Because the defense attorneys could sense the jury’s sympathy for Anderson, they struck a compromise with her. Both sides convened at the courthouse the next morning, January 29, 1987, to announce that a settlement had been reached. Instead of the six million dollars (five million for libel and one million for intentional emotional distress), Anderson would receive $150,000 and the defendants’ admission that the film had “unintentionally defamed” her. Also, all new copies of the movie and the video cassette would prominently display a disclaimer that said that “any similarity [of the film’s characters] to living or actual persons is purely coincidental.” To reach the settlement, Anderson dropped four defendants from the lawsuit. One was Hughes, because, according to agreement, “there was no wrongdoing on the part of Mr. Hughes [since], to the extent the plaintiff was defamed, it was by the motion picture alone, not the novel and occurred unintentionally and purely by coincidence.”
Of all the defendants, only Ted Hughes attended the trial itself. Each morning, as the bailiff called the court into session, he stood like everyone else to acknowledge the judge and the jury as they entered the room. Then he took his place next to Kovner. No longer the brooding young man whom Plath had married, Hughes, now nearing sixty, was showing his age. His hair, peppered with gray, was thinning; lines had appeared on his rugged, angular face. His body, once tall and lean, had started to thicken. Indeed, Hughes slouched, as though exhausted, in his chair behind the defendants’ table. Almost a quarter of a century had passed since Plath’s suicide, during which Hughes had done everything he could to get on with his life, yet here he was—sitting in a courtroom on a frigid January morning in his late wife’s hometown, there to defend her only novel. No matter what, Hughes could not escape the consequences of his life with Plath, or her death.
9
In the late fall of 1988, in the Heptonstall cemetery in which Sylvia Plath is buried, no tombstone marked her grave. Many months had passed since the third one—defaced, like the two previous stones, by vandals who chipped the word “Hughes” from her name—had been taken away. On this cold November afternoon, a sharp wind blew dead leaves from the trees surrounding the cemetery. Sunless and cloudless, an empty sky weighed down heavily against the moors’ rolling landscape. To the traveler who had come here from America, the starkness of the day only made the starkness of Plath’s grave seem sadder. Recently, a local resident had erected a temporary commemorative: two stout two-foot-long sticks tied into a cross with a piece of cord. On the horizontal stick, he had carefully printed, using a green marking pen, “Sylvia Plath.” He had then hammered the homemade cross into the ground at the head of the grave. As the traveler stood before Plath’s grave, he thought of her life and her work, which included, he believed, some of the century’s most accomplished poetry. And when he began to consider why she—an artist of her caliber—should lie in a grave so embarrassingly marked, he noticed something that seemed to explain much about what had transpired before her death, and after. The plot next to Plath’s is empty.
Acknowledgments
The two major Sylvia Plath archives are housed in the Lilly Library at Indiana University and in the Rare Book Room at Smith College. At Smith, I was fortunate to have the assistance of Ruth Mortimer, Sarah Black, Karen Kukil, and Barbara Blumenthal; their skill, caring, and professionalism are unmatched. At Indiana, I would like to thank Saun-dra Taylor, but mostly Kate Siebert-Medicus and Rebecca Cape, who tirelessly helped me as I read this enormous collection. I am also grateful to Janet Wagner at Hofstra University.
I received additional research materials from Henri Cole and Bruce Cammack at the Academy of American Poets; The Atlantic Monthly Press; the BBC’s Written Archives Centre; Boston University’s University Archives; Mary R. McGee at The Christian Science Monitor Library; Dr. Stuart W. Campbell at Clark University’s University Archives; Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Room; the Conde Nast Library; the Fulbright Alumni Association; Harvard University’s Houghton Library; the University of Houston; Frederick Morgan at The Hudson Review; the Library of Congress’s Motion Pictures, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division; Elain D. Trehub at Mount Holyoke College’s College History and Archive; the National Sound Archives in London; the New York Public Library’s Berg Collection; Steven Siegal at the Ninety-second Street Y in New York City; Northwestern College’s Office of the Registrar; the Princeton University Library; the Public Record Office in London; Rice University’s Fondren library; Bonni Price at Seventeen magazine; Smith College’s Sophia Smith Collection; Saint Catherine’s House in London; Cathy Henderson at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas; the University of Chicago’s Joseph Regenstein Library; Anne Armour at the Jessie Ball Dupont Library at the University of the South; Anne Posega at the Olin Library at Washington University in St. Louis; the Wellesley Free Library; Ann Rote at the Wellesley Middle School; Wellesley Public Schools; Margaret Hinckley at the Win-throp Public Library; Margaret T. Peters at the OflBce of Town Clerk in Winthrop; UCLA Special Collections.
