Sylvia Plath Ex-libris Olwyn Hughes

You may have noticed on my Twitter, if you are on Twitter, or from viewing the sidebar over on the righthand side of this blog, that I have been tweeting a number of tweets of photographs of baby Frieda Hughes annotated on the back by Sylvia Plath as well as some books (translations) of Plath's work. These are eBay sales by April Star Books (who is also, as it turns out, on Instagram and regularly posts stunning book and nature photographs, too).

I am tweeting them because I like Damian, the owner of these accounts, very much and consider him a friend. We have been emailing for years and years about Plath first editions. 2021 fairly broke many a persons bank accounts with the two big Bonhams and Sotheby's auctions of the property of Frieda Hughes---sidebar WHO BOUGHT THE TAROT CARDS???---and Damian/April Star Books was the winner of a number of lots. He also purchased some books off Norman MacDonald, who has featured on this blog, of mostly translations of Sylvia Plath's works.

In the April Star Books store on eBay you will find photographs, typescripts, manuscripts, and books. All acquired from auctions, or from booksellers who had, themselves previously, acquired them via auctions. Such as Normans books, as well as some from another awesome man called Christian White of Modern First Editions.

Four examples of current (as of last night) books on eBay are:

Now these are all items that have remarkable and tantalizing provenance as the former owners were either Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, Frieda Hughes, Olwyn Hughes, and quite possibly Nicholas Hughes. Or some combination of those principal figures.

The photographs of Frieda Hughes feature Plath-handwritten captions...how can you beat that? And they were taken by either Sylvia Plath or Ted Hughes...how can you beat that? (Though, to be fair, both were far better poets than they were photographers!)

The photos originated in Lot 41 of Sotheby's July 2021 auction. Jonkers won that, and Damian purchased some of them from Jonkers. The line of ownership is important. And since his acquisition, Damian has been offering them to collectors and fans for very reasonable prices.

For some reason, the last few Januarys have found me reading the prose Ted Hughes edited of Plath's and published as Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams. Maybe the long nights have me feeling in need of Plath's lengthier creative writings? Or maybe there's so other reason... But be that as it may, I was able to acquire a two copies of Johnny Panic formerly belonging to Olwyn Hughes: a first Faber edition and a Harper & Row paperback. And they were recently delivered.

These books are lovely and were priced super reasonably and budget friendly, especially for someone like me. They are mostly clean---Olwyn could be a bit, well, filthy...coffee, chocolate, ink, smoke and cigarette ash all commonly stain books from her library. And I was interested in cleaner titles, such as these, one of which even came with a bookmark placed in Plath's story "Day of Success." I have also gotten some translations of The Bell Jar for my little collection of those, too. And, again, they all come with unique and meaningful provenance.

What I love about Damian is he is a Plath fan first and foremost and has a reverence for the items he is acquiring. But trying to run a business means hard decisions about what stock to keep and what to sell needs to be made. And his prices are about as fair as you will ever find in book collecting. And I have always gotten a feeling of genuine happiness from him as he has related passing these materials on to other collector's who are, like him, passionate about Sylvia Plath.

Visit April Star Books today!

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All links accessed 21 and 31 January 2022.

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