175. Ibid.
176. TH, notebook entry, 23 June 1960. Add MS 88918/129/2, BL.
177. TH, notebook entry, 7 Jan. 1965. Add MS 88918/129/3, BL.
178. SP to AP, 9 July 1960. L2, 492.
179. Philip Day, “A Pride of Poets,” Sunday Times (26 June 1960). Plath confirmed in her 7 Nov. 1960 letter to Dr. Ruth Beuscher that the quote was hers.
180. SP to AP, 24 June 1960. L2, 485.
181. Jessica Mann, The Fifties Mystique (London: Perseus, 2012), 176.
182. SP to AP, 16–17 Aug. 1960. L2, 503.
183. The editor was probably Thomas Cranfill, who bought Plath’s “Flute Notes from a Reedy Pond” and “Witch Burning,” and Hughes’s “The Caning,” “Lines to a Newborn Baby,” “Miss Mabrett and the Wet Cellar,” “The Captain’s Speech,” and “The Gibbons.” See L2, 502, for publication dates.
184. The others were “The Manor Garden,” “The Beggars,” and “Blue Moles” in Critical Quarterly 2 (Summer 1960), and “Metaphors for a Pregnant Woman” in Partisan Review (Summer 1960).
185. SP to AP, 16 Aug. 1960. L2, 503. Plath likely wrote all three poems in early July. “On Deck” appeared in The New Yorker on 22 July 1961; “Two Campers in Cloud Country” appeared in The New Yorker on 3 Aug. 1963.
186. K. L. Wisner, B. L. Parry, and C. M. Piontek, “Postpartum Depression,” New England Journal of Medicine 347.3 (2002): 194–99.
187. HC interview with Lorna Secker-Walker, June 2017, London.
188. SP to AP, 19 July, 16–17 Aug., & 13 Sept. 1960. L2, 495; 503; 509.
189. SP to AP, 27 Aug. 1960. L2, 505.
190. TH to AP and WP, 22 Aug. 1960. LTH, 169. He wanted to buy Plath a three-volume edition of Dickinson’s poems for her birthday and told Aurelia he would reimburse her if she sent the book from America. (Plath never mentioned receiving it.)
191. SP to AP, 19 July 1960. L2, 495.
192. SP to AP, 9 July 1960. L2, 493.
193. SP to AP, 2 Aug. 1960. L2, 499.
194. SP to AP, 31 Aug. 1960. L2, 508.
195. TH to Olwyn Hughes, Aug. 1960. Add MS 88948/1/2, BL.
196. TH to AP and WP, 22 Aug. 1960. LTH, 168–69.
197. TH to Olwyn Hughes, Aug. 1960. Add MS 88948/1/2, BL.
198. SP to AP, 27 Aug. 1960. L2, 504–505.
199. SP to AP, 31 Aug. 1960. L2, 506.
200. SP to AP, 27 Aug. 1960. L2, 504.
201. SP to AP, 31 Aug. 1960. L2, 507.
202. SP to AP, 14 Dec. 1960. L2, 551.
203. Stanley Kunitz, “The New Books,” Harper’s (Sept. 1960): 96–103; Hughes’s photograph appeared in “Signs of an All Too Correct Compassion,” Times Literary Supplement (9 Sept. 1960), xiii.
204. “Ouija,” “Electra on Azalea Path,” “Suicide Off Egg Rock,” and “Moonrise” appeared in The Hudson Review (Autumn 1960); “The Fifteen-Dollar Eagle” in The Sewanee Review (Autumn 1960); “Flute Notes from a Reedy Pond” in Texas Quarterly (Winter 1960); and “Candles” in The Listener (17 Nov. 1960).
