David's Sylvia Plath Table

Two days ago, a piece written by poet, editor, and writer David Trinidad was published on the Poetry Foundation website. Entitled "Sylvia's Table", it recounts his rather exciting and unique experience with the Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes auction held by Bonhams in March. The story of how he came to acquire it is wonderful and I hope you all read it.

The table in the auction room.
Photograph ©Gail Crowther

The timing worked out brilliantly in the end as he received it just a few days prior to my arrival in Chicago for a talk at Columbia College, where David teaches. After checking into my hotel, walking around for a while and going over the final pages of the proof for the second volume of The Letters of Sylvia Plath I met David outside his building on S. Michigan Avenue and we drove to his place so I could see the table first hand.

Table with Plath books.
Photograph ©Peter K. Steinberg

He had it set up with Plath's Collected Poems and Ariel on top, along with the January 1963 issue of London Magazine, which published Plath's poems "The Applicant" and "Stopped Dead". We both like to imagine, I'm sure, that Plath's own copy of London Magazine rested on this very table in her living room in Fitzroy Road.

The base of the table.
Photograph ©Peter K. Steinberg

Seeing the table in person was a wonderful experience and set the few days I was in Chicago going on a strong Plathian note like a fat smartwatch.

Photograph of table from the auction house ©Gail Crowther and used with her permission. All other photographs ©Peter K. Steinberg.

All links accessed: 1 August 2018

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