Edge
292 “After breakfast the next morning . . .”: The description of Plath and Hughes’s trip to Ireland is based in part on “A Memoir of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes on a Visit to the West of Ireland in 1962” by Richard Murphy, an appendix to Bitter Fame. Additional information comes from Plath’s published and unpublished letters to her mother. 292 “On the six–mile sail. . .”: Murphy’s quote is from Bitter Fame, p. 349. 293 “During supper, an awkward moment. . .”: Ibid. p. 351. 294 “ ‘Sylvia came up here . . .’ ”: Winifred Davies’s unpublished letter to Aurelia Plath is at Indiana. 295 “Through the rest of September . . .”: The information in the next two paragraphs comes from Plath’s unpublished letters to her mother, at Indiana. 297 “ ‘The horror of what you saw . . .’ ”: LH, p. 465. 297 “Sylvia found out that Ted . . .”: The information in the next two paragraphs is based on Plath’s unpublished letters to her mother, at Indiana. 300 “For her part, Edith wrote Aurelia . . .”: Edith Hughes’s unpublished letter to Aurelia Plath is at Indiana. 301 “Telling her that she did not . . .”: From LH, p. 473. 303 “ ‘For heavens sake, yes, Vd . . .’ ”: Alvarez’s unpublished letter to Plath is at Smith. 303 “Divorced also, Alvarez . . .”: The information in this paragraph comes from The Savage God and my interview with Alvarez. The quote—“there was nothing . . .”— is from Savage God, p. 14. 304 “Later, Plath went to a PEN . . .”: The information in this paragraph is from Bitter Fame. 304 “Afterwards, Plath met Peter Orr . . .”: My description of Plath’s afternoon with Orr comes from my interview with Orr. 305 “ ‘Sylvia, what started you . . .’ ”: The quotes from Orr and Plath are taken from The Poet Speaks, edited by Peter Orr (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966), pp. 167–72.307 “ ‘And [it is] in the house. . .’ ”: LH, p. 478. 309 “Writing to Stevie Smith . . .”: Plath’s letter to Smith is published in Me Again: Uncollected Writings of Stevie Smith, edited by Jack Barbera and William McBrien (New York, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1982), p. 6. 309 “It had been well over. . .”: Plath’s unpublished letters to her mother, at Indiana. 310 “During November, unknown to Plath . . .”: The Koshland–Anderson letters are part of the Plath file in the Knopf archives at Texas. 313 “Seeing Trevor Thomas .. .”: Plath’s dialogue with Thomas comes from an unpublished version of his memoir “Last Encounters.” The piece, drastically changed, eventually appeared in Zymergy in the Spring 1990 issue. 314 “ ‘Cross–legged on the red floor . . .’ ”: Savage God, p. 18. 315 “ ‘I suspect that finding herself’ ”: Ibid., p. 21. 315 “The obvious, also. . .”: From my interviews with Alvarez and with Jill Neville. 317 “ ‘It would have been very easy . . .’ ‘: From my interview with Alvarez. 317 “ ‘She must have felt. . .’ ”: Savage God, p. 33.317 “In the last week in December. . .”: Jones’s unpublished letters. 321 “ ‘Sylvia devoured this so . . .’ ”: The Woman and the Work, p. 93. 321 “In his New Statesman review . . .”: “Anti–Heroes” by Robert Taubman, The New Statesman 65, January 25, 1963, pp. 127–8. 321 “ ‘Few writers are able . . .’ ”: “Under the Skin,” The Times Literary Supplement, January 25, 1963, p. 53. 322 “ ‘I recommend The Bell Jar . . .’ ”: Untitled review by Laurence Lerner, The Listener 69, January 31, 1963, p. 215. 324 “As January progressed, Colin and Valerie St. Johnson. . .”: The information in the rest of this paragraph is based on my interview with the St. Johnsons. 325 “Until then, she kept . . .”: The information in the rest of this paragraph and the following paragraph comes in part from my interview with John Hor–der. 327 “But when Trevor Thomas . . .”: The unpublished version of Thomas’s memoir. 327 “That night, Sylvia met Ted . . .”: The information in this paragraph is based in part on Bitter Fame and on my interviews with two confidential sources. 329 “Next Sylvia must have written . . .”: The unpublished version of Thomas’s memoir. 331 “Listing her occupation . . .”: Plath’s death certificate. 331 “Horder telephoned Jillian . . .”: As I worked on this book, I received an anonymous telephone call, on my unlisted number, from someone who told me that Plath had tried to kill her children at the same time she killed herself. When I interviewed Horder at his home in London, I asked him if he believed Plath had tried to harm her children. According to Horder, she went to great lengths to protect them from the gas. 332 “On this day the court heard . . .”: From my interviews with Alvarez and Thomas, both present at the inquest. 332 “After the inquest . . .”: My description of the funeral is based on my interview with Oliver Forshaw. 333 “ ‘Sylvia was doomed . . .’ ”: From my interview with Crockett. 333 “ ‘Sylvia Plath was an early . . .’ ”: From my interview with Steinem. 333 “ ‘When I look back on her life . . .’ ”: Alvarez, Savage God. 333 “ ‘Sylvia’s tragic flaw . . .’ ”: Unpublished commentary by Aurelia Plath. 333 “ ‘Her death was tragic but her life . . .’ ”: From a letter written to me by Little.
