The Letters of Sylvia Plath Volume 1
Page 165
*SP’s 1945 diary measured 21 cm × 14.5 cm (h × w); her 1946 diary measured 15 cm × 9 cm.
*Owens Stamp Company was located in Bay City, Michigan.
*Richard Halliburton, The Royal Road to Romance, The Flying Carpet, The Glorious Adventure, New Worlds to Conquer (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1925, 1932, 1927, 1929).
*SP addressed the letter to ‘Miss Maggot Loungway’.
*A very similar drawing appears in SP’s diary entry for 12 January 1946.
*The American Poets stamps issued in 1940 included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, James Russell Lowell, Walt Whitman, and James Whitcomb Riley. The artists were Gilbert Stuart, James McNeill Whistler, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Daniel Chester French, and Frederic Remington. Additional stamps were issued for American composers, scientists, educators, and inventors.
*This sentence added and bracketed in the margin.
*See SP’s 1946 diary, particularly the ‘Memoranda’ section in the back; held by Lilly Library.
*David C. Freeman (1932–2007), Ruth Freeman’s brother.
*The Galen Stone Tower, which stands 182 feet tall and is a focal point of the campus.
*William H. Freeman (1884–1954).
*W. Wayne Sterling (1932– ), a friend from Winthrop, who lived at 7 Enfield Road, Winthrop, Mass.
*The enclosure is no longer with the letter.
*Per SP’s diary, the Rainbow installation is part of the Masonic youth organization and took place at the Masonic Temple in Natick, Mass.
*According to SP’s diary, this was Mary Hillbrand.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘The Mummy’s Tomb’.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘Stardust’.
*SP was in Cove Unit.
*Above the printed text on the letterhead, SP had written ‘To’.
*Wellesley friend and classmate Gayle Greenough (1932– ).
*Marilyn Fraser, who lived at 20 Dover Road, Wellesley, Mass.
*Misdated by SP, should be 4 July.
*A 1931 song, popularized in 1945 by Billy Eckstine, Art Blakey, and Duke Ellington. Perry Como also sang a version released in 1945.
*Doris A. Toabe (1932–2003), from Marshfield, Mass.
*Above the printed text on the letterhead, SP had written ‘To’.
*‘two three letters’ appears in the original.
*Gloria Marie Caouette (1933– ), from Lexington, Mass.
*Probably Sally Howard, a fellow Girl Scout and Unitarian, who lived at 25 Highgate, Wellesley, Mass.
*A guesthouse located on Main Street, Chatham, Mass.
*SP’s cousin Robert J. Benotti (1945– ).
*SP to ASP, 10 July 1946.
*‘pourde’ appears in the original.
*The Bassett Cemetery is located on Herring Way, Plymouth, Mass.
*Calvin Raymond (c. 1795–1867) and his two wives, Polly Cahoon Raymond (1800–40) and Sarah Douglas Raymond (1811–84).
*Tirzah Raymond (1828–30), daughter of Calvin and Polly Raymond.
*See SP to Aurelia and Frank Schober, 15 July 1946.
*Mortimer Snerd, a radio and comic strip character as well as a ventriloquist dummy developed by Edgar Bergen in the 1930s and 1940s.
*Letter addressed to ASP c/o Loungway, Innisfree, Oxford, Maine, and forwarded to Wellesley, Mass.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘The Lake’.
*Date supplied from postmark.
*‘from one of authur Arthur Rackham’s’ appears in the original. English book illustrator Arthur Rackham (1867–1939).
*A nineteenth-century Christian hymn by Sarah Flower Adams based on Genesis 28: 11–19.
*‘two and a half peaches plums’ appears in the original.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘Cove Unit Report’; held by Lilly Library.
*Rose Smith Warren; SP’s English teacher at the Alice L. Phillips Junior High School, then at 324 Washington Street, Wellesley, Mass.
*Probably MGM’s 1941 release 1-2-3 Go, a road safety short film featuring characters from the Our Gang series (also known as The Little Rascals).
*A 1937 car safety film by Radio and Television Packagers, Inc.
*‘the two (the two) bad ghosts’ appears in the original.
*Date supplied by internal evidence and postmark.
*The letter was postmarked on 2 August 1946; based on the contents of SP’s diary, many of the events mentioned took place between 29 July 1946 and that date.
*Letter misdated by SP; date supplied from internal evidence.
*American composer John Philip Sousa, ‘The Stars and Stripes Forever’ (1897).
*Radio serial A Date with Judy; the role of Judy performed by Louise Erickson 1944–9; aired at 8:30 p.m. on WBZ, 27 August 1946.
*The romantic radio serial The Grand Marquee; aired at 9:00 p.m. on WBZ, 27 August 1946.
