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10 February 1960

Pregnant with her first child, Sylvia Plath entered the York Minster Pub (pictured) on Dean Street in Soho, London, 48 years ago today, and signed the contract for her first collection of poems, The Colossus.

In a letter she wrote to her mother and brother the next day, Plath ran through the happy events, "picture (yesterday) you daughter/sister, resplendent in black wool suit, black cashmere coat, fawn kidskin gloves from Paris...and of enormous and impressive size, sailing into the notorious York Minster Pub on Dean Street in Soho...and up to the bar to meet a pleasant half-American, half-Scots young editor for the well-known British publishers, William Heinemann...and taking out a pen thereupon and signing on the counter the contract for her first book of poems; namely, The Colossus."

She signed the very happy letter, dated 11 February 1960, "Your new authoress".
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