In early 1998, for those of us who were alive, the poetry world was abuzz with Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, and, sad to say, Jewel. The first two because of Birthday Letters . The third name, because...well, it was a dark time... In March 1998, Robert Haas was recently replaced as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress by Robert Pinksy, but he was a the author of a weekly "Poet's Choice" column in The Washington Post 's Sunday insert Book World . He would feature a poem and discuss it. It was must-read reading for me at the time; the column stopped in 2000. Did you know... Haas' "Poet's Choice" selection for Sunday 15 March 1998 was Sylvia Plath's "By Candlelight". The following week was a poem by Ted Hughes ("Crow's Nerve Fails").  I found the above clipping mixed in with some of my files as I was going through them recently.  Haas published a collection of his "Poet's Choice" essays in 2...

When I read  The Bell Jar  it is my hope to see something new. To make a connection within the novel itself or perhaps some connection to Plath's own lived life and experiences. In this particular read in June 2020, I was giddy when I noticed the parallels between Doreen's first meeting with Lenny Shepherd and Esther Greenwood's decidedly different first meeting with Marco. In fact, Esther's "I felt myself melting into the shadows like the negative of a person I'd never seen before in my life" feels like foreshadowing. So, let us begin... Doreen is dressed in white. She is so white "she looked silver". Esther dresses in black. Lenny approaches Doreen (and Esther) in the cab; Esther is brought to Marco by Doreen. Lenny's skeevy friends laugh from their safe distance under the awning of a bar. Laughter is heard through the door when Esther arrives to meet Marco; and someone laughs when Marco suggests he might "perform some small ...

The first poem in Ted Hughes' 1998 collection Birthday Letters is "Fulbright Scholars" which begins: Where was it, in the Strand? A display Of news items, in photographs. For some reason I noticed it. A picture of that year’s intake Of Fulbright Scholars. Just arriving - Or arrived. Or some of them. Were you among them? I studied it. … No doubt I scanned particularly The girls. Maybe I noticed you… Yet I remember The picture: the Fulbright Scholars. (Faber, 3) Sylvia Plath sailed from New York City on 14 September 1955, arriving in Southampton, England, 6 days later on the 20th. She was one of many on board the Queen Elizabeth travelling to universities spread across the United Kingdom to a destination in England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, and maybe beyond. The Queen Elizabeth made a brief stop in Cherbourg, France, before arriving early in the morning of the 20th. Plath's pocket diary, held by the Lilly Library at Indiana University, notes t...

This years Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair did not dissapoint when it came to getting to see and touch rare and valuable Sylvia Plath books. There is the perennial first edition of The Colossus signed by Plath to fellow poet Theodore Roethke that I am glad seems impervious to selling from the fine bookseller James S. Jaffe Rare Books . At $50,000 it is the Mercedes Benz of books. Only, people buy cars. If only they realized that a book will not depreciate so swiftly... If anyone out there feels so inclined, I am more than open to receiving this book as a gift. Thank you. Jaffe also brought a stunning first Faber edition of Ariel ($4,000) as well as a signed, limited edition of Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes ($850) . On a side note: please for the love of sanity, alphabetize your displayed books. This persnickety peruser refuses to detail your Plath books if you do not alphabetize. Thank you. Paul Foster brought their copies of Plath limited editions: The Green Ro...

Bahmer, F.A. 2012. "Charles Bukowski and Sylvia Plath on Moles and Melanoma." Archives of Dematology . Vol. 148, no. 1: 108. Bryfonski, Dedria. Depression in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar . Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. ( amazon.com ) Raza, Raihan. The Poetic Art of Sylvia Plath: A Critical Study of Themes and Techniques . New Delhi: Sarup Book Publishers, 2012. Emelia Fredlick reviews "With Love" an exhibit on at Emory University's Woodruff Library.  In addition to the circa 1958 photograph of Plath and Hughes described in the review, the exhibit ironically (and distastefully) features two late 1963 (15 November and 24 November) love letters from Ted Hughes to Assia Wevill. [ Press Release ] A "love letter" in the form of a poem by Ted Hughes to Sylvia Plath is included in Andrea Clarke's recent book Love Letters: 2000 Years of Romance ( British Library, 2011 ). This might be another one of those Birthday Letters outtakes such as ...