205. Probably Charles Monteith, James Michie, and George MacBeth.
206. SP to AP, 28 Sept. 1960. L2, 516.
207. SP to AP, 28 Nov. 1960. L2, 546–47.
208. SP to Dorothy and Joseph Benotti and Frank Schober, 19 Nov. 1960. L2, 544.
209. SP to AP, 19 Nov. 1960. L2, 543.
210. SP to AP, 16 Sept. 1960. L2, 512.
211. TH to Olwyn Hughes, late Oct. 1960. Add MS 88948/1/2, BL.
212. Lucas Myers, “The Tranquilized Fifties,” Sewanee Review (Jan.–Mar. 1962): 212–13; 216.
213. SP to Lynne Lawner, 30 Sept. 1960. L2, 519.
214. Plath told Mrs. Prouty she dedicated “Candles” to her.
215. Hughes mocked the Three Wise Men on the Christmas card they sent to Ann and Leo Goodman that year, writing of their “prim public relations smiles” “adapted…to American tastes.” SP and TH to Ann and Leo Goodman, 17 Dec. 1960. L2, 552.
216. SP to AP, 26 Oct. 1960. L2, 531.
217. SP to AP, 28 Sept. 1960. L2, 516.
218. SP to Ann Davidow-Goodman, 9 Oct. 1960. L2, 524.
219. Plath mss, 1958–61, Lilly. The poem is typed on the back of SP’s “Wuthering Heights.” It was rejected by The New Yorker and The Atlantic in 1960.
220. TH to Olwyn Hughes, from Dordogne, summer 1961. 1.9, MSS 980, Emory.
221. The show, John Betjeman as the Book Man, aired on 20 Nov. 1960.
222. SP to Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 7 Nov. 1960. L2, 538.
223. SP to AP and WP, 24 Dec. 1960. L2, 555.
224. SP to Lynne Lawner, 30 Sept. 1960. L2, 521.
225. TH to AP and WP, early Dec. 1960. LTH, 171.
226. Roy Fuller, review of The Colossus, The London Magazine (Mar. 1961): 69–70.
227. Richard Howard, review of The Colossus, Poetry (Mar. 1963): 412–13. See Peter Steinberg’s online bibliography at http://www.sylviaplath.info/worksreviews.html#thecolossus for a full list of Plath’s reviews.
228. See SP to AP and WP, 24 Dec. 1960. L2, 555.
229. SP to AP and WP, 19 Nov. 1960. L2, 541.
230. TH to David Machin, 4 Mar. 1964. 1.23, MSS 980, Emory. Hughes complained to Machin, James Michie’s successor at Heinemann, that when the book had been published in 1960, friends told him it “ ‘wasn’t in the shops.’ ” In late 1963, Hughes told Machin, “I asked five of my friends to try and buy me a copy. They could not find one, even in the main London bookshops.”
231. SP to AP and WP, 19 Nov. 1960. L2, 541.
232. SP to AP, 28 Oct. 1960. L2, 534.
233. TH to Olwyn Hughes, late Oct. 1960. Add MS 88948/1/2, BL.
234. SP to Olwyn Hughes, 27 Oct. 1960. L2, 533. Plath added her note at the end of Hughes’s letter to Olwyn.
235. SP to AP, 26 Oct. 1960. L2, 531.
236. J, 596–99.
237. Alvarez, Geoffrey Hill, David Wevill, George MacBeth, and Peter Redgrove would all divorce. Wooten, Alvarez Generation, 66.
238. SP to Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 7 Nov. 1962. L2, 539.
239. J, 596–99.
240. TH to AP and WP, Dec. 1960. LTH, 172.
241. SP to Olwyn Hughes, 28 Nov. 1960. L2, 549; SP to AP and WP, 24 Dec. 1960. L2, 554.
242. SP to AP, 14 Dec. 1960. L2, 551.
243. TH and SP to Olwyn Hughes, 28 Nov. 1960. Add MS 88948/1/2, BL.
244. TH and SP to Olwyn Hughes, 28 Nov. 1960. L2, 549. Hughes’s portion of the letter is not transcribed in L2.
245. Plath’s reading of “A Winter Ship” and seven lines from “The Colossus” were also included in the program. Plath liked her poem “A Winter Ship” enough to have it privately printed on thick, expensive paper, and included in her Christmas cards that year.
246. A. Alvarez, “The Poet and the Poetess,” Observer (18 Dec. 1960), 21.
247. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Richard Murphy, 1974. 2.25, MSS 1489, Emory.
