Earlier this summer I had the opportunity to work with Sylvia Plath's copy of Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead which is held privately.
Sylvia Plath's library is largely divided between three major collections: Emory University, Indiana University, and Smith College. For several years now I have maintained a reconstruction of Plath's library (if you will) via LibraryThing as a part of their Legacy Library project. This list includes books not only owned by Plath at the time of her death, but also books Plath mentioned in her letters and journals, as well as those that appear in papers she wrote and other archival documents. There is still work to be done in the project so check her catalog periodically.
The three main collections can be looked at the following way: those at Indiana University were books that Plath left behind when she moved permanently to England in December 1959; those at Smith College were books Plath had with her in England at the time of her death that Ted Hughes selected; and those at Emory were those books Ted Hughes retained after Plath's death and held back from the sale of Plath's later papers to Smith College.
Sylvia Plath's copy of The Fountainhead was one such book left behind in Wellesley in December 1959. It is the triple volume Signet / New American Library edition (T934) first published in 1952; a fat paperback copy with a gaudy cover, and a cover price of 75¢.
Well read and worn, the book is in three parts now, with two large chunks (pages 1-210 and 211-478) completely unglued from the spine. The third portion (pages 479-720) is still attached but precariously so. I came armed with laptop, camera, book foams for support, and book weights to prevent the pages from popping up. Of the books' 720 pages (including front and back matter), there are handwritten annotations in the form of underlines, marginal lines (including brackets), stars, and some textual commentary on 202 pages. This means that approximately 28% of the book is marked. In addition to the pen annotations, Plath turned down many page corners. Plath's name and date appear on the front free endpaper (which is also page 1 of the book). Though acquired in 1954 according to her ownership signature, Plath's 1955 calendar, held by the Lilly Library, notes that she read The Fountainhead on Monday-Tuesday, 13-14 June 1955. It is unclear if Plath read it in the year the book was acquired. That she read the book in two days makes her rather more amazing than I believed previously. After Plath's death, Aurelia Plath gave this book to the person who has owned it since that time. It was a privilege and an honor to work with this book and to be able to blog about it for you. Perhaps the most fun was copying Plath's annotations into my own copy of The Fountainhead. I was able to find the exact edition Plath had on abebooks.com.
Below is a table of page numbers and the kinds of annotations that appear on each page respectively.
Postscript: Plath absorbed something from everything she read. After reading the novel myself in August (same edition, with annotations copied from Plath's into mine), I think it is possible to argue that her encounter and interaction with The Fountainhead manifest itself in her recollection of her famous meeting with Ted Hughes. There are two particular scenes in the novel that come to mind and both involve Howard Roark and Dominique Francon. The language in the novel, at least, I think informed Plath's word choice in her journals when she wrote:
Sylvia Plath's library is largely divided between three major collections: Emory University, Indiana University, and Smith College. For several years now I have maintained a reconstruction of Plath's library (if you will) via LibraryThing as a part of their Legacy Library project. This list includes books not only owned by Plath at the time of her death, but also books Plath mentioned in her letters and journals, as well as those that appear in papers she wrote and other archival documents. There is still work to be done in the project so check her catalog periodically.
The three main collections can be looked at the following way: those at Indiana University were books that Plath left behind when she moved permanently to England in December 1959; those at Smith College were books Plath had with her in England at the time of her death that Ted Hughes selected; and those at Emory were those books Ted Hughes retained after Plath's death and held back from the sale of Plath's later papers to Smith College.
 |
| Front cover, spine, and rear cover of Sylvia Plath's copy of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead |
Well read and worn, the book is in three parts now, with two large chunks (pages 1-210 and 211-478) completely unglued from the spine. The third portion (pages 479-720) is still attached but precariously so. I came armed with laptop, camera, book foams for support, and book weights to prevent the pages from popping up. Of the books' 720 pages (including front and back matter), there are handwritten annotations in the form of underlines, marginal lines (including brackets), stars, and some textual commentary on 202 pages. This means that approximately 28% of the book is marked. In addition to the pen annotations, Plath turned down many page corners. Plath's name and date appear on the front free endpaper (which is also page 1 of the book). Though acquired in 1954 according to her ownership signature, Plath's 1955 calendar, held by the Lilly Library, notes that she read The Fountainhead on Monday-Tuesday, 13-14 June 1955. It is unclear if Plath read it in the year the book was acquired. That she read the book in two days makes her rather more amazing than I believed previously. After Plath's death, Aurelia Plath gave this book to the person who has owned it since that time. It was a privilege and an honor to work with this book and to be able to blog about it for you. Perhaps the most fun was copying Plath's annotations into my own copy of The Fountainhead. I was able to find the exact edition Plath had on abebooks.com.
Below is a table of page numbers and the kinds of annotations that appear on each page respectively.
