Sylvia Plath Collections: Letters to J. Mallory Wober

Letters to J. Mallory Wober

On 5 June 2007, I posted on the letters to J. Mallory Wober from Sylvia Plath held at King's College, Cambridge University. I've recently acquired photocopies of the letters from the Archives Centre, and have itemized them below. Most are undated, but the letters are in an approximate chronological order. There are 25 letters, plus three additional pieces - a concert program, an admission ticket, and a telegram.

Sylvia Plath met J. Mallory Wober in the fall of 1955 early in her matriculation at Newnham College, University of Cambridge. Though Plath was still somewhat invovled with Richard Sassoon that fall, she and Wober dated briefly that fall and early into the winter of 1956. In addition to Wober and Sassoon, Plath dated a few other men casually before she met Ted Hughes on 25 February 1956.

The letters listed below are held at the Archives Centre, King's College, University of Cambridge, in England. The letters show Plath being witty, flirty, and very interested in Wober. There are some really interesting items here, such as a ticket to Bartholomew Fair, which Plath had a role in that fall, and a telegram from the south of France where she visited during break from school with Sassoon.

Letters sent to Wober reached him at his Cambridge address of 7 Peas Hill and his London address of 71 Wentworth Road, London NW11. Plath visited him at both addresses. Several of the letters feature illustrations, and there is one beautifully illustrated envelope. Plath's letters were sent from Whitstead 4 Barton Road in Cambridge, and in care of American Express, 11 Rue Scribe, Paris.

1. Autograph letter signed. Whitstead, Thursday. With envelope.

2. Autograph letter signed. Friday evening.

3. Typed letter signed. Wednesday morning. With envelope.

4. King's College Musical Society - Open Concert. Sunday, 23 October 1955. Program.

5. Autograph letter signed. Saturday, 29 October [1955]. With envelope.

6. Autograph letter signed. Whitstead, Saturday. With envelope.

7. Autograph postcard signed. Undated. Henri Rousseau's "The Sleeping Gypsy" on postcard. From the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York.

8. Autograph letter signed. 23 November 1955.

9. Autograph letter signed. Undated. With envelope.

10. Autograph letter signed. Wednesday also PM. With envelope.

11. Autograph letter signed, illustration by SP of SP as reflected in a mirror. Undated. Illustrated envelope.

12. Typed letter unsigned. 23 November 1955. With envelope.

13. Autograph letter signed. Saturday night, 8:37 PM

14. Autograph letter signed. Undated. With envelope.

15. Autograph letter signed. Postmarked 24 November 1955, Cambridge, on envelope.

16. Ticket for Amateur Dramatics Club Theatre / Park Street performance of Bartholomew Fair, Friday 25 November 1955. With envelope.

17. Typed letter unsigned. Undated. With envelope.

18. Autograph postcard signed. Undated. With envelope. Dürer's "The Little Horse" on postcard. From the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

19. Autograph letter signed. Monday a.m. With envelope.

20. Typed letter signed. Tuesday afternoon. Postmarked 13 December 1955, Cambridge, on envelope.

21. Typed letter signed. Thursday evening, 5:45 p.m. Postmarked 16 December 1955, Cambridge, on envelope.

22. Autograph letter signed. Undated. Postmarked 19 December 1955, London, on envelope.

23. Autograph postcard signed. Postmarked 24 December 1955, Paris. Miro's "Femmes oiseau au clair de lune" (1949) on postcard.

24. Typed letter signed. Thursday night, December 29th. Postmarked 30 December 1955, Paris, on envelope.

25. Autograph postcard signed. Postmarked ? January 1956, France. Postcard of the Cote D'Azur.

26. Post office telegram. Postmarked 5 January 1956.

27. Autograph postcard signed. Undated. Postmarked 16 January 1956, Cambridge. Donatello's sculpture of Saint John the Baptist on postcard from National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

28. Autograph letter signed, illustrated. Tuesday. Postmarked 8 February 1956, Cambridge, on envelope.

Wober has gone on to become an author a number of books and articles in the field of media studies.

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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