248. SP to AP and WP, 24 Dec. 1960. L2, 555.
249. A. Alvarez, “Books of the Year,” Observer (18 Dec. 1960), 22.
250. SP to AP and WP, 24 Dec. 1960. L2, 555.
24. NOBODY CAN TELL WHAT I LACK
1. SP to AP and WP, 14 Dec. 1960. L2, 551.
2. SP and TH to Philip Booth, c. 17 Dec. 1960. L2, 553.
3. SP to Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 4 Jan. 1961. L2, 562. Evidence in Hughes’s notebook journal from the period suggests the row occurred on Dec. 30.
4. SP to AP, 1 Jan. 1961. L2, 558.
5. SP to Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 4 Jan. 1961. L2, 563–65. Second ellipsis in quoted letter is SP’s.
6. Ibid., L2, 567.
7. Ibid., L2, 565–67.
8. The first two quotes come from Olwyn Hughes to
Clarissa Roche, 24 Mar. 1986, William Sigmund Papers, Smith; the third quote comes from Olwyn Hughes to Harriet Rosenstein, 21 June 1976, 2.6, MSS 1489, Emory; the fourth comes from Anon., “Olwyn Hughes: Grande Dame, Under Siege,” Camden Scallywag (May 1992), 24–25.
9. Jonathan Bate, “Olwyn Hughes obituary,” Guardian (5 Jan. 2016).
10. See SP to Olwyn Hughes, 20 Nov. 1961, for example. L2, 688–90.
11. Olwyn Hughes to Harriet Rosenstein, 21 June 1976. 2.6. MSS 1489, Emory.
12. SP to AP, 10 Jan. 1961. L2, 568.
13. TH, notebook entry, 3 Jan. 1961. Add MS 88918/128/1, BL.
14. TH to Olwyn Hughes, 10 Jan. 1961. Add MS 88948/1/2, BL.
15. TH to Lucas Myers, Jan. 1961. LTH, 178–79.
16. SP to AP, 10 Jan. 1961. L2, 568.
17. Plath had by this time published several poems in the magazine, which Cox and Dyson founded in 1959.
18. SP to AP, 27 Jan. 1961. L2, 571.
19. SP to AP, 10 Jan. 1961. L2, 569.
20. M. L. Rosenthal, “Poetry as Confession,” The Nation (19 Sept. 1959).
21. Harriet Rosenstein interview with M. L. Rosenthal, 1971–73. 4.5, MSS 1489, Emory.
22. SP to AP, 10 Jan. 1961. L2, 569.
23. SP to AP, 2 Feb. 1961. L2, 574.
24. Ibid., L2, 575. Hughes had also been offered a six-week summer job teaching at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.
25. See SP to Elizabeth Kray, 26 Apr. 1961. L2, 612.
26. The recording, which I have transcribed from the original, is held at the National Sound Archive, BL, and is available on The Spoken Word: Sylvia Plath. British Library/National Sound Archives/BBC Audio Compilation (2010).
27. Quoted in Peter K. Steinberg and Gail Crowther, “These Ghostly Archives,” Plath Profiles 2 (Summer 2009): 183–208. 196.
28. George MacBeth to Anthony Thwaite, n.d., July 1960. BBC Written Archives. Plath had sent him poems on 9 July 1960; he replied on 23 July 1960. Quoted in ibid.
29. TH to William Scammell, 28 Apr. 1998. Add MS 88918/137, BL.
30. TH interview with Drue Heinz, “The Art of Poetry, LXXI,” Paris Review 134 (1995), in Paris Review Interviews, vol. 3 (London: Picador, 2008), 56–92. 76.
31. SP and TH to Philip and Margaret Booth, 29 Mar. 1961. L2, 596.
32. SP to Anne Sexton, 5 Feb. 1961. L2, 575–76. “Elegy in the Classroom,” which famously described Lowell as “gracefully insane,” a “boily creature” with “fat blind eyes,” could have been another Sexton influence on “Daddy,” which locates Otto, likewise transformed into a “ghastly” “brute,” before a blackboard.
