by Sylvia Plath
Love
me
TO Aurelia Schober Plath
Friday 23 July 1948
ALS (postcard), Indiana University
July 23
Dearest Mummy,
Boy, this morning was surely cold and raw! I wore my heavy navy sweater until we went down to the beach and it was so hot in the sun that I put on a halter. Now, in rest hour, it’s cold and cloudy again. At night I’m warm with my flannels – I don’t use my netting any more because my dear little tent-mates broke off all my netting poles – didn’t look nice, they said. I told you what a demand there was for pictures! That’s where everyone’s vanity crops up! – They all want self-portraits! They don’t like us to lie out in the sun much, so that’s another thing I’ll enjoy when I get home. I’ll be seeing you at Woods Hole in 5 days – I’ll be glad to see your face again! I love you so much!
Love,
me
TO Aurelia Schober Plath
Saturday 24 July 1948
ALS, Indiana University
July 24, 1948
Dear Mum,
Boy! Do I have an earful to tell you! I was up in the infirmary to get some nosedrops to clear up a sinus headache, when the assistant cook came in the adjoining room. I was lying on the bed for a few minutes to let the drops soak up and what I didn’t hear! “Buddy,” the nurse was talking to her and trying to soothe her, for she was obviously hysterical – she talked in a choked voice and laughed queerly now and then. She talked so loudly that I could hear every word. This, in brief is what she said:
“This camp has the oddest set-up I’ve ever seen. When I hired out as assistant cook I expected to help buy and plan menus – but Monty (the head of camp) does all that. Mrs. Lamb (the head cook) has nothing to say about the diet. Why, when she had to make cocoa for the whole camp at the beginning of the month she said “I don’t know how to make cocoa!’ She doesn’t even know how to make a pie. If she’s that bad why is she head cook?!! I can’t make a pie myself – don’t know the knack of rolling out the crust. That stew this noon was nothing but garbage left over. The counsellors around here are so fussy that they won’t eat leftovers. When the kids come back from the Regatta (sail boat races) tonight they’ll be starved, and you know what there is to eat? 15 hotdogs for each 25 people and a potatoe salad! Why can’t someone besides Monty prepare meals! The cook did last year!”
Hereupon the nurse interrupted, saying that the helpings had to be very small to go around a table of eight. The nurse then gave the assistant cook some medicine and came into the room where I was lying with my mouth open waiting for the drops to clear my sinuses. She said laughingly. “Can you keep your mouth shut while I’m gone? I know you can’t really, but you know what I mean.”
As you can imagine, the cook’s little outburst shocked me no end, but I pretended to be dumb about it. Later on in the day she tossed me a hard red plum after asking whether I wanted one, and said “It’s not very ripe, but it’s the ripest we have.”
I hope no one knows I’ve written this letter, but I just had to tell you!
Well, now that’s off my chest I can feel better! I hope my cold clears up by the time I see you on Wednesday. Yesterday our island, too, was shrouded in fog. Isn’t it fun to watch the tattered gray mists blow in from the sea!
I’ll write more later,
Love and more love,
Sylvia
TO Aurelia Schober Plath
Tuesday 10 August 1948
ALS (postcard), Indiana University*
Tuesday
Sailed till sunset yesterday!
Dear Mum,
I will be in South Station at noon (12:00) on Thursday, not Wednesday. The train leaves here at 10:15. I have had a wonderful appetite and eaten like a queen – had corn-on-the-cob for the 1st time this year. Yesterday we had the most wonderful time! Three of ann’s friends & ann’s parents & us took an all day cruise in the Bowker’s big big sailboat. We went by motor about 10 miles across the ocean to Marion,* had a picnic lunch there and then jaunted back! It was a treat for me, as you can guess! When Ann & I got back, about 4 P.M, we took her small sail boat and sailed in the harbor till supper. I got my fill of sun for the day & a nice tan on my face (and lots of midge bites.) I was glad to get your letter! I am lucky!! I love you lots & realize how lucky I am to have you for a mother. “Having a wonderful time.”
Me xx
xx
Love
x
TO Hans-Joachim Neupert
Friday 24 September 1948
ALS (photocopy), Smith College
September 24
Dear Hans-Joachim,
How glad I was to find your letter waiting for me when I came home from school. While I was walking down my street, I hurried a little because I kept thinking, “Perhaps, perhaps I will find a letter from Bahnhof waiting for me!” And so it was!
Time and again I have thought how lucky I was to have found such an entertaining correspondant. Have I told you that I chose your letter from a large ammount of others, almost by chance? You see, I read all the letters, and then thought that yours sounded more interesting than all the rest. And I was right!
Truly, you seem to have a good understanding of English. Of course Idioms are difficult to master, but that will come to you in time. I know that when I attempt to write in French my phrasing is awkward, and I do not say what I mean always. You, however, write as nicely as many of my friends do.
Your school begins early. Our first day was the ninth of September. Our vacation lasted from June 20th until September 9th.
