by Sylvia Plath
*Louis O. Coxe, ‘From the Window Down’, New Yorker, 14 July 1956, 20.
*Robert Graves, ‘A Bouquet From a Fellow-Roseman’, New Yorker, 30 June 1956, 30.
*May Swenson, ‘The Promontory Moment’, New Yorker, 28 July 1956, 21.
*Possibly a reference to Theodore Roethke’s ‘The Small’ cited above with the line: ‘A towhee pecks the ground’ (32).
*Jean Stafford, ‘A Reading Problem’, New Yorker, 30 June 1956, 24–32; begins, ‘One of the great hardships of my childhood . . . ’
*Henry Rago to SP, 24 September 1956; held by Lilly Library.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘Two Sisters of Persephone’, ‘Metamorphosis’, ‘Wreath for a Bridal’, ‘Strumpet Song’, ‘Dream with Clam-Diggers’, and ‘Epitaph for Fire and Flower’, Poetry 89 (January 1957), 231–7.
*Christopher Levenson.
*First line of SP’s, ‘The Queen’s Complaint’. In the poem’s final form, the first line reads, ‘In ruck and quibble of courtfolk’.
*According to SP’s calendar, she began ‘Epitaph for Fire and Flower’ on 18 August 1956; she completed the poem the following day.
*Ted Hughes, ‘Macaw and Little Miss’, ‘Bayonet Charge’, ‘Two Wise Generals’, and ‘The Hawk in the Rain’.
*See SP to Peter Davison, 30 September 1956.
*Mary Bailey Derr Knox (1932– ), B.A. 1954, art, Smith College.
*SP typed a forward slash over the 3 of 302, thus her parenthetical correction.
*Robert O. Röseler, German in Review (New York: H. Holt, rev. edn 1953); SP’s copy held by Smith College.
*A brand of erasable typing paper.
*According to documents in the Peter Davison papers at Yale University, the poems enclosed were: ‘The Dying Witch Addresses Her Young Apprentice’, ‘November Graveyard’, ‘Aerialist’, ‘Tinker Jack and the Tidy Wives’, ‘Panegyric’, ‘Firesong’, ‘On the Difficulty of Conjuring Up a Dryad’, ‘Complaint of the Crazed Queen’, and ‘Ella Mason and Her Eleven Cats’.
*Ted Hughes, ‘Egg-Head’.
*Possibly a reference to Peter Redgrove; the letter does not appear to survive.
*TH had a room at Alexandra House, a soup kitchen on Petty Cury, Cambridge, across the street from a branch of the jeweller’s H. Samuel (now demolished), in the spring of 1956 during his courtship of SP. For more information, see Ted Hughes’s Birthday Letters poem ‘Fidelity’.
*‘must be taking apart’ appears in the original.
*Irene Victoria Morris (1913–2007); lecturer in German, Newnham College, Cambridge, 1947–66; SP’s tutor while on Fulbright at the University of Cambridge.
*According to SP’s address book, Dr Lewis Kaplan, 85 Harley Street, London W1.
*‘I am all$American’ appears in the original.
*John Ciardi, ‘Washington, D.C.’, The Nation, 28 July 1956, 84; ‘Of History, Fiction, Language’, The Nation, 1 September 1956, 184; and ‘Memory of Paris’, The Nation, 15 September 1956, 226.
*Robert Hillyer, ‘The Victim’, New Yorker, 16 June 1956, 105.
*The last line of Hillyer’s poem; ‘hitting nothingness, and hit it hard’ appears in the original.
*Frederick L. Keefe, ‘Road to Barcelona’, New Yorker, 5 May 1956, 102, 104–7.
*SP planned to write a story titled ‘Discontented Mayor’; SP mentions it twice in her journals: by name on 19 May 1959 and with a brief plot on 31 May 1959.
*See SP to Edward Weeks, 3 October 1956.
*British poet and critic Kathleen Raine (1908–2003).
*Probably TH to SP, [1–2 October 1956]; held by Lilly Library.
*Paddy Chayefsky, Television Plays (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955); SP’s copy held by Lilly Library.
*According to SP’s calendar, she met Terry, a friend of Dick Wertz, on 9 October 1956.
*Dr Dena Ferran Dincauze (1934–2016); Fulbright scholar, pre-historic archaeology 1956–7; Newnham College, Cambridge; Ph.D. 1967, Harvard University. See Memories of Whitstead (18–19).
*American socialite and political hostess Perle Mesta (1889–1975).
*Christopher Rand, ‘Letter from Jaipur’, New Yorker, 15 September 1956, 118–32.
*E. J. Khan, ‘Letter from Bermuda’, New Yorker, 16 June 1956, 117–20.
*Elizabeth Bishop, ‘Sestina’, New Yorker, 15 September 1956, 46.
*SP refers to John Hall Wheelock, ‘Aubade’, New Yorker, 30 June 1962, 23.
*James L. Montague, ‘Chokecherries’, New Yorker, 15 September 1956, 152.
*The enclosure is no longer with the letter.
