Sylvia Plath collections: Letters to W. S. (William Stanley) and Dido Merwin, 1958-1969

Emory Universit's Ted Hughes collection hold some letters to W. S. Merwin and his wife Dido, from 1958-1969. Plath is a named person in these letters obviously as the Merwin's were very influential to Plath and Hughes from around 1958 on. Remember that Plath wrote much of novel The Bell Jar in the Merwin's house, located at 11 St. George's Terrace (pictured to the right), alongside and overlooking Primrose Hill. Anne Steveson's Bitter Fame prints a small memoir by Dido as an appendix, and also retells the somewhat humorous story of Plath and Hughes visit to the Merwin's in France in 1961.

Letters to W. S. (William Stanley) and Dido Merwin, 1958-1969

The collection contains correspondence from English poet Ted Hughes to W.S. and Dido Merwin from 1958-1969. Hughes first writes in 1958 from Northhampton, Massachusetts while teaching at Amherst. The next letters chronicle the young couples' move back to England and subsequent birth of their daughter in 1960. In the fall of 1961-1962 Hughes writes as he settles at Court Green in Devon. The letters contain information on Hughes' early literary endeavors and his early married life. Also included is a letter from his sister Olwyn, shortly after Assia Wevill's death in 1969. Several of Hughes' letters contained typescripts of poems.

The collection contains just one box.

The full finding aid to this collection is online here.

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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...

Some final photographs of Sylvia Plath

Susan O'Neill-Roe took a series of photographs of Sylvia Plath and her children from October to late November (or maybe early December) 1962 while she was a day nanny/mother's help at Court Green. From nearby Belstone , it was a short drive to North Tawton and the aid she provided enabled Plath to complete the masterful October and November poems and also to make day or overnight trips to London for poetry business and other business. Some of O'Neill-Roe's photographs are well-known. However, a cache of photographs formed a part of the papers of failed biographer Harriet Rosenstein. They were sold separately from the rest of her papers that went to Emory. I was fortunate enough to see low resolution scans of them a while back so please note these are being posted today as mere reference quality images. There are two series here. The first of the children with Plath dressed in red and black. (This should be referred to in the future, please, as Plath's Stendhal-c...

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...

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