*Austro-Hungarian composer Sigmund Romberg (1887–1951), his Evening with Romberg aired at 10:30 on WBZ, 27 August 1946.
*Johann Strauss, ‘The Blue Danube’ (1866).
*Disputed Passage aired at 9:30 p.m. on WEEI, 27 August 1946.
*Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II, ‘Wanting You’, The New Moon (1927).
*Possibly American composer Don Gillis (1912–78).
*Raleigh cigarettes.
*Possibly Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II, ‘Stout-Hearted Men’, The New Moon (1927).
*Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II, ‘When I Grow Too Old to Dream’ (1934).
*Possibly Sigmund Romberg, ‘Will You Remember (Sweetheart)?’, Maytime (1917).
*A tagline from the radio serial The Shadow.
*According to SP’s diary, she and Ruth Freeman saw Janie Gets Married (1946), which played at the State Theatre, then at 415 Shirley Street, Winthrop, Mass.
*Letter misdated by SP; date supplied from postmark.
*Margot Loungway visited on 27–8 December 1946.
*According to SP’s diary, the party was held by Perry and Richard Norton; also present were John Hoag, Dick Thornton, and Marilyn Buell.
*Tuesday 31 December 1946.
*According to SP’s diary, she ran against classmates Sarah Bond, Ted Edson, and Ted Short. Speeches were given in an assembly on 15 January; elections were held on 16 January, and the results announced on 17 January. Sarah Bond was declared the winner.
*SP’s most recent publications were: ‘To Miss Cox’ and ‘October’, The Phillipian, November 1946, 3–4. The issue also featured a short report on the book lovers and recreational reading club on page 14. SP’s poem ‘To Miss Cox’ was written on 13 October 1946, in memory of Miss Catherine A. Cox, a business and mathematics teacher at the Alice L. Phillips junior high school, who passed away on 12 September 1946.
*Hans-Joachim Neupert; from Grebenhain, West Germany, corresponded with SP, 1947–52.
*Dated and ordered by Plath’s date on postcard, not her numbering as 2 in the sequence.
*Probably Ann Bowker.
*Letter misdated by SP.
*‘Wednesday, Junely 2’ appears in the original.
*Rebecca M. Samson, Schoolgirl Allies (Boston: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1917). According to SP’s diaries, she read Schoolgirl Allies in 1944, 1945 and 1946.
*Letter misdated by SP.
*A 1946 play by Maxwell Anderson performed at the Alvin Theatre, 18 November 1946–10 May 1947.
*Macey Gerson Feingold (1925– ); B.S. 1948, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; a friend of the Plath family.
*Sally Ann Haven (1934– ), who lived at 58 Greylock Road, Newtonville, Mass.
*‘Junely 6, 1947’ appears in the original.
*Chappaquiddick Island is an island off Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
*‘letter little piece’ appears in the original.
*American author, writer, and book and typeface designer, William Dana Orcutt (1870– 1953). Author of Dagger and Jewels: The Gorgeous Adventures of Benvenuto Cellini, A Romantic Novel (New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1931); and Escape to Laughter (Norwood, Mass.: Plimpton
Press, 1942). According to SP’s diary, she received these books on 27 July 1947.
*According to SP’s diary, this was Ruth Geisel (1932– ); friend of SP; attended Wellesley High School and Dana Hall School; B.A. 1953, English, Wellesley College; lived at 5 Durant Road, Wellesley, Mass.
*According to SP’s diary, she and David Freeman saw Vacation Days and Calcutta at the Winthrop State Theatre on 23 July 1947.
*The concert included selections from Eugene Onegin by Peter Tchaikovsky, The Merry Wives of Windsor by Otto Nicolai, King Christian by Jean Sibelius, Les Preludes by Franz Liszt, Aida by Giuseppe Verdi, Dreams by Richard Wagner, Voices of Spring by Johann Strauss, and The Snow Maiden by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov.
*According to SP’s diary, this was Redmond Sheets (1931– ).
*A double feature SP and her mother saw on 12 July 1947 at the Loew’s State Theatre.
*Old France was a restaurant then at 258 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Mass.
*According to SP’s diary, she saw The First Mr Fraser on 18 July 1947 and Dear Ruth on 31 July 1947.
*Letter addressed to ASP c/o Carney Hospital, One Harbor Road, South Boston, Mass.
*British poet Matthew Arnold (1822–88).
*A cosmetic company.
*Wilbury A. Crockett (1913–94); SP’s English teacher at Wellesley High School (formerly Gamaliel Bradford Senior High School), 1947–50; lived at 82 Forest Street, Wellesley, Mass., with his wife Vera M. Crockett, and their children Deborah L. Crockett and Stephen Crockett.