For interviews, letters, and other help I would like to thank A. Alvarez, Sarah Arvio, Ruth Barnhouse, Ellyn Berman, Ann Birstein, Sarah G. Bobbitt, Vance Bourjaily, Mary Lynn Broe, Linda K. Bundtzen, Lee Camp, Margaret Cantor, Marjorie Chester, Nest Clev-erdon, Barbara Sugarman Cohen, Edward Cohen, Judy Ettlinger Cohen, Joan Cohn, Elizabeth Cooper, Grant Cooper, Connie Corson, Richard Corson, Wilbury Crockett, Catherine Criswell, Shirley Dallard, Gwenda David, Peter Davison, Deborah Digges, Margaret Drabble, Elaine Henderson Duble, Stewart Duncan, Ruth Fainlight, Macey Feingold, Aryeh Finklestein, Judith Flanders, Katherine Fleming, Oliver Forshaw, Betty Friedan, Max Gaebler, Amy Gardner, Ruth Freeman Geissler, Louise Giesey, Max Goldberg, Donald Hall, Michael Hamburger, Ronald Hayman, Lianne Hart, John Harrison, Ma-linda E. Hildeburn, Dr. John Horder, Olwyn Hughes, Sally Jenks, Diane Johnson, Nora Johnson, Judith Jones, Erica Jong, Lawrence Joseph, Dr. Stephen Josephson, Terry Karten, Eileen McLaughlin Kelly, Frances Kiernan, Cindy Klein, Martha Wood Kongshang, Jean HanflF Korelitz, Tony Lacey, the late Gordon Lameyer, Lori M. Laub-ich, Lynne Lawner, Laurie Levy, Lise Liepman, Polly Longsworth, Alden Macchi, David Machin, Norman Mailer, Carole Mallory, Georgette Marion, Timothy Materer, William McBrien, Philip McCurdy, Lucie McKee, Elsbeth Melville, Kory Meyerink, Jeffrey Meyers, James Michie, Robin Morgan, Ruth Mortimer, the late Howard Moss, Dona Munker, E. Lucas Myers, Audrey Nicholson, Jill Neville, Peter Orr, Kenneth Pitchford, Lawrence Pitkethly, Aurelia S. Plath, Stanley Plumly, Janet Wagner Rafferty, Sonia Raiziss, Adrienne Rich, Phyllis Rifield, Clarissa Roche, Paul Roche, Joan Romans, M. L. Rosenthal, Mark Rudman, Neva Nelson Sachar, David Sandy, Grace Schulman, David Seeker-Walker, Lorna Seeker-Walker, Kate Siebert-Medicus, Karl Shapiro, Norman Shapiro, Margaret Shook, Elizabeth Compton Sigmund, Eileen Simpson, Elizabeth Skerritt, Dave Smith, Mrs. Mason Smith, Roger Smith, Ron Smith, Ted Solotaroff, Barbara Soulnier, Monroe Spears, Mary Spelman, Colin St. Johnson, Valerie St. Johnson, George Starbuck, Gloria Steinem, Marcia Brown Stern, Anne Stevenson, Libby Stone, Stephen Tabor, Rena Taylor, Trevor Thomas, Susan van Dyne, Helen Vendler, Betsy Powley Wallingford, Aileen Ward, Polly Weaver, Daniel Weissbort, John Wellington, Marybeth Little Weston, M. S. Whitlock, Richard Wilbur, Laura Woolschlager, Kenneth Wright, Bertram Wyatt-Brown.
Finally, I want to thank W. O. Chitwood, Jr., in whose class I first read Sylvia Plath.
Notes
The Blue Hour
Page 7 “ ‘I am a genius of a writer . . .’ ”: Letters Home (hereafter cited as LH) by Sylvia Plath, edited by Aurelia S. Plath (New York, Harper and Row, 1975), p. 468. 7 “No matter what, Plath . . .”: Plath’s quote—” ’still, blue, almost eternal hour’ “—comes from a commentary she wrote for the BBC.8 “ ‘One might criticise . . .’ ”: “Poetic Knowledge” by Thomas Blackburn, The New Statesman 60, December 24, 1960, p. 1016. 9 “ ‘Well it’s a nice gift book.’ ”: LH, p. 399. 10 “ ‘I can go nowhere with the children . . .’ ”: LH, p. 469. 10 “That night, Plath . . .
