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Harper Publishes 50th Anniversary edition of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar


Like Sylvia Plath's "Mushrooms," HarperCollins "discretely, / very quietly" published their own 50th anniversary edition of The Bell Jar in June (the 11th, to be exact). Even though it is the 42nd year The Bell Jar has been available in this country AND they used the same text as their 25th anniversary edition, first published in 1996. But, who (other than me and maybe Elena Rebollo Cortés) is paying attention, really?

You can buy this edition via Amazon and possibly, if there is such a thing anymore, at a real bookstore.

Following the interesting guest post by Ms Cortés  and taking into consideration the stink that arose out of Faber's cover of their 50th anniversary edition in January...how do you take this one by HarperCollins? It is certainly far more conservative... Regarding the stink from earlier this year, here is a sample article and here is Faber's response.

This 50th anniversary Harper edition cover does not call attention to itself. In fact, the front and back cover are both devoid of critical praise either by reviewers or prominent people: we are given the essential information: title, author, genre and special edition notice on the front and a quote from Chapter 1 on the back.

In the past, the cover has featured a variety of quotes from Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Times Book Review, etc. or some such acclaim as "the bestselling novel by the author of Ariel"... I am curious, rhetorically, to know when the book was planned for publication? How much the furore (there is that word again) over the Faber edition in January and February may have lead to this particular cover? And, as well, why there has been a relative lack of promotion (there was this on 16 May)? In this Harper Academic blog post from earlier in the year, there is mention of their forthcoming publication of Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 by Elizabeth Winder, but nothing on a new edition of Plath's novel...

If you are interested in the covers of The Bell Jar, why not jump over to my website and click through them?

All links accessed on 18 July 2013.

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