Sylvia Plath in Smith College newspapers

One way to add context to Sylvia Plath's letters and journals---that is, to her autobiographical life---during her years at Smith College is to read what was written about her by her classmates and/or other peers in the Smith College Associated News (SCAN) or The Sophian.

Plath mentioned SCAN in a letter from her first days at Smith (26 September 1950). But even though mentions in her own writings are scant, Plath was familiar with the newspapers and likely read them eagerly. It can be both enjoyable and illustrative to read the very words Plath read about herself in a way that feels more direct and immediate than through the transformation or translation of events by biographers.

Here are some of the articles that appeared where Plath's name was mentioned.

The article below appeared in The Sophian when Plath returned to teach at Smith and is about her prose work "Cambridge Vistas", which was first published in March 1956 as "Leaves from a Cambridge Notebook" in the Christian Science Monitor.

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Famous Quotes of Sylvia Plath

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