What a good time you must have had in the Alps! As for myself, I spent most of the summer by the seashore. Somehow I have a special place in my heart for the ocean. I like the way the water changes from one mood to another – from high waves on dark, stormy days, to tranquil ripples on sunny days. I still remember a night that I spent on a lonely beach with a few other girls. We brought blankets along and cooked our supper of tomato soup, bread, cheese and milk, over a driftwood fire. Then we curled up in our blankets for the night. It was strange and peaceful to be on that Island beach, far from the rest of humanity. The only sound was the damp night wind sighing in the eelgrass and the waves thundering on the flat, unbroken shore. I could not sleep for a long while, because I felt compelled to watch the procession of twinkling stars across the black night sky. I felt, somehow, very small and inconsequential in comparison to the endless space of sky, sand and sea. It is an inspiring feeling to be on the edge of the land. I think that the greatness of Nature is somehow healing to the spirit. After dealing with so many problems in world affairs it is comforting to think, for a change, that this world amounts to little more than a speck of dust in the unbelievably huge universe.
How right you are when you say one can not fully understand the seriousness of life when one lives in good conditions! From our snug, sunny little homes, from our complacent little towns it is so difficult to imagine that somewhere in the world, people are starving, somewhere people are homeless. Our main worry is about the high price of food, about a new car! I do not mean to be quite as sarcastic as I sound. It is only that history seems to flow past my door without affecting me, as a person. Perhaps when I get out of school and into the business world, that will change.
Take the last war, for instance. To me, it was as unreal as a fairytale. Food was scarer, to be sure, and the headlines in the newspapers gave daily accounts of the battles, but beyond a vague, cold fear that my home might be bombed or that someone I loved might be killed, I felt nothing. The newspapers and the radio bring the urgent matters of today to my attention, but since I do not see them or experience them, they are not real. When one has lived in a comfortable home all one’s life it is hard to comprehend that other people live much differently. Of course we young people think seriously and with concern about present-day issues. I would like to plunge into the vital world, if I could, but I am young still, and I suppose that there will be time.
About our school system, I imagine that it is a great deal like yours, except that we have books. Education is compulsory for both boys and girls until the age of sixteen. One begins school at the age of five years, usually. Then one is in the First Grade. The first and earliest branch of school is called Elementary, and it includes from the first to sixth grades (a grade is a year of school.) Then comes Junior High, containing seventh to ninth grades. Then Senior High School, (where I am now) which runs from the tenth to twelfth grades. I am in the eleventh grade, which means my 11th year of schooling. After one graduates from High School, one is usually about seventeen years of age. Then one is free to begin the job of ones choosing, or to go on to a college or university for four years. This is what I hope to do. After college I will enter a job in the field of work in which I am most interested. I am not sure whether that will be commercial art or journalism (writing.)
A college education is a great advantage when one is searching for a job. Men and women are preferred if they have this background.
I, too, think that the religion is important for a civilization. If we would only follow some Christian precepts there would be no wars, I think. If only our churches would forget their small, technical differences and band together into a united faith, allowing for the differences in beliefs, I think that we would be a stronger nation. At present, we have in our hands the atom bomb, the weapon which could blow man from the face of the earth. Shall we use it for war or peace. When one considers the dread results of such a weapon, there can be but one answer. Why can’t the nations forget their differences and work toward a common goal?! Why must we always distrust our neighbors?! If our faith in the goodness of mankind was sufficiently powerful, I believe that we could answer these questions.
There are so many things I want to ask you! How are your lives in your part of Germany directed? Do you live much as you did before the war? (I mean, aside from physical changes.) Have you any plans for your life after school? Is their much future for your youth? Do tell me about your home-town, as you said you would! What is the general (that is a very indefinite word, I’m afraid) opinion of America held by the people around you? Do you “worry” about Russia as many of us do?
I had not intended to write such a lengthy letter, but once I started it was difficult to stop. I await your next letter eagerly.
Bravo for your understanding of English. (If there is anything you do not understand in my writing, let me know so I may explain it.)
Sincerely,
Sylvia
TO Hans-Joachim Neupert
Monday 20 December 1948
ALS (photocopy) Smith College
Dec. 20, 1948
Dear Hans,
When your first letter arrived, I was on my Thanksgiving vacation, and when I saw it, I said “Ah, I must write Hans a long letter and tell him a lot!” But I did not sit down to write until today. Your second letter came in the mail this afternoon, and I was sad that you were so worried.
Of course you have said nothing to displease me! You could not displease me if you tried! As for your English, it is excellent. It is easy for me to write to you in my own language, but I admire you for doing so well in a foreign tongue.
Forgive me for not answering you so promptly. I will send this letter by airmail also so that you will receive it without delay.
