Today, 14 November 2023, was the Bonhams Fine Books and Manuscripts auction of twenty-five lots of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes books from the property, or now former property of Frieda Hughes. In the last few years, the Plath and Hughes rare book market has been simply flooded with stock but this has not, at least in the case of Plath who is more collectible than Hughes, meant that prices in the rare and antiquarian book market has stalled or leveled off.  As I have done in the past, here are a list of the sales. All prices below show hammer price first and then the final price including the buyer's premium. Please see the Bonhams website for pre-auction valuation estimates. In addition to the property of Frieda Hughes, there was a scarce uncorrected proof of the Victoria Lucas edition of The Bell Jar  in: Lot 72 :  This gorgeous book is estimated to sell for £4,000 - £5,000 (US$4,900 - US$6,200) and ultimately went for £6,144. Estimated: Untracked Hammer Price: Unt...

The following are the lots in the 14 November 2023 auction of The Property of Frieda Hughes of Sylvia Plath (lots 108-118) and Ted Hughes (lots 94-107) items. Ted Hughes: Lot 94 : HUGHES (TED) Meet My Folks!, FIRST EDITION, DEDICATION COPY, INSCRIBED, Faber and Faber, 1961 Lot 95 : HUGHES (TED) The New Poetry. A Selection Selected and Introduced by A. Alvarez, FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY TED HUGHES TO HIS PARENTS, 1962; 3 carbons TH poems of 1960s, and annotated copy of Moorehead's Cooper's Creek (6) Lot 96 : HUGHES (TED) Wodwo, FIRST EDITION AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED "To Walter [Hughes] & Alice with love from Ted, May 67", Faber and Faber, 1967 Lot 97 : HUGHES (TED) Animal Poems, UNIQUE PRESENTATION COPY, ONE OF SIX COPIES INTERLEAVED WITH ALL 14 POEMS WRITTEN OUT BY THE AUTHOR, AND AN ADDITIONAL 18 POEMS ADDED IN MANUSCRIPT, [Richard Gilbertson, [1967] Lot 98 : HUGHES (TED) The Iron Man, FIRST EDITION, AUTHOR'S PRESENT...

Bonhams Knightsbridge is set to auction more than two dozen lots of books from the library and collection of Frieda Hughes that she was either given or inherited from her parents, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.  The date of the auction is 14 November 2023.  Copies of works by Sylvia Plath include: A Winter Ship, The Colossus, The Bell Jar, Ariel, Three Women, Crystal Gazer and Other Poems, Pursuit, Letters Home , and much, much more. Copies of works by Ted Hughes include: The Iron Giant, Birthday Letters, Howls & Whispers, Poems by Emily Dickinson, Animal Poems, Moortown Elegies, Meet My Folks!, Crow, The Iron Man, Wodwo , and more.

After the Bonhams auction last June where 24 copies of Sylvia Plath's 1960 limited edition of  A Winter Ship , printed by the Tragara Press was sold, I started investigating this publication. The result of this research is an article, recently published in the Spring 2022 issue of  The Book Collector The following summary inventory was written to accompany the article but had to be cut, understandably, for space issues. I am terrifically grateful to James Fleming for his support of my article and for taking it on. I would also like to thank Rebecca Rego Barry, the fine editor of Fine Books & Collections for reading an early draft of the piece. Inventory Copies with wrappers: 1: Lot 131 sold at Bonhams, June 2021, privately owned 2: Lot 140 sold at Bonhams, June 2021, privately owned 3-24: Lot 141, sold at Bonhams, June 2021 25: Lot 159, sold at Bonhams, December 2021 (for sale from Raptis Rare Books as of 23 February 2022) Copies without wrappers formerly belo...

On 1 December 2021, Bonhams in Knightsbridge sold a twenty-fifth unique copy of Sylvia Plath's A Winter Ship (1960) in Lot 159 their Fine Books & Manuscripts sale (26775). The final sale price was £2,167 (US$ 2,891) inc. premium, which for this edition may be an auction record. Earlier in the year, in June, an individual copy sold for £1,402 . So, a considerable amount more of money was needed this time around to win the limited edition pamphlet produced by Alan Anderson of the Tragara Press.  All links accessed 1 December 2021.

