A new archive of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes materials

The University of Huddersfield bolstered its burgeoning archival collections with its recent acquisition of the "Mark Hinchliffe Ted Hughes Collection." It features also materials created by, owned by, etc. of Sylvia Plath, Leonard Baskin, Assia Wevill, and Nicholas Hughes, to name a few prominent people.

A preliminary cataloging of the papers was released recently and is visible online here. Steve Ely comments the collection "comprises over 170 items, including signed first editions of dozens of Hughes’ trade, limited-edition and fine-press publications; original letters written by Hughes and his first wife, the poet Sylvia Plath; signed and annotated books from Hughes’s personal collection; and, some absolutely unique items: a very fine ceramic jaguar sculpted by Hughes in 1967, the only intact example anywhere in the world of Hughes’s work in the plastic arts." (Press Release)

Item 3, a ceramic jaguar with the letter 'A' on it, made the news in 2011.

Item 6, the "Shorter Oxford Dictionary Clarendon, 1956, signed by Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath & their daughter Frieda Hughes. Some annotations, probably by Sylvia Plath," originated as lot 323 in the March 2018 Bonhams auction.

The University acquired the collection with financial assistance from National Heritage Memorial Fund (£33,775), Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund (£35,000), and Friends of the National Libraries (£?).

Mark Hinchliffe's collection is currenting undergoing detailed cataloging so it may be some time before it is fully open to researchers, but it represents a basic principle of archives and of research: it is never over.

All links accessed 24 May 2022.

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