A Posthumous Life
335 “ ‘Last Monday, Sylvia Plath . . .’ ”: “A Poet’s Epitaph” by A. Alvarez, The Observer, February 17, 1963, p. 23. 335 “The topic of The Observers homage . . .”: The information in this paragraph comes from my interviews with Olwyn Hughes. 336 “Some time in March . . .”: The information in the next two paragraphs comes from my interviews with Elizabeth Sigmund. 337 “ ‘Found with her head in the gas oven . . .’ ”: “Tragic Death of Young Authoress,” the Saint Pancras Chronicle, February 22, 1963, p. 5. 340 “In America, Alfred A. Knopf. . .”: The information in this paragraph comes from the Knopf archives at Texas. 341 “Finally, in The Observer . . .”: “Poetry in Extremis” by A. Alvarez, The Observer, March 14, 1965, p. 26. 341 “ ‘The spell does not lie . . .’ ”: “Dying Is an Art” by George Steiner, The Reporter, October 7,1965, pp. 51–4. 342 “It was, according to . . .”: “Along the Edge,” The Times Literary Supplement, November 25, 1965, p. 1071. 342 “ ‘Everything in these poems . . .’ ”: “Foreword” by Robert Lowell, Ariel by Sylvia Plath (New York, Harper and Row, 1966), pp. vii–ix. 342 “ ‘One dank day in February 1963 . . .’ ”: “The Bloodjet Is Poetry,” Time 87, June 10, 1966, pp. 118–20. 344 “ ‘Whatever has been and is . . .’ ”: Aurelia Plath’s unpublished letter to Ted’s Aunt Hilda is at Indiana. 346 “In April, in a letter to a literary . . .”: Hughes’s unpublished letter is at the New York Public Library. 349 “ ‘With such a vast potential audience . . .’ ”: From “Publish and Be Damned” by A. Alvarez, The Observer, October 3, 1971, p. 36. 350 “ ‘As I remember it. . .’ ”: Savage God, p. 3.350 “ ‘I would like to make it known. . .’ ”: Letter by Ted Hughes, The Observer, November 21, 1971, p. 10. 351 “ ‘I did not consult Mr Hughes . . .’ ”: Letter by A. Alvarez, ibid. 351 “Two days later, on November 19 . . .”: Letter by Ted Hughes, The Times Literary Supplement, November 19, 1971, p. 1448. 351 “ ‘Mr Hughes says . . .’ ”: Letter by A. Alvarez, The Times Literary Supplement, November 26, 1971, p. 1478. 353 “Jong criticized Aurelia Plath. . .”: “Letters Focus Exquisite Rage of Sylvia Plath” by Erica Jong, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, November 23, 1975, pp. 1, 10. 354 “ ‘I have to admit at the outset. . .’ ”: “Poet’s Prose” by Margaret Atwood, The New York Times Book Review, January 28, 1979, p. 10. 355 “ ‘The last of these . . .’ ”: “Foreword” by Ted Hughes, J, p. xiii. 355 “ ‘How can we content ourselves. . .’ ”: “Sylvia Plath: Consumed by the Anxieties of Ambition” by Peter Davison, The Washington Post Book World, April 18, 1982, pp. 3, 11. 355 “Admitting that ‘her husband . . .’ ”: Ariel Ascending, p. 152. 361 “ ‘This sequence, which lasts . . .’ ”: A review by Janet Maslin, The New York Times, September 6, 1987, p. 15d.
