The Letters of Sylvia Plath Volume 1

by Sylvia Plath

  got your darling card & the $10 this morning; you are wonderful! already you know what makes me happiest---those wonderful records which ted and I can share together! I can’t wait to tell him. I’d honestly rather have him get something than myself, and if it’s something we both can listen to together that’s just perfect!

  ––––––––––––––

  later tuesday night: WELL: HERE IS THE LATEST BULLETIN: ted came up from london tonight at my urgent request, going back just now after a delectable steak & mushroom dinner, peas, strawberries AND your delectable birthday date-nut bars. both of us have been literally sick to death being apart, wasting all our time & force trying to cope with the huge fierce sense of absence. SO: spain is out; ted is coming to live & work in cambridge for the rest of the year; in the next two weeks we are going on a rigorous campaign of making our marriage public to first my philosophy supervisor, next the fulbright, next newnham; we are married and it is ridiculous and impossible for either of us to be whole or healthy apart. the year could be so fine, with us studying & writing together & much more advantageous financially without those silly 3 round trips to spain & no certain job there. in 10 days the proper people should know; it will be a fight, but I feel this is the only right thing, as does ted; why don’t you just announce our engagement now, wedding unscheduled; then announce by engraving our wedding on december 16th & the new home address we’ll hope to have by then; then for a gala party on our return; no wedding expense (we’ll need every bit of money for cape summer) & relatively no strain on you to keep up pretenses any more; we can live openly at home, come home married on ship, & I can write & do good exams if my teddy is with me – do write & stand by. we will be so happy together from dec. 7th on – wish us luck with the authorities

  your own loving

  sivvy

  TO Peter Davison

  Tuesday 23 October 1956

  TLS (photocopy), Yale University

  Whitstead

  4 Barton Road

  Cambridge, England

  October 23, 1956

  Mr. Peter Davison

  Office of the Associate Editor

  The Atlantic Monthly Press

  8 Arlington Street

  Boston 16, Massachusetts

  U.S.A.

  Dear Peter,

  I was so pleased to get your fine letter.* Life here is divided between writing and studying and, with Ted in London, not too stoic.

  I am enclosing, as you suggested, the manuscript of Ted’s book of children’s fables in case the children’s department at the Atlantic Press might be at all interested. Perhaps they might want to shorten it to fewer fables, or present them in different order; let me know if they even consider it any sort of possibility. Now, if they don’t think it’s suitable for them, would you be so good as to have them send it on to one of the larger children’s publishers in New York---probably you would know which were most potential---Macmillan, Grosset & Dunlap, Reynal Hitchcock, or what. I don’t even know if these places still exist, having only my few children’s books here to go by. I hope the familiar treatment of God won’t be against these stories: I don’t know how rigidly careful children’s editors have to be about religion. God here is presented in a very concrete childlike way (not omniscient, but deceivable & burnable) and, I think, something like that play “Green Pastures” (by Marc Connelly or some such?) where it’s a case of colloquial folk-god. Needless to say, I’d greatly appreciate any words you yourself have of opinion and advice about these fables.

  Ted is at present doing a series of free-lance readings for the BBC third program---a recording of Yeats’ “Tower” and some of the short Crazy Jane poems: also, two of his own poems for one of their “Poets’ Voice” features. The Nation likes his poems as does Poetry, Chicago (what a difference in standard, though!) and keep buying. Much is out, has been out ages; we wait.

  As for me: I write short stories & poems daily, work on rough stories around the central idea of this novel, feel awed enough by the Idea of A Novel to say probably I’ll have a rough draft ready for you to look at sometime toward the end of next summer. I probably should postpone all thoughts of Atlantic Contests till 1958; or at least not think about them, but work steadily.

  I have several recent stories out which I’m waiting to hear from. Poetry (Chicago, of course; it’s just habit, writing it after) gratifyingly just bought six (6!) of my latest poems in one lovely fell swoop with a very nice letter. I am convinced that there will be a market for a woman lyric poet who is not a man-imitating neo-platonist intellectual (e.g. Kathleen Raine) nor a bitter-sweet coy feminine one, like the weaker Millay, sarcastic Dorothy Parker, or miserable Teasdale; such tremulousness; such frustration. So here comes a burgeoning Wife of Bath hand in glove with Marie Curie; or some such. My.

