In February I wrote about one of the kindest things anyone has ever done for me… when my friend Suzanne bought and gave me a typescript story called "The Dark River" by Sylvia Plath. Shortly afterwards I sent the story to a friend who is a book binder and artist. This was to have a custom box made to house the typescript and recently it was returned to me. Project complete. I asked for the cloth on the box to be a dark blue color to kind of match what a dark river might look like. I think Barbara, the woman who made the box, knocked it out of the park. The spine label is glorious. Inside the box is a custom folder to further protect and support the seven pages of the story. I've added some acid-free interleaving paper to wrap around the story and protect the folder from any potential transfer of acids from the story pages to the folder. All links accessed: 29 March 2018.

Due to a busy November I missed posting on the outcome of the Bonhams auction of a Sylvia Plath typescript on 15 November 2017 . And with the recent news about Frieda Hughes putting to auction some of the items she inherited from her parents, it seems like a rather timely time to mention this auction result now. Fresh back from Belfast and London and filled with memories that are insatiably fine, it slipped my mind that I had typically posted on the results. The result of the auction was that the item, an unpublished short story called "The Dark River", sold for the minimum bid , which after premiums and everything came out to £750 (about US $1,001 at the time of writing). Part of the oversight also stems from the fact that the winner of the auction notified me a couple of days afterwards to inform me that she was giving the typescript to me as a gift. Since that time I have been rather befuddled, occasionally weepy with happy disbelief, and completely staggered at her kin...