Page
|
Annotation type (underline, star, marginal line, text)
|
1
|
(ffep), text: Sylvia Plath, 1954
|
16
|
underline, marginal lines
|
18
|
underline
|
21
|
marginal line
|
38
|
marginal line
|
39
|
underline
|
43
|
underline
|
47
|
underline
|
54
|
underline
|
57
|
marginal line
|
58
|
underline
|
59
|
marginal line
|
67
|
marginal line
|
72
|
marginal line
|
73
|
Text: NO ; NO; marginal line
|
89
|
underline
|
98
|
marginal line
|
99
|
marginal line
|
100
|
marginal line
|
106
|
underline
|
130
|
star; marginal line; underline; corner turned down
|
131
|
underline
|
132
|
underline
|
133
|
underline
|
134
|
marginal line; underline
|
141
|
marginal line; underline
|
142
|
marginal line
|
149
|
marginal line
|
159
|
underline
|
163
|
marginal line; underline
|
167
|
marginal line
|
172
|
marginal line
|
180
|
underline
|
194
|
underline
|
202
|
marginal line; corner turned down
|
206
|
marginal line; underline
|
208
|
underline
|
227
|
marginal line
|
231
|
underline
|
232
|
marginal line
|
235
|
marginal line
|
236
|
marginal line; underline
|
239
|
underline
|
241
|
underline
|
245
|
underline
|
246
|
marginal line
|
251
|
marginal line
|
255
|
underline
|
263
|
marginal line
|
265
|
underline
|
266
|
marginal line
|
268
|
underline
|
272
|
marginal line; corner turned down
|
276
|
marginal line
|
281
|
marginal line; underline
|
285
|
marginal line; underline
|
302
|
marginal line
|
303
|
underline
|
305
|
marginal line; underline
|
306
|
star; marginal line
|
307
|
marginal line; underline
|
311
|
marginal line; underline
|
313
|
underline
|
318
|
underline
|
322
|
marginal line
|
326
|
marginal line
|
335
|
marginal line
|
354
|
underline
|
359
|
underline
|
362
|
marginal line
|
363
|
marginal line
|
364
|
marginal line; underline
|
370
|
marginal line
|
371
|
underline
|
372
|
marginal line; underline
|
383
|
underline
|
384
|
star; underline; corner turned down
|
398
|
marginal line
|
399
|
marginal line
|
421
|
underline
|
423
|
marginal line; underline
|
424
|
marginal line
|
432
|
marginal line
|
435
|
marginal line; underline
|
436
|
underline
|
437
|
underline
|
441
|
underline
|
447
|
marginal line
|
453
|
marginal line
|
454
|
underline
|
455
|
underline
|
456
|
marginal line
|
457
|
marginal line
|
459
|
underline
|
463
|
marginal line; underline
|
466
|
underline
|
468
|
underline
|
473
|
underline
|
477
|
underline
|
480
|
marginal line; underline
|
481
|
underline
|
482
|
marginal line
|
484
|
marginal line
|
485
|
underline
|
487
|
marginal line; underline
|
488
|
marginal line; underline
|
491
|
marginal line
|
492
|
marginal line
|
498
|
marginal line
|
499
|
marginal line
|
500
|
underline
|
503
|
marginal line; underline
|
504
|
underline
|
505
|
marginal line
|
506
|
underline
|
508
|
underline
|
509
|
underline
|
510
|
underline
|
511
|
marginal line; underline; corner turned down
|
514
|
marginal line; underline
|
517
|
marginal line
|
518
|
marginal line; underline
|
525
|
underline
|
529
|
marginal line
|
530
|
marginal line; underline
|
532
|
star; underline
|
533
|
underline
|
534
|
marginal line
|
541
|
underline
|
543
|
underline
|
550
|
marginal line
|
553
|
star; marginal line; underline; corner turned down
|
554
|
marginal line
|
564
|
star; marginal line; underline
|
565
|
star; underline; corner turned down
|
566
|
marginal line; underline
|
568
|
marginal line
|
570
|
TEXT: NO! ; marginal line; underline
|
573
|
marginal line; underline
|
578
|
marginal line
|
583
|
marginal line; underline
|
584
|
marginal line
|
585
|
TEXT: God! ; marginal line; underline
|
588
|
marginal line
|
589
|
underline
|
590
|
marginal line
|
593
|
marginal line
|
594
|
star; marginal line; underline; corner turned down
|
595
|
marginal line; underline
|
596
|
underline
|
597
|
underline
|
598
|
star; marginal line; underline
|
599
|
marginal line; underline
|
604
|
underline
|
609
|
underline
|
612
|
underline
|
615
|
marginal line
|
616
|
star; underline
|
617
|
marginal line
|
618
|
marginal line
|
620
|
marginal line; underline
|
621
|
star; marginal line; underline
|
622
|
marginal line; underline
|
623
|
star; arrow; marginal line; underline; corner turned down
|
624
|
TEXT: Yes ; marginal line; underline
|
625
|
star; marginal line; underline; corner turned down
|
629
|
marginal line
|
640
|
marginal line; underline
|
641
|
marginal line; underline
|
642
|
underline
|
650
|
marginal line
|
651
|
marginal line; underline
|
652
|
marginal line
|
653
|
marginal line; underline
|
654
|
TEXT: Hideous prophecy of collectivism; marginal line;
underline
|
655
|
star; underline
|
656
|
marginal line; underline
|
657
|
star; underline; corner turned down
|
658
|
underline
|
659
|
underline
|
661
|
star; underline; corner turned down
|
676
|
underline
|
678
|
marginal line
|
680
|
underline
|
686
|
marginal line; underline
|
694
|
underline
|
696
|
marginal line
|
698
|
marginal line; underline
|
699
|
underline
|
700
|
star; underline; corner turned down
|
701
|
marginal line; underline
|
702
|
star; marginal line; underline
|
703
|
star; marginal line; underline
|
704
|
marginal line; underline
|
705
|
underline
|
706
|
marginal line
|
711
|
underline
|
716
|
check
|
717
|
check
|
718
|
check
|
719
|
TEXT: Saw film ; check
|
720
|
check; arrow
|
 |
| Sylvia Plath's ownership signature |
 |
| Sample pages (700-701) with annotations |
 |
| The Fountainhead and its box |
 |
| The current state of the book |
 |
| Glue. |
His poem "I did it, I." Such violence, and I can see how women lie down for artists. The one man in the room who was as big as his poems, huge, with hulk and dynamic chunks of words; his poems are strong and blasting like a high wind in steel girders.Much has been said on comparing Hughes to Emily Brontë's Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. There is a different kind of purity and romanticism in Roark than there is in Heathcliff. But I wonder how much of Howard Roark might have been read into Hughes' actions and attitudes?