Sylvia Plath collections: The Pierpont Morgan Library (New York City)

The Literary and Historical Manuscripts department at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City has an impressive collection of Sylvia Plath books. Tucked in this collection is a true Plath gem.

The title of the collection is “Autograph transcript of 40 juvenile poems”. Purchased in 1982, the call number is Bound American Literature, the accession number is MA 3775. The record ID is 127550. Plath wrote these poems from 1940-1946, and transcribed about 1945-46. From the description, there appear to be two volumes, one of 24 p. and another of 17 p. The Morgan houses the poems in a blue cloth box.

A note on the collection reads, “In a notebook with brown paper covers and with margins decorated with drawings in color in ink and crayon. Together with early transcripts of 29 poems, mostly in pencil and mostly notebook duplicates. Presumably 27 of the poems are available in no other text than the notebook transcripts.”

I would like to thank Janet McCann at the Texas A & M University for writing me and asking if I knew where this collection was located. It was a challenge, and I am glad that I found it!

The Library is online here.

The online catalog is here.

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