Sylvia Plath collections: Papers of John L. (Jack) and Máire MacNeill Sweeney

University College Dublin Archives holds the papers of Jack and Máire Sweeney. Jack Sweeney was a friend to Plath and Hughes, but his contribution to the poetry world is most known because he was a long time curator of the Woodberry Poetry Room. Sweeney was instrumental in building the audio archive at the Woodberry Poetry Room, and first asked Ted Hughes read there in late 1957. In turn, Hughes was influential in securing the first reading Plath gave on Friday, 13 June 1958.

In these papers at UCD are some correspondence between Plath, Hughes and Sweeney. In addition to the correspondence, they also have two photographs.

In the absence of a list online, here follows an inventory the correspondence between Sweeney, Plath and Hughes.

1. Ted Hughes to Jack Sweeney, typed, 31 October 1957, 1 p.
2. Ted Hughes to Jack Sweeney, handwritten, 30 November 1957, 1 p.
3. Ted Hughes to Jack Sweeney, handwritten, Undated, 2 p.
4. Ted Hughes to Jack & Máire Sweeney, handwritten, 15 April 1958, 1 p.
5. Sylvia Plath Hughes to John Sweeney, typed, 27 April 1958, 1 p.
6. Ted Hughes to Jack Sweeney, handwritten, 11 May 1958, 1 p.
7. Ted Hughes to Jack Sweeney, handwritten, 14 June 1958, 2 p. With annotation from Sweeney to Steve [Fassett].
8. Ted Hughes to Jack & Máire Sweeney, typed, undated [Fall 1958], 1 p.
9. Ted Hughes to Jack & Máire Sweeney, handwritten, undated [ca. 7 July 1959], 1 p. Included with this letter are offprints from the Grecourt Review of "Sculptor" by Plath and "Roosting Hawk"* by Hughes. Plath and Hughes each inscribed and signed the offprint. Plath's is dated 6 July 1959, Hughes's is undated.
10. Ted Hughes to Jack & Máire Sweeney, handwritten, undated [ca. March 1960], 1 p. The letter accompanied a copy of Lupercal.
11. Ted Hughes to Jack Sweeney, handwritten, undated, 2 p. Letter accompanied negatives of photographs of Plath and Hughes with Frieda.
12. Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and Frieda Hughes to the Sweeney's, handwritten, undated [December 1961].
13. Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and Frieda Hughes to the Sweeney's, handwritten, undated [December 1962]. With a handwritten poem by Hughes.
14. Letter from Ted Hughes to Jack & Máire Sweeney, handwritten, undated [January 1962], 2. Sent one week after the birth of Nicholas Hughes.
15. Letter from Ted Hughes to Jack Sweeney, handwritten, undated [1970], 1 p. Accompanied a copy of Crow.
16. Letter from Ted Hughes to Jack & Máire Sweeney, handwritten, 15 January 1985, 1 p.

The photographs are:

1. Sylvia Plath with Frieda, November 1960
2. Ted Hughes with Frieda, November 1960

I should note that the photographs are the same as, and likely the originals, the photographs held by the Woodberry Poetry Room.

The collection code for the Jack & Máire Sweeney papers is LA52/166. UCD Archives is online here.

*By the time this poem was printed in Hughes' Lupercal the title had been changed to "Hawk Roosting".

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...

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