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Exhibit & Lecture: Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar at 50

Ongoing is the 13th Annual Professor John Howard Birss, Jr. Memorial Library Exhibition, Sylvia Plath and The Bell Jar, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Bell Jar. The exhibit closes on 10 March 2013.

Have you yet seen the excellent, illustrated exhibit website?

If you are free next Wednesday, 27 February, come to Roger Williams University, Bristol, Rhode Island, to hear Karen V. Kukil, the Associate Curator of Rare Books at Smith College, give the Keynote Address to the exhibit. Karen's talk, "The Bell Jar at 50", is absolutely brilliant and will take place in Global Heritage Hall, Room G01.  See you there!

Wait... what? Still need more temptation? Here are some of the featured items:

  • First edition of The Bell Jar published by Heinemann in England under the pseudonym of Victoria Lucas (1963)
  • First American edition of The Bell Jar published by Harper & Row (1971)
  • Facsimile of Sylvia Plath's holograph outline for The Bell Jar (1961)
  • Royal manual typewriter owned by Sylvia Plath, 1950's
  • Original typescript of "Dirge," annotated by Alfred Young Fisher, [1955]
  • Original typescript of "Mad Girl’s Love Song", 1959
  • Correspondence between Sylvia Plath and her publishers.
  • Articles from the Boston Herald regarding Sylvia Plath's attempted suicide, 1953.
  • [Study of a Woman], gouache and ink, [cs. 1950-1952]
  • Reviews from various sources upon the publication of The Bell Jar, 1963.
  • Death Certificate of Sylvia Plath, certified copy from the General Register Office, Somerset House, London
  • Correspondence between Aurelia Plath, Sylvia's mother, and Olwyn Hughes, sister of Ted Hughes, regarding the potential publication of The Bell Jar in the United States, 1968.
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Comments

  1. BridgetAnna23 February, 2013 11:38

    Sounds fantastic; have a great time!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous24 February, 2013 04:32

    The opportunity to see Plath correspondence is enticing enough itself. PKS: do you think that the estate will permit the publication of an edition of selected letters (aside from what's available in LH) sometime within the next 10 years?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Peter K Steinberg25 February, 2013 16:06

    Thanks Bridget! Hope to have a good time.

    Anonymous: not sure, but I hope so!

    pks

    ReplyDelete

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