Carl Rollyson's The Last Days of Sylvia Plath

Carl Rollyson (website | Twitter) has had a passionate interest in Sylvia Plath for a long time. In 2013, he published his first biography of her as American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath (St. Martin's Press). And he has followed this up with a second exploration into the life and afterlife of Sylvia Plath in the recently published The Last Days of Sylvia Plath (University Press of Mississippi).

The book was scheduled to be published later this month, but this morning I learned while on Amazon that the book was published on 18 February. I immediately bought the Kindle edition because at $9, how could I resist!?

So this post about the publication is overdue and I apologize for the late notice.

ISBN: 978-1496821225. 264 pages. Cover price: $25.00. The book is available in hardback and in a Kindle edition.

From the Amazon page:

Book Description
Rollyson has written a unique, vital contribution to Plath studies. In many ways it’s a microbiography of Sylvia Plath, concentrating solely on the marriage and last years of Plath’s life. Rollyson offers original reading and interpretation of Plath’s works, her life, and some of the drama that surrounds her afterlife. The real value in this book lies in Rollyson’s use of archival materials, some of which are available to a large audience for the first time.

The Last Days of Sylvia Plath highlights how a writer can be shaped after their death and the subsequent fallout from posthumous literary editing. Rollyson’s inclusion of previously unused primary sources and extended discussion of Susan Fromberg Schaeffer’s Poison, a work not applied to Plath’s life and afterlife in any detail before, offers new angles and interpretations.

About the Author
Carl Rollyson is professor emeritus of journalism at Baruch College, CUNY. He is author of a dozen biographies, including American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath; Amy Lowell Anew: A Biography; A Real American Character: The Life of Walter Brennan; Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews; and Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress, Revised and Updated, the latter three published by University Press of Mississippi. His reviews of biography have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New Criterion, and other major periodicals.

Also by Carl:

Carl is simultaneously publishing The Life of William Faulkner: The Past Is Never Dead, 1897-1934 (University of Virginia Press). This is Volume I. Volume II will be out later.

All links accessed 1 March 2020.

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