by Sylvia Plath
In conclusion, I want to wish you lots of love and felicity on your birthday, and only wish I could be there to help you celebrate. I hope I can convey some good news later this spring as a belated and intangible gift . . .
xxx
sivvy
TO Russell Lynes*
Friday 24 April 1953
TLS, Library of Congress
Lawrence House
Smith College
Northampton, Massachusetts
April 24, 1953
Mr. Russell Lynes
Harper’s Magazine
49 East 33rd Street
New York 16, N.Y.
Dear Mr. Lynes:
Needless to say, I was much elated to receive your letter* accepting my three poems.* I am eager to know what issues of Harper’s they will appear in. Also, since I believe I sent you four pieces, I’d appreciate knowing the titles of the three you chose. In case “Doomsday” is among them, I am enclosing a slightly revised version which (with a purely personal bias) I consider superior to the copy I believe you now have.
You mentioned that you would like some information for your Personal and Otherwise column. Here are some statistics that may be relevant: at present I am a junior honoring in English at Smith College. I’m working my way through Smith on a combination of college scholarships and odd jobs. The jobs generally pay for themselves twice . . . once as a regular salaried position, the second time as subjects for stories and poems. In the last three years, during the summers, I have been a governess for innumerable children, a waitress, a real estate agent’s assistant, and a picker on a vegetable truck farm. While at Smith I do a two hour daily stint in the News Office sending out releases for the town paper.
As far a previous publishing goes, it’s all been on a level of teen-age and college competition up to now. Seventeen has generously published four stories and five poems* in the “It’s All Yours” section; the Christian Science Monitor has bought two essays and three poems;* and Mademoiselle published my story “Sunday at the Mintons’” in their August 1952 College Issue. So I consider Harper’s my first real appearance in the Elysian field of “adult” writing.
Obsessive ambitions for the future include the common desire to take a tilt around the world, from the Blue Grotto to Bali (I’ve never been out of the New England States), to go to graduate school, to continue working at all kinds of jobs and getting to know all kinds of people, and, like a literary Miniver Cheevy,* to keep on writing.
Thank you again for your delightful letter!
Sincerely,
Sylvia Plath
TO Warren Plath
Friday 24 April 1953
TLS in greeting card* (photocopy),
Indiana University
Quelle swell / Occasion belle / I’m all agog / This is der Tag / C’est merveilleux und wunder / And utterly spectacular / (look inside for some)* Meilleurs souhaits on your Geburtstag
the tyrolean bear / says hallo there / and for someone nice / here’s an edelweiss! / love, sivvy
friday, april 24
dearest brother . . .
decided to send you birthday letter for a change . . . combining business with pleasure. you can decide which is which. really angel, there is so much to tell you I don’t know where to begin. probably mother has come across with some forests of news, so it may be a bit repetitious. one thing I’ve decided is that you and I are both pretty darn lucky pipple. by the way, I hear you are going to Beaver. do be nice to Kathy even though she may not be Marilyn Monroe. she can’t help that. much! have fun and take a subtle address book to take down names of sundry luscious damsels you meet up with.
am dying to hear what Harvard comes across with. by the way, don’t tell mother, but I am applying for a scholarship to Harvard Summer School. she thinks I am just applying, but I hope to surprise her with some money. so that will take care of eight weeks of the summer. in June I will be home writing and reading and getting tan. same with September. so we’ll both be acquainted with the place!
