62. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Alison V. Smith, 1971. 4.11, MSS 1489, Emory.
63. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 6 Apr. 1954. L1, 720.
64. SP to Mel Woody 24 Mar. 1954. L1, 713. SP’s ellipses.
65. HC interview with Mel Woody, Sept. 2018, Lyme, Conn.
66. SP to Phil McCurdy, 14 Apr. 1954. L1, 726–27.
67. SP to Phil McCurdy, 28 Apr. 1954. L1, 738. SP’s ellipses.
68. SP to AP, 19 Apr. 1954. L1, 732.
69. SP to Phil McCurdy, 26 Apr. 1954. L1, 737.
70. SP to AP, 19 Apr. 1954. L1, 733.
71. HC interview with Mel Woody, Sept. 2018, Lyme, Conn.
72. Claiborne Phillips Handleman to Harriet Rosenstein, 27 Jan. 1972. 2.1, MSS 1489, Emory.
73. J, 432.
74. SP to AP, 19 Apr. 1954. L1, 732–33. Plath’s Cambridge friend Jane Baltzell Kopp remembered her always calling him Sassoon rather than Richard. HC phone interview with Jane Baltzell Kopp, 4 Nov. 2015.
75. Sassoon would later cut Mel and Dick Wertz out of his life after Plath’s death. “Dick had said that he was still trying to process what had happened with Sylvia.” HC interview with Mel Woody, Sept. 2018, Lyme, Conn.
76. Richard Sassoon to SP, c. late Apr. 1954. Lilly.
77. Richard Sassoon to SP, c. 20 Apr. 1954. Lilly.
78. Richard Sassoon to SP, c. late Apr. & 5 May 1954. Lilly.
79. Ibid.
80. Richard Sassoon to SP, c. 23 Apr. 1954. Lilly.
81. SP, back of envelope, 23 Apr. 1954, sent by Richard Sassoon. Lilly.
82. SP to AP, 25 Apr. 1954. L1, 736.
83. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Richard Sassoon, 1974–76. 4.6, MSS 1489, Emory.
84. SP to AP, 16 Apr. 1954. L1, 730.
85. SP to AP, 19 Apr. 1954. L1, 733.
86. Eddie Cohen to SP, 28 Apr. 1954. Lilly.
87. Eddie Cohen to SP, 6 May 1954. Lilly.
88. Richard Sassoon to SP, c. late Apr. 1954. Lilly.
89. Richard Sassoon to SP, 3 May 1954. Lilly.
90. Ibid.
91. J, 191–92. Excerpt from a letter Plath wrote to Sassoon, 22 Nov. 1955. Last ellipsis is SP’s.
92. SP to Phil McCurdy, 26 Apr. 1954. L1, 737.
93. SP to AP, 25 Jan. 1956. L1, 1090–91.
94. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Jane and Peter Davison, 1973.1.22, MSS 1489, Emory.
95. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Constance Taylor Blackwell, 20 Apr. 1974. 1.9, MSS 1489, Emory.
96. SP to AP, 14 Apr. 1954. L1, 725.
97. SP to AP, 16 Apr. 1954. L1, 729.
98. Mary Mensel to OHP, 3 Sept. 1954. Lilly.
99. Mary Mensel to OHP, 29 Apr. 1954. Lilly; AP’s marginalia on same letter.
100. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 6 Apr. 1954. L1, 722–23. SP’s ellipses.
101. OHP to SP, 9 May 1954. Lilly.
102. OHP to AP, 9 May 1954. Lilly.
103. LH, 134.
104. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 11 June 1954. L1, 762.
105. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 22 June 1954. L1, 764.
106. Richard Sassoon to SP, 11 May 1954. Lilly.
107. SP to AP, 7 May 1954. L1, 747.
108. Mel Woody to SP, c. 28 Apr. 1954. Lilly.
109. Ibid.; SP to Mel Woody, 5 May 1954. L1, 745–46.
110. SP to Mel Woody, 7 May 1954. L1, 748.
111. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Jane and Peter Davison, 1973.1.22, MSS 1489, Emory.
112. HC interview with Mel Woody, Sept. 2018, Lyme, Conn.
113. Ibid.
114. SP, Smith scrapbook. 12.O8, Lilly.
115. Richard Sassoon to SP, 11 May 1954. Lilly.
116. SP to Phil McCurdy, 13 May 1954. L1, 752.
117. Ibid., L1, 751–52.
118. SP, Smith scrapbook. 12.O8, Lilly.
119. Ibid.
120. Ibid.
121. LH, 138.
122. Alan Campbell to SP, 1 June 1954. Plath pasted the letter in her Smith scrapbook. 12.O8, Lilly.
123. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 20 Sept. 1954. L1, 801.