Index
Abels, Cyrilly
Abrams, J. J.
Abramson, Ruth L.
Academy of American Poets
Accent
"Acrobats" (Hughes)
Adamson, George
Admirable Crichton, The (Barrie),
"Admonitions" (Plath)
"Adolescence" (Plath)
Affleck, Margaret
Aldrich, Mrs. Duane
Alfred A.
Knopf
Ariel and
Bell Jar and
Colossus and
"Alicante Lullaby" (Plath)
Alice L. Phillips Junior High
All My Pretty Ones (Sexton)
"All the Dead Dears" (Plath)
"Alone and Alive" (Plath)
Alvarez, A.
Hughes's battles with
"Poet's Epitaph" of,
Savage God and,
SP's attempt at romantic involvement
with
"America! America!" (Plath)
"American in Paris, An" (Plath)
Ames, Elizabeth
Amichai, Yehuda
"Amnesiac" (Plath)
"Among the Narcissi" (Plath)
"Ancient Heroes and the Bomber Pilot, The" (Hughes)
Anderson, Elizabeth
Anderson, Jane
Anderson, Lee
Anderson, Nancy
Anderwert, Nedra
"And Summer Will Not Come Again"(Plath)
Anglican Church
Annie F. Warren Grammar School
anti-German attacks
"Appearance, An" (Plath)
"Applicant, The" (Plath)
"April Aubade" (Plath)
"Ariel" (also known as "The Horse")(Plath)
Ariel and Other Poems (Plath)
Ariel Ascending (Alexander, ed.)
"Ariel's Song" (Shakespeare)
Arnold, Matthew
"Arraignment" (Morgan)
"Arrival of the Bee Box, The" (Plath)
ARTnews
Arundel family
Arvin, Newton
"Ash" Trio
Associated Press
astrology
Atlantic Monthly
Hughes's work in
SP's submissions to
SP's work in
Atlantic Monthly Press
Atwood, Margaret
Auden, W. H.
Austria
Avco Embassy Pictures
Axworthy, Nancy
"B. and K. at the Claridge" (Plath)
Balanchine, George
Baldwin, Roger
"Balloons" (Plath)
Baltzell, Jane
Bantam Books
Barbizon Hotel for Women
Barker, George
Barnhouse, Donald Grey
Barnhouse, Ruth Tiffany
background of
Prouty's correspondence with
SP's letter of recommendation from
SP's psychotherapy with
Baro, Gene
"Barren Women" (Plath)
Barrie, BarbaraBarrieJ. M.
Bartholomew Fair (Jonson)
Bartz, Lydia Clara
Bartz, Rupert
Baskin, Leonard
"Battle-Scene" (Plath)
"Bawdry Embraced" (Hughes)
BBC
"Poet's Corner" on
"Third Programme" on
"Two of a Kind" on
"World of Books" on
"Beach Plum Season on Cape Cod"(Plath)
bear incident
Becker, Gerry
Becker, Jillian
Bed Book, The (Plath)
"Bee Meeting, The" (Plath)
bees
Otto Plath's interest in
"Bees" (Plath)
"Beggars, The" (Plath)
Bell Jar, The (Plath)
American release of
Knopf and
reviews of
Salinger's influence on
Bell Jar, The (film)
lawsuit over
Benét, Stephen Vincent
Bennett, Joan
Benotti, Dorothy Schober (aunt)
marriage of
Benotti, Joseph (uncle)
"Berck-Plage" (Plath)
Betjeman, Sir John
Beuscher, William
Bevan, Dr.
Bigelow, Bruce M.
"Billy Hook and the Three Souvenirs"(Hughes)
"Birthday Present, A" (Plath)
Bishop, Elizabeth
"Bitter Strawberries" (Plath)
"Blackberrying" (Plath)
Blackburn, Thomas
"Black Rook in Rainy Weather" (Plath)
Blackwell, Betsy Talbot
Blakesley, Rev. Robert
Bleibtreu, John
Bolster, Candy
Booklist
Bookseller
Booth, Dr.
