- There is an article in The Times by Ben Hoyle today on Ted Hughes and his recently discovered children's story, Timmy the Tug, written in 1956. The article, "Ted Hughes’s first children’s story has emerged after 50 years" is online here. This is the first time I remember reading about Jim Downer - and that Plath visited down in the winter of 1963 shortly before she died. Downer, and his wife Wendy, lived, according to Plath's addressbook (housed at Smith), at 214 Old Brompton Road in London. The article includes some of Downer's illustrations. Look for Timmy the Tug on 21 September.
There is a companion article to the one above, entitled "Jim Downer and Ted Hughes's excellent adventure" by Alan Franks. - An article that ran in the Marin Independent Journal mentions one of the most unique uses of Plath's poetry I can remember. In Jane Scurich's "Master Gardener: Garden Show focues on climate change, drought and sustainability", she talks about "A Garden of Mouthings", a garden "complete with garden complete with a honeycomb structure, bee-friendly plantings and a sound installation based on a poem ["The Beekeeper's Daughter"] by Sylvia Plath." The garden designer is Shirley Alexandra Watts. I'd love to see some pictures or video of this.
Garden designer Shirley Alexandra Watts, will work with bee expert Jaime Pawelek, architect Andrew Kudless and builder Ross Craig to create "A Garden of Mouthings." Visitors will have an opportunity to seek advice from bee experts and enjoy some honey tastings. Watts says she "seeks to inform, delight and inspire its viewers by celebrating not only honey bees, but also our often overlooked native bees." Now, this is creative. - Catherine Bowman is scheduled to read from The Plath Cabinet on Friday 13 November, 2009, at 5 p.m, at the Woodberry Poetry Room. The Woodberry Poetry Room is located at Room 330, Lamont Library, Harvard University. In addition to reading from her recent collection of Plath, she will curate a close-listening experience to the recordings of Plath held by the Woodberry Poetry Room. This comes a semester after my own curated stroll through Plath's voice. I'm also planning to curate a little exhibit of some of the Woodberry's non-audio Plath holdings. If you're in the Eastern Massachusetts area please come - the event is free and open to the public.
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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