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Showing posts from February, 2019

"I am I": Sylvia Plath and E. M. Forster

Sylvia Plath's copy of Howards End by E. M. Forster is held by the Lilly Library. It is the Vintage 1954 edition printed with green wrappers as is seen here and "borrowed" from a random online source. On the cover are two white trees and a black tree which form a single, combined canopy of leaves. It was labeled V-7 and the price was $1.45. When not reading or proofing The Letters of Sylvia Plath last year, I have been making my way through a list of older books that for one reason or another I was always too afraid to read; or simply never thought of reading. I read Forster's A Room With a View and liked it well enough to continue on to  Howards End . Plath mentioned Howards End in a letter to her mother written from Cape Cod in August 1957. Plath's copy of the book is annotated with her usual bold, black ink pen. But also in the copy are markings in red pen, which is typical of Aurelia Schober Plath's annotation tendencies. In Chapter 27 of the nov

On "What Happened to Sylvia Plath’s Lost Novels?"

Kristopher Jansma's recent article " What Happened to Sylvia Plath’s Lost Novels? " is the second article in the last couple of years about this subject. The first was Allison McNearney's "The Mystery of Sylvia Plath's Lost Novel" published on the Daily Beast in August 2017 which focuses on The Interminable Loaf / Doubletake .* Jansma's is a thoughtfully researched and written piece but contains a few minor mistakes or omissions that need correcting and/or clearing-up. 1.) Plath did not move into a "room" in London where Yeats lived. She wrote about it several times in letters to different people: she occupied two floors comprised of "3 beds, lounge, kit & bath." (Letter to Daniel and Helga Huws, 26 December 1962: Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume 2 , page 944) 2.) Ariel: The Restored Edition , was published in 2004. It was re-issued in 2007. 3.) The "Venus in the Seventh"/"Hill of Leopards" typescrip

An Update on Sylvia Plath Books in 2019

Now that we are a full month plus into 2019, here is a look at what books are scheduled to be published this year by or about Sylvia Plath. In the US: Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom (hardback), 5 March 2019 The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume 1 (paperback), 15 October 2019 In the UK: Sylvia Plath Poems Chosen by Carol Ann Duffy (paperback), 7 March 2019 Ariel (Faber Poetry, hardback), 24 September 2019 The Bell Jar (hardback), 5 September 2019 The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume I (paperback), 19 September 2019 The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume II (paperback), 19 September 2019 In France: The first translation of  Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom , into French , will be published in May. I am still under the belief that Sylvia Plath in Context , a book of essays edited by Tracy Brain, will be published by Cambridge University Press this year and will post more information on that as soon as possible. All links accessed 3 February 2019 via Amazo