I just got out of a week in the infirmary from a dastardly sinus infection, but that didn’t prevent me from going out with Gordon (the brilliant senior honors in English at Amherst) saturday. In the afternoon I watched him crew race yale up the connecticut river. he is 6'4" and the best looking guy I’ve ever gone out with. you shoulda seen him. we talked about you and crew, and I think it would be a most shrewd idear for you to go out for the Harvard crew because Gord said there would be a chance for you getting on . . . very good as Harvard emphasizes crew, and a friend of his got on with no experience whatsoever, also tall as you. it would look good to Harvard too to have you really hit a sport. just advice.
anyhow, in spite of the fact I have 50 pages of papers to do before May 20 I am really taking off for weekends. Ray Wunderlich of Columbia Med is treating me to three days of New Yourk . . . the weekend of May 1 . . . also sent me round trip tickets which sweetly saves me ten bucks. maybe he’s planning to seduce me or something. the weekend of the 9th, after that, I’m heading to yale for 3 days for the spring college weekend with Mike (Myron) at which I plan to lie in the sun and get tan on various beaches. nice, wot?
this weekend we’re having a tremendous symposium on arts and morals at which a stellar array of speakers such as W. H. Auden, Lionel Trilling, Allen Tate, Ben Shahn, George Boas, Jacques Barzun, Archibald MacLeish and a few other notaries. I’m covering the whole whoopedo* for the Hampshire Gazette and having all kinds of fun doing it. In Case you are dastardly ignorant as to these men, they are all famous artists, critics, poets and historians. Also by the way, W. H. Auden came to dinner at the house the other night and we all were really thrilled. I had the honor of sitting at his table and almost got to touch the Hem of his Garment. He reminds me of a brilliant, amusing, naughty boy.
best news is my first Professional Acceptance which arrived this morning in the form of a lovely letter from Russell Lynes at Harper’s magazine telling me they were buying THREE of my poems for $1oo dollars in all! This is my Very First acceptance in professional competition, not just a teen-age contest. That’s also the most I’ve ever got paid per pome . . . about $33.33 each. Plus a penny for bubble gum! Also Mademoiselle just sent me ten bucks for being one of the ten runners up in the last College Board Assignment. Now if I only could sell that 50 page true confession I wrote* over spring vacation, we could redecorate the house, buy three convertibles and go to the Riviera for the summer! By the way, Harper’s is equally as good (if not better, I now say,) as the Atlantic Monthly!
now that your sister has speiled so long and intricately to her favorite handsome blond man, she would appreciate a liddle news concerning that same enigmatic individual. how about it bebe?
much love and hapuuppappy returns
for your birfday pooh, love piglet
xxxxxxxxxxxxx from me
TO Aurelia Schober Plath
Saturday 25 April 1953
TLS with envelope,
Indiana University
saturday, april 25
dearest mum . . .
well, tomorrow is your birthday, and Harper’s conveniently came across just in time for me to tell you the news I wanted to: that I got my first real professional acceptance! even now I still can’t believe it! although the lovely check for $1oo came today. The poems they accepted are two of the villanelles: “Doomsday” and the one you like so much “To Eva Descending the Stair.” The third was one I wrote last spring called “Go Get the Goodly Squab.” I was most surprised about that one because the Atlantic had already rejected it, and the Smith College jury for the annual poetry contest* overlooked it completely last year and gave the prize to another girl.* it is one of my favorite exercises in sound, so I’ll be most pleased to see it in print in the future.
I must quote you my lovely note from Russell Lynes word for word. I am really going to frame it:
“We’ve had a couple of your poems here for a lo
ng time and do like them very much. The trouble has been that we don’t seem to be able to make up our minds which one we like best, and so I’m going to buy all three of them--which isn’t just weak-mindedness on our part but real enthusiasm. We’ll be sending you under separate cover in a few days our check for $100. I hope you’ll send us some information about yourself for our “Personal and Otherwise Column” . . . what your’e doing, what you’ve published, and so on.”
Isn’t that just wonderful? Now I can really plan to live in Cambridge, I think. In the same mail I got a $10 check for being one of the 10 runners up in Mlle’s last assignment, so all my extra work and your kind typing really paid off.