I wish that I could give you a clearer detailed picture of our life. I imagine that it is, for the most part, similar to yours. Do you have any special dishes of food to eat? For breakfast most people eat eggs or oatmeal or cold cereal. In Germany do you have the same type of cold cereal? It is called by various silly names such as “Rice Krispies” and “Cheery Oats” and it always tastes the same – like little pieces of pressed hay or sawdust. When I read about the old-fashioned breakfasts I get a longing for them. The people had fish & potatoes and gravy as at a regular dinner, so you can imagine how much more they ate at a main meal. While a great deal of cooking here is tasteless, I am very fortunate to have an Austrian grandmother who cooks good European dishes for us. School is over now for the Christmas vacation, and a light, powdery snow has covered the earth. Already one may see the first Christmas trees light up with red, green, yellow, and blue bulbs and shining silver ornaments.
Down in the shopping district, all the stores are all aglow with brilliant lights, and at night I love to walk by and “window-shop.” That is, to gaze in and pretend I could buy all that I would like.
Out of a loud-speaker, carols of Christmas pour forth into the cold night air, and the frosty little stars themselves seem to twinkle with delight. All over the country wide-eyed little children are eagerly awaiting the arrival of “Santa Claus” and his eight reindeer. On Christmas Eve the young ones hang up stockings on the mantlepiece of the fireplace and the next morning they awake to find them bulging with presents, fruit and candies.
For myself, as the Christmas bells ring out across the moonlit snow, my thoughts will be with you, although my letter may not reach you for a while.
We call “snow-boots-driving” “skiing” in America. All through the winter people ski on the hillsides, and almost everyone enjoys this sport.
Our school vacations end on January 3rd, and then we begin to prepare seriously for the mid-year examinations. I only have exams in four subjects – English, third year Latin, second year French and third year math. The tests each last 1½ hours and are quite difficult.
You have no idea how much I enjoyed your picture. It was so nice of you to send me such a good one of you.
Everywhere I go babysitting, now, the children demand some stories of Santa Claus. Their child-like faith is really touching.
When I am through with college, I hope to get a job either on the staff of a newspaper or a magazine, as a correspondant, or in fashion design or book-illustrating or even as the secretary to some foreign dealer. Who knows – perhaps I may save enough to sail to Europe some day. Only this is one of my far off dreams!
The days of vacation speed by oh! so quickly. And then there is the long, drab winter with the steel-gray skies and deep snow, but at last spring will come, and that is something to look forward to in the long, dark winter days.
I moved to Wellesley when I was 10 years old, and have lived here for six years. Before this I lived at the sea side, and my childhood memories of that place are pleasant. Have you any brothers or sisters? I have one younger brother, as I have no doubt mentioned before.
I hope again that you will forgive me for replying so late. I am sending a small book of verse which has given me much pleasure, and I hope you will enjoy it.
Best wishes,
Sylvia
1949
TO Hans-Joachim Neupert
Sat. 29 Jan.–Sun. 6 Feb. 1949*
ALS (photocopy), Smith College
Jan. 29, 1949
Dear Hans,
How entertaining your letters are! I enjoy reading them so much! I am very glad that you liked the little book. Have you read any of Stephen Vincent Bénet’s stories or poems.* He is, I think, one of our greatest American writers, and certainly, one of my favorites!
The Christmas tree has been in American homes for over a century, now, and is a beloved custom at Christmas time. Many years ago, the early settlers in our nation did not know the symbol of the tree, and thought it a barbaric custom. But when one man cut down a pine tree and decorated it in spite of the angry citizens, the townspeople saw how beautiful the glowing candles and the fresh green boughs were, so they adopted the custom and it has been with us since then.
When I wrote of “Thanksgiving” I did not think to explain to you the origin of this American Holiday. If you are studying American History you probably know about the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth rock in 1620. It was then winter, and the cold, barren, snow-swept land of America, the unknown continent, seemed strange and unfriendly. However, though a great part of the little band died of cold, a few friendly Indians taught
the new settlers how to plant crops, and in that wintery season, about November, the “redskins” brought food – corn and meat for the hungry white-men. It was then that the settlers realized their good fortune, and bowed their heads to give thanks to God for their blessings. It is this day we set aside as a day of thanks-giving, and we celebrate by a holiday and a big meal, in remembrance of the food brought by the Indians.
Your weather in Germany is much like ours in America – we have had little snow, and the climate has been unseasonably warm. I have probably told you that I have no skis, but I think that skiing is one of the most graceful sports. I have seen pictures of the skier, like a swooping bird, skimming down the snowy slopes.
I am in sympathy with you about “The German Italian Experience” paper, for I have just finished writing a twenty-five page thesis on “Mormonism,”* one of the unique religious sects in the United States. I am so glad you are studying American history! There are many parts which are colorful & fascinating!
I do not know the Jamesbourg Highschool. Do you know what state it is in?
How is it that you are so familiar with American terms for music? Even I am not too well acquainted with “Be-Bop.” I like most classical music, especially the dreamy pieces of Chopin and Débussy. In fact I like music in general. Like you, I have not had much time to play the piano lately. I enjoy popular music – but I like slow dance tunes better than jazz. I can play a little Boogie-Woogie on the piano. Do you have that in Germany? It is a type of jazz, and yet it has a classical touch.