Links, reviews, etc. - Week ending 12 July 2008

There haven't been many news stories recently about Sylvia Plath, though her name has appeared in various articles.

On 4 July, David Baddiel at The Times reviews the new movie about Dylan Thomas called The Edge of Love. He dedicates a paragraph to questioning the purpose of the movie Sylvia (2003).

So, I will just say that I have added a new web page to my website, A celebration, this is. The new page had to do with Plath's Audio recordings. Kate Moses has two recent essays in The Unraveling Archive: Essays on Sylvia Plath (ed. Anita Helle, 2007) that are must reads for anyone interested in Plath's voice and Plath's recordings. And, for those who have never heard Plath's voice, the webpage lists the commercial releases.

Plath Profiles is still working its way towards you! I think about 90-95% of the essays are ready to go. We're waiting for last edits on two papers. And, two will be delayed as the authoresses await word about permissions. Those two papers will appear online at a later date, but are very much a part of Volume 1. For anyone not able to attend the Sylvia Plath 75th Year Symposium at Oxford in October 2007 (and Smith in April 2008), you'll get to read many of the papers presented. There are 26 total essays - many of which include illustrations, there are 6 poems inspired by Plath, and there are two wonderful book reviews. It is my hope that within a week or two the issue will be online.

Have a good week! Happy Plathing.

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...

Search This Blog