”: The quotes from Plath’s letter are from LH, p. 470.
Otto and Aurelia
12 “On the last day . . .”: The quotes about Otto Plath are from Boston University yearbooks. 12 “To demonstrate man’s illogic . . .”: The information about the “rat” episode comes from an unpublished memoir by Max Gaebler. 13 “At German Club picnics. . .”: The scene with Otto Plath and the student is taken from a description in a Boston University yearbook. 15 “On April 13, 1885 . . .”: Much of the information about Otto Plath and Aurelia Schober Plath’s family history was obtained from a private genealogist, whom I hired to do research for this book. 16 “Devastated but relieved . . .”: Information in this paragraph comes from university archive files at Boston University. 19 “Later that same day, Otto Plath. . .”: Plath and Schober’s marriage license. 20 “Finally, on Thursday, October 27, 1932 . . .”: Sylvia Plath’s birth certificate. 21 “ The foundations of this book . . .’ ”: Bumblebees and Their Ways by Otto Plath (New York, the Macmillan Company, 1934), introduction. 22 “For her work on the book . . .”: From the acknowledgment page of Bumblebees and Their Ways. 23 “ ‘By the end of my first year of marriage . . .’ ”: LH, p. 13. 24 “In the spring of 1936 . . . “: Information about the Freemans comes from Aurelia Plath’s introduction to LH and from my interview with Ruth Freeman Geissler. 27 “Sylvia had been writing poetry . . .”: “Thoughts” is in an unpublished manuscript of Plath’s juvenilia at the Morgan Library in New York. 32 “ ‘I hereby certify . . .’ ”: Otto Plath’s death certificate. 32 “ ‘I’ll never speak to God again’ . . .”: LH, p. 25. 32 “Because she believed the children. . .”: Information about Otto Plath’s funeral and grave comes from the public record books at Winthrop Town Cemetery.
Wellesley
36 “ ‘I marveled at the moving beacons. . .’ ”: Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams (hereafter cited as JP) by Sylvia Plath (New York, Harper and Row, 1979), p. 269. 36 “To Sylvia, the single most important day . . .”: “Poem” appeared on “The Good Sport Page” in the Boston Herald on August 11, 1941. 37 “ ‘I remember sitting by the radio . . .’ ”: JP, p. 271. 38 “ ‘My father died . . .’ ”: Ibid., p. 26. 38 “The Charles River . . .”: Information about Wellesley comes from Five Pounds Currency, Three Pounds of Corn: Welles–ley’s Centennial Story by Elizabeth M. HinchliflPe; the catalogue was published by the Town of Wellesley in 1981. 40 “ ‘Gas rationing so tight . . .’ ”: Ibid., p. 86. 41 “Appreciably smaller than 92 Johnson Avenue . . .”: My description of 26 Elmwood Road is based on a visit I made there in April 1983. 42 “ ‘I’ll never forget what she and I did . . .’ ”: From my interview with Betsy Powley Wallingford. 43 “In July, while Aurelia recovered . . .”: Plath’s postcards to her mother are in the Plath archive at the Lilly Library at Indiana University. 44 “ ‘They were completely transported . . .’ ”: Aurelia Plath’s unpublished commentary to LH is in the Sylvia Plath archive in the Rare Book Room at Smith College. 45 “For her scholastic achievement. . .”: From Plath memorabilia at Indiana. 45 “On July 1 . . .”: Ibid. 46 “In February 1946 . . .”: Information about Plath’s dates with boys comes from her unpublished journals at Indiana. 47 “In July . . .”: Plath described her camp experiences in letters to her mother; the unpublished letters are at Indiana. 48 “Philip had grown up. . .”: From my interviews with Philip McCurdy. 49 “Before the dance, Sylvia and Wayne . . .”: From Plath’s unpublished journals at Indiana. 50 “On September 8, 1947 . . .”: The descriptions of Wilbury Crockett and Gamaliel Bradford High School are based on my interviews with Crockett and McCurdy. 51 “Also, ‘I Thought That I Could Not Be Hurt’ . . .”: LH, p. 33. 53 “On July 1,1948 . . .”: Plath’s unpublished letters to her mother at Indiana. 