In April 2012, Sylvia Plath was honored with other Twentieth century poets with a Forever Stamp by the United States Postal Service . At the time, I did not know that the USPS released (or would also release at a later date) a set of collector's note cards as an attractive boxed set. The set also includes envelopes and a set of the ten Twentieth century poets forever stamps. Each of the cards in the set features an artist's response to a poem by the featured poet. Naturally you may assume I was interested in the Plath note card... The poem quoted, partially (the first five lines), on the back of the card is from "Child": Your clear eye is the one absolutely beautiful thing. I want to fill it with color and ducks, The zoo of the new Whose names you meditate— April snowdrop, Indian pipe,... Below are the front and back of the note card, which is blank on the inside. Well, what do you think of that? The note card set is available for sale at many

A month ago I was in England and took this video of the churchyard of St. Peter's in North Tawton and of Court Green. I apologize for the awful video quality; the settings on my camera were not set very high unfortunately. As the video progresses, I walk towards the "wall of old corpses" ("Letter in November") -- (also known as "a row of headstones" ("The Moon and the Yew Tree") -- and get a shot of Court Green, with daffodils abloom. And here are two photographs of Court Green, taken with appropriate camera settings...

In Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 ( HarperCollins , 16 April 2013), Elizabeth Winder has approached a pivotal period of Sylvia Plath's life in a novel way. Similar to the ingenuity in scope of Andrew Wilson's recent biography Mad Girl's Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted , Winder writes primarily on a snapshot period of Plath's life and weaves together a short, quirky narrative based on archival research, information obtained from books, and new interviews with Plath's fellow guest editors. I was curious how one would write a 265-page biography based on one month/one summer of Plath's life. October 1962, I could see: there is a fair amount of information about this period and certainly enough creative work to really bring that aspect in as well. But, June 1953 there is less material available: very few letters, sparse journal-writing, no creative writing (other than possibly copy Plath wrote for the Mademoiselle issue).

Scheduled to be published in May 2013 by Salem Press is Critical Insights: Sylvia Plath , edited by Plath Profiles founder William K. Buckley. Here's the information from Salem's website that you may want to know: ISBN: 978-1-4298-3833-7, Print List Price: $85, e-ISBN: 978-1-4298-3849-8, eBook Single User Price: $85, May 2013, 300 pages, 6"x9". Includes Online Database with Print Purchase "Outstanding, in-depth scholarship by renowned literary critics; great starting point for students seeking an introduction to Plath and the critical discussions surrounding her work. "Talented from the very beginning of her life, Sylvia Plath published her first poem at the age of eight in the "children’s section" of the Boston Herald. She said of her childhood: "I want to work at putting together the complex mosaic of my childhood; to practice capturing feelings and experiences from the nebulous seething of memory and yank them out into black-and-

This is another review that I started ages ago and only recently uncovered. Not that it is worth publishing as it is in itself a poorly written review about a poorly written book: a reflection perhaps of the work itself... I have two reviews in the works as well, of Elizabeth Winder's Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 (HarperCollins, 2013) and Marianne Egeland's Claiming Sylvia Plath: The Poet as Exemplary Figure  (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013) Adbo Publishing Company published How to Analyze the Works of Sylvia Plath  by Victoria Peterson-Hilleque recently (978-1617834578). It is a slim volume geared toward students in grades 6-8 and features chapters which discuss Plath's life, The Bell Jar , "Daddy," "Lady Lazarus," and "Three Women." Two chapters examine each of Plath's works and are structured with one chapter being an "Overview" and the second applying different critical approaches to the wo

Did you forget? Did you miss it? Too busy doing other stuff? Shame... Plath Profiles 6 is now closed for submissions and judging from the submissions the journal has received, it will not be considering late submissions this time around. Sorry. The Editorial Board thanks you for considering Plath Profiles for your work. In a move to streamline production of the journal and avoid persistent headaches and formatting problems, as of the next volume  Plath Profiles  will no longer accept submissions originated from an Apple product. This has nothing to do either with the recent grant they were awarded jointly by Samsung and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation or with the fact that if you believed that hooey you got suckered: it is still the first of April, after all.

Has anyone else noticed that Google News and alerts has sucked recently (for something like the last four months)? I found this story today but, as usual, was not alerted to it via email, text, sky writing, carrier pigeon, etc. London, AP--The recent news that the English Heritage has suspended the installation of Blue plaques has lead to last ditch efforts to commemorate landmarks associated with historical figures. Small amounts of money allotted for the plaques does remain, which has led to the quiet placement of additional blue plaques around England's capital city: London. In conjunction with the recent 50th anniversary of both the publication of The Bell Jar and Sylvia Plath's death, English Heritage has installed several new, additional blue plaques in her honor in the Primrose Hill neighborhood that she loved. The first house to receive the plaque is an unusual move: 23 Fitzroy Road. Citing that some of her most starkly beautiful and original poetry was compo