As you know, I have been co-editing Sylvia Plath's letters with Karen V. Kukil of Smith College. It gives me great pleasure to let you know that recently we submitted the manuscript for
The Letters of Sylvia Plath to Faber & Faber in London.
This has been an incredible journey. I have learned so much about Sylvia Plath (and Ted Hughes). About their lives and publications, as well as events in Massachusetts, England, and other places. About culture and history. And so much more.
I will give any updates I can on this blog, so for now please no questions regarding publication though I am sure you have many. Thank you all for your patience and support during this project. My efforts were greatly enhanced by my best friends sugar and caffeine. The number of people that contributed to this project and their enthusiasm, support, and information has been extraordinary. Several people went above and beyond the call. You know who you are.
It was a privilege of the highest order to be entrusted by Frieda Hughes with the task of locating, reading, transcribing, and annotating all the known, extant letters written by Sylvia Plath. Every letter found, read, transcribed, and annotated has had you, the reader of Sylvia Plath, in mind. I cannot wait for you to read what this book. I hope this will be a building block for and a significant contribution to Plath scholarship.
Here are some pictures:
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| Editing the Index, mind the glare off my de Chirico-esque darning-egg head |
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| Folders for each year |
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| Photocopies of letters to people Not Named Aurelia Plath |
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| Photocopies of letters to Aurelia Plath |
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| The letters in open boxes |
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| The boxes are closed |
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The letters all printed out,
next to a 1954 Royal HH typewriter, just like Plath's |
{applauds} {standing ovation}
ReplyDeleteRock on Peter!
ReplyDeleteThank you Amy & Anonymous. Plenty of work still to do I'm sure. Just know it's all for you and you and you and you and you and you and everyone else.
ReplyDelete~pks
YAYYYYYYYYY just too too exciting Peter and HURRAH on a mammoth job.
ReplyDeleteCongrats Peter! So proud of you and happy to hear this news! Kim
ReplyDeleteImpressive! And so exciting. Thanks for doing this.
ReplyDeletePeter, this is wonderful news. Have always been an admirer of your work on Sylvia Plath and this edition of Plath's letters is well overdue. Thank you. Looking forward to updates. ~tim
ReplyDeleteExciting! And I like your t-shirt. ;-)
ReplyDeleteGreat News! Can't wait to read.
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited about this. I've been a reader of Plath for many years now and, like many, have mourned the loss of Plath's own account of her life after the period of the surviving journals ends. Letters Home offers a brief, manipulated glance into these years...but I'm thrilled to have a far-fuller opportunity to experience Plath in her own uncensored words. Thank you for all that you've done, PKS.
ReplyDeleteThank you multiple Anonymous people & Julia, Tim & Eva, Your enthusiasm is so wonderful. I know a lot of people have read the letters in various archives so not everything will be 'new', but seeing all the letters and reading them as a more or less complete story is fascinating. I truly cannot express how excited I am for you all to read this book.
ReplyDelete~pks
Sorry, Kim & Melanie, I didn't meant to leave you out. I am grateful for your cheers!!! Thank you.
ReplyDelete~pks
Peter - you have become an invaluable component of keeping SP's writing alive. All of us will be forever grateful to your enduring passion to get this most worthy project off the ground and running.
ReplyDeleteShaun! Thank you so much for your comment, too. Your sentiment is very much appreciated, thank you. It is exactly why I spent so many hours, morning, noon, and night for so many years working, working, working on the manuscript and editing and annotating all those letters. Thank you again and again and again!
ReplyDelete~pks
Congratulations! Not much to add to what the others have said, but thank you. I cannot wait to read the book.
ReplyDeleteThank you from the bottom of my heart. Your work within this blog has already given me more knowledge than I could have ever found on my own. Knowing that this collection is coming is just one more joyshout you may hear all the way from Northampton.
ReplyDeleteWith Gratitude,
Richard Marsh
So very, very exciting (and long overdue). This is just wonderful! Good luck with the final edits, etc. Jess
ReplyDeletePeter, I just can't wait when I see these letters published. Do you have any news about the release date? I'm a big fan of your blog and always find so many interesting things here. Congratulations on your work! It's really impressive.
ReplyDeleteHi Katarzyna,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your comment and your kind words. Much appreciated! I do not know anything yet, so I share your anxiousness to know specifics. Believe me, though, as soon as I find anything out and am given permission to disclose information on a world-wide scale, I will blog & tweet that out. In the meantime, keep Plathing. I will too!
~pks