Booth, Philip
Boston, Mass.
SP's jobs in
Boston Globe
Boston Herald
Boston Lying-in Hospital
Boston Psychopathic Hospital
Boston University
College of Practical Arts and Letters
of
SP's creative writing course at
Bourjaily, Vance
Bowen, Elizabeth
Bowman, Louise, see Schober, Louise
Bowman
Boyle, Betty-Jo
Boy's Life
Bradford
Braintree High School
Brandt, Jerrold, Jr.
"Brasilia" (Plath)
Brinnin, John Malcolm
British Arts Council
Brookline Country Club
Brookline High School
Brooke-Rose, Christine
Brown, Marcia, see Plummer, Marcia
Brown
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Buck, David
Buckley, Maureen
Buckley, William
Bulganin, Nikolai
Bumblebees (Otto Plath)
Bumblebees and Their Ways (Otto Plath)
Burford, William
Burgess, Anthony
Burlingham, AthertonSinclair (Bish)
"Burning the Letters" (Plath)
Burnside, Anne
Burton, Kathleen
"By Candlelight" (Plath)
Calamus (Whitman)
California
Calisher, Hortense
Calm, The (Hughes)
Cambridge, England:Davison in
SPin
weather in
Cambridge, Mass.
Cambridge University
academic structure of
Amateur Dramatic Club at
campus hospital at
Newnham College at
SP's acceptance to
SP's application to
SP's exams at
SP's resentment of
Whitstead at
Camino Real (Williams)
Camp, Lee
Campbell, "Scotty,"
Camp Helen Storrow
"Candles" (Plath)
Cantor, Bill
Cantor, Joan
Cantor, Margaret
Cantor, Sue
Cape Cod
SP's visits to
Capote, Truman
Carnegie Institute
"Carnival Nocturne" (Plath)
"Casualty, The" (Hughes)
Catcher in the Rye, The (Salinger)
Cecil, Lord David
Charleston Miscellany
Chase, Mary Ellen
in Cambridge
Cheltenham Festival
Cheney, Don
Chequer
"Child" (Plath)
"Childless Woman" (Plath)
children's books
see also How the Donkey Became and
Other Fables; Meet My Folks!Chirico, Giorgio de
Chrisman, Dr.
Christensen, Lew
Christian Science Monitor
Glascock competition in
SP's works in
Ciardi, John
"Circus in Three Rings" (Plath)
Circus in Three Rings (Plath)
"City Streets" (Plath)
Clark (Plath's date)
"Cleggan Disaster, The" (Murphy)
Cleverdon, Douglas
Cleverdon, Nest
Cohen, Eddie
marriage of
SP's correspondence
with
SP's meetings with
Collected Poems (Plath)
Colliers
"Colossus, The" (Plath)
Colossus and Other Poems, The (Plath)
as Bull of Bendylaw
as Devil of the Stairs
as Earthenware Head
as Full Fathom Five
Knopf and
lack of publicity for
reviews of
as Two Lovers and a Beachcomber by
the Real Sea
"Companionable Ills, The" (Plath)
"Comparison, A" (Plath)
Compton, David
Compton, Elizabeth
Conde* Nast
Conrad, Al
"Contusion" (Plath)
Cook, Fredrick J.
Cooke, Barrie
"Courage of Shutting-up, The" (Plath)
"Couriers, The" (Plath)
Court Green
Cowley, Malcolm
Crawford, Ruth W.
Critical Quarterly (Plath, ed.)
Crockett, Wilbury
SP's suicide and
SP's visits with
"Crossing the Water" (Plath) Crossing the Water (Plath)
Crow (Hughes)
Cunningham, Dick
Cusiter, Hope
"Cut" (Plath)
"Daddy" (Plath)
Daiches, David
Daily Hampshire Gazette
dances, dancing
at Buckley estate
school
sexuality and
"Danse macabre" (Plath)
dating and men:in England; see also Hughes, Ted
dating and men: (cont)
pre-college years
reasons for ending relationships and
Smith years
in SP's diary
see also specific boyfriends
"Daughters of Blossom Street, The"(Plath)
Davidow, Ann
SP's correspondence with
Rough Magic Page 46