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Sylvia Plath Slept Here

In August 1955, a few weeks before she left for Cambridge, England, Sylvia Plath travelled to Washington, D. C. to visit her friend Sue Weller. I was going through some of my older photographs of Plath places, and realized that this image was not on my website (part of the unofficial "Sylvia Plath Slept Here" series of photos) and not mentioned on this blog. Weller lived at 1514 26th St NW, which is about a 10 minute was from either DuPont Circle or Foggy Bottom (one of the greatest names for a public transport station ever, along with Dorking in England). It is a nice, quiet street which very nearly borders Rock Creek Parkway.


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  1. Right Mind Matters27 September, 2012 15:30

    Nice picture, Peter! I lived in DC for 10 years and thought you might like to know that "Foggy Bottom" is shorthand for the Department of State, where I worked in the 70's. To government workers that's what it refers to. The metro didn't even exist yet. But historically, it is the name given to a larger area, including GW University, for instance.

    That aside, I love hearing that I've been places where Sylvia Plath walked. Rereading Paul Alexander's book, for instance, for my chapter, I learned that she went to the Everyman theater in Hampstead, where I went regularly when I lived in London in the 90's, I also walked by Yeats's house all the time, not even knowing then that Plath had lived there; I lived in St. John's Wood and walked to Primrose Hill all the time.

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  2. Anonymous29 September, 2012 15:44

    That's what I call synchronicity :-)
    / Florian

    oh, as well as your last name !?

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  3. Right Mind Matters29 September, 2012 16:12

    Actually, I learned from Alexander's book that Otto Platt changed his name to Plath when he emigrated to the US. My husband's family is from the English Platt line. P.S. the very prolific Paul Alexander has his first novel coming out.

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  4. Anonymous29 September, 2012 16:36

    Aha… Well I just read Pauls book Rough Magic, which has a lot of info about Otto. A kind of synchronicity there too :-)
    / F

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  5. Anonymous30 September, 2012 20:28

    FYI - I know a young NYU student who has an intership at a literary agent in the city. The agent had my friend skim a soon to be published book by one of his authors. The subject of the book - Assia Wevill. Sorry, no more detailed info than that. The liteary agent, by the way, pronounced the surname we-VELL. Do you know what the correct prounciation?

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  6. Peter K Steinberg30 September, 2012 20:52

    Hi Anonymous - Thank you for your comment. Please have your young NYC student email me, I'd love to know more about this forthcoming book.

    Per this page, the name is pronoucne 'wev-ill'.

    pks

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