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Sylvia Plath in the Grecourt Review

Sylvia Plath's colleague at Smith College, Marlies Kallmann Danziger, passed away in March 2018. She taught at Smith when Plath was a student and a colleague in the department of English at Smith College in the 1957-1958 academic year.

This copy of the Grecourt Review 1 from November 1957, which prints Plath's poem "All the Dead Dears", may have been her's as it bears the ownership inscription "Miss Kallman" on the cover (bottom left). I acquired this copy back in 2012 and never did anything with it (I had always meant to present it on the blog but just never did; got distracted by a little project on her Letters). But, having just learned of her passing, I felt it was worth writing about now.


Danziger appears in Plath's journals in several entries (12 January 1958, 22 January 1958, 8 February 1958, 27 February 1958, 5 May 1958 (twice), and 19 May 1958).

Kallman apparently lived in Albright House and had her office in Library 52, according to a staff directory for Smith (pictured below). Smith College archivist Nanci Young informed me that back then, each house had a house mother and a faculty adviser living in residence with the students. However, according to Plath' journals, Marlies lived with her husband, Erwin, at the weekends... which makes sense as after seeing a performance of Denis Johnston's adaptation of Finnegans Wake in Holyoke, Plath and Hughes went to Marlies' house for whiskey and it is not likely that this was in Albright House!


I have not yet tracked down where Erwin Danzinger lived at the time but if I do I will add it to the post.

All links accessed 7 May 2018.
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  1. Anonymous16 May, 2018 10:42

    I didn't know she passed away, I only get the news now and through this post of yours and link to the obituary. And I feel sorry I remember so little about her, feel almost guilty... after writing this comment I will go right to my library shelf and grab the journals to have a look at Sylvia's posts where she writes about her. So sorry that another preacious friend of her has passed away ..now almost all the people who made part of her life and world is all passed away..and this is sad not only because they died but also because with the deaths of all her friends/colleagues/acquaintances we cannot anymore hear from them other and new witnesseses and testimonies about Sylvia. So this is double sad.
    So sorry for this further death.

    Alina

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous16 May, 2018 10:47

    ..world *ARE all passed away (Sorry for these bad mistakes of mine!)

    ReplyDelete

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