On 1 December 2021, Bonhams is offering in Auction 26775 a copy of Sylvia Plath's A Winter Ship , printed by the Tragara Press in 1960. 24 copies sold in three separate lots in their June auction, and this is a 25th copy with provenance to Plath, the Estate of Sylvia Plath, and Frieda Hughes.  The Lot is 159 , and the estimated price is £800-1,200/US$1,100-1,600. Happy bidding and good luck!   All links accessed 5 November 2021.

Sylvia Plath graduated from the Alice L. Phillips Junior High School in Wellesley in June 1947. She was a regular contributor to the school's magazine The Phillipian , appearing in eleven issues during her years there: 7th Grade November 1944 April 1945 June 1945 8th Grade November 1945 February 1946 April 1946 June 1946 9th Grade November 1946 February 1947 April 1947 June 1947 You can see a listing of all of her publications over on A celebration, this is , my website for Plath. Most of the poems and pieces I have copies of, as I have worked in archives with the original magazines for most of them (or clippings that Plath herself retained). However, the June 1947 issue was partly elusive. Her poem "May", appearing on page 26, was clipped by Plath and now resides in an archive. But her "Class Poem", which was published on page 11 of the same issue, does not seem to exist and I have been looking for it for about twenty years. I have photocopies of, I believe, a...

Bonhams, New York, is auctioning two rare copies of The Phillipian , the junior high school periodical for the Alice L. Phillips school with early publications of Sylvia Plath's. They are copies from April 1945 and June 1947. Lot 135 : "The Spring Parade" and "May." IN:  The Phillipian , April, 1945 and June 1947. Wellesley Hills, MA: Alice L. Phillips Junior High School, 1945/1947. 4to. Pictorial wrappers. Both with covers detached, partially disbound, second issue lacking some early leaves, chipping and some minor staining. VERY RARE PLATH FIRST APPEARANCES. Two early poems by Sylvia Plath published in the school magazine while a student at the Alice L. Phillips Junior High School in Wellesley Hills. Plath's first published poem was submitted to the Boston Herald in 1941 and published simply under the name "8-Year Old Poet." Although she penned some articles for the school magazine, The Phillipian , the appearance of "The Spring Parade...

Bonhams Knightsbridge is set to auction nearly twenty lots of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes materials on 24 June 2021 as part of their Fine Books, Manuscripts, and Photographs sale, some of which is currently the property of Frieda Hughes. I had a strange feeling back in the Big 2018 auction, that there would be more. This material is a goldmine of treasures for the rare book market. Lot 130 :  The Hawk in the Rain , first American edition, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY TO HIS PARENTS, inscribed "To Mom & Dad/Number one on a long shelf." on the title-page, New York, Harper & Brothers, [1957] The Hawk in the Rain , first American edition, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY TO HIS PARENTS, inscribed "To Mom & Dad/Number one on a long shelf." on the title-page, half-title, contents working loose, some spotting and foxing, publisher's cloth, dampstains on sides, yellow dust-jacket (price-clipped, upper cover and spine soiled with small losses at corners) [Sa...

Today at Bonhams in Knightsbridge, three Sylvia Plath lots were offered at auction. Each of these lots originated from the Estate of Elizabeth Sigmund. Lot 238 , Sylvia Plath's annotated copy of The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas. The estimated price for the Thomas was £3,000 - 5,000/US$ 3,800 - 6,300. The book sold for: £9,000 (£11,312 including buyer's premium). Don't need to be a mathematician to see this sold for well above the high estimate. Bravo! Lot 239 , the only known typescript of Sylvia Plath's "Landscape of Childhood" which later became "Ocean 1212-w". The estimated price for "Landscape of Childhood" was £1,500 - 2,000/US$ 1,900 - 2,500. The typescript sold for: £2,000 (£2,550 including buyer's premium). Which was at the high estimate. Lot 240 , Elizabeth Sigmund's copy of Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar (Heinemann, 1963 edition with Victoria Lucas as author) given to her in the weeks after ...