  Anyhow, the Christian Science Monitor has just bought a little article I wrote on Benidorm, Spain, with four of the best pen-and-ink sketches I think I’ve ever done---sardine boats, market place, castle hill, spanish staircase. They have raised my rate most pleasantly since I first started doing scrubby little free-lance articles and sketches for them. And their pay standards are notoriously low. Spiritual compensation, I suppose, is intended to remunerate the truly righteous.

  Let me know about these fables. And if they do not work out with your press, do send them on to New York at your discretion. Be really frank in your criticism: it will help a lot.

  I look most forward to coming back home next June. I feel somehow like a feminine Samson with hair cut, if such is possible---being so far away from editors & publishing houses!

  Very best wishes.

  Sincerely,

  Sylvia Plath

  PHOTO INSERTS

  Sylvia Plath, Ruth Freeman and David Freeman, Winthrop, Massachusetts, 1938.

  Self-portrait of SP holding a flower next to her Aunt Dorothy holding a wand, from SP to Aurelia Schober Plath, 20 February 1940.

  Sylvia Plath and campers at ‘Trading Post’, Camp Weetamoe, Center Ossipee, New Hampshire, July 1943.

  Margot Loungway in Maine, 1 November 1944. Captioned on verso: ‘First of November. 1944. Just before Margot had her hair cut’.

  Drawing of a winter scene with moon, from SP to Frank Schober, 16 January 1946.

  Drawings of a painted frame, of a bicycle, and a girl holding a piece of paper sitting at a desk with an inkwell on it, from SP to Marion Freeman, 16 April 1946.

  Drawing of a peach on a leafed branch, from SP to Marion Freeman, 4 November 1946.

  Drawing of a sailboat with ‘SYLVIA FOR SECRETARY’ written on the sail and port side, from SP to Margot Loungway, 11 January 1947.

  Drawing of the beach, houses, and the ocean, from SP to Aurelia Plath, 5 July 1947.

  Drawing of a ‘freak’ girl scout, from SP to Aurelia Plath, 20 July 1948.

  Sylvia Plath, c. 1950.

  Drawing of a horse’s head, from SP to Ann Davidow-Goodman, c. 12 January 1951.

  SP with a sprained ankle, from SP to Ann Davidow-Goodman, 9 May 1951.

  Drawings of four pieces of clothing, from SP to Aurelia Plath, 6 May 1951.

  Drawing of SP mowing the lawn, from SP to Marcia Brown Stern, 6 June 1951.

  Joanne, Esther (Pinny), and Frederic Mayo, from SP to Ann Davidow-Goodman, 26 June 1951.

  Self-portrait holding a book, from SP to Marcia Brown Stern, 1 July 1951.

  Sylvia Plath standing beside a bicycle, Marblehead, Massachusetts, 24 July 1951.

  Drawing of a female on crutches in a high wind with hands reaching through ice, from SP to Myron Lotz, 9 January 1953.

  Drawings of jackets, dresses, and a shoe, from SP to Aurelia Plath, 28 April 1953.

  Drawing of a female wearing a robe, on a pillow, holding a pen, from SP to Gordon Lameyer, 22 June 1954.

  Streets, houses, and ocean in Winthrop, Mass., from SP to Gordon Lameyer, 22 June 1954.

  Soup on a table, from SP to Gordon Lameyer, 22 June 1954.

  Sylvia Plath at Chatham
, Massachusetts, c. 24 July 1954.

  Sylvia Plath and Ruth (Freeman) Geissler on Ruth’s wedding day, Winthrop, Massachusetts, 11 June 1955.

  Drawing of SP’s room at Whitstead, from SP to Aurelia Plath, 2 October 1955.

  A coffee table with a plant, a New Yorker, and other items, on the back of an envelope, from SP to J. Mallory Wober, 16 November 1955.

  Drawing of a female figure in dressing room looking in a mirror and holding a pen, from SP to J. Mallory Wober, 24 November 1955.

  Drawing of a bouquet of daffodils on the back of an envelope, from SP to Aurelia Schober, 2 February 1956.

  Sylvia Plath atop Torre dell’Orologio, Venice, 8 April 1956.

  Sylvia Plath at Fontana Muta, Rampa Caffarelli, Rome, 10 April 1956.