Even after all this time, I'm still digesting "Last Letter" but finding it easier to read now that the hoopla has died down a bit. The news stories on its publications were just atrocious and sometimes it is hard to shake initial feeds, impressions, reports, and rushed judgments. As a result, though, what was reported has to be discredited largely, and ignored & forgotten. Looking back to those long gone halcyon days of early-to-mid October 2010 and those news stories ... I can't read them anymore. They, in fact, they quite privately bore me...(in those days I regarded forgetfulness as an essential part of survival). I'd like to see the manuscripts of the poems, all of them. Hughes's handwriting is difficult at best, but a little time with them and I think much more could be known about the poem. That being said, this post isn't looking at the whole poem, but just a little bit of it. First, though, with this archive of material now available, this te...

The Guardian Books section recently posted a Podcast in which they discuss, among other topics, National Poetry Day and the "difficulties surrounding the publication of a newly discovered Ted Hughes poem written immediately after Sylvia Plath's death." Written immediately? Seriously?

The Independent 's Cahal Milmo writes " The Ted Hughes lost poem: Who wants to live forever? " This is almost a moralistic "high road" piece of journalism which calls into question to appropriateness of publishing unpublished or unfinished works by dead authors from their archives or estates. However, the article concludes on a note of support I completely agree with by Anthony Thwaite who says, "There is always a difficult judgment to be made in these cases. In the case of Ted Hughes, if Carol Hughes has said that it is time for this poem to be published then that is right and we should be happy about it." I couldn't agree more. The article includes links to other related articles such as John Walsh's " Hughes's inner turmoil laid bare " and the Independent 's "leading article" " Shock of the new ." Walsh's article leaves me wanting; he simply misreads the poems or has misread accounts in memoirs an...

Hear more of Ted Hughes' "Last Letter" to Sylvia Plath read by Melvyn Bragg on BBC Devon .

The BBC Reports " Ted Hughes poem on Sylvia Plath's death published ." "A poem in which Ted Hughes describes the night his first wife Sylvia Plath took her own life in 1963 has been published for the first time." The poem, called "Last Letter" appears in the New Statesman and was culled from the recent British Library acquisition of Ted Hughes' papers which opened for research earlier this year. The BBC report says, "The poem begins: 'What happened that night? Your final night.' "It then details, in chronological order, the last weekend of Plath's life, in February 1963, when she and Hughes were still married but living apart. "It begins with Plath sending Hughes a letter, which is intended to arrive after the weekend, but is delivered early. "The poem goes on to describe Hughes rushing to her house, where Plath reassures him that everything is fine. He leaves and she ultimately takes her own life." See the Ne...

As expected - probably - there has been some criticism that has sprung from the big news this week that the British Library had acquired some of Ted Hughes' papers. Heather McRobie's response "Can't we leave Hughes and Plath alone? We have their poems. We really don't need access to every corner of their lives" is one such example. The short answer is "No". We cannot leave them alone. And it is arguable that by having access to every corner of their lives does add incredibly valuable insight to their poems. Archival materials allow for the assessment and the reassessment of the subject. Therefore, it is vital that saved materials be made available for use by the public. There is, undeniably and unfortunately, a gossipy aspect to the story of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. The news of additional archival material being sold was picked up so widely because news about Plath and Hughes does sell papers, and will be clicked on by readers on the Inter...

A decade has passed since Ted Hughes published Birthday Letters . Jeanette Winterson published a piece in today's Times of London on that earth-shattering poetry collection and the recent selection of letters, The Letters of Ted Hughes .

For those Plath and Hughes readers in the Murfreesboro/Nashville area: Linebaugh Public Library’s Summer Lecture Series continues tonight with the goal of providing an in-depth exploration of contemporary literature for book discussion groups. Tonight’s set of books up for discussion will be “Birthday Letters” by Ted Hughes and “Ariel” by Sylvia Plath, presented by Deborah Gentry. Linebaugh Library is located at 105 W. Vine St., Murfreesboro. For more information, call (615) 893-4131.

Dr. Deborah Gentry will give a lecture entitled " The Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes and Ariel by Sylvia Plath" on 31 July, 2007, at the Linebaugh Public Library at 105 W. Vine St., Murfreesboro. The library telephone number is (615) 893-4131, should anyone require more information. Dr. Gentry is Associate Professor at Middle Tennessee State University and will have her book, The Art of Dying: Suicide in the Works of Kate Chopin and Sylvia Plath , published next year.