Sylvia Plath Collections: Stuart Rose Literary Collection

The Roy Davids' Collection (catalog description) auction held by Bonhams earlier this year featured wonderful Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and even Assia Wevill materials. The prices realized for the documents was quite substantial. I was curious at the time where they would end up… And now we partially know. Several of the auctioned items are now held by Emory University in Atlanta in the Manuscripts and Rare Books Library (MARBL) in the Stuart Rose Literary Collection (permalink). This is a fitting place for these materials as Emory holds a massive collection of Ted Hughes papers already. The collection features a substantial sub-series of Sylvia Plath materials (series 3), and in addition there are smaller collections, including Letters to Assia Wevill, among others.

The following are now available for research use with no stated restrictions on access:

Box 1 Folder 10: Hughes, Ted, "The Evolution of Sheep in the Fog," by Sylvia Plath, 7 working drafts, circa February 1988;

Box 1 Folder 15 Plath, Sylvia, "Night Thoughts," typescript draft and "Tonight in the infinitesimal light," autograph manuscript; and Ted Hughes, "Endless," autograph manuscript, no dates;

Box 1 Folder 17 (and oversize) Wevill, Assia, photographs.

The Plath poems in Folder 15 consist of a typescript of "Barren Woman" (though then the draft was titled "Night Thoughts" -- the poem was also called, for a time "Small Hours") and autograph manuscript of the second stanza of "I am vertical". An image of the stanza of "I am vertical" is visible on Bonhams website.

Thank you Stuart Rose for purchasing these materials and making them available for scholarly use via Emory University. Your actions are admirable and I hope they serve as a role model to others.

You can see more libraries that hold Plath materials on the Archival Materials page of my website for Sylvia Plath, A celebration, this is.

All links accessed 3 & 27 October 2013.

Famous Quotes of Sylvia Plath

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