124. SP to Mel Woody, 5 July 1954. L1, 782.
125. Steiner, A Closer Look, 49.
126. Norman Shapiro email to HC, 13 Jan. 2019.
127. Steiner, A Closer Look, 49.
128. Plath told Gordon the appointments began on 12 June 1954, and that she would “continue” them all summer. She hoped that Gordon would meet Dr. Beuscher someday and told him she enjoyed “analyzing and philosophizing” with her. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 12 June 1954. L1, 763.
129. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Marcia Brown Stern, 1972. 4.16, MSS 1489, Emory.
130. SP to Phil McCurdy, 16 Feb. 1954. L1, 688.
131. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 22 June 1954. L1, 765.
132. Ibid., L1, 765–66.
133. Plath wrote the first draft of the story in one day, on 1 Jan. 1955.
134. JP, 40.
135. SP to AP, 5 Feb. 1955. L1, 888.
136. SP, Smith scrapbook. 12.O8, Lilly.
137. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 3 July 1954. L1, 775–76.
138. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 11 June 1954. L1, 761.
139. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 23 June 1954. L1, 768.
140. Ibid., L1, 770–71. SP’s ellipses are unbracketed.
141. Gordon Lameyer to SP, 13 July 1954. Lilly.
142. SP to Mel Woody, 5 July 1954. L1, 781. SP’s ellipses are unbracketed.
143. HC interview with Mel Woody, Sept. 2018, Lyme, Conn.
144. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 11 Aug. 1954. L1, 796–97.
145. Steiner, A Closer Look, 57.
146. Ibid., 55–56.
147. Nancy Hunter claimed, in her memoir of that summer, that Plath first met Edwin in early Aug. This date is incorrect.
148. Steiner, A Closer Look, 58.
149. SP, notes on The Bell Jar, spring 1961. 4.1, SPC, Smith. Edwin even shared Otto’s pacifist politics—he had been a conscientious objector during World War II and was housed at a camp for COs in New Hampshire.
150. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Nancy Hunter Steiner, 1971. 4.13, MSS 1489, Emory.
151. All of Nancy’s quoted recollections come from A Closer Look. According to Plath’s 1954 calendar, the bar was at 32 Church Street, now the site of the Border Café.
152. SP, 1954–55 calendar. 7.6, Lilly.
153. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 19 July 1954. L1, 783.
154. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Nancy Hunter Steiner, 1971. 4.13, MSS 1489, Emory.
155. Richard Wilbur, “Cottage Street, 1953,” Sylvia Plath: The Woman and the Work, Edward Butscher, ed. (New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1977), 30–31.
156. Steiner, A Closer Look, 56.
157. Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, Thomas Travisano and Saskia Hamilton, eds. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010), 737–38.
158. BJ, 228.
159. Nancy said she came home from class at eleven a.m. and found a note from Plath saying she and Edwin had gone to the beach. Yet Plath wrote in her calendar that she attended her German and English classes that day, took a midterm exam, and studied at Lamont Library.
160. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Nancy Hunter Steiner, 1971. 4.13, MSS 1489, Emory.
161. Steiner, A Closer Look, 65.
162. SP, 1954–55 calendar. 7.6, Lilly.
163. TH, 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.
164. J, 438. There are also two no
tes on Plath’s Bell Jar outline reading, “Edwin / looses [sic] virginity” and “Edwin loss of virginity.” SP, notes on The Bell Jar, spring 1961. 4.1, SPC, Smith.
165. In Aug. she mentioned him in her Smith scrapbook as part of a group of memorable men she had dated that summer, though in less favorable terms: “dinner farewell at Meadows with Ira: daiquiris in the rain—goodbye also to intriguing, inscrutable Lou, wierd [sic] Edwin, and a blazing feminine existence in the heart of my haven Harvard.” SP, Smith scrapbook. 12.O8, Lilly.
166. Steiner, A Closer Look, 71.
167. SP, 9 Nov. 1954, 1954–55 calendar. 7.6, Lilly.
168. Edwin Autowicz to Fran McCullough, 25 Mar. 1975. 6.5, Hornbake Library, Francis McCullough Papers, University of Maryland.
169. SP, Smith scrapbook. 12.O8, Lilly.
170. Steiner, A Closer Look, 73.
171. SP, Smith scrapbook. 12.O8, Lilly.
172. The conversation, according to Plath’s calendar, probably took place on Sunday, 1 Aug. Gordon Lameyer, Dear Sylvia. Lameyer MSS, Lilly.
173. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 5 Aug. 1954. L1, 789.
174. Gordon Lameyer, Dear Sylvia. Lameyer MSS, Lilly.
175. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 5 Aug. 1954. L1, 791.
176. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 7 Aug. 1954. L1, 792.
177. Gordon Lameyer to SP, 9 Aug. 1954. Lilly.
178. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 7 Aug. 1954. L1, 793.
179. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 4 Aug. 1954. L1, 785.
