One of the aspects of the footnotes of The Letters of Sylvia Plath that I most enjoyed was cross-referencing to letters to which Plath responded. There are very few instances where we have both sides of the letters--the most complete being the letters between Plath and Gordon Lameyer and Plath to Lynne Lawner. Periodically, Richard Norton and Eddie Cohen, to name but two, would quote Plath's words back to her in her letters which was always illuminating. Particularly as these original letters no longer appear to be extant. My intention in doing this work in the footnotes was to help readers in pinpointing those letters to Plath in an archive; to save them time, perhaps. But overall, just to try to get anything relevant to the letter on the page. You will see them each at the bottom of the page, usually formatted the same in the attempt to be both consistent and predictable. For example, "See Richard Norton to SP, 3 March 1953; held by Lilly Library." "See Ly...

As I routinely do, I continue to search for articles on Sylvia Plath's first suicide attempt in August 1953. Earlier in the year, I found a number of new articles and these are all now on the bibliography page of Articles on her disappearance and recovery . Articles were found in the following newspapers: The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Florida) The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, Utah) Wilkes-Barre Record (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) The Birmingham News (Birmingham, Alabama) The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) Public Opinion (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania) The Millville Daily Republican (Millville, New Jersey) The York Dispatch (York, Pennsylvania) Daily News (New York, New York) The Tribune (Scranton, Pennsylvania) Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wisconsin) The Morning News (Wilmington, Delaware) Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) St Josephs News Press Gazette (St. Joseph, Missouri) Pittsburgh Sun Tele...

When Sylvia Plath visited Richard Norton at the Ray Brook tuberculosis hospital in Saranac Lake, New York, after Christmas in December 1952, she broke her leg . During that visit, Plath met a Dr. William Sanford Lynn and his wife Mary Elisabeth Lynn. They had a young boy, William Sanford Lynn, III. Plath seemed to get on very well with the Lynn family. A late decision I made in editing Plath's Letters was to include the letter excerpts that had appeared in Plath's journals. I felt that they would add a certain something to the book, particularly the many letter excerpts to Richard Sassoon. But, there were other letter excerpts to Eddie Cohen and Richard Norton. Including them all meant they would be annotated to the same standard that the rest of Plath's letters were. Plath's letter excerpt from 8 March 1953 to Richard Norton is one such example and was done in reply to his three letters written on 4, 6, and 7 March. He had related how the Lynn's young bo...

On Saturday, 25 July 2020, Gail Crowther and I hosted our third and final Sylvia Plath Zoomposium. The featured speakers were: Janet Badia, Marsha Bryant, Emmeline Downie, Olivia Foster, Gillian Groszewski, Natalie Hurt, Craig Johnson, Jeremy Lowenthal, and Laura McKenzie. We are proud to announce that the recording is now available on the Sylvia Plath Info YouTube Channel . Please note Gillian Groszewski's presentation was removed. We are grateful to all thirty total speakers for their generosity and willingness to prepare talks on such short notice, to help feel a sense of community during a strange period in our lives. And thank you, of course, to all the people that registered for and attended the events. All links accessed 28 July and 1 August 2020.

The Sylvia Plath Zoomposium III, to be held Saturday, 25 July 2020, will start at 10 am NY Time (3 PM London time). Gail Crowther and I thank you all so much for registering and for your attention throughout the hours you will spend in front of your computer or other device. The interest in these Zoom events has been so wonderful. Very warm. The following shows the order of speakers. As with the first two Zomposiums, we will plan to start at 10 am EDT/3PM BST sharp and proceed straight through each speaker with no breaks. The order of the speakers will be alphabetical by last name, so: Janet Badia, Marsha Bryant, Emmeline Downie, Olivia Foster, Gillian Groszewski, Natalie Hurt, Craig Johnson, Jeremy Lowenthal, and Laura McKenzie. Interested in the event? Click here to see registration information . All links accessed 21 July 2020.

If you know anything about me, it is that I enjoy foreign editions of Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar . So recently I saw for sale a copy of the novel in Russian, a language I previously did not have, for a reasonable price. You may be able to see some tape and label on the spine. This is an ex-library copy of the novel, withdrawn from circulation from the Boston Public Library. This particular edition dates from 2000. Having a Russian edition makes me really happy given Esther Greenwood's envy of the Russian interpreter who knew so many idioms and her foray with Constantine. This cover has been added to the Translations book cover page of A celebration, this is . Here are the rest of my Bell Jars . All links accessed 18 January 2019.

The last picture postcard that we know Sylvia Plath sent went from the Dordogne, France, to her mother at 3 Chalcot Square, London. Dated 10 July, Plath wrote the postcard which depicts "Montignac-sur-Vézère (Dordogne). Grotte de Lascaux" and send it from Saint-Céré, France, and was postmarked 12 July 1961. A subcaption on the card reads, "Diverticule (paroi droite): Vache rouge et premier des chevaux dits 'Chinois'." It was published by Serv. Commercial Monuments Historiques. Gd. Palais. Av. Alexandre III. Porte G. Paris. There are two stamps on the postcard. One for .25 Francs depicting a woman, designed by Posyes. And another for .05 Francs depicting the Coat of Arms of Oran (Algeria). Aurelia Plath added "Stars Over Dordogne" in blue pen in the top middle of the page. Plath addressed the letter: Mrs. A. S. PLATH c/o HUGHES 3 Chalcot Square London N.W.1 Angleterre Plath and Hughes were toward the end of their holiday and she repo...