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Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (Faber Liberty Edition) & Ariel (Faber 90th Anniversary Edition)

Faber & Faber in London is set to publish today a "Liberty edition" of Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar. Priced at £14.99.

I was recently told that the cover incorporates period fabric chosen from the Liberty Fabric archives. Fantastic!

Who can forget Plath's own reaction to Liberty's from her recently published Letters? For example she wrote to her mother a few weeks after settling in at 3 Chalcot Square: "Eye-shopped at Liberty’s the other day: oh, the teak furniture & copper, glass & steelware! So pacifying to see & feel beautiful things" (430).

Plath also purchased greeting cards from Liberty's as well as a scarf that she gave to her mother (now held by the Lilly Library). For an image of the scarf I refer you to David Trinidad's "Collecting Sylvia Plath" published on the Poetry Foundation website).

When I first saw the new cover for The Bell Jar I thought immediately of the 1971 limited edition Crystal Gazer and Other Poems, which was published by the Rainbow Press. Copies numbered 101-400 of the run were bound in quarter buckram with hand-made Japanese paper sides and issued with a slipcase.


The title is available from Faber & Faber directly, and also, as you might expect, from Amazon.co.uk.

Also issued today is Ariel: the Faber 90th Anniversary Edition. Also available from Faber's website and the other usual sellers.



All links accessed 30 May 2019.

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  1. Amy Rea06 September, 2019 07:00

    Book Depository also has the new edition of The Bell Jar, with free shipping to the US.

    ReplyDelete

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