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Sylvia Plath at the Morgan Library

On Monday, 21 September, I was able to spend a couple of hours at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.

Of the vast holdings at the Morgan is a smallish collection of Sylvia Plath books and a rare manuscripts. The books form part of the Carter Burden Collection of American Literature. The manuscripts, on which I have posted a couple of times on this blog (here and here), are of 40 or so "juvenile" poems, written between 1937 and the mid-1940s. Previously, I have seen only a black and white photocopy, from microfilm, but on this research visit I was given permission to see the original. Plath illustrated her early journals, which are housed at the Lilly Library (more on Plath and the Lilly later this week!) at Indiana University, but I don't recall seeing many illustrated poems. What a treat this turned out to be.

The books I looked at were:

The 1972 proof of Winter Trees published by Harper & Row; the 1976 proof of The Bed Book published by Faber & Faber; the long galley proof of Crossing the Water published by Harper & Row; and the British magazine Nova, which published Plath's "Heavy Woman" and "Mirror" on page 37 of the May 1970 issue. Inserted between pages 48 and 49 Nova was an article by Amanda Craig entitled "Children of the Lesser Gods." The subtitle is "Crow Baby? Amanda Craig meets the Laureate's Daughter." It is an article removed from Tatler magazine, I believe, page 172. The date wasn't discernable. In all, there are 55 Sylvia Plath items to look at at the Morgan.

I selected these to look at as, in my travels to different libraries and to book stores and book fairs, I had not seen these. But the real star was those manuscripts. If you are ever in the New York City area, or planning to visit, you should try to see these. One must plan in advance though as the Reading Room is small and tends to fill up. Information on applying is available through the Morgan's website, see link above.

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