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Article on Sylvia Plath's A Winter Ship



After the Bonhams auction last June where 24 copies of Sylvia Plath's 1960 limited edition of A Winter Ship, printed by the Tragara Press was sold, I started investigating this publication. The result of this research is an article, recently published in the Spring 2022 issue of The Book Collector

The following summary inventory was written to accompany the article but had to be cut, understandably, for space issues. I am terrifically grateful to James Fleming for his support of my article and for taking it on. I would also like to thank Rebecca Rego Barry, the fine editor of Fine Books & Collections for reading an early draft of the piece.

Inventory
Copies with wrappers:
1: Lot 131 sold at Bonhams, June 2021, privately owned
2: Lot 140 sold at Bonhams, June 2021, privately owned
3-24: Lot 141, sold at Bonhams, June 2021
25: Lot 159, sold at Bonhams, December 2021 (for sale from Raptis Rare Books as of 23 February 2022)

Copies without wrappers formerly belonging to Plath:
26: Ruth Geissler's copy, privately owned now
27: Leonard and Esther Baskin's copy, British Library

Copy without wrappers formerly belonging to Anderson:
28. University of Delaware
29. Yale University

Copies without wrappers, provenance undetermined:
30: Brown University
31. Dartmouth College
32. Emory University
33. Indiana University
34. Middlebury College
35. Princeton University
36. University of Maryland Libraries
37. University of Virginia
38. University of Tulsa

Special copies:
Special Copy 1: Sylvia Plath's copy, sold at Bonhams, March 2018, privately owned
Special Copy 2: Alan Anderson's copy, signed and inscribed by Plath, Morgan Library

Proof copies:
1. Dartmouth College
2. Morgan Library (four different proofs)
3. National Library of Scotland
4. Penn State University
5. Smith College
6. University of Liverpool
7. University of North Carolina
8. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge

The third grouping in the first section of copies with wrappers, copies 3-24, appear to have been purchased by Nate D Sanders. One copy sold through Heritage Auctions in December, and at the time of writing there are a few copies listed on eBay from between $6,500 to $15,000. 

The thing I think that is most important to take away is that though Anderson claimed a total of about 60 copies were printed, my research--with the help of Tom Ayling of Jonkers and Sammy Jay of Peter Harrington, concluded that Plath owned 25 copies with wrappers (first state) and 25 copies without wrappers (second state). 

If you benefited from this post or any content on the Sylvia Plath Info Blog, my website for Sylvia Plath (A celebration, this is), and @sylviaplathinfo on Twitter, then please consider sending me a tip via PayPal. Thank you for at least considering! All funds will be put towards my Sylvia Plath research.

All links accessed 1 February 2022.

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