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Reprinting Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath meticulously kept track of her publication endeavors. She made submissions lists from around the time she a junior in High School (1948-1949) to within days of her death in February 1963. She was assuredly the consummate professional. If a work was published she usually kept a copy of its appearance for herself, though there are some instances were poems or works in prose were not retained by her (or her estate)---see this post on her "Class Poem", for example. However, her poetry was reprinted periodically in publications (newspapers mostly) about which she likely never knew. That is the subject of this blog post.

Stephen Tabor's seminal Analytical Bibliography did not have the advantage of so much text-searchable digital content. But even if it had, some of these publications that will be mentioned today may not have appeared in the pages of his cherished book. His book tended not to include second publications of Plath's works. Which is absolutely fine because this is likely the right way to compile an analytical bibliography. 

This particular blogger, however, is fascinated by numbers in the sense that compiling as full as possible a list of Plath's publications illustrates how far and wide and frequently Plath's works appeared. It means that that many more eyeballs were reading her works across, largely, the United States of America. And part of me feels she would have appreciated this.

Plath's bibliography before September 1955 (an arbitrary but yet intentional date) is straightforwardly American. By that I mean her submissions were solely in th country of her birth. After that, when she was in England for the Fulbright, she sought to publish her works in both the USA and in England. England is selected specifically because there is scant evidence she tried to publish in Wales, Scotland, and/or Ireland.

So, what follows are publications from Plath's bibliography taken from the Publications page of A celebration, this is, presenting the publications Plath new about (listed first) followed by reprints she likely did not know about (demarcated with the cool thunderstorm symbol ☈).

"White Phlox". The Christian Science Monitor. August 27, 1952: 12.
☈[Untitled ("White Phlox")]. The Selma Times Journal. September 2, 1952: 2.

"Riverside Reverie". The Christian Science Monitor. September 9, 1952: 8.
☈"Riverside Reverie". The Enquirer and News (Battle Creek, Mich.). June 25, 1953: 3.

"Mad Girl's Love Song". Smith Review. Spring 1953: 13, 22.
"Mad Girl's Love Song". Mademoiselle. August 1953: 358.
☈"Mad Girl's Love Song". Boston Evening American. Final Edition. August 26, 1953: 2.
☈"Mad Girl's Love Song". Boston Evening American. Sports Charts Entries Edition. August 26, 1953: 2.
☈"Mad Girl's Love Song". Boston Evening American. Sports Entries Results Edition. August 26, 1953: 2.
Plath later published "Mad Girl's Love Song" in Granta (May 4, 1957: 19).


"Prologue to Spring". Sophian. April 10, 1956: 2.
"Prologue to Spring". Chequer. Summer 1956: 13.
"Prologue to Spring". The Christian Science Monitor. March 23, 1959: 8.
☈"Prologue to Spring". The New York Herald Tribune. March 29, 1959: A4.
☈"Prologue to Spring". The Warrensburg News (N.Y.). April 2, 1959: 2.
☈"Prologue to Spring". The Belleville Times (N.J.). April 3, 1959: 5.
☈"Prologue to Spring". The Lethbridge Herald (Alberta, Canada). April 11, 1959: 4.


"Apotheosis" and "Second Winter". Lyric. Winter 1956: 10-11.
☈"Second Winter". The Morning Press (Bloomsburg, PA). November 30, 1956: 4.
☈"Apotheosis". The Morning Press (Bloomsburg, PA). December 1, 1956: 4.
Plath also published "Second Winter" in the Ladies Home Journal (December 1958: 143).

"Fiesta Melons". The Christian Science Monitor. July 13, 1959: 8.
☈"Fiesta Melons". The Decatur Herald. August 14, 1959: 6.

"Southern Sunrise". The Christian Science Monitor. August 26, 1959: 8.
☈"Southern Sunrise". The Selma Times Journal. October 6, 1959: 3.

"Dark Wood, Dark Water". The Christian Science Monitor. December 17, 1959: 12.
☈"Dark Wood, Dark Water". The Selma Times Journal. January 19, 1960: 3.

"Midsummer Mobile". The Christian Science Monitor. July 1, 1959: 8.
☈"Midsummer Mobile". The Selma Times Journal. March 14, 1960: 3.

Most of these are The Christian Science Monitor parsing out (selling out) Plath's work, likely to their own benefit. It is doubtful Plath received any money for these secondary, tertiary, etc. appearances. Interestingly, in Plath's lifetime "Prologue to Spring" appeared (at least) seven times. And, "Mad Girl's Love Song" appeared six times. Plath may have been aware of the reprintings in the Boston paper during her first suicide attempt, but it is an emphatic "may have." 

Both well-published poems were dropped by Plath as she went through book content iterations in the mid-to-late 1950s; though for a long period time she clearly favored them. In a letter to her brother in 1958, Plath wrote that she had "ditched" about 20 poems from her ever-shifting book, and that she was tempted "to publish a book of juvenalia" (Letters Vol. II, 262). Plath, herself, called her early work juvenalia; Ted Hughes has been unfairly criticized for grouping them under that title in her Collected Poems.

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 links accessed 19 April and 26 June 2022.

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