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Sylvia Plath: Double did you know...

Sylvia Plath published frequently in Seventeen and Mademoiselle throughout her undergraduate college years. Did you know that both periodicals purchased poems but that these poems appear never to have been printed? Seventeen purchased "Sonnet to a Dissembling Spring" in March 1953. Mademoiselle purchased for "inventory" Plath's poem "Parallax" on 17 November 1954.

My suspicion is that Seventeen erroneously purchased "Sonnet to a Dissembling Spring" in March 1953. Plath had a number of poems and stories printed, mostly in the "It's All Yours" section of the periodical. By March 1953, Plath was 20 years old and Seventeen typically only printed poems and stories in "It's All Yours" by those still in their teens.

As for "Parallax"... Sylvia Plath won Honorable Mention in Mademoiselle's first Dylan Thomas Poetry Award in January 1955. It may be that this was her submission... The collegiate winner was Linda Pastan, who has had a remarkable poetry career. In Spring 1971, Pastan published "For Sylvia Plath" in the Michigan Quarterly Review (Vol. 10, No. 2), page 93. This is one of the better treatments of Plath, poetically.

In February 1955, Mademoiselle turned 20. They summarized highlights of each year with memorable topics and contributors. Did you know, that for 1952, Plath was listed among the contributors? Remarkable that only three years into her publishing association with the magazine that they selected her as a notable writer. 1952, of course, was the year in which Plath's story "Sunday at the Mintons" won first prize in their college fiction contest and was published in their August 1952 issue. (pictured here)

I will have another, biggish "Did you know..." on Plath and Seventeen in November ...

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