  Sylvia Plath sitting on a stone wall with a typewriter, on the Yorkshire moors, September 1956.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  A remarkable collaboration produced this edition of The Letters of Sylvia Plath. We have many people to thank. Editing Sylvia Plath’s letters began as an academic inter-term course taught at Smith College by Karen V. Kukil for the Archives Concentration program. Students in Editing Sylvia Plath’s Correspondence learned the art of exact and accurate transcription, proofreading, and emendation based upon primary resources. A few years before the class began, Rebecca Rosenthal, class of 2007, processed the correspondence in the Sylvia Plath Collection held by the Mortimer Rare Book Room at Smith College. Over a three-year period from January 2011 to January 2013, students transcribed all the letters at Smith College. In January 2012 Plath scholar Peter K. Steinberg co-taught the course and then proceeded to locate, transcribe, and annotate all the extant Sylvia Plath letters in other collections. This edition of Sylvia Plath’s letters is the product of our partnership with many students at Smith College, including Robin Whitham Acker ’12; Sylvia L. Altreuter ’12; Taylor A. Barrett ’15; Taylor M. Bayer ’12; Rachel E. Brenner ’14; Ingrid Brioso-Rieumont ’15; Virginia Choi ’11; Melanie S. Colvin ’13; Emily Cook ’11; Ellen Cormier ’11; Kristen L. De Lancey ’15; Caroline F. T. Doenmez ’09; Amanda P. Ferrara ’13; Hope C. Fried ’14; Alexandra Ghiz ’12; Noa R. Gutterman ’14; Kristen F. Haseney ’04; Catherine Hatas ’13; Victoria K. Henry ’13; Cheryl R. Holmes ’11; Katherine M. Horning ’13; Angelica Huertas ’10; Eve N. Hunter ’12; Salma Hussain ’14; Esra Karamehmet ’12; Jinjin Lu ’13; Emerson M. Lynch ’15; Taylor A. Marks ’15; Grace K. Martin ’13; Katherine A. Nelson ’12; Rebecca L. O’Leary ’13; Lois Jenkins Peters ’09; Emma Ramsay ’12; Anne M. Re ’13; Maris E. Schwarz ’15; Chelsea A. Seamon ’13; Joyce P. Shalaby ’13; Jihyun J. Shim ’14; Naomi Sinnathamby ’14; Gabrielle E. Termuehlen ’16; Dior Vargas ’09; Alexandra B. von Mering ’14; Drew L. Wagner ’11; Genevieve C. Ward-Wernet ’13; Erin M. Whelchel ’09; Kaidi Williams ’11; and Alison R. Winger ’14. Professor Adrianne Andrews and other faculty members at Smith College also participated in the project.

  A number of family, friends, and professional contacts of Sylvia Plath provided information reflected in the footnotes. In addition to Frieda Hughes, we would like to thank Warren Plath and his daughters Susan Plath Winston and Jennifer Plath. We also appreciate the information received from Jane Baltzell-Kopp, Joan Cantor Barnes, Sarah Christie Bellwood, James B. Biery, Janet Burroway, Jonathan Christie, Susan Stetson Clarke, David Compton, Liadin Cooke, Blair Cruickshank, Ann Davidow-Goodman Hayes, Dena Dincauze, Jacquie Dincauze, Ruth Fainlight, Aidan Foster, Marian Foster, Johannes B. Frankfort, Nicholas Frankfort, Michael Frayn, Cary Plumer Frye, Charles S. Gardner, Ruth P. Geissler, Leo A. Goodman, Carol Hughes, Daniel Huws, Judy Kahrl, David N. Keightley, Elinor Friedman Klein, Lynne Lawner, Philip E. McCurdy, James McNeely, Eugene L. Mark, Doug Miller, Jane Nalieri, Kenneth Neville-Davies, Dr Richard Newell, Dr Perry Norton, Dr Richard A. Norton, Judith Raymo, Simon Sidamon-Eristoff, Elizabeth and William Sigmund, Robert Truslow, Louise Giesey White, Rosemary Wilson, and Nicolette Zeeman.

