The Last Word of Sylvia Plath

On 3 June 1953, sixty-nine years ago today, Sylvia Plath was at work as the Guest Managing Editor at 575 Madison Avenue in New York at the offices of Mademoiselle magazine.

Plath's calendar, held by the Lilly Library, indicates that her schedule that day was included taking the "Last word pix" in Central Park. The "Last Word" was some text Plath wrote to accompany the photograph of all 20 guest editors in star-shape. Plath is, famously perhaps, at the top of the formation. Janet Wagner is holding Plath's right hand. Carol LeVarn is the blonde on the far left.

The names captioned below follow the star from Plath's right hand counter-clockwise to Plath's left. Anne Shawber (number 9) is the bottom left young woman with her right leg out, and Dinny Lane (number 13) is the bottom right woman with her left leg out. You do the hokey-pokey and you turn yourself around... The far right is Margaret Affleck (17).

This photograph was taken at the Bethesda Terrace.

The gray pin to the left of the beige circle is approximately where Plath was positioned. The photographer was standing at the bridge over the terrace which allowed for this perspective of the guest editors.

The only other notation in Plath's calendar was a meeting in Cyrilly Abels' office to discuss "ms comments."

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