Did you know that on August 22, 1961, Sylvia Plath was efficiently busy. Plath's busyness that day is briefly discussed in "These Ghostly Archives 5: Reanimating the Past", a paper that I co-write with Gail Crowther. But to give some additional detail...
On August 22, 1961: Plath was about nine days away from moving to Court Green...
On August 22, 1961: Plath sent her drafts of her poem "Insomniac" to Eric Walter White. Collected Poems generically (generally) dates the poem to "May 1961"; however, Plath dated her final typed copy "May 23, 1961". Good to know. The letter and poetry drafts are held by the British Library in the "Cheltenham Festival prize poems" (ADD MS 52617).
On August 22, 1961: Plath sent her drafts of her poem "Tulips" (variant title "Sickroom Tulips") to Jack Sweeney. This poem was written on March 18, 1961, a week or so after her release from hospital from having her appendix removed. The poem was written on commission for the Poetry at the Mermaid festival and was read live (and recorded) on July 17, 1961. Her letter and the drafts are held by the Houghton Library, Harvard ("Sylvia Plath papers for Sickroom Tulips" MS Am 1780). Sweeney exhibited the drafts in the Poetry Room two months later.
On August 22, 1961: Plath annotated the sentence in her journals, "Why don’t I write a novel?", saying, "I have! August 22, 1961: THE BELL JAR". Plath's journals are, of course, held in the Sylvia Plath Collection, Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College.
In the absence of any acceptance letter, of which none is known to exist, can we possibly conclude that on this date Plath and her publisher Heinemann came to agreement to publish the novel? Tough to say. Three days earlier (August 19, 1961), Plath wrote to her brother and sister-in-law, Gerald and Joan Hughes, saying that she was working on finishing her first novel before they moved. The letter to Gerald and Joan Hughes is held in Ted Hughes mss. II at he Lilly Library, Indiana University at Bloomington.
There are so many Plath archives! See more of them on my website A celebration, this is.
On August 22, 1961: Plath was about nine days away from moving to Court Green...
On August 22, 1961: Plath sent her drafts of her poem "Insomniac" to Eric Walter White. Collected Poems generically (generally) dates the poem to "May 1961"; however, Plath dated her final typed copy "May 23, 1961". Good to know. The letter and poetry drafts are held by the British Library in the "Cheltenham Festival prize poems" (ADD MS 52617).
On August 22, 1961: Plath sent her drafts of her poem "Tulips" (variant title "Sickroom Tulips") to Jack Sweeney. This poem was written on March 18, 1961, a week or so after her release from hospital from having her appendix removed. The poem was written on commission for the Poetry at the Mermaid festival and was read live (and recorded) on July 17, 1961. Her letter and the drafts are held by the Houghton Library, Harvard ("Sylvia Plath papers for Sickroom Tulips" MS Am 1780). Sweeney exhibited the drafts in the Poetry Room two months later.
On August 22, 1961: Plath annotated the sentence in her journals, "Why don’t I write a novel?", saying, "I have! August 22, 1961: THE BELL JAR". Plath's journals are, of course, held in the Sylvia Plath Collection, Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College.
In the absence of any acceptance letter, of which none is known to exist, can we possibly conclude that on this date Plath and her publisher Heinemann came to agreement to publish the novel? Tough to say. Three days earlier (August 19, 1961), Plath wrote to her brother and sister-in-law, Gerald and Joan Hughes, saying that she was working on finishing her first novel before they moved. The letter to Gerald and Joan Hughes is held in Ted Hughes mss. II at he Lilly Library, Indiana University at Bloomington.
There are so many Plath archives! See more of them on my website A celebration, this is.
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