  Professor Linda Wagner-Martin first articulated the need for a full edition of Sylvia Plath’s letters during her plenary lecture at the Sylvia Plath 75th Year Symposium at Oxford University in 2007. A number of other scholars later contributed their insights and expertise as well. We would particularly like to thank professors Lynda K. Bundtzen (Williams College), Anita Helle (Oregon State University), Dianne Hunter (Trinity College), and Susan Van Dyne (Smith College) for their guidance. In addition, we would like to thank Dr Amanda Golden (New York Institute of Technology) for sharing her expansive knowledge of Plath’s and Hughes’s pedagogy, marginalia, poetry, and literary influence. Dr Gail Crowther provided invaluable research and information, as well as immeasurable support during the project. Gail was a vital contributor in building the notes to add context to Plath’s activities. Gail located the two late letters to Gilbert and Marian Foster, which in addition to being fascinating documents add a new dimension to Plath’s late interpersonal relationships. Her friendship, advice, and expertise helped to make this book possible. Likewise, without the dedication, passion, and camaraderie of David Trinidad, this book would be a shell of itself. David compiled an initial list of known letters, believed in the project since its inception, shared tireless thoughts with us in Plath-like ‘bull sessions’, located letters, and provided information for the notes. The amount of credit Golden, Crowther, and Trinidad deserve is unquantifiable.

  The archivists, librarians, and curators responsible for photocopies and scans of Plath’s letters, as well as for research assistance, who must be thanked for their tireless and important work are: Christine Barber and Peter Nelson at Amherst College; Elizabeth Maisey at Assumption College; Louise North at the BBC Written Archives Centre; Andrew Gough and Helen Melody at the British Library; James Maynard at the University of Buffalo; Jacqueline Cox, Patricia McGuire, and Anne Thomson at the University of Cambridge; Rochelle Rubinstein at the Central Zionist Archives; Christine Colburn and Barbara Gilbert at the University of Chicago; James Merrick at Colby College; Tara C. Craig and Brigette C. Kamsler at Columbia University; Rebecca Parmer at Connecticut College; Allyson Glazier, Barbara L. Krieger, and Morgan R. Swan at Dartmouth College; Emily Erwin Jones at Delta State University; Claudia Frazer at Drake University; Seamus Helferty at University College, Dublin; Sara J. Logue and Kathy Shoemaker at Emory University; Robert Brown, archivist at Faber & Faber; Allison Haack at Grinnell College; the reference staff at Harvard University; Cara Bertram and Anna Chen at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Zachary T. Downy, David Kim Frasier, Sarah McElroy Mitchell, Cherry Dunham Williams, and the staff of the Lilly Library, Indiana University at Bloomington; Karen Cook at the University of Kansas; Alexander Koch at Kenyon College; Anne L. Moore and Caroline White at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Renu Barrettat McMaster University; Katie Woodatthe Universityof Melbourne; James Moske at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Erin George at the University of Minnesota; Melina Baron-Deutsch and Deborah Richards at Mount Holyoke College; Michelle Harvey at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Lyndsi Barnes, Isaac Gewirtz, Tal Nadan, Lee Spilberg, Weatherly Stephan, and Kyle R. Triplett at the New York Public Library; Connor Gaudet at New York University; Brooke Guthrie at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Susan Liberator and Lindy M. Smith at Ohio State University; Sylvie Merian and Maria Isabel Molestina-Kurlat at Pierpont Morgan Library; AnnaLee Pauls and Gabriel Swift at Princeton University; Ellen Shea at the Radcliffe Institute; Natalie Ford and Jean Rose at the Random House Group Archive & Library; Jenifer Monger at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Blair A. Benson at the University of Rochester; Matthew Reynolds at Sewanee: The University of the South; Jason Wood at Simmons College; Kevin Auer, Jean Cannon, Susan C. Floyd, Kurt Johnson, Jordan P. Mitchell, Marian Oman, Emily Roehl, Richard B. Watson, and Richard Workman at the University of Texas at Austin; Milissa Burkart and Kristina Rosenthal at the University of Tulsa; Amanda Leinberger at the United Nations Archives; Lisa Jonsson and Lotta Sundberg at Uppsala University; Molly Dohrmann and Teresa Gray at Van
derbilt University; Victoria Platt at the Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum Archives; Sarah Schnuriger at Washington University, St Louis; Chery Kinnick and Carla Rickerson at the University of Washington; Sue Hamilos at the Wellesley Free Library; Kathleen Fahey at the Wellesley Historical Society; Linda L. Hall at Williams College; and Heather Abbott, Jessica Becker, Michael Frost, Nancy F. Lyon, and William Massa at Yale University. Smith College colleagues and former colleagues who deserve special thanks include Martin Antonetti, Barbara Blumenthal, Mary Irwin and her student assistant Erinn Summers ’16, Dr Meg Meiman, Christina Ryan, and Nanci Young.