33. SP to AP, 27 Jan. 1961. L2, 572.
34. SP to AP, 6 Feb. 1961. L2, 577.
35. The series, Listening and Writing, was broadcast in ten talks between October 1961 and May 1964. Nine of the talks would eventually be published in Poetry in the Making, which Jonathan Bate called “a classroom vade mecum for a generation and indeed one of Hughes’s bestselling books.” Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life (New York: HarperCollins, 2015), 37.
36. Frances McCullough, notes on visit with Ted and Carol Hughes, Devon, c. 7 July 1974. 6.35, Francis McCullough Papers, Hornbake Library, University of Maryland.
37. Bate, Ted Hughes, 37.
38. Ibid.
39. National Sound Archive, BL.
40. SP to Bill and Dido Merwin, 24 June 1960. L2, 486.
41. SP to Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 22 Sept. 1962. L2, 830.
42. SP to AP, 6 Feb. 1961, L2, 577.
43. AP to WP, 17 July 1962. Lilly.
44. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Paul Roche, 1973. 3.14, MSS 1489, Emory.
45. Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, Poison (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006), 174.
46. Olwyn Hughes to Neil Schaeffer, 7 Sept. 2006. 33.15, Susan Fromberg Schaeffer Papers, Boston University.
47. Olwyn Hughes to Neil Schaeffer, 6 July 2006. 33.16, Susan Fromberg Schaeffer Papers, Boston University.
48. Ibid.; Olwyn Hughes to Neil Schaeffer, 7 Sept. 2006. 33.15, Susan Fromberg Schaeffer Papers, Boston University.
49. This source wishes to remain anonymous. HC interview, 2016.
50. CPTH, 1120. The drafts of “The Minotaur” are in Add MS 88918/1/2-8, BL.
51. Frances McCullough, notes on visit with Ted and Carol Hughes, Devon, c. 7 July 1974. 6.35 Frances McCullough Papers, Hornbake Library, University of Maryland.
52. CPTH, 1120.
53. Frieda Hughes, “Foreword.” L2, xxi.
54. SP to Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 11 July 1962. L2, 792.
55. HC interview with Suzette Macedo, May 2016, London.
56. Hughes misdates the composition to 1960 in JP.
57. JP, 185–98.
58. SP to AP, 25 Oct. 1962. L2, 888.
59. Luke Ferreter, Sylvia Plath’s Fiction: A Critical Study (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press), 157.
60. HC interview with Ruth Fainlight, May 2016, London.
61. The Spoken Word: Sylvia Plath. British Library/National Sound Archives/BBC Audio Compilation (2010).
62. SP to AP, 2 Feb. 1961. L2, 574.
63. SP to Bill and Dido Merwin, 7 Mar. 1961. L2, 588.
64. SP to AP, 26 Feb. 1961. L2, 581.
65. SP to Bill and Dido Merwin, 7 Mar. 1961. L2, 588.
66. SP to AP, 1 Mar. 1961. L2, 588; SP to Bill and Dido Merwin, 7 Mar. 1961. L2, 583.
67. SP to Bill and Dido Merwin, 7 Mar 1961. L2, 584.
68. J, 602.
69. Howard Moss to SP, 24 Feb. 1961. 17.38, SPC, Smith. The contract also included a cost-of-living adjustment that amounted to “an additional 35% per year.” The 25 percent bonus would be “a minimum of $1.90 a line.”
70. SP to Bill and Dido Merwin, 7 Mar. 1961. L2, 588.
71. “They happen to be two of my best friends and if I didn’t think very highly of them indeed I wouldn’t be meddling this way. The point is that they’re in financial straits (I assume you know they’re married, of course you must) and if you had considered, by any chance, offering either of them a first reading contract I know they could use the hundred dollars.” Bill Merwin to Howard Moss, 19 Feb. 1961. New Yorker Records, NYPL.
