by Sylvia Plath
*Pendennis, ‘Ted ’n’ Thom’, The Observer (27 March 1960): 9; this article includes TH’s picture.
*Pendennis, ‘Ted ’n’ Thom’, cited above. The clipping is with the letter.
*Robert Lowell, Life Studies (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1959), won the 1960 National Book Award.
*D. C. Jarvis, Folk Medicine: A Vermont Doctor’s Guide to Good Health (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1958).
*‘In his her infinite wisdom’ appears in the original.
*Alan Brownjohn. See Dorothy Morland to Alan Brownjohn, 29 March 1960; held by Institute of Contemporary Arts London records (TGA 955), Tate Museum Archives, London. SP and TH were invited in separate letters also dated 29 March 1960. Karl Miller served as chair for the reading. In 1960, the Institute of Contemporary Arts was at 17–18 Dover Street, London.
*The postscript is handwritten by SP.
*Frieda Rebecca Hughes (1960– ); daughter of SP and TH.
*Founded in 1935, Babytalk is the oldest baby magazine in the United States.
*SP’s letter is at the end of a letter begun by TH, which has not been transcribed.
*Pethidine is a synthetic morphine-like opioid used for pain management.
*See Letters of Sylvia Plath, Vol. 1, 416.
*Dr Beuscher had two children by her first husband, Francis Charles Edmonds Jr. (married 1941, divorced 1947 for extreme mental cruelty): Francis C. Edmonds III and Ruth T. Edmonds Naylor. She had five with her second husband, Dr William F. Beuscher (married 1950, divorced 1968): Robert Conrad, William David, Christopher Grey, Thomas Frederick, and John Franklin.
*TH added a note at the bottom of the letter, which has not been transcribed. TH wrote with pride about Frieda’s birth and on SP’s general health and well-being.
*Date supplied from internal evidence.
*SP and TH were married by Reverend R. Mercer Wilson (b. 1887). Wilson lived at 13 Doughty Street, London; Dickens’s house was number 48.
*TH added a note on the return address side of the letter, which has not been transcribed. TH commented on Frieda’s sounds, on SP’s natural mothering instincts, and mentioned a review of Lupercal in the New Statesman: Donald Hall, ‘True and False Feeling’, New Statesman (9 April 1960): 530.
*Date supplied from postmark.
*SP’s letter is at the end of a letter begun by TH, which has not been transcribed.
*Jane Auchincloss Truslow (1932–81); B.A. 1955, English, Smith College; SP’s housemate at Lawrence House. Truslow married SP’s friend Peter Davison on 7 March 1959.
*Cf. SP’s ‘Morning Song’: ‘The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry / Took its place among the elements’ (Collected Poems: 156).
*W. S. Merwin, The Drunk in the Furnace (New York: Macmillan; London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1960).
*Babyminders, then located, according to SP’s address book, at 39 James Street, London W.1, and 88 George Street, W.1.
*Possibly Sasha Moorsom (1931–93); Moorsom attended Cambridge; produced Ted Hughes, The House of Aries, BBC Third Programme (16 November 1960).
*British editor and critic Karl Miller (1931–2014); editor of New Statesman.
*British poet Peter Redgrove (1932–2003).
*Richard Milhous Nixon (1913–94); 37th President of the United States. Nixon ran unsuccessfully against John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election.
*John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–63). Member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts (1947–53); United States Senator from Massachusetts (1953–60) and 35th President of the United States (1961–3).
*On 21 March 1960, sixty-nine protestors were killed at the police station in Sharpeville, South Africa.
*Probably Barbara Varney Railsback (1915–2004), who with her husband Edward Neal Railsback (1916–2009) lived at 8 Ingersoll Road, Wellesley, Mass.
*Probably Dollie Beaton (1902–68), who lived at 10 Ingersoll Road, Wellesley, Mass.
*The White Tower, 1 Percy Street, London.
*Janet Burroway (1936– ); author of Descend Again (London: Faber & Faber, 1960). See Memories of Whitstead (10–13).
