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Showing posts from April, 2012

Book Dealers' Victoria Lucas [Sylvia Plath] Bell Jar Stolen

Jonkers Rare Books of London recently reported the theft of a first edition of The Bell Jar by Victoria Lucas [Sylvia Plath]. This 1963 edition is price-clipped. Please see the ABAA security "Missing and Stolen Books Blog" . Theft in the rare book world - and anywhere else for that matter - is a terrible shame. If you read this blog and have a blog of your own, please spread the word in hopes that the book can and will be recovered. Thank you.

Article on Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes...

The Daily Mail in England published an article on some of the content of the letters between Ted Hughes and Keith Sagar, which is soon to be published by the British Library. In " The string of bad luck and accidents that killed Sylvia Plath: Letters reveal former Poet Laureate Ted Hughes was haunted by wife's suicide ," article author Chris Hastings sensationalizes what is likely a minor aspect of the forthcoming book, Poet and Critic: The Letters of Ted Hughes and Keith Sagar , regurgitating what is old news to Plath's &Hughes' readers. Eleven years ago, when the British Library first acquired the Sagar-Hughes correspondence, Emma Yates at the Guardian - among others - published " Drugs a 'key factor' in Plath's suicide, claimed Hughes ". Now, it was "news" then. It is not news now. Now, that being said, genuine thanks to ~VC and KZ for passing on the link! Poet and Critic is on sale in May 2012 and can be purchased fr

Article with a bit on Sylvia Plath

There is a new article that contains a bit on Sylvia Plath that some may find of interest. Please see: Grobe, Christopher A. "The Breath of the Poem: Confessional Print/Performance circa 1959." PMLA 127.2 (March 2012): 215-230. That's it.

Sylvia Plath Info Blog: 5

On 27 April 2007, Sylvia Plath Info Blog began with a post that I hope has been enacted and kept up like a promise. At the time I started this blog, I was unable to update my website for Sylvia Plath, A celebration, this is , and I saw this medium as a platform to make announcements about new books, provide updates on the Symposium at Oxford that year, etc. Now, however, I cannot stop! Like the speaker of "Getting There": "...and the train is steaming. Steaming and breathing, its teeth Ready to roll, like a devil's." Thank you all for your encouraging and valuable comments, and for your visits over the past five years. Thank you also for the guest posts that occasionally appear here, too. If you are interested in such a thing, please contact me. This blog would never have survived with you, its readers and followers. Let us keep steaming. And 77th Happy Birthday Warren Plath.

Sylvia Plath's "Desert Song"

In the Sylvia Plath Collection at Mortimer Rare Book Room, there is a typescript of a poem entitled "Desert Song." Plath dated this poem April 21, 1955 and submitted it to her creative writing professor Alfred Young Fisher as part of the course requirement. "Desert Song" remains unpublished to this day, but the poem is about, well, it is a sex poem - or lack thereof in the metaphor of an arid desert in want of saturation. The course for which this poem was submitted was a special study course in creative writing which Plath most certainly earned based on her academic credentials, her success in publishing her creative writing in both local and national periodicals, and the promise of her future in the field of poetry and creative writing. On the verso of this typescript, in Plath's hand and in pencil, she cryptically made note of a date (29 April), a page number (30) and a newspaper title (Union). It is evident from the typescript being dated 1955 that Plath

Forever Sylvia Plath

Saturday 21 April will see the release of the Twentieth Century Poets stamp series in the US. As we know, Plath is one of the featured poets. Taking my inspiration from the technophiles [ahem, losers] who eagerly await new devices, I will be taking off work & life in order to camp out at the post office to be FIRST IN LINE. Someone please bring me coffee... The stamp is a "forever" stamp which means the price you buy it at will be good for first class postage no matter future price adjustments. In some ways it pains me to think that someone will send me a stamp with a big postal cancellation stamp on Plath's face, but it would also be nice to receive real mail...

Information on Gerald Hughes book about Ted Hughes

On 4 April, the post " Ted Hughes News " had brief information about a forthcoming title by Ted Hughes' brother Gerald.  Well, The Telegraph has just published " Ted Hughes brother to write memoir ". It is a brief article but gives us something to mull over until the book Ted and I is published by Jeremy Robson this fall. Not sure how much Sylvia Plath material will be in there, but we can look forward to reading it nonetheless. Thanks to ~VC for the information.

Reminder: Call for Papers for Sylvia Plath Symposium 2012: The October Poems

As things in the blog-world get lost and forgotten easily, it seems as good a time as any to re-post information on the Sylvia Plath Symposium 2012 as a way to encourage you all to consider submitting for topics. I have! Have you? Will you? The Department of English at Indiana University is accepting papers for the "Sylvia Plath Symposium 2012: The October Poems" to be held Thursday to Sunday, October 24-27 at the Bloomington campus. This event commemorates the 50-year anniversary of Ariel with a focus on poems Plath wrote in October 1962. While all topics related to Plath's work may be submitted, featured scholars and artists will highlight Plath's most famous works. The opening day seminar will address the phenomenon of inspiration and the creative imagination. Literary panels will take place on Friday and Saturday. A website posted in May will provide more details. Deadline for abstract submissions is July 1, but earlier is recommended, particularly for inter

Sylvia Plath Interdisciplinary Master Class at Oxford

Because this is a great opportunity, I thought I would re-post  from January the information about the Sylvia Plath Interdisciplinary Master Class on offer this summer at Oxford. This summer, Dr. Sally Bayley and Linda Gates will teach a Sylvia Plath Interdisciplinary Master Class entitled "Finding a Voice: Sylvia Plath's Poetic Landscapes" at Oxford University in England from 2-6 July 2012. From the course description (accessed 23 January 2012): "This class will take a selection of Sylvia Plath's poetic manuscripts as a starting point for exploring the process of Plath's poetic composing. The particular focus will be on Plath's mature landscape poems, Winter Trees, Crossing the Water, Little Fugue, The Moon and the Yew Tree and Elm in which the speaker devises and revises a poetic identity through several drafted stages. The quotient points of her identity shift between inner and outer worlds as the poems come into focus and her personae begin to sp

Ted Hughes News

On 10 May 2012 , readers of Ted Hughes (and Sylvia Plath) should be on the lookout for Keith Sagar's Poet and Critic: The Letters of Ted Hughes and Keith Sagar (published by The British Library Publishing Division). The book will weigh in at 320 pages, and topics discussed in the correspondence include Hughes's travels, hunting, religion, education and his relationship with Sylvia Plath. Never published before in their entirety, this collection provides a significant new perspective on Hughes's life and work. Look for the book available in America in June . Purchase Poet and Critic from the British Library ! Later in the year, Ted Hughes's brother, Gerald, will publish a book about his brother. More details as they are made available. Roy Davids has published via Earth-Moon: Information about Ted Hughes , a detailed finding aid of the Ted Hughes materials at the British Library . A massive undertaking and an enviable product. Ann Skea has published recently &q

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