53 “In March, the month when she won . . . . .”: The Plath–Woods–Edman letters are in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Room in the Butler Library at Columbia University. 54 “Finally, near the end of the term . . .”: Copies of The Bradford are at Indiana. 55 “Sylvia would spend the summer of 1949 . . .”: The information in the next four paragraphs is from Plath’s unpublished journals at Indiana. 58 “ ‘Sylvia is a superior candidate for college. . . .’ ”: Plath’s letters of recommendation are at Smith. 60 “Early in the spring term. . .”: “A Youth’s Plea for World Peace” by Sylvia Plath and Perry Norton, The Christian Science Monitor, March 16, 1950, p. 19. 61 “During the spring, as she worked hard. . .”: The Thomas Mann comment comes from Plath’s unpublished journals at Indiana. 61 “Early in the semester. . .”: Plath’s letters to Hans Neupert are at Smith. 62 “ ‘Warm smile . . .’ ”: Plath’s high–school yearbook. 62 “Until the summer of 1950 . . .”: The information about Lookout Farm and Ilo Pill comes from The Journals of Sylvia Plath (hereafter cited as J) by Sylvia Plath, edited by Frances McCullough (New York, The Dial Press, 1982). Additional information comes from Plath’s unpublished journals at Smith. 64“ ‘And Summer Will Not Come Again,’ the story . . .”: “And Summer Will Not Come Again” by Sylvia Plath, Seventeen, August 1950, pp. 275–6. 65 “ ‘Why it should have so captivated me . . .’ ”: Edward Cohen’s unpublished letters to Plath are at Indiana. 65 “Flattered, Sylvia responded. . .”: Information in the next four paragraphs is based on Cohen’s letters and on my interviews with him. 67 “That August . . .”: The description of the episode with Emile is based on J and on unpublished journals at Smith. 68 “ ‘And, then, suddenly, . . .’ ”: “Rewards of a New England Summer” by Sylvia Plath, The Christian Science Monitor, September 12, 1950, p. 15.
Full Fathom Five
69 “By way of Elm Street . . .”: My description of Northampton and Smith College is based on my visits there and on my interviews with Gloria Steinem, Margaret Shook, Ruth Mortimer, Libby Stone, Barbara Soulnier, and others. 69 ” ‘[T]he design to furnish . . .’ ”: From Sophia Smith’s will. 70 “ ‘We were lemmings unto the sea . . .’ ”: From my interview with Judy Ettlinger Cohen. 70 “ ‘At Smith, you were attempting . . .’ ”: From my interview with Gloria Steinem. 71 “ ‘In the fifties we were girls . . .’ ”: From a letter to me by Polly Longsworth. 72 “Recently, Sylvia had accused . . .”: Cohen’s unpublished letters. 73 “Best known for Now, Voyager . . .”: Information about Prouty comes from my interviews with her daughter, Mrs. Mason Smith. 73 “In November, Seventeen published Plath’s . . .”: “Ode to a Bitten Plum” by Sylvia Plath, Seventeen, November 1950, p. 104. 74 “Determined to meet her social obligations . . .”: Plath’s letter to Prouty was published anonymously in The Smith Alumnae Quarterly in the February 1951 issue. 74 “ ‘I have read your letter with great interest . . .’ ”: From a letter from Prouty to Plath that I obtained from Prouty’s daughter. 75 “On that cold, beautiful December afternoon . . .”: The descriptions of Prouty and her home are based on an unpublished memoir by Plath. 76 “ ‘I can never do it, never. . .’ ”: LH, p. 64. 76 “ ‘I must remember to look up . . . Ann . . .’ ”: Cohen’s unpublished letters. 78 “At the end of the note, he said . . .”: Richard Norton’s unpublished letters to Plath are at Indiana. 78 “ ‘Regardless of how much . . .’ ”: Cohen’s unpublished letters. 78 “His chance to meet Sylvia in person . . .”: The information in the next three paragraphs comes from Cohen’s unpublished letters and from my interviews with him. 79 “Vacation did contain some pleasant experiences for Sylvia. . . .”: From my interview with Marcia Brown Stern. 80 “After writing her one letter. . .”: Cohen’s unpublished letters. 80 “In mid–April, while Dick . . .”: From Norton’s unpublished letters. 81 “She longed for a male ‘organism’ . . .”: J, p. 21. 81 “‘You are good, Syl— . . .’ ”: Cohen’s unpublished letters. 82 “ ‘I do question whether . . .’ ”: Ibid. 82 “On June 18, Sylvia escaped. . .’ ”: The description of Plath’s summer in Swampscott is based on her published and unpublished journals and on my interview with Marcia Brown Stern. 84 “ ‘If I seem a bit harsh at times . . .’ ”: Cohen’s unpublished letters. 85 “Soon after Sylvia returned to Smith. . .”: The description of the Buckley party is based on a letter in LH, and on m
