New Book on Sylvia Plath: Breaking Down Plath by Patricia Grisafi

Patricia (Trish) Grisafi (website | Twitter) is the author of a forthcoming book on Sylvia Plath entitled Breaking Down Plath (Wiley). It is part of Wiley's "Breaking Down Series" which includes also books on Fitzgerald and Vonnegut. Last week, on Twitter, she revealed the elegant cover, which features a small bell jar and a lovely blue color (Andes Summit blue, per Trish, in case you were curious).

The book is scheduled to be published on 17 August 2021. 17 August is, as you know, the day Ted Hughes was born and, as well, the day in The Bell Jar, when Esther Greenwood attempts suicide. Nicely done.

From Trish's website,

Breaking Down Plath (Wiley 2021) is a guide to Sylvia Plath geared towards middle and high school students. The guide covers Plath’s biography, cultural and historical contexts, selected poems, fiction, essays, journals, letters, and legacy. With an eye towards demythologizing Plath and focusing on her achievements instead of her suicide, Breaking Down Plath aims to contextualize Plath’s work in the larger scheme of Cold War-era gender politics and anxiety about global nuclear conflict. Close readings of Plath’s work include a survey of critical interpretations as well as original analysis with a section on recurring and evolving themes.

Amazon has a listing already so you should definitely pre-order the title. The book is 128 pages long and the ISBN is 978-1119782384. The cover price is $9.99.

Trish is no stranger to Plath having presented at the 2007 Oxford Plath Symposium ("'He tells me how badly I photograph': Plath, the Camera, and the Politics of Self-Representation") and the 2012 Indiana Plath Symposium ("Staring at Sylvia: The Intersection of Beauty Culture and Disability"), among other conferences.

All links accessed 23 January 2021.

Sylvia Plath's Gravestone Vandalized

The following news story appeared online this morning: HEPTONSTALL, ENGLAND (APFS) - The small village of Heptonstall is once again in the news because of the grave site of American poet Sylvia Plath. The headstone controversy rose to a fever pitch in 1989 when Plath's grave was left unmarked for a long period of time after vandals repeatedly chiseled her married surname Hughes off the stone marker. Author Nick Hornby commented, "I like Plath, but the controversy reaching its fever pitch in the 80s had nothing to do with my book title choice." Today, however, it was discovered that the grave was defaced but in quite an unlikely fashion. This time, Plath's headstone has had slashed-off her maiden name "Plath," so the stone now reads "Sylvia Hughes." A statement posted on Twitter from @masculinistsfortedhughes (Masculinists for Ted Hughes) has claimed responsibility saying that, "We did this because as Ted Hughes' first wife, Sylvia de

Famous Quotes of Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath inspires us all in various and wonderful ways. She is in many respects a form of comfort to us, which is something that Esther Greenwood expresses in The Bell Jar , about a bath: "There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them. Whenever I'm sad I'm going to die, or so nervous I can't sleep, or in love with somebody I won't be seeing for a week, I slump down just so far and then I say: 'I'll go take a hot bath.'" We read and remember Sylvia Plath for many reasons, many of them deeply personal and private. But we commemorate her, too, in very public ways, as Anna of the long-standing Tumblr Loving Sylvia Plath , has been tracking, in the form of tattoos. (Anna's on Instagram with it too, as SylviaPlathInk .) The above bath quote is among Sylvia Plath's most famous. It often appears here and there and it is stripped of its context. But I think most people will know it is from her nove

Sylvia Plath and McLean Hospital

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