72. SP to AP, 6 Mar. 1961. L2, 584–85.
73. J, 601.
74. J, 603.
75. J, 604–605.
76. J, 601.
77. J, 605.
78. SP to AP, 17 Mar. 1961. L2, 590–91.
79. TH to AP and WP, 22 Apr. 1961. LTH, 182.
80. SP to AP, 17 Mar. 1961. L2, 590.
81. J, 604.
82. J, 599.
83. J, 602.
84. J, 606.
85. TH to AP and WP, 22 Apr. 1961. LTH, 182.
86. See note in LTH, 183.
87. Anne Stevenson, Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath (London: Penguin, 1989; 1998), 210.
88. Bate, Ted Hughes, 172.
89. AP to OHP, 18 Apr. 1962. Lilly.
25. THE MOMENT OF THE FULCRUM
1. SP and TH to Philip and Margaret Booth, 29 Mar. 1961. L2, 595.
2. SP to AP, 17 Mar. 1961. L2, 590.
3. SP to AP, 27 Mar. 1961. L2, 592.
4. SP to Philip and Margaret Booth, 29 Mar. 1961. L2, 595.
5. SP to AP, 5 Apr. 1961. L2, 600.
6. SP to Dorothy Benotti, 29 Mar. 1961. L2, 597.
7. SP to AP, 5 Apr. 1961. L2, 599. Steinberg and Kukil write in a footnote that there is a contract at the BBC Written Archives Centre for the program dated 4 Apr. 1961, with Plath’s name crossed out, and that no known recording exists.
8. “Last Lines,” “Sugar Loaf,” “Gog,” “Wino,” “Flanders, 1960,” and “Toll of Air Raids” appeared on p. 31.
9. The show, Wednesday Magazine, directed by Richard Francis, was broadcast on BBC Television on 19 Apr. 1961.
10. SP to AP, 22 Apr. 1961. L2, 609.
11. SP to Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 7 Nov. 1960. L2, 538–39.
12. SP to AP, 22 Apr. 1961. L2, 609–10.
13. TH to AP and WP, 22 Apr. 1961. LTH, 183. Plath wrote to Aurelia about the commission in a letter on 5 Apr. 1961.
14. SP to AP, 5 Apr. 1961. L2, 600.
15. Peter Davison to SP and TH, 4 Dec. 1961. 59.23, MS 644, Emory.
16. TH to AP and WP, 22 Apr. 1961. LTH, 183.
17. James Michie to SP, Mar. 1961. 17.34, SPC, Smith.
18. SP and TH to Philip and Margaret Booth, 29 Mar. 1961. L2, 596.
19. SP to Judith Jones, 5 Apr. 1961. L2, 601–602.
20. TH, “Sylvia Plath and Her Journals,” Winter Pollen: Occasional Prose, William Scammell, ed. (London: Picador, 1994), 183–84.
21. Judith Jones to SP, 29 Mar. 1961. 17.20, SPC, Smith. In addition to “Who,” “Maenad,” “The Beast,” and “Witch Burning,” Plath had wanted to omit “Point Shirley,” but Jones convinced her to keep it in. Jones recommended removing “The Ghost’s Leavetaking,” but Plath negotiated to keep it and remove “Black Rook in Rainy Weather” instead. (Roy Fuller had singled out “The Ghost’s Leavetaking” as exemplary in his London Magazine review of The Colossus.) The following poems, which appeared in the Heinemann edition, were excluded from the Knopf edition: “Metaphors,” “Black Rook in Rainy Weather,” “Maudlin,” “Ouija,” “Two Sisters of Persephone,” “Who,” “Dark House,” “Maenad,” “The Beast,” and “Witch Burning.”
22. Judith Jones to SP, 29 Mar. 1961. 17.20, SPC, Smith.
23. Jones mentioned the Lamont Poetry Prize in particular. Judith Jones to SP, 28 Apr. 1961. 17.20, SPC, Smith.
24. SP to Theodore Roethke, 13 Apr. 1961. L2, 602–603.
25. She also asked John Lehmann at The London Magazine for a reference.
26. SP to AP, 1 May 1961. L2, 615.
27. SP to Ann Davidow-Goodman, 27 Apr. 1961. L2, 614–15.
28. In his deposition in the Bell Jar lawsuit Hughes claimed, “She wrote her novel in March, between February or so. She began early in 1961, and she wrote it then, I suppose, two to four months….She had her appendix out so she entered the hospital for a week or two weeks in the middle of writing THE BELL JAR. That was in late March 1961.” Hughes misremembered the dates of Plath’s hospital stay and may have misremembered the composition dates of The Bell Jar. 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.
Red Comet Page 153