*William Wertenbaker, ‘The Last Day of Summer’, New Yorker, 15 September 1956, 111–12, 115–17.
*John Crowe Ransom, ‘Winter Remembered’.
*In SP’s Collected Poems, the first letters of each line after the first are lowercase.
*Jess Ivy Brown Bishop (1934– ); from Durban, South Africa. B.A. 1954, University of Natal; 1956–8, English, Newnham College, Cambridge.
*Marie Thérèse Consigliere Fernando (1932–2013); B.A. 1955, University of Malaya, Singapore; B.A. 1958, English, Newnham College, Cambridge.
*The Newnham College Report for January 1957 lists the following Whitstead residents from India: Lakshmi Burra Krishnamurty, Lotika Purkayastha Varadarajan, and Zahida Zaidi.
*Saint Augustine,The Confessions of St. Augustine (London: J. M. Dent, 1953); SP’s copy held by Smith College.
*W. B. Yeats, ‘Two Songs from a Play’.
*TH to SP, [3 October 1956]; held by Lilly Library.
*Sutcliffe’s Inn, then in Colden, approximately 2 miles from the Hughes family home.
*Possibly Ted Hughes, ‘Phaetons’; in his [3 October 1956] letter Hughes mentions writing ‘The Horses of the Sun, or the Mark of a Modern Apollo’ (55). See also SP to TH, 6 October 1956.
*Jim Downer, who lived with TH for a period at 18 Rugby Street, London.
*Probably TH to SP, [4 October 1956]; held by Lilly Library.
*Probably Edith Hughes to SP, undated [c. 3 October 1956]; held by Lilly Library.
*The enclosure is no longer with the letter. Robert Wallace, ‘The Garden Snail’, New Yorker, 8 September 1956, 98. ‘Virtue’ appears as the lone word and last line of the tenth stanza.
*A reference to the line ‘loosestrife, orange milkweed, and goldenrod’ from Luke Zilles, ‘Bunch of Wildflowers’ cited above.
*Robert Wallace, ‘The Crayfish’, New Yorker, 21 July 1956, 29.
*According to her calendar, SP wrote ‘Street Song’ on 4 October 1956.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘Touch-and-Go’; included in the letter. ‘Touch-and-Go’ erroneously placed in the ‘Juvenilia’ section of SP’s Collected Poems.
*In SP’s Collected Poems, this line reads ‘And staunch stone eyes that stare’.
*In SP’s Collected Poems, there are several textual differences in these lines: ‘Let my transient eye break a tear / For each quick, flaring game / Of child, leaf and cloud, / While on this same fugue, unmoved, / Those stonier eyes look,’.
*Probably TH to SP, [5 October 1956]; held by Lilly Library.
*Peter Davison to SP, 2 October 1956; held by Lilly Library. The ‘Novel Contest brochure’ SP mentions is with the letter.
*SP slightly misquotes Davison’s letter, ‘there is expected to be for poetry’.
*William Jay Smith, Laughing Time (Boston: Little, Brown, 1955).
*SP slightly misquotes Davison’s letter: ‘an extremely difficult thing to sell’.
*SP slightly misquotes Davison’s letter: ‘whether you will have finished the novel in time for our contest or not’.
*Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales.
*From St Augustine, The Confessions of Saint Augustine.
*W. B. Yeats, ‘Two Songs from a Play’; SP slightly misquotes the poem: ‘Whatever flames upon the night / Man’s own resinous heart has fed’.
*Ted Hughes, ‘Dolly Topplebull mourns her ascendant Vanity’ (first line: ‘Old wives in their day’) enclosed in TH to
SP, [5 October 1956]; published for the first time in Letters of Ted Hughes (59–60). SP quotes additional lines from this poem in this paragraph. The Lilly Library holds two versions of the poem, one typed and one in manuscript. The one in manuscript bears the title ‘Dolly Topplebull mourns her ascendant Vanity’. On the verso are continued lines from a long poem entitled ‘Bluebeard’s Last Bride’, unattributed.
*See second plot in TH to SP, [3 October 1956]; held by Lilly Library.
*In SP’s Collected Poems, this line reads ‘From the flayed side’.
*In SP’s Collected Poems, there are several textual differences in the last seven lines: ‘So, perhaps I, knelled dumb by your absence, / Alone can hear / Sun’s parched scream, / Every downfall and crash / Of gutted star, / And, more daft than any goose, / This cracked world’s incessant gabble and hiss.’
*Possibly Edna Janean Walsh; affiliated student 1956–7, Newnham College, Cambridge.
*Tony Reeve, ed., Varsity Handbook, 1956–1957, 10th edn (Cambridge: Varsity Publications, 1956). Anthony Wallace Alan Reeve; B.A. 1957, history, St John’s College, Cambridge.
*The description of the Cambridge Makers in Varsity reads, ‘Founded as an essentially small and informal group of Cambridge writers who meet and read and discuss any form of creative writing produced by its members, its aim is partly to provide detailed technical criticism and partly to bring individual writers together. From time to time established writers will be invited to talk to the group. Membership is open to all members of the university on the basis of Mss. or published work submitted. Those interested should contact Christopher Levenson (Downing)’ (85).
