Sylvia Plath Collections: Poetry at the Lilly Library

The following post was drafted in 2018! As October is American Archives Month is seems rather appropriate to dust and thus polish this post off in the middle of it.

The Poetry archive is split between the University of Chicago and the Lilly Library. At the same time, the journal's headquarters in Chicago maintains an archive itself of documents and books that are likely very valuable resources. This post is specifically about the holdings at the Lilly Library, which I received copies of as part of some of the last minute and tangential work I was doing on The Letters of Sylvia Plath. The post from 2013 about the holdings at the University of Chicago can be read here.

The Poetry materials at the Lilly Library can be broadly classed into three categories: correspondence, typescripts, and proofs. First up, the correspondence, with brief annotations about the content of each letter:

1. Henry Rago to Sylvia Plath, 27 December 1962: accepting three poems "Eavesdropper", "Fever 103°", and "Purdah".

2. Ted Hughes to Henry Rago, circa late January/early February 1963: Written at 110 Cleveland Street, sending corrections to "Heatwave" and "Era of Giant Lizards" and submitting additional poems. Published in December 1963 Poetry along with "Poem to Robert Graves Perhaps", "On Westminster Bridge", "After Lorca", and "Small Hours".

3. Henry Rago to Ted Hughes, 12 February 1963: Thanking TH for sending new poems and saying they'll publish them with some other poems already accepted.

4. Julie McLauchlin to J A McLaren, 23 April 1963: Providing biographical and bibliographical information about Sylvia Plath.

5. Waddell Austin to Elizabeth Wright, 6 May 1963: Asking permission to reprint poems in the Borestone annual volume, including SP's "Face Lift".

6. Elizabeth Wright to Waddell Austin, 8 May 1963: Granting permission.

7. Julie McLauchlin to Ted Hughes, 24 June 1963: Enclosing proofs of SP's three poems for the August 1963 issue of Poetry. Sent to 110 Cleveland Street.

8. Sherman Conrad to Henry Rago, 3 September 1963: Commenting favorably about SP's poems in the August issue of Poetry as well as The New Yorker.

9. Ted Hughes to Henry Rago, circa November 1963: Asking about payment for SP's poems from the August issue and sending in some corrected proofs. Sent from Court Green.

10. Henry Rago to Ted Hughes, 20 November 1963: Replying to TH's undated letter above confirming they had sent a check for SP's poems on 6 August 1963. Asking that TH check very carefully for this check, sent to Court Green.

11. Charles Cox to Henry Rago, 10 August 1964: Asking about permission to print Hughes' "After Lorca" in a Critical Quarterly shilling anthology.

The typescripts are Plath's original poem submissions with editorial markups throughout: "Face Lift", "Heavy Women", "Love Letter", "Stars Over the Dordogne", and "Widow" and then "Eavesdropper", "Fever 103°", and "Purdah".

The proofs take various forms and shapes and are for Plath's poems in the March 1962 and August 1963 issues, and for Hughes' December 1963 appearance. Included are Plath's author's proof corrections for the March 1962 issue with her corrections and signature.

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All links accessed 4 and 21 May 2018 and 19 October 2020.

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