Published today (in the UK) The Spoken Word: Sylvia Plath

The Spoken Word: Sylvia Plath is published today in the United Kingdom. If you haven't already ordered your CD, click here, and enter the voucher code BLPLATHBLOG to receive 10% off your purchase. University of Chicago Press will release the CD around 1 May (this does represent a slight delay based on previous blog posts & expectations). Click here to order from them (you will also receive 10% off).

The disc, which runs 73 minutes long, contains the following tracks, which are read by Plath unless otherwise noted:

1. Leaving Early
2. Candles
3. Two of a Kind (with Ted Hughes and Owen Leeming)
4. Introduction to Mushrooms
5. Mushrooms
6. Introduction to Pike (by Ted Hughes)
7. Pike (by Ted Hughes)
8. Introduction to The Living Poet
9. Introduction to The Disquieting Muses
10. The Disquieting Muses
11. Introduction to Spinster
12. Spinster
13. Introduction to Parliament Hill Fields
14. Parliament Hill Fields
15. Introduction to The Stones
16. The Stones
17. Introduction to Sylvia Plath (by ?, possibly John Wain)
18. Introduction to Tulips
19. Tulips
20. The Surgeon at 2 a.m.
21. Surviving extracts from a recording made for, and partly used in, the programme What Made You Stay?
22. Berck-Plage
23. Sylvia Plath reviews an anthology called Contemporary American Poetry

The tracks are arranged in order of broadcast date. The CD includes a booklet with an introduction & detailed track listing, as well as other titles in the Spoken Word series that might be of interest to Plath scholars, readers, fans, etc.

The cover image of Plath was taken by Rollie McKenna in 1959. It should be a familiar photograph to us. However, I'd like to point out that the image, taken from the original print housed at the National Portrait Gallery in London, has more space around Plath's head than is usually seen, especially to the left. It's usually cropped much tighter.