y interview with Elizabeth Skerritt. 86 “ ‘You were your own incomparable self. . .’ ”: Norton’s unpublished letters. 87 “ ‘Sinusitis plunges me . . .’ ”: J, p. 40. 87 “ ‘Doesn’t it sound just. . .’ ”: Cohen’s unpublished letters. 88 “The revelation disgusted her .. .”: Plath’s unpublished letters to Ann Davidow are at Smith. 88 “ ‘Why is your face and form . . .’ ”: Norton’s unpublished letters. 89 “Eddie responded with a demand . . .”: Cohen’s unpublished letters. 90 “ ‘really feel that a second try . . .’ ”: Ibid. 90 “The month’s strangest episode . . .”: From Plath’s unpublished journals at Smith. 90 “ ‘One night we went into Boston . . .’ ”: From my interviews with Cohen. 91 “In her journal she revealed that. . .”: J, p. 46. 93 “Days later, Sylvia felt well enougji. . .”: My description of Plath’s summer at the Cantors’ is based on her published and unpublished journals and on my interview with Margaret Cantor. 93 “A longish, cleanly written story . . .”: “Sunday at the Mintons’” by Sylvia Plath is included in JP, pp. 295–305. 94 “ ‘Sylvia is an exceptionally fine girl . . .’ ”: Cantor’s letter is in the, Plath archive at Smith. 96 “ ‘I was a little taken aback . . .’ ”: Cohen’s unpublished letters. 96 “According to contest rules . . .”: From my interviews with Marybeth Little Weston. 97 “After that weekend, Dick described Sylvia. . .”: Norton’s unpublished letters. 97 “ ‘Sick with envy . . .’ ”: J, p. 60. 97 “On the 14th, in Marcia’s off–campus bedroom . . .”: J, p. 64. 98 “ ‘I am driven inward . . .’ ”: Ibid. 98 “To complicate matters . . .”: Cohen’s unpublished letters. 99 “In several letters at the beginning of the month . . .”: From Norton’s unpublished letters. 100 “Wiring her mother . . .”: From LH, p. 101. 100 “When a friend inquired . . .”: Norton’s unpublished letters. 101 “Over Christmas, bad with . . .”: Some information in this paragraph is taken from my interview with Cohen; the quotes are from Cohen’s unpublished letters. 103 “Besides Mike, who was so taken . . .”: The Lotz quote is from an unpublished letter at Indiana. 103 “In one recent journal entry . . .”: From J, p. 74. 104 “ ‘When Sivvy came home from the Cape . . .’ ”: Aurelia Plath’s unpublished letter to Richard Norton is at Indiana. 108 “In the aftermath of World War II. . .”: The information about New York in this paragraph comes from New York, New York by Oliver E. Allen (New York, Atheneum, 1990). 108 “Victorian, stately, ornate . . .”: The information about the Barbizon Hotel and Mademoiselle comes from my interviews with Marybeth Little Weston, Neva Nelson Sachar, Janet Wagner RaflFerty, Laurie Levy, Martha Wood Kongshang, Sally Jenks, Laura Woolschlager, and Polly Weaver. 108 “ ‘She was something of a paradox . . .’ ”: From my interview with Jenks. 111 “ ‘I too was on the verge of crying . . .’ ”: From my interview with Sachar. 113 “ ‘The morning of the executions . . .’ ”: From a letter by RaflFerty. 115 “ ‘Sylvia came in my room . . .’ ”: From a letter by RaflFerty. 115 “The world had ‘split open . . .’ ”: J, p. 120. 116 “ ‘By the way, Frank O’Connors class. . .’ ”: LH, p. 123. 116 “As she wrote an entry in her journal. . .”: J, p. 85. 117 “In a letter in early July . . .”: Norton’s unpublished letters. 117 “ ‘You saw a vision . . .’ ”: J, p. 87. 125 “ ‘HAVE JUST LEARNED SYLVIA . . .’ ”: LH, p. 126.
Rough Magic Page 44