*SP quotes from the previous page in Varsity Handbook: ‘The most hopeful development in this direction is the founding of the Cambridge Makers, who, while attached to no one magazine have the editorial support of Chequer, Delta and Granta, and will incidentally provide a sounding-board for Cambridge magazines . . . If it is to succeed in this, “secret writers” must stop thinking in terms of “rackets” and “cliques” and come forward’ (84).
*A reference to the journals of Gerard Manley Hopkins.
*Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Humanism (1946).
*The date assigned to this letter in the Letters of Ted Hughes, [9 or 10 October 1956], is incorrect. The date should be 6 October 1956.
*Middle English scholar and university professor Elizabeth Zeeman (later Salter, 1925– 80). According to SP’s calendar, the Zeemans lived at 7 Grange Road, Cambridge.
*A reference to William Blake, ‘Auguries of Innocence’: ‘To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower / Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand’.
*William Henry Mikesell, ed., Modern Abnormal Psychology (New York: Philosophical Library, 1950). SP’s copy sold at auction in 1982.
*Romain Rolland, Beethoven the Creator (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1929).
*Sylvia Plath, ‘The Wishing Box’.
*Incomplete drafts of ‘The Invisible Man’ are held by Emory University (pp. 2–8) and Smith College (p. 15).
*An incomplete draft, p. 11 only, is held by Emory University.
*See Letters of Ted Hughes, TH to SP, [9 or 10 October 1956]. The original is dated [8 October 1956]; held by Lilly Library.
*SP added this by hand in the margin.
*See TH to SP, [6–8 October 1956]; held by Lilly Library. The first line reads, ‘Very pleased with himself was littke [sic] Willie Crib’.
*W. H. Auden, ‘Miss Gee’, Another Time (London: Faber & Faber, 1940).
*English scholar Valerie Joan Pitt (1925–99); lecturer in English and Fellow of Newnham College, 1952–8.
*G. Braque: An exhibition of paintings arranged by the Arts Council of Great Britain in association with the Edinburgh Festival Society, Tate Gallery, 28 September–11 November 1956.
*See Appendix 10, The Journals of Sylvia Plath (2000).
*Rosemary Nesta Yale (1929– ); B.A. 1957, modern languages, Newnham College, Cambridge. Grace Marjorie Allen (1927– ); B.A. 1957, modern languages, Newnham College, Cambridge.
*Poet and professor John Holloway (1920–99); fellow and lecturer of Queens’ College, Cambridge.
*A reference to the American cowboy Pecos Bill.
*Either ‘A Reading Problem’ cited above or ‘The Mountain Day’, New Yorker, 18 August 1956, 24–32.
*Adelbert von Chamisso, Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (1814).
*E. T. A. Hoffmann; wrote Schlemihl into his 1815 story ‘Die Abenteuer der Silvester-Nacht’.
*Saint Augustine,The City of God (London: J. M. Dent, 1950); SP’s copy held by Smith College.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘Some Observations on The City Of God’; held by Lilly Library.
*British novelist and academic C. S. Lewis (1898–1963). According to SP’s calendar, she attended lectures by Lewis on 25 October and 2 November 1956.
*TH to SP, [16 October 1956]; held by Lilly Library. The assigned date of the letter, which was excluded from Letters of Ted Hughes, is likely incorrect.
*See TH to SP, [16 October 1956], cited above.
*David Wright; mentioned in the [16 October 1956] letter.
*W. H. Auden, ‘The Epigoni’ and ‘Merax and Mullin’, Nimbus 3 (Summer 1956), 3–4.
*British poet and critic John Wain (1925–94).
*This sentence added by SP by hand in the left margin of the page.
*This sentence added by SP by hand in the left margin on the first page.
*Probably TH to SP, [16 October 1956]; held by Lilly Library.
*SP sent ‘Remember the Stick Man’ to the New Yorker on 12 October 1956.
*Basil Ivan Rákóczi, The Painted Caravan (The Hague: L. J. C. Boucher, 1954). According to SP’s calendar, she bought The Painted Caravan on 13 October 1956, probably from Watkins Books at 19–21 Cecil Court, London. SP’s copy held by Smith College.
*According to SP’s calendar, this was Russell Square, London.
*Letter misdated by SP.
*Augustine, The City of God.
*‘but now I feel though free’ appears in the original. SP encircled ‘though’ and drew an arrow to move it.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘On the Elevation of Reason: Some Notes Concerning the Cambridge Platonists, Whichcote and Smith’, dated 24 October 1956; held by Lilly Library.
*Located above Matthew’s Restaurant in Trinity Street, the English-Speaking Union brought together people of every English-speaking nation.
*English Shakespeare scholar Kenneth Muir (1907–96).
*Sylvia Plath, ‘The Day Mr Prescott Died’, Granta, 20 October 1956, 20–3.
*See TH to SP, [17 October 1956]; held by Lilly Library.