Just deposited a $24 check for my April Gazette work, and $18 from March, so the wealth is still dribbling in. Each year I have gotten a larger sum, so I just hope True Story comes through with something substantial to decorate our house with. Now I am still barraging the New Yorker . . . three new poems went off today, and a note asking them about “Mad Girl’s Love Song” which I haven’t heard about for 2 months.
I am really going to work at this writing deal. Amazingly enough, my poems have really had surprising luck . . hope I can get rid of some more this summer. The Atlantic and the New Yorker remain my unclimbed Annapurnas. Of course, in Harper’s I shall be in excellent literary company. Really, I just couldn’t sleep all last night, I was so excited. Can’t you just hear the critics saying, “Oh, yes, she’s been published in Harper’s.” (Don’t worry, I’m not getting smug! I’m just happy that my hard work has gotten such a plum of a reward!)
At last the Symposium is over and I’ve taken down my last cover. Work is piled up mountain high, and I just hope I get through (as you do) the rest of the year.
Last night I had a celebratory supper at the Brown’s and the dears got a whole bottle of champagne to celebrate! I love those people so much, Marty and Mrs. B. If I ever publish a little book of poems I will dedicate it to them. Mentally, I dedicate this Harper’s triumph to you, my favorite person in the world.
Now I just want to read and read and study and write and write and study. I have piles of pocket books and others that I want to read this summer . . . they line my shelves with such gay jackets, and I love them with all my heart.
New York next weekend, New Haven the one after that. Then God knows what. I am really so very happy in the house and in my work . . . the long hell of the fall and the broken leg seem to make each present joy that much more of an ecstasy.
xxx to my birthday mummy . . .
sivvy
TO Aurelia Schober Plath
Tuesday 28 April 1953*
TLS with envelope,
Indiana University
tuesday morning
dear mother,
just a note before the holocaust of the rest of this week to tell you that such wonderful and right things are happening to your tall stubby-nosed daughter. yesterday I was elected Editor of the Smith Review for next year . . . the one job on campus that I really coveted with all my heart. so now, with my prize financial job on the Gazette, I’m carrying my full number of points, and have the two activities I really wanted above all.
last night I will never forget. W. H. Auden came to our unit of Modern Poetry and for two hours sat and read and analyzed one of his longest poems. we had beer and little cheese sandwiches on rye bread, and a magnificent man, Dr. Wind,* from the art and philosophy department was there, too, and to hear the brilliant play of minds, epigrams, wit and intelligence and boundless knowledge was the privilege of my lifetime. Miss Drew’s living room took on the proportions of a book-lined sanctuary, and I never felt such exaltation in my life. the English department in this place is unsurpassed anywhere, and this year, with the symposium and W. H. Auden, was a plumcake of letters and arts genii.
you’d never know I had a written in Milton tomorrow. living at Harvard for 5 days each week for 8 weeks, with meals, would be, at the lowest, $150. I have a feeling that some of my other financial pigeons may also come to roost . . . the ones I have out are the Luckies jingles, the New Yorker, the True Story (god, that should bring something ---at least $100) and of course I am again applying for the college poetry prize, which I doubt a bit if I will get, judging from their oversight last year.
wait’ll you hear what I’ve done. yesterday I went on a shopping spree, and the items I came up with are fit to scream in ecstasy over. I spent a fabulous sum ($85!!!) in one day, but I really hit the jackpot. now I can go to New York and New Haven, Paris for that matter. Really, my summer clothes were all just cottons with big full skirts and unversatile (except for the aqua cotton) personalities.
