Marneffe, Dec. 2014, Westwood, Mass.
158. SP, Smith scrapbook. 10.O8, Lilly.
159. BJ, 244.
160. SP, “James Joyce Notebook.” 10.10, Lilly.
13. THE LADY OR THE TIGER
1. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 6 Feb. 1954. L1, 677; SP to Jane Anderson, 25 Feb. 1954. L1, 693–94.
2. Cyrilly Abels had sent her the tear sheets from Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, which was published in Mademoiselle in Feb. 1954, and Plath proudly quoted the entire introduction to Gordon in a letter. (It was “just too rhythmic and musically vowelish to cut short.” SP to Gordon Lameyer, 25 Jan. 1954. L1, 672.)
3. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 25 Jan. 1954. L1, 669.
4. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 10 Jan. 1954. L1, 661–62.
5. SP to Enid Epstein, 18 Jan. 1954. L1, 665.
6. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 6 Feb. 1954. L1, 677.
7. SP to Jane Anderson, 25 Feb. 1954. L1, 694.
8. SP to Phil McCurdy, 7 May 1954. L1, 749.
9. Nancy Hunter Steiner, A Closer Look at Ariel: A Memory of Sylvia Plath (New York: Harper Magazine Press, 1973), 39–40.
10. SP to Jane Anderson, 25 Feb. 1954. L1, 697.
11. Ibid., L1, 695.
12. Enid Epstein Mark to Harriet Rosenstein, 14 Nov. 1971. 2.19, MSS 1489, Emory.
13. Ibid.
14. HC interview with Janet Salter Rosenberg, Sept. 2015, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
15. SP to Jane Anderson, 25 Feb. 1954. L1, 695.
16. HC interview with Louise Giesey White, Aug. 2014, Jamestown, R.I.
17. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Pat O’Neil Pratson, 1972. 3.12, MSS 11489, Emory.
18. SP to Jane Anderson, 25 Feb. 1954. L1, 694–95.
19. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Constance Taylor Blackwell, 20 Apr. 1974. 1.9 MSS 1489, Emory.
20. HC interview with Janet Salter Rosenberg, Sept. 2015, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
21. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 21 Feb. 1954. L1, 692.
22. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 16 Mar. 1954. L1, 706.
23. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Jane and Peter Davison, 1972–75. 1.22, MSS1489, Emory.
24. Claiborne Phillips Handleman to Harriet Rosenstein, 27 Jan. 1972. 2.1, MSS 1489, Emory.
25. Ibid.
26. Steiner, A Closer Look, 44.
27. Ibid., 45.
28. SP to AP, 3 Feb. 1955. L
1, 887; SP to AP, 2 Feb. 1955, L1, 881.
29. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Susan Weller Burch, 1974. 1.13, MSS 1489, Emory.
30. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 6 Feb. 1954. L1, 680–81. All but the first ellipsis are SP’s.
31. SP to AP, 8 Feb. 1954. L1, 684.
32. SP to AP, 5 Mar. 1954. L1, 703.
33. HC interview with Mel Woody, Sept. 2018, Lyme, Conn.
34. SP to Jane Anderson, 25 Feb. 1954. L1, 696.
35. SP to AP, 25 Apr. 1954. L1, 736.
36. SP to Jane Anderson, 25 Feb. 1954. L1, 696.
37. SP to AP, 5 Mar. 1954. L1, 702; SP to Jane Anderson, 25 Feb. 1954. L1, 697.
38. HC interview with Janet Salter Rosenberg, Sept. 2015, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. Jane Truslow had emerged “shattered” from her experience with Dr. Booth, Janet said, and took a year’s leave.
39. SP to AP, 8 Feb. 1954. L1, 685.
40. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 16 Mar. 1954. L1, 705.
41. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 21 Feb. 1954. L1, 691.
42. The lecture took place on 3 Mar. 1954.
43. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 16 Mar. 1954. L1, 706.
44. Feb. 1959, J, 470.
45. SP to AP, 18 May 1954. L1, 754.
46. SP, Smith scrapbook. 12.O8, Lilly; SP to Gordon Lameyer, 21 Feb. 1954. L1, 692.
47. SP, Smith scrapbook. 12.O8, Lilly.
48. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 6 Apr. 1954. L1, 715. HC interview with Dr. Francis de Marneffe, Dec. 2014, Westwood, Mass.
49. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 6 Apr. 1954. L1, 715.
50. Ibid., L1, 715–16.
51. The apartment was at Lexington Avenue and 123rd Street.
52. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 6 Apr. 1954. L1, 716–17. SP’s ellipsis.
53. HC interview with Janet Salter Rosenberg, Sept. 2015, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
54. SP, Smith scrapbook. 12.O8, Lilly.
55. HC interview with Janet Salter Rosenberg, Sept. 2015, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
56. Ibid.
57. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 6 Apr. 1954. L1, 719.
58. SP to AP, 14 Apr. 1954. L1, 725.
59. HC interview with Janet Salter Rosenberg, Sept. 2015, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
60. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Jane and Peter Davison, 1972-75. 1.22, MSS 1489, Emory.
61. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Claiborne Phillips Handleman, 1971–74. 2.1, MSS 1489, Emory. Claiborne noted that their friendship ended that spring after she borrowed Sylvia’s bike to ride across campus and accidentally returned the wrong bike to Lawrence House. Sylvia became unreasonably angry at her and approached her “in a rage…her face was all red and she was trembling,” demanding she return her bike. They quickly found the bike, but to Claiborne, it seemed the bike mattered more to Sylvia than their friendship. “It makes me feel very sad now we couldn’t talk it out.”
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