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Update from the Archive Day 3: The Plath Family Papers

After leaving the Beinecke yesterday, I thought it might be poetic, or perhaps even prosaic, to talk a short walk up Prospect Street. Plath stayed at 238 Prospect Street and writes about it in The Bell Jar. During Esther Greenwood's visit to Buddy Willard, they "walked very slowly" in "the cold, black, three o'clock wind" from downtown New Haven "to the house where I was sleeping in the living-room on a couch that was too short because it only cost fifty cents a night instead of two dollars like most of the other places with proper beds" (1963, 63).

It was dark when I got there as the library closed after sunset.


This house is directly opposite Yale's chemistry facilities, and so you can imagine I wanted to go all the way, just like Buddy wanted to and visit the chemistry lab. It was, of course, famoulsy behind the Chemistry Lab where Buddy first kissed Esther Greenwood, chapped lips and all. There has been appreciable construction since I was last here in the early 2000s, but that visit was during the day. Being there at night...well, even though I was very much alone, it was capital-R Romantic Let. Me. Tell. You.


Greenwood continues, "And sure enough, there was a sort of hilly place behind the chemistry lab from which you could see the lights of a couple of the houses in New Haven.

"I stood pretending to admire them while Buddy got a good footing on the rough soU. While he kissed me I kept my eyes open and tried to memorize the spacing of the house lights so I would never forget them" (63).

I mean, total Swoon Moment. And I do not know about you, but I always try to memorize the spaces between houses when I am getting smooched on behind chemistry labs.

For what it is worth, this is the area back in the early 2000s.



Right. Day 3!

The day started slowly with the boxes as the main focus was seen to on Tuesday and Wednesday. I rummaged through Plath and Schober geneaolgy papers and looked at lots of newspaper clippings... primarily looking at materials not originated by Sylvia Plath, I guess. Spots here and there had her handwriting, which is always a kind of electrifying jolt. 

The focus has been on taking photographs of materials that I can read at leisure once I am home. But I do spot read things from time to time. Such as the stories of Mixie Blackshort made famous first in Plath's "The Disquieting Muses":


And this gem in a notebook regarding corrections to Letters Home (there is a ton of information on the creation and trials and tribulations of producing that book):



Last day tomorrow.

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