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Sylvia Plath collections: Woodberry Poetry Room

Sylvia Plath collections: Woodberry Poetry Room

Sylvia Plath gave two readings for the Woodberry Poetry Room ('WPR', or 'Poetry Room') in 1958 and 1959. The Poetry Room has one of the largest collections of recorded poetry in the world. As I work there, I am assisting in a project to digitize the recordings to make them available either to the Harvard community, or the whole world wide web.

In a routine visit to the stacks to select reel-to-reel tapes to digitize, I found the original cardboard box containers for the Plath recordings. Most of the containers feature minimal information, likely in either a curator's hand or the audio technician. However, when I pulled the Plath boxes off the shelf, I was amazed to see that she herself had written the track listings on the back.

The recording for Friday June 13, 1958 is written in a pink ink. It may have been red, but the color appears pink to me. There are two poems per available line. The recording for her February 22, 1959 is written in pencil, and includes a doodle. Each poem is written on the available line, and as Plath read 17 poems, she needed two columns. So, she drew a line dividing the two halves. At the top of this line is the doodle. The doodle is a head & face, and the line appear to be coming out of the doodle heads mouth area, like a tongue.

Along the side of the 1959 recording is "Titles listed by Sylvia Plath". This was written probably by Jack Sweeney, then curator of the room, but could have been by Stephen Fassett, whose recording studio was at 24 Chestnut Street in Beacon Hill, just a one minute walk from 9 Willow Street, where Plath and Hughes lived.

As of this time, the boxes are not catalogued but if you're in the Lamont Library area and want to see them, come on by - though setting an appointment is recommended. Though many libraries at Harvard are closed to the public, the Woodberry Poetry Room (Room 330 in Lamont Library) is open to the public. All one needs to do is present an ID at the entrance.

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  1. erzsebet09 October, 2008 18:32

    Would that all 'routine visit[s] to the stacks' came with such delightful surprises! That she doodled on the listing is a fun tidbit. I do wonder why she wrote her own track listings, though, when it sounds like that wasn't the norm.

    - erzsebet

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