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...
Peter, I've just written a blog post about Sylvia and Ted from the perspective of their dominant neurotransmitters. The driven, confident side of Sylvia would be dopaminergic and the side of Ted that was far too overdominant:
ReplyDeletehttp://rightmindmatters.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-minds-of-poets-sylvia-plath-and-ted.html
:'( i dont know.. Not to her mother im sure because i checked on Letters Home ..all i know about that date is that she wrote Little Fugue. But now im curious to know whom she wrote the letter to.
ReplyDeleteP.s. Peter, by the way..talking about letter sent..i ve wondered for too many times now, without ever having an answer, whom she wrote to on the very night she took her own life, with the famous stamp she bought from Trevor Thomas.. And thought that u surely have the answer that can put finally an end to my neverending curiosity. Thank u
and thank u for this marvellous site and for the amazing work on Plath u do and did and for all the news and discoveries and teachings u constantly give to us.
My best regards.
A Plathofile from Italy.
Dear Plathofile - Thank you for your kind comment. I think Ronald Hayman may have said in his book that SP had written a letter to her mother that was found after SP's death, and that Aurelia Plath declined to read the letter. But this letter does not appear to be part of an known or acknowledged archive.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a letter is dated 10 Feb 1963 in the private collection of Richard Prince (see this blog post for a little detail). The story as reported never (yet) materialized.
It might be that the letter that Prince has is addressed to her mother, but the opposite is also true: it might be to someone else. Sets the mind racing, doesn't it?
Hope this helps.
pks
or maybe...on that bad night she just wrote to her husband..a last line..few last words...the last sign of her love to him..who knows..... Or maybe one so full of hatred sent to her biggest enemy (Assia) of the moment. Who knows..
ReplyDeleteAnyway, thank u very much again..im going to have a look at the site u linked.
And yes, u're always of help ;-)
The plathofile (Alessandra) from Italy
Exciting! So what is the story of this new archive? A new box popped up out of nowhere? Details, please!
ReplyDeleteI really hope we dont have to wait until this winter to have our curiosity fullfilled..it was already hard to fall asleep last night wondering only about two stamps..can u imagine about an entire box ;-)
ReplyDeleteBut no doubt our waiting will be worthy..
Have a nice day ya all
kisses from Italy
(where for my sadness Sylvia is still almost unknown and we find/have
no books/stuff about/by her..so i thank the existence of this site and of google(for the informations) all these years of passion for Sylvia and ebay.com for the books i could buy
Julia - The point of the post was to tease, not to gratify. You'll have to wait until Summer 2013 for the article!
ReplyDeleteAlessandra - Unfortunately, you'll have to wait for a while longer than the winter as the paper won't be "out" until Plath Profiles 6 in Summer 2013. I certainly hope that the wait will be worth it!
pks
Ah, you are a wicked man, Peter! ;-)
ReplyDeleteWell, it's postmarked the day after Frieda's birthday, so I bet she is thanking someone for a birthday present, perhaps? My gut says it is something about the birthday.
ReplyDelete