Today at Bonhams in Knightsbridge, three Sylvia Plath lots were offered at auction. Each of these lots originated from the Estate of Elizabeth Sigmund. Lot 238 , Sylvia Plath's annotated copy of The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas. The estimated price for the Thomas was £3,000 - 5,000/US$ 3,800 - 6,300. The book sold for: £9,000 (£11,312 including buyer's premium). Don't need to be a mathematician to see this sold for well above the high estimate. Bravo! Lot 239 , the only known typescript of Sylvia Plath's "Landscape of Childhood" which later became "Ocean 1212-w". The estimated price for "Landscape of Childhood" was £1,500 - 2,000/US$ 1,900 - 2,500. The typescript sold for: £2,000 (£2,550 including buyer's premium). Which was at the high estimate. Lot 240 , Elizabeth Sigmund's copy of Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar (Heinemann, 1963 edition with Victoria Lucas as author) given to her in the weeks after ...

Back in April I had the privilege of speaking with Claire Nichols of "The Book Show" about Volume II of  The Letters of Sylvia Plath  on the ABC radio network. It recently aired. Other than saying "um" quite a bit, I think, um, it is ok. I cringe a bit listening to myself, but maybe that is normal? Perhaps some of you might do a drinking game from it? A little summary of the program was also published online. All links accessed 14 June 2019.

Fun Fact: Did you know that Sylvia Plath uses the word "perched" seven times in  The Bell Jar? Right... There is some new work to promote that has come out in the last week by and on Sylvia Plath. The Hudson Review has published, in full, the text of Sylvia Plath's short story "Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom" in their Spring issue. It was the intention all along that the story appear in the Hudson before the decision was made by the Estate of Sylvia Plath and Faber to publish it in book form. I was asked by the Hudson to cheer lead their effort, which I was happy to do, to have the story appear first in their pages. I guess I did too good of a job? There is an essay by Karen V. Kukil on the story, too. Next, Marsha Bryant has recently published "Queen bees: Edith Sitwell, Sylvia Plath & cross-Atlantic affiliations" in Feminist Modernist Studies . The abstract reads, Drawing on the convergence of Edith Sitwell and Sylvia Pla...

The Journals of Sylvia Plath (aka The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath in the USA) was and is a major publication; one that appreciates in value and importance on a daily basis. Sometimes it is hard to believe that they have been published for 19 years! And sometimes I struggle to fathom existing in a world where only the abridged version was available. I remember living in London in 1996-1997 and finding a copy of the abridged journals in a book stall at a bookstall in the Camden Market. The abridged version of the book, published in 1982, was never published in the UK, so seeing a copy was weird, but also kind of awesome. In my head, I had a vision that many copies were smuggled into the country and through a vast network of black market underground Plath scholars. I know...I know ...I need help. The Journals should see renewed interest and importance with the publication of the two-volume Letters of Sylvia Plath.  As we worked on the Letters , the Journals were a co...