The News Office at Smith College has announced that four letters written by Sylvia Plath from 1962 have recently been donated to the Sylvia Plath Collection housed in the Mortimer Rare Book Room. The letters are to Plath's friends Paul and Clarissa Roche, and were recently donated by their daughter Pandora Roche Smith.
I read these letters recently on a day-trip to Northampton and they are from March 12, July 11, October 19, and October 25, 1962. This period coincides with Plath's writing "Three Women" up through her famous October poetic outburst.
Roche visited Plath after the break-up of her marriaged in November 1962 and then once again in London early in January 1963. Plath and Hughes met the Roche's in Northampton, Mass. in 1957 when Plath was an instructor in English at Smith College.
You can see a list of more libraries and archives and rare book rooms that hold Sylvia Plath's papers or related materials on the Archival Materials page of my website, A celebration, this is.
I read these letters recently on a day-trip to Northampton and they are from March 12, July 11, October 19, and October 25, 1962. This period coincides with Plath's writing "Three Women" up through her famous October poetic outburst.
Roche visited Plath after the break-up of her marriaged in November 1962 and then once again in London early in January 1963. Plath and Hughes met the Roche's in Northampton, Mass. in 1957 when Plath was an instructor in English at Smith College.
You can see a list of more libraries and archives and rare book rooms that hold Sylvia Plath's papers or related materials on the Archival Materials page of my website, A celebration, this is.
When it rains...it pours Plath!
ReplyDeleteHahahah! That's what I thought! :)
ReplyDeleteBtw, can everybody go and take a look at the Sylvia Plath collections at Smith or Emory University? Not that I could swing by, since I live in Germany, but I always have been curious!
AND - someone on tumblr typed up the poem and posted it, and now people are reblogging like crazy!!! ;))
I think it's a beautiful one.
Anna- each archive has its own policies but most are fully open to the public and most will make photocopies of certain materials--within reason as to the number of pages of copies--upon request. But check with the respective archivists first.
ReplyDeleteIt was only a matter of time before the poem "Last Letter" found its way into the Internet!
pks
Wowza. It's a real testament to her greatness that almost fifty years after her death, she's as hot as ever in the news.
ReplyDeleteIs there anything in the letters that hasn't been said in your (or another's) biography?
Julia! I suspect there is a lot still to be revealed that is in private hands.
ReplyDeleteOf course I think the letters -- inherently in and of themselves -- say somethings that no biographer or scholar has previously noted.
The letters Plath writes to friends often includes details she wrote to her family; but they are a little more chatty and natural. These letters to Clarissa (mostly, Paul is addressed in only one) ask about possible visits to North Tawton, their life in NT, etc. But they are funny, too, particularly when Plath describes an assault of slugs in their garden. In certain instances she exaggerates, but I think we all do that. The two letters from October are harder to read given the circumstances. However even if the information isn't "new" or "revealing" or whatever they do contribute. Know what I mean?
Plath had some good friendships and her letters are an important and probably overlooked aspect.
pks
Peter, you are terribly fortunate by having seen all that, not fair :-). Just joking, of course. Keep us in the loop. THANK YOU.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing the letters are like other archived papers, and we could pay for copies? Here's hoping...
ReplyDeleteYes, that is the case.
ReplyDelete