*Zulfikar (‘Zulfi’) Ghose (1935– ); Pakistani poet, novelist, and essayist.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘A Winter Ship’, The Atlantic 206 (July 1960): 65; and ‘The Manor Garden’, The Atlantic 206 (September 1960): 52. With the two accepted poems, SP submitted ‘The Sleepers’, ‘Polly’s Tree’, ‘Blue Moles’, ‘In Midas Country’, ‘Two Views of Withens’, and ‘The Burnt-out Spa’ on 25 January 1960.
*The photographs are no longer with the letter.
*Benjamin Spock, Baby & Child Care, 183.
*English actor and director Sir Laurence Olivier, OM (1907–89).
*Eugène Ionesco, Rhinoceros (1959); played at the Royal Court Theatre, 50–1 Sloane Square, London.
*Edwin Baker Goodall, Jr., a Wellesley physician, was the Benottis’ neighbour and lived at 55 Silver Hill Road, Weston; he sold his house to the Benottis in October 1959.
*Ted Hughes, Themes: ‘Creatures’, BBC Home Service (8 May 1960). TH read his ‘Hawk Roosting’.
*Berkley Road.
*According to SP’s address book, she took Frieda to the Linnet House Clinic on Charlbert Street, London N.8.
*In 1960, the editor of the Times Literary Supplement was Arthur Crook (1912–2005).
*‘directed the paly play’ appears in the original.
*Miles Malleson (1888–1969), British actor, played the part of the hangman in the film. SP saw Kind Hearts and Coronets in Boston on 5 July 1952.
*Peter Davison, ‘To a Mad Friend’, Harper’s 220 (February 1960): 91.
*Probably Peter Davison, ‘Not Forgotten’, Hudson Review 14 (Autumn 1961): 392–4.
*According to SP’s address book, the Eliots lived at 3 Kensington Court Gardens, London W.8. The address is written by TH.
*Valerie Eliot (1926–2012); T. S. Eliot’s second wife and widow.
*English pianist and author Natasha Spender (1919–2010).
*Leo A. Goodman (1928– ); B.A. 1948, Syracuse University; Ph.D. 1950, Princeton; professor of statistics and sociology, University of Chicago, 1950–86; professor of statistics and sociology, University of California at Berkeley, 1986–present. When Goodman met SP and TH, he was a visiting professor at Clare College, University of Cambridge, 1959–60. After his marriage to Ann Davidow on 28 August 1960, he was a visiting professor of mathematical statistics and sociology at Columbia University, 1960–1.
*Date supplied from internal evidence.
*SP’s letter is at the end of a letter begun by TH, which has not been transcribed. See Letters of Ted Hughes: 159–60.
*Probably J. W. Lambert, ‘Sir Laurence to the Rescue’, Sunday Times (1 May 1960): 25.
*English playwright and director Harold Pinter (1930–2008); his The Caretaker; performed at the Arts Theatre, London, until 28 May. Transferred to the Duchess Theatre, opening 30 May.
*Antigone, performed by the Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.
*Myron Lotz (1932–99); B.S. 1954, Yale College; Henry Fellow, 1955–6, Oxford University; M.D. 1958, Yale University; intern at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, 1958–9; dated SP, 1952–4.
*Elizabeth Schober (1891–1971), who lived at 25 Primrose Street, Roslindale, Mass.
*Possibly Lola Walker of 37 Longmeadow Road, Wellesley, Mass.
*According to SP’s address book, the Websters lived at 17 Spaniard’s End, London N.W.3.
*Ted Hughes, ‘The Rain Horse’, BBC Third Programme (29 July 1960). Recorded on 20 May 1960.
*Sylvia Plath, ‘The Fifteen Dollar Eagle’, Sewanee Review 68 (Autumn 1960): 603–18. See Monroe Spears to SP, 5 May 1960; held by Sewanee: The University of the South. Spears rejected ‘Poem for a Birthday’.
*American sociologist and educator David Riesman (1909–2002).
*The Lee Anderson record made on 18 April 1958 in Springfield, Mass.; see SP to Lee Anderson and
SP to Warren Plath, both 22 April 1958.
*TH added a note at the bottom of the letter, which has not been transcribed. TH wrote about tracking Frieda’s development in photographs and her appearances and sounds, on a forthcoming visit from his mother, and on SP’s mothering.