180. SP, Smith scrapbook. 12.O8, Lilly.
181. SP, 25 Aug. 1954, 1954–55 calendar. 7.6, Lilly.
182. SP, 22 Aug. 1954, 1954–55 calendar. 7.6, Lilly.
183. SP, 24 Aug. 1954, 1954–55 calendar. 7.6, Lilly.
184. SP, 27 Aug. 1954, 1954–55 calendar. 7.6, Lilly.
185. SP, 4 Sept. 1954, 1954–55 calendar. 7.6, Lilly.
186. SP to Enid Epstein, 26 Jan. 1955. L1, 867.
187. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 5 Aug. 1954. L1, 789. SP’s ellipsis.
14. O ICARUS
1. SP, Smith scrapbook. 12.O8, Lilly.
2. She contemplated applying to the MFA program at Iowa but decided against it. Paul Engle to SP, c. 1955. Lilly.
3. SP to Mel Woody, 26 Jan. 1955. L1, 874.
4. SP to AP, 27 Sept. 1954. L1, 809.
5. Gibian wrote that Plath was “the outstanding student in my experience at Smith College,” while Drew wrote, “I have never had a more brilliant and a more charming student.” References for SP, 1954–55. Vocational Office Files, Smith College Archives.
6. Mary Ellen Chase, reference for SP, 14 Dec. 1954. Vocational Office Files, Smith College Archives.
7. Alfred Kazin, reference for SP, 6 Jan. 1955. Vocational Office Files, Smith College Archives.
8. SP to AP, 27 Sept. 1954. L1, 809.
9. SP to Mel Woody, 17 Dec. 1954. L1, 852; SP to AP, 27 Sept. 1954. L1, 809.
10. Dr. Ruth Beuscher, reference for SP, 1954–55. Vocational Office Files, Smith College Archives.
11. Mrs. Estella Kelsey, reference for SP 1954–55. Vocational Office Files, Smith College Archives.
12. SP to AP, 27 Sept. 1954. L1, 809; SP to AP, 12 Oct. 1954. L1, 822.
13. SP to AP, 12 Oct. 1954. L1, 822.
14. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 24 Sept. 1954. L1, 806.
15. SP to AP, 21 Sept. 1954. L1, 804.
16. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 24 Sept. 1954. L1, 807. SP’s ellipses.
17. SP to AP, 14 Oct. 1954. L1, 823–24. SP’s ellipses.
18. SP to AP, 24 Oct. 1954. L1, 826.
19. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 10 Oct. 1954. L1, 818.
20. SP, “The Neilson Professor,” Smith Alumnae Quarterly 46 (Fall 1954): 12.
21. Preface to The Commentary Reader: Two Decades of Articles and Stories, Norman Podhoretz, ed. (New York: Atheneum, 1966), with an introduction by Kazin, p. vii.
22. SP to AP, 24 Oct. 1954. L1, 826–28.
23. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 4 Nov. 1954. L1, 830.
24. SP to Mel Woody, 17 Dec. 1954. L1, 852.
25. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 4 Nov. 1954. L1, 831.
26. HC interview with Elinor Friedman Klein, Oct. 2015, South Salem, N.Y.
27. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Elinor Friedman Klein, 1971–72. 2. 10, MSS 1489, Emory.
28. HC interview with Elinor Friedman Klein, Oct. 2015, South Salem, N.Y.
29. Ibid., Dec. 2017, South Salem, N.Y.
30. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Elinor Friedman Klein, 1971–72. 2. 10, MSS 1489, Emory.
31. SP to AP, 12 Oct. 1954. L1, 821.
32. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Marcia Brown Stern, 1972. 4.15, MSS 1489, Emory.
33. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Pat O’Neil Pratson, 1972. 3.12, MSS 1489, Emory.
34. George Gibian to Harriet Rosenstein, 18 Oct. 1971. 1.30, MSS 1489, Emory.
35. SP to AP, 14 Oct. 1954. L1, 823.
36. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 5 Oct. 1954. L1, 815. SP’s ellipsis.
37. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 10 Oct. & 20 Sept. 1954. L1, 815; 802.
38. SP to AP, 4 Oct. 1954. L1, 812.
39. OHP to AP, 2 Oct. 1954. Lilly.
40. Ibid.
41. OHP to SP, 16 Oct. 1954. Lilly.
42. OHP to SP, 10 Dec. 1954. Lilly.
43. SP to AP, 12 Oct. 1954. L1, 820. First ellipsis in quoted letter is SP’s.
44. Gordon Lameyer to SP, n.d. (fall 1954). Lilly.
45. SP to AP, 2 Nov. 1954. L1, 830.
46. SP to Mel Woody, 26 Jan. 1955. L1, 872.
47. Richard Sassoon to SP, n.d. (late Dec. 1954). Lilly.
48. Richard Sassoon to SP, n.d. (fall 1954). Lilly.
49. Richard Sassoon to SP, c. fall 1954. Lilly.
50. SP to Mel Woody, 17 Dec. 1954. L1, 851. SP’s ellipsis.
51. Richard Sassoon to SP, c. fall 1954. Lilly.
52. Ibid.
53. Richard Sassoon to SP, Nov./Dec. 1954. Lilly.
54. Richard Sassoon to SP, c. fall 1954. Lilly.
55. Ibid.
56. Richard Sassoon to SP, c. 1954–55. Lilly.
57. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 22 Nov. 1954. L1, 837.