Yesterday I bought first a divine pair of white linen french heels. then the most divine black pure silk shantung dress you’ve ever seen in your life . . . very simple sheath with shoestring straps, bare as a slip, for dancing or such, with a shortsleeved black jacket that makes it exquisite for theater or town wear. perfectly classically simple. then I got a suit dress which goes perfectly with the blue topper you sent today . . . it has a strapless sheath dress of blue and white pinstripe cotton cord, and an over-jacket that fits it for train travel with the most heavenly parisian standup collar and long sleeves. unbelievably versatile. the last purchase is a heavy linen textured brown-white-and-black mexican print with a boat neck and shiny black patent leather belt, much on the style of my shiny yellow cotton. as you can imagine, they all do wonders for me, and I’ve never been so sure and Right about clothes before in my life. somehow this is a good time to buy for choice, and I knew just what I wanted and got Exactly what I wanted. someday, if I get a million dollars from true story, I will buy a black linen duster. I feel I have grown up no end. no more dirndls or baby puffs for me . . . all very sleek and suave and stylish. oh, I want so badly for you to see them . . . pictures inside.
mushc lover (now I can’t even spell and sound inebriated!)
your ecstatic daughter . . .
sivvy
p.s. please . . . don’t scold me about spending the money. I really needed these things & they will be most versatile & wearable – I’ll sell more poems, I promise. If Harper’s is down, the Atlantic should be feasible—
Parallax
Major faults in granite*
p.s. ironically enough (I should have waited for my luck to work as usual) The one poem Harper’s didn’t accept was “Mad Girl’s Love Song” which was the one at the New Yorker (My favorite! 1) The New Yorker now has my 3 best recent poems (a long dialogue between Adam & Eve* & 2 new villanelles) plus two letters, one cancelling M.G.L.S., the other (2nd) saying to use it if they felt so inclined. God knows what will happen now. Damn them – They should accept one of the four!
Thank god also about Dick’s operation – I am visiting a “friend” in New York – make it a girl if you wish. Then I will too.
xx
siv
TO Aurelia Schober Plath
Thurs.–Fri. 30 April–1 May 1953*
TLS with envelope,
Indiana University
THURSDAY NIGHT
Dear mother . . .
just got your sweet special delivery letter, and want to set your heart at ease about my attire for the weekend. I’m bringing a wool skirt and cashmere sweater, in case of chill weather, and invested in a pair of plastic boots this morning, which with my raindana and a black raincoat from a friend in the house should make me quite waterproof. by the way, I just LOVE your topper . . . it goes so beautifully with my new suit that you must have been psychic when you got it.
our Phi Bete
dinner tonight was most impressive. our house has five, and is, if I may say so modestly, the most Phi Bete starred house on campus. we all wore formals to the dinner, and Miss Mensel and Mrs. Cook were there in addition to several faculty members invited by each girl who was a Phi Bete. we had all the Faculty Lights, as a diversity of departments were represented . . . science, government, english, and religion! Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gorham Davis, Miss Page (last year’s creative writing) and Miss Lincoln* (this year’s Milton) were all present . . and although I sat at Mary’s table, I went and had coffee with my pets afterwards. I wish you could have seen the affair . . so impressive, and I am so proud of our wonderful house.
cross your fingers for me this weekend . . I hope everything goes all right. after all the time I’ve spent shopping this week, and buying shields and, labor of labors, sewing them on . . . I feel like a housewife, secretary, anything but a butterfly schoolgirl!
Friday morning
RAIN. well, I’m glad it’s raining now so I will be All Prepared. the black raincoat I’m wearing is warm and very stylish, with a heavy white lining and multicolored pinstripes. I’ve decided that it is exactly what I will buy (someday when I earn more money) instead of a duster, because it is not only infinitely more practical, but also beautiful, and can serve as a regular coat. seems as if I’m all for black and white these days. navy accessories and brown things are really impractical because of getting shoes and bags to match. I now have a white bag and white shoes, a red bag and red shoes, and some day am going to get a black patent leather bag.
I am so proud of myself now, in my judgment in clothes. I know just what I want and just what I need, and feel most positive and good about it all.
the funniest thing happened this morning. a girl called up and said Mr. Sherk suggested that I tutor her in physical science. I was overwhelmed. of course, since I’ve missed so many lectures by going away and being sick, it is a physical impossibility, but I was very touched that he suggested me.