Sylvia Plath collections: Sylvia Plath Hughes Papers, Smith College Archives

The Smith College Archives holds the Sylvia Plath Hughes Papers (1950-2001, bulk 1952-1963). These are papers primarily “contain biographical information, photographs, press releases, and writings by and about Plath.” A note on the finding aid indicates that most of the materials in the collection are previously published.

Some of the material by Plath in this collection is likely uncollected, for example the press releases from 1952 and 1953 for the Smith College Press Board. For those with access to Stephen Tabor’s Analytical Bibliography and to either microfilm or back issues of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, you could read Plath’s reviews of events that the DHG published during her time as Press Board correspondent.

The collection does contain some monographs, including a 1965 copy of Ariel, The Colossus and Other Poems. These are likely first editions. Additionally, there is a copy Stings, a limited edition facsimile of Plath’s drafts for the poem with an essay by Susan R van Dyne and of Ingrid Melander’s The Poetry of Sylvia Plath: A Study of Themes from 1971.

The finding aid to the collection is online here. There is a related material note: “Additional information about Plath's Smith College experience may be found in the Class of 1955 records, the English Department records, student publications of the time, and a subject file on Plath which is available in the College Archives Reading Room. The primary source for Plath material at Smith College is the Mortimer Rare Book Room.” All of these resources will be useful to researchers of Plath.

Famous Quotes of Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath inspires us all in various and wonderful ways. She is in many respects a form of comfort to us, which is something that Esther Greenwood expresses in The Bell Jar , about a bath: "There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them. Whenever I'm sad I'm going to die, or so nervous I can't sleep, or in love with somebody I won't be seeing for a week, I slump down just so far and then I say: 'I'll go take a hot bath.'" We read and remember Sylvia Plath for many reasons, many of them deeply personal and private. But we commemorate her, too, in very public ways, as Anna of the long-standing Tumblr Loving Sylvia Plath , has been tracking, in the form of tattoos. (Anna's on Instagram with it too, as SylviaPlathInk .) The above bath quote is among Sylvia Plath's most famous. It often appears here and there and it is stripped of its context. But I think most people will know it is from her nove...

Sylvia Plath's Gravestone Vandalized

The following news story appeared online this morning: HEPTONSTALL, ENGLAND (APFS) - The small village of Heptonstall is once again in the news because of the grave site of American poet Sylvia Plath. The headstone controversy rose to a fever pitch in 1989 when Plath's grave was left unmarked for a long period of time after vandals repeatedly chiseled her married surname Hughes off the stone marker. Author Nick Hornby commented, "I like Plath, but the controversy reaching its fever pitch in the 80s had nothing to do with my book title choice." Today, however, it was discovered that the grave was defaced but in quite an unlikely fashion. This time, Plath's headstone has had slashed-off her maiden name "Plath," so the stone now reads "Sylvia Hughes." A statement posted on Twitter from @masculinistsfortedhughes (Masculinists for Ted Hughes) has claimed responsibility saying that, "We did this because as Ted Hughes' first wife, Sylvia de...

Sylvia Plath and McLean Hospital

In August when I was in the final preparations for the tour of Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar sites, I found that I had long been mistaken about a couple of things. This is my coming clean. It was my intention in this blog post to discuss just McLean, but I found myself deeply immersed in other aspects of Plath's recovery. The other thing I was mistaken about will be discussed in a separate blog post. I suppose I need to state from the outset that I am drawing conclusions from Plath's actual experiences from what she wrote in The Bell Jar and vice versa, taking information from the novel that is presently unconfirmed or murky and applying it to Plath's biography. There is enough in The Bell Jar , I think, based on real life to make these decisions. At the same time, I like to think that I know enough to distinguish where things are authentic and where details were clearly made up, slightly fudged, or out of chronological order. McLean Hospital was Plath's third and last...

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