Marcia Brown Stern has two folders in the Rosenstein papers. The first is completely dedicated to letters from Plath. I was curious to see this folder as I just always felt there were letters missing...in part because when I was keeping track of the letters Plath mentioned writing, I noted down ten instances of letters to Marcia Brown Stern. Some may have been written a day or two or so after the reference, but it was very hard to determine. Happily, there was one new "letter" in the folder. It was a July 1952 birthday card with a lovely note written in by Plath. There is a chance this card accompanied the 23-24 July 1952 letter from Plath to Stern, as her birthday was on the 28th. But based on the actual letter and its envelope, it might have been sent separately. It is not, I do not think, a part of the Smith archive of her other letters received. So, I cannot help but wonder what happened to it.
The real nitty-gritty though falls in the second folder of Stern materials.
The bulk of the folder is interview notes that are fascinating. Stern was clearly the best and closest friend Plath kept while an undergraduate at Smith College and it was one of those relationships that is so tight, that even over the years of separation and other acquaintances, it remained a solid thing from circa 1951 through Plath's last days. And the friendship was so deep that even through months or years of lapsed correspondence and meet-ups, they probably picked up right where things left off. That is rare. (When I used to have friends it was a lot like that.) Stern says that their friendship was based simply, beautifully on "really enjoying each other's company and appreciating each other for common qualities as well as qualities that were completely different." That is awesome.
We learned that it was uncommon for Plath to discuss writing with Stern; the exception being a few days before her suicide attempt in 1953 when Plath expressed "terrible frustration of not being able to write, her powerlessness before the need that she couldn't fulfill. Couldn't sleep, miserably unhappy." On 17 August 1953, Plath made a note to "Call Marty" and it must have been a few days after that that they met.
Stern felt the home situation in Wellesley was not a good one, that she found Mrs. Plath was "sentimental and emotional and cloyingly sweet, nauseating." Oh! she was not afraid to let it all out.
Under a section called Dick Norton, just this simple statement: "SP had not dated very much." Stern says she was "repulsed" by Richard Norton. If thinking about Norton, which she did not like to do, she recalls his "sleezy" outfits and comments that he was just simply a caricature of a 1950s All-American guy. In fact, that is the exact way he was portrayed in The Bell Jar.
Apparently in Spring of 1959, Plath visited Stern almost every day to help her care for her newly adopted three month old twins. What I want to know is did Ted Hughes go every day or even regularly? Or were these little acts of independence for Plath, to take her out of the small Boston apartment. Prior to that, when Plath was in Northampton teaching, Stern visited them and she said that with enough wine or the right company, Ted Hughes could be "very very funny" in his stories. Conversely, she had the impression that "he could really turn off and tune out, sit in a black funk...."
Stern's description of Plath when she was sick--in any definition of that word--was that Plath was flat. She makes you feel and see the flatness, how the color and life was just drained, and it gives incredible perspective on how being ill made Plath feel.
One of the most interesting parts of these 15 pages of interview notes was the physical description of Plath. "She didn't have good posture. She was round-shouldered. She was not well-coordinated. She was gangly and conscious of this. Her body didn't move well...She didn't like being big and conspicuous." This is valuable, I think.
Stern's last memory of Plath and Hughes comes from a visit they made to her house just prior to sailing for England in December 1959. It is wonderful and memorable. She just thought it was amazing "how good she makes people feel." There are two photographs of Plath from this occasion. In one she appears with Ted Hughes and in the other Plath is sitting on Stern's sofa in Concord, Mass., opening a box of what appears to be baby's clothes.
Stern and her then husband Mike Plumer were planning on visiting Plath in March 1963.
The real nitty-gritty though falls in the second folder of Stern materials.
The bulk of the folder is interview notes that are fascinating. Stern was clearly the best and closest friend Plath kept while an undergraduate at Smith College and it was one of those relationships that is so tight, that even over the years of separation and other acquaintances, it remained a solid thing from circa 1951 through Plath's last days. And the friendship was so deep that even through months or years of lapsed correspondence and meet-ups, they probably picked up right where things left off. That is rare. (When I used to have friends it was a lot like that.) Stern says that their friendship was based simply, beautifully on "really enjoying each other's company and appreciating each other for common qualities as well as qualities that were completely different." That is awesome.
We learned that it was uncommon for Plath to discuss writing with Stern; the exception being a few days before her suicide attempt in 1953 when Plath expressed "terrible frustration of not being able to write, her powerlessness before the need that she couldn't fulfill. Couldn't sleep, miserably unhappy." On 17 August 1953, Plath made a note to "Call Marty" and it must have been a few days after that that they met.
Stern felt the home situation in Wellesley was not a good one, that she found Mrs. Plath was "sentimental and emotional and cloyingly sweet, nauseating." Oh! she was not afraid to let it all out.
Under a section called Dick Norton, just this simple statement: "SP had not dated very much." Stern says she was "repulsed" by Richard Norton. If thinking about Norton, which she did not like to do, she recalls his "sleezy" outfits and comments that he was just simply a caricature of a 1950s All-American guy. In fact, that is the exact way he was portrayed in The Bell Jar.
Apparently in Spring of 1959, Plath visited Stern almost every day to help her care for her newly adopted three month old twins. What I want to know is did Ted Hughes go every day or even regularly? Or were these little acts of independence for Plath, to take her out of the small Boston apartment. Prior to that, when Plath was in Northampton teaching, Stern visited them and she said that with enough wine or the right company, Ted Hughes could be "very very funny" in his stories. Conversely, she had the impression that "he could really turn off and tune out, sit in a black funk...."
Stern's description of Plath when she was sick--in any definition of that word--was that Plath was flat. She makes you feel and see the flatness, how the color and life was just drained, and it gives incredible perspective on how being ill made Plath feel.
One of the most interesting parts of these 15 pages of interview notes was the physical description of Plath. "She didn't have good posture. She was round-shouldered. She was not well-coordinated. She was gangly and conscious of this. Her body didn't move well...She didn't like being big and conspicuous." This is valuable, I think.
Stern's last memory of Plath and Hughes comes from a visit they made to her house just prior to sailing for England in December 1959. It is wonderful and memorable. She just thought it was amazing "how good she makes people feel." There are two photographs of Plath from this occasion. In one she appears with Ted Hughes and in the other Plath is sitting on Stern's sofa in Concord, Mass., opening a box of what appears to be baby's clothes.
Stern and her then husband Mike Plumer were planning on visiting Plath in March 1963.