Sylvia Plath auction at Bonhams: The Results

This post was revised on 17 July 2016.

Several Sylvia Plath lots of typescripts and books were offered today at Bonhams Knighstbridge as part of their Fine Books, Manuscripts, and Original Illustrations sale. I listened to the action of the auction live online and let me just say my stomach was turning somersaults and I was feeling anxious...and I was not even bidding. It is exciting and thrilling to bear witness to these sales: a true rush full of wonder.

The first five lots (167-171) were from the larger Plath archive that has been up for sale, piecemeal, after the whole archive failed to sell via Sotheby's in December 2014. Initially only one of the lots sold, however in doing some follow-up research, I learned that all five lots in the end did sell.

The second lots (172-174) are books formerly belonging to Winifred Davies, Plath's Devon midwife and friend. To sum these lots, the first two sold for above the high estimate and The Bell Jar lot sold for the high estimate exactly. Frankly I'm surprised these prices were not higher, especially for the Plath books.

Below are the lots and descriptions with the sale prices (inclusive of premiums/fees/etc.) listed in bold. If you are the winner: Oh, lucky, lucky you!

Lot 167
Sylvia Plath, Typescript draft, with autograph revisions, of her story "The Green Rock", and typescript of "Gramercy Park", with occasional annotations, 1948-9.
Sold £875 / $1,169

Lot 168
Sylvia Plath
Typescript draft with autograph revisions of her poem ʻSeek No More the Young', here with the deleted typed title "Latvian Threnody", [March 1949].
Sold for £937 / $1,330

Lot 169
Sylvia Plath
Carbon typescript of her story "Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom", with letter of rejection from Mademoiselle magazine, 11 March 1953.
Sold for £625 / $835

Lot 170
Sylvia Plath
Two draft typescripts, in successive versions, of her poem "Go Get the Goodly Squab", Smith College, April 1953; ʻSOLD TO HARPER'S – APRIL 1953' – SYLVIA PLATH RECEIVES HER ʻFIRST REAL PROFESSIONAL ACCEPTANCE' AS A POET.
Sold for £625 / $835

Lot 171
Sylvia Plath
Typescripts and carbon typescripts of six poems, comprising: "Spring Sacrament", "Eve Describes Her Birthday Party", "To Ariadne (deserted by Theseus)" with copy, "Tulips at Dawn", "Spring Again".
Sold £875 / $1,169

Lot 172
Sylvia Plath
The Colossus & Other Poems, first American edition, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED "For Winifred & Garnett with warmest good wishes - Sylvia Court Green: 1962" on the front free endpaper, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1962.
Sold for £8,750 / $12,413
Bidding for the above lot was fast and furious and the bidding easily beat the high estimate.

Lot 173
Sylvia Plath HUGHES (TED) The Hawk in the Rain, FIRST EDITION, 1957; Lupercal, first American edition, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1960; Meet My Folks!, FIRST EDITION, 1961, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPIES INSCRIBED "To Winifred [Davies] and Garnett with my best wishes from Ted, October 1962" (the second and third with addition of "North Tawton"); Wodwo, FIRST EDITION, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED "To Winifred [Davies] gratefully from Ted, April 21st 1967", AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("yours Ted H.") loosely inserted, 1967, unless otherwise stated Faber & Faber (4).
Sold for £2,125 / $3,014
Bidding for this lot also blew away the high estimate.

Lot 174
Lot 174 Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar, FIRST EDITION, Heinemann, [1963].
Sold for £2,500 / $3,546

All links accessed 6 June 2016.

Famous Quotes of Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath inspires us all in various and wonderful ways. She is in many respects a form of comfort to us, which is something that Esther Greenwood expresses in The Bell Jar , about a bath: "There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them. Whenever I'm sad I'm going to die, or so nervous I can't sleep, or in love with somebody I won't be seeing for a week, I slump down just so far and then I say: 'I'll go take a hot bath.'" We read and remember Sylvia Plath for many reasons, many of them deeply personal and private. But we commemorate her, too, in very public ways, as Anna of the long-standing Tumblr Loving Sylvia Plath , has been tracking, in the form of tattoos. (Anna's on Instagram with it too, as SylviaPlathInk .) The above bath quote is among Sylvia Plath's most famous. It often appears here and there and it is stripped of its context. But I think most people will know it is from her nove...

Sylvia Plath's Gravestone Vandalized

The following news story appeared online this morning: HEPTONSTALL, ENGLAND (APFS) - The small village of Heptonstall is once again in the news because of the grave site of American poet Sylvia Plath. The headstone controversy rose to a fever pitch in 1989 when Plath's grave was left unmarked for a long period of time after vandals repeatedly chiseled her married surname Hughes off the stone marker. Author Nick Hornby commented, "I like Plath, but the controversy reaching its fever pitch in the 80s had nothing to do with my book title choice." Today, however, it was discovered that the grave was defaced but in quite an unlikely fashion. This time, Plath's headstone has had slashed-off her maiden name "Plath," so the stone now reads "Sylvia Hughes." A statement posted on Twitter from @masculinistsfortedhughes (Masculinists for Ted Hughes) has claimed responsibility saying that, "We did this because as Ted Hughes' first wife, Sylvia de...

Sylvia Plath and McLean Hospital

In August when I was in the final preparations for the tour of Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar sites, I found that I had long been mistaken about a couple of things. This is my coming clean. It was my intention in this blog post to discuss just McLean, but I found myself deeply immersed in other aspects of Plath's recovery. The other thing I was mistaken about will be discussed in a separate blog post. I suppose I need to state from the outset that I am drawing conclusions from Plath's actual experiences from what she wrote in The Bell Jar and vice versa, taking information from the novel that is presently unconfirmed or murky and applying it to Plath's biography. There is enough in The Bell Jar , I think, based on real life to make these decisions. At the same time, I like to think that I know enough to distinguish where things are authentic and where details were clearly made up, slightly fudged, or out of chronological order. McLean Hospital was Plath's third and last...

Search This Blog