*Charles Perry Norton (1932– ), B.S. 1954, Yale College; M.D. 1957, Boston University School of Medicine; SP’s friend from Wellesley. SP dated Perry Norton in high school and later dated his older brother Richard Norton.
*Mary Ventura, high school classmate of SP.
*Joseph Coletta (1919–98); SP’s art teacher.
*Arden Tapley Ramrath (1932–82), SP’s classmate who lived at 1 Audubon Road, Wellesley, Mass.
*Possibly John Albert Pollard (1932– ); dated SP 1947–9; SP’s high school classmate who lived at several addresses in Newton and Wellesley, Mass.
*Priscilla Steele.
*Probably The Pocket Poems of Robert Frost (New York: Pocket Poems, 1946).
*Hathaway House Bookshop, 103 Central Street, Wellesley, Mass.
*Otto Emil Plath, Bumblebees and Their Ways (New York: Macmillan, 1934).
*Probably Marianne Lévy, a pen pal of SP according to her high school scrapbook (p. 14); held by Lilly Library.
*The Trinity United Methodist Church, Trinity Park, Oak Bluffs, Mass.
*Date supplied from internal evidence.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘Alone and Alone in the Woods Was I’, written c. 11 September 1947.
*The treatment was probably Argyrol, an antiseptic compound.
*‘moonlight ever before’ appears in the original.
*Letter misdated by SP .
*Date supplied from postmark.
*Marion, Mass., on Buzzard’s Bay in Plymouth County.
*Dates supplied from internal evidence.
*American poet and writer Stephen Vincent Bénet (1898–1943).
*Probably Sylvia Plath, ‘The Latter-Day Saints’; held by Lilly Library.
*The Junior Prom was held on Sat. 5 February 1949; SP was on the Decorations Committee.
*American philosopher Irwin Edman (1896–1954).
*Edman, ‘A Reasonable Life in a Mad World’, Atlantic Monthly 183 (March 1949), 60–2.
*Jeanne Woods Haile (1932– ); B.A. 1954, Wellesley College; friend of SP from Wellesley.
*Date supplied from postmark.
*SP was at the Star Island Unitarian Youth Conference.
*John Suffern Hodges (1930– ); dated SP 1949 and lived at 106 Dover Road, Wellesley, Mass. Hodges was a 1948 graduate of Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., and had just completed his freshman year at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. After serving two years in the Army, Hodges graduated with a B.A. 1955, Denison University.
*Nicholas Heath Safford (1932– ), a classmate of SP’s from Wellesley High School; B.A. 1954, Amherst College.
*Dick Gilbert.
*Date supplied from postmark.
*In SP’s 1949 diary, she spells his last name Giunta.
*According to SP’s record of summer dates, 2 June–2 August 1949, this was Eddie Mason.
*During the summer of 1949, SP studied watercolour painting with American painter Sophia Lewis Morrill (1889–1970); B.A. 1911, Vassar College; member of the Wellesley Society of Artists; instructor at Wellesley College.
*The Bradford, student newspaper of Wellesley High School. Sylvia Plath and Frank Irish were co-editors, 1949–50.
*Star Island, Isles of Shoals, off Portsmouth, New Hampshire. SP attended the American Unitarian Youth Conference, 25 June–2 July 1949 held at the Oceanic Hotel owned by the Star Island Corporation.
*According to SP’s record of summer dates, 2 June–2 August 1949, this was Hank Glover.
*Printed by White & Wyckoff, Holyoke, Massachusetts; entitled Scenic Notes (206–9), featuring a sketch by Stephen Hamilton of rolling hills with two pine trees and a white house in the foreground.
*According to SP’s diary and scrapbook, this was Dean’s Tower.
*John Arthur Hall (1930– ); B.A. 1953, Williams College; dated SP in 1949.
*SP participated in the 1949 Tennis Tournament at the Hunnewell Playfield courts, Wellesley. SP lost the semi-final match to Florence Santospago (1927– ).
*Robert George Riedeman (1930–2014); B.A. 1952, M.S. 1954, botany, University of New Hampshire; dated SP, 1949–50.
*Date supplied by ASP.
*This letter is written on a Fravessi-Lamont card with the printed greeting ‘May the real Happiness of Christmas / be with you always.’
*Sylvia Plath and Perry Norton, ‘Youth’s Plea for World Peace’, Christian Science Monitor, 16 March 1950, 19.
*The 29th Carnival Ball.
*Warren’s Stardust Inn was in Kittery, Maine.
*Lookout Farm, South Natick, Mass. SP worked there in the summer of 1950.
*This self-portrait is similar to the photograph SP submitted to the Smith College publication Who’s Who in 1954.