58. SP, 27 Sept. 1954, 1954–55 calendar. 7.6, Lilly.
59. SP, 28 Sept. 1954, 1954–55 calendar. 7.6, Lilly.
60. Gordon Lameyer to SP, 29 Nov. & 2 Dec. 1954. Lilly.
61. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 9 Dec. 1954. L1, 846.
62. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 6 Nov. 1954. L1, 832.
63. SP to AP, 13 Nov. 1954. L1, 835.
64. OHP to SP, 30 Dec. 1954. Lilly.
65. SP to AP, 6 Dec. 1954. L1, 843.
66. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 9 Jan. 1955. L1, 858.
67. HC interview with Janet Salter Rosenberg, Sept. 2015, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
68. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 9 Jan. 1955. L1, 858.
69. SP to AP, 13 Dec. 1954. L1, 848. In undated letters that fall, Sassoon writes about the trip, and about buying Plath her first escargots.
70. SP, Smith scrapbook. 12.O8, Lilly.
71. SP to Jon Rosenthal, 13 Dec. 1954. L1, 850.
72. HC interview with Jon Rosenthal, Nov. 2014, Amherst, Mass.
73. SP to Jon Rosenthal, 2 Dec. 1954. L1, 841.
74. SP to Jon Rosenthal, 13 Dec. 1954. L1, 849–50.
75. SP, 21 Dec. 1954, 1954–55 calendar. 7.6, Lilly.
76. SP, 22 Dec. 1954, 1954–55 calendar. 7.6, Lilly.
77. HC interview with Jon Rosenthal, Nov. 2014, Amherst, Mass.
78. Harriet Rosenstein, 1974 notes on interview with Jon Rosenthal. Corrected copy provided by Jon Rosenthal.
79. HC interview with Jon Rosenthal, Nov. 2014, Amherst, Mass.
80. SP, 26 Dec. 1954, 1954–55 calendar. 7.6, Lilly.
81. SP to Enid Epstein, 26 Jan. 1955. L1, 866.
82. 8.17, Lilly.
83. SP to Mel Woody, 26 Jan. 1955. L1, 871.
84. She would write another version of the story in England.
85. JP, 268; 270; 272; 273.
86. SP to AP, 29 Jan. 1955. L1, 880.
87. JP, 274.
88. SP to AP, 15 & 29 Jan. 1955. L1, 863; 880.
89. SP to AP, 29 Jan. 1955. L1, 880.
90. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 9 Jan. 1955. L1, 859. The poems were: “Ballade Banale,” “Item: Stolen, One Suitcase,” “Morning in the Hospital Solarium,” “New England Winter Without Snow,” and “Harlequin Love Song.”
91. SP to AP, 15 Jan. 1955. L1, 861.
92. George Gibian to Harriet Rosenstein, 18 Oct. 1971, and interview with Harriet Rosenstein, 1971. 1.30, MSS 1489, Emory.
93. SP, “The Magic Mirror: A Study of the Double in Two of Dostoevsky’s Novels.” Smith College senior thesis in English. 11.1, Lilly. 7.
94. Ibid., 5.
95. Ibid., 15–16.
96. J, 150.
97. SP, “The Magic Mirror,” 10; 13.
98. Ibid., 51.
99. Ibid., 44.
100. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 26 Jan. 1955. L1, 869.
101. SP to AP, 29 Jan. 1955. L1, 878.
102. SP, 22 Jan. 1955, 1954–55 calendar. 7.6, Lilly.
103. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 10 Feb. 1955. L1, 894; SP to Gordon Lameyer, 26 Jan. 1955. L1, 869.
104. SP to Mel Woody, 26 Jan. 1955. L1, 872.
105. SP to AP, 27 Jan. 1955. L1, 874.
106. SP, 27 Jan. 1955, 1954–55 calendar. 7.6, Lilly.
107. SP to Gordon Lameyer, 10 Feb. 1955. L1, 894.
108. SP to AP, 5 Feb. 1955. L1, 888.
109. SP to AP, 29 Jan. 1955. L1, 879.
110. 8.12, Lilly.
111. SP to AP, 29 Jan. 1955. L1, 879.
112. Plath wrote in her calendar that she wrote and then typed up the story on 27 Jan.
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