In March, the Beinecke Library opened the recently processed collection of the Lois Ames Collection of Sylvia Plath. The finding aid is online here , and there is a convenient option to make a PDF which is, in some ways, easier to read. In my earlier post last year about the acquisition, as well as in this post from 2023 , I commented on a comment made by Mrs Plath about how Ames "stole both materials (manuscripts of Sylvia's) and snapshots from me." So I was fascinated to work with the papers on 23 and 24 March 2026 to see if I could make sense of Mrs Plath's claim, and, as well, see the materials that represent the start of the industry of Sylvia Plath.  What I encountered, though, was an enormous absence.  There are two boxes of correspondence, most of which feels like it is drafts of letters Ames wrote as well as some carbons of letters sent. There are incoming letters, but the majority of these are from Ted Hughes, Mrs Plath, Olwyn Hughes, and Harper & Row, ...

The last full day! I am sad but it has been a productive experience. A massive number of photographs to review, process, read, and assimiliate into the existing bank of knowledge on Sylvia Plath and the other figures that play in the story. And I want to say it is a real honor to have gotten to work with the papers the very week they opened for research and an absolute and sincere joy to relate some of the things I have seen to you. Thank you so much for reading.  I began day four working with Box 16, which I could not finish up on Thursday. Box 16 is Aurelia Schober Plath's papers, Diaries and notebooks. Fascinating documents. These consist of diaries she kept on trips to England and Europe as well as to write about her grandchildren visiting the US. It picks up from Box 15 which has earlier diaries and fragments up to the rather infamous summer of 1962 which has much shorthand at the crucial points, as well as pages that had been ripped out.  One of my favorite things in Box...

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...

It is nearly the end of day two here and I am still kind of processing what I saw on day one. This morning, for example, I read the letters from Assia Wevill to Mrs. Plath over coffee before the library opened and I am still not recovered. One of the items I was most excited to see is in Folder 1 of Box 14, Plath's personal papers. In this folder were sihlouettes dating from 1946 and 1956. The 1956 one was my focus as I remember all the time about Plath's writing about it in her journals. She did so on 30 March 1956 when she was pining for Richard Sassoon, enamoured of Ted Hughes, but spending a lot of time with Tony in advance of meeting up with Gordon! She wrote: 'Tony and I walked about and looked at paintings until a small man asked if he could cut my silouhette "comme un cadeau", so I stood in the middle of the square in the middle of Montmartre and gazed at the brilliant restaurants in the middle of a gathering crowd which ohed and ahed and which was just wh...

Snow, sleet, and rain greeted me today on my drive to New Haven. I have been to this city only one time before, about 20 or so years ago on a day trip to see the Plath Sites. Or, the Richard Norton sites, such as my 2001 or 2002 self knew. I was not impressed. Anyway, the atrocious weather may have been a blessing as the George Washington Bridge was sans  traffic. As was every other road I travelled to get here until I got here. The Merritt Parkway--a road which Sylvia Plath herself took on excursions to Manhattan--was fine. A few back-ups on hills, because apparently driving uphill in Connecticut is just as hard as running up them.  The last few miles seemed to take the most amount of time. Ah---anticipation.  The Beienecke Library recently opened the Plath Family Papers. Word or mouth was that there was nothing shocking or revolutionary in them, but that is not really what I am looking for as I look through them. Maybe I do not even know what it is I am looking for, but...

The Beinecke Library has published the Plath Family Papers finding aid .   There is, as can be imagined, a lot to unpack with the finding aid and a cursory review of it also indicates that there are things within it that need to be cleaned up and corrected.  But it is an enticing textual and organizational look at the papers that comprise the collection.  There are many letters from Plath to various people which is exciting. These include, without a doubt, the original letters Plath sent to her brother Warren. The Lilly Library has copies. The letters to Mrs. Plath are itemized, but those to her brother are not (at the time of writing). So it is unclear at the moment if there are more letters. Researchers will be able to access the collection in the first week of December. Undoubtedly there will be much more to discuss in time.  In case you missed it, Yale issued a press release on 7 Novembe r about the collection. All links accessed 21 November 2025. Revised 24...

Yale's Beinecks Library has been busy of late in the Sylvia Plath archive world. The Beinecke acquired recently the Lois Ames collection of Sylvia Plath from James Cummings of New York.  Ames passed away in 2022 . The papers are unprocessed, but is comprised of three boxes with correspondence, writings, printed material, research material, photographs, and other papers compiled for a biography of Sylvia Plath.  You may remember from this blog post back in 2023 that Mrs Plath wrote a friend that Ames stole materials from the house at Elmwood Road. But, to reiterate,  "I forgot about some of the materials I acquired over the years, such as this nugget from a letter in April 1983 that Aurelia Schober Plath wrote to a friend Mary Ann Montgomery: 'Lois Ames never wrote a biography, although she had a grant to do so, interviewed me during a whole summer and stole both materials (manuscripts of Sylvia's) and snapshots from me' (Montgomery mss, Lilly). Holy highl...

In February, I posted on the acquisition of the "Plath Family papers" by the Beinecke Library at Yale. Due to the inquisitiveness of Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick, we have learned that the papers will open in the next few weeks (this Autumn).  That's it. That's the post. More information perhaps when there is some to share.  In the meantime, last Friday, the 12th of September, saw the publication by the LSU Press of Julie's most recent book Lives Revised:  Assia Wevill, Ted Hughes, and Sylvia Plath .  Congratulations, Julie! All links accessed 18 September 2025.

I am grateful to Amanda Golden for letting me know the other day that Yale University's Beinecke Library has acquired two Plath family collections. The basic archival accession records are linked below. Main collection  (21 boxes) Addition  (2 boxes) There is not much to go on at this point in time, but the main collection includes "Correspondence, writings, photographs, printed material, artwork, personal papers, records, realia, and other papers by or relating to Sylvia Plath and the Plath family." And the addition has "Books, correspondence, photographic prints, audiovisual material, stamp collection, and other papers created by, or, related to Sylvia Plath and the Plath family." It may be a year or so before the collection is open to research; however, some parts will be closed until 1 January 2059. There are possibly other criteria that may allow for the closed materials to be made available. In addition to holding Sylvia Plath materials, there are likely d...

This blog has highlighted the Amherst young men that Sylvia Plath knew and mentioned in her letters. And, as well, a "who's who" at Smith College from Plath's time, looking specifically at the administrators and teachers circa 1957-8. This blog post looks at Yale students. You have the letters and journals, by now, so I will leave you to work with the notes and index to read the ways in which Plath mentions and interacted with these fellows. The list of men here is from the Letters and is in the order of their appearance. Frustratingly, not all of the players in Plath's life had usable photographs in digitized editions of Yale's yearbook. So I did the best that I could in finding them and even had to go to other resources for a few. For many that was their high school yearbook and even digitized newspapers. I was unable to find a photograph of Joze Kostelec (1930–2014). Vol I. Charles Perry Norton (1932– ) Richard Allen Norton (1929– ) Oliver Trull Ca...