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Are You Our Sort of Person?: Otto Plath and the FBI

Did anyone read the list of featured speakers at the Sylvia Plath 2012 Symposium: The October Poems that I posted on 19 July"? Did anyone see the subject of Heather "The Grief of Influence" Clark's talk? Well, here it is, again: Heather Clark on Otto Plath's FBI files, Plath’s German heritage?

Journalist Dalya Alberge has written an article for The Guardian newspaper in London titled "FBI files on Sylvia Plath's father shed new light on poet." The focus of the article is Heather's subject, and how recently uncovered archival documents provide insight into Sylvia Plath's father, Otto Plath, who was briefly investigated by the FBI in October 1918. But if you cannot wait until October to hear what promises to be a gripping talk, click here to read the article.

Update: 18 August 2012
Daily Mail runs similar report: but with more photographs... Read "FBI files on Sylvia Plath's father show he was investigated during World War I for pro-German sympathies" by Daily Mail Reporter. Note, that it is interesting to see, already, how the story has changed and is in someways completely unrecognizable.
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  1. Kristina Zimbakova17 August, 2012 16:58

    ''Academics to attend include Peter K Steinberg, who unearthed the files.'' Not for nothing have I called you The Detective long ago. The topic of Clark's talk stroke me immediately and I just wondered... Peter=Star, this is mind-boggling, really.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Peter K Steinberg17 August, 2012 18:38

    Kristina! "We walk on air, Watson."

    Thank you for your comment. I think it's the first time I've been called an "academic" which I think is making Academics the world over re-assess their identities and qualifications. Naturally, I just happened to get lucky and look in the right place...

    pks

    ReplyDelete
  3. Julia Gordon-Bramer17 August, 2012 23:19

    Woah! This is exciting!

    I do agree with Heather (and you?) that he was a pacifist. All the evidence supports this. America was extremely anti-German after WWI and during and after WWII. Some states did not even allow the language to be spoken. I can see how someone might want to preserve his or her heritage, and that could be turned against them in wartime.

    Can't wait for this symposium!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Julia Gordon-Bramer17 August, 2012 23:20

    I should perhaps clarify: "...all the evidence of which I am aware supports this..." ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous18 August, 2012 08:56

    Truly fascinating find, Peter!

    ~VC

    ReplyDelete
  6. The Plath Diaries18 August, 2012 09:24

    Absolutely fascinating, Peter!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous18 August, 2012 12:08

    Über-exciting! Thanks for digging this up Peter. / Florian

    ReplyDelete
  8. Peter K Steinberg19 August, 2012 06:56

    ~VC, The Plath Diaires, & Florian!

    Thanks for your thanks. This was a simple instance of a happy accident...the internet is full of amazing things. And some scary things, too. But amazing things!

    Julia, yes, I too think Otto was a pacifist. But that is really based on what other people have written or suggested and not because I am particularly knowledgeable about him, his beliefs, etc. Perhaps I do also a little bit precisely because of that passage quoted by Dalya in her article from Sylvia Plath's journal where she says he "heiled Hitler in the privacy of his own home." And I say this because of Plath's having been finished with (or relatively soon after) a psychoanalytic session: who knows the amount of prompting or coaxing or leading that went into that journal entry. The journal entry (12 Dec 1958 and some of the others) seems exaggerated to some degree. - Went off the deep end there...sorry!

    pks

    ReplyDelete
  9. Julia Gordon-Bramer19 August, 2012 11:19

    Agreed. That "heiled Hitler" entry, if I'm remembering correctly, was on the heels of all the mother-hate stuff Plath wrote too, right? She was just working things out, hyperbolizing excessive rage, it seems to me.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous19 August, 2012 15:33

    In Letters Home Aurelia mentions that Otto felt remorse when he accidentally stepped on an ant. I don't know but I think he was a genuine pacifist alright… / Florian

    ReplyDelete

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