*See Sylvia Plath, ‘Queen Mary’s Rose Garden’, Collected Poems: 290. SP’s drafts of ‘Queen Mary’s Rose Garden’ are on the verso of her later poem ‘Wuthering Heights’; held by Lilly Library.
*SP bought her vacuum for £18 from London Cooperative Society, 193 Camden High Street, N.W.1.
*Philip Booth, ‘Spit’, Poetry 99 (October 1961): 32.
*Probably a reference to Philip Booth, ‘Shag’, Poetry 88 (July 1956): 240–1.
*An United States U-2 spy-plane was shot down over the Soviet Union on 1 May 1960.
*Caryl Chessman, jailed for kidnapping, robbery, and rape, was executed on 2 May 1960, in California. His execution gave rise to a movement to ban capital punishment.
*American poet Theodore Roethke (1908–63); probably his ‘Political Song’ [‘Nixon Poem’]; see Brett Miller, ‘Chelsea 8: Political Poetry at Midcentury’, Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov: The Poetry of Politics, the Politics of Poetry (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2006).
*British printer and publisher Alan Anderson (1922– ); founder of the Tragara Press in 1954.
*Sylvia Plath, A Winter Ship (Edinburgh: Tragara Press, 1960). Anderson estimates he printed about sixty copies. See TH to Alan Anderson, 19 May 1960; held by Morgan Library.
*SP intended this postscript to go to her mother in her letter of 11 June that follows but wrote it on the wrong envelope.
*Betsy Powley Wallingford (1932– ), SP’s friend from Wellesley.
*British artist and poet Graham Ackroyd (1920- ). See TH to Graham Ackroyd, 5 May 1960. Printed in Letters of Ted Hughes: 161–2; original held with additional letters by University of Victoria, British Columbia.
*See Plath mss IV, which includes annotations by SP; held by Lilly Library.
*Edith Hughes to ASP, 11 June 1960; held by Lilly Library.
*Ted Hughes, ‘England’s Toughest Community’, The Nation (2 July 1960): 14; a review of Clancy Sigal, Weekend in Dinlock (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960).
*Sylvia Plath, ‘A Winter Ship’. The proof is no longer with the letter.
*The photographs are no longer with the letter.
*Mark Gerson (1921– ) photographed the ‘Faber Poets’ at the party on 23 June 1960.
*English poet and novelist Alan Brownjohn (1931– ).
*Ifan Kyrle Fletcher, whose business, which he operated with his wife Constance, was located at 22 Buckingham Gate, London S.W.1. A note in SP’s address book reads ‘(collecting mss., typescripts, corrected proofs)’. These papers comprise the Ted Hughes mss. at the Lilly Library.
*TH added a note at the bottom of the letter, which has not been transcribed. TH commented on the ICA reading, mentioned that David Louis Posner was collecting manuscripts for the University of Buffalo, and the Faber party for Auden.
*English singer and actress Hedli Anderson (1907–90), second wife (1942–60) of Louis MacNeice.
*British dramatist Sir Arnold Wesker (1932–2016); his plays Chicken Soup With Barley, Roots, and I’m Talking About Jerusalem were being performed at the Royal Court Theatre.
*German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956); his The Life of Galileo (1945), performed at the Mermaid Theatre, London, 16 June–1 October 1960.
*SP wrote ‘The Hanging Man’ on 27 June 1960.
*English cartoonist and illustrator William Heath Robinson (1872–1944), known for his drawings of complicated machines.
*The sixth poem in TH’s Meet My Folks!
*Philip Day, ‘A Pride of Poets’, Sunday Times (26 June 1960): 6.
*As a child, Yeats lived at 23 Fitzroy Road, c. 1867–72.
*In the first postscript, the text appearing in < > is from Letters Home. It is possible that SP wrote ‘mss.’ rather than ‘manuscripts’. In the second postscript, the editors conjecture SP may have asked for a map of America. Due to damage it is not possible to know the missing text.
*Kathleen Mary Carver Baxter (1904–94), Secretary of the Women’s Appointment Board and Fellow of Newnham College.
*Soviet politician Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971).
*Ted Hughes and A. Alvarez, Talks for Sixth Forms: ‘Poetry and Performance IV – Ted Hughes’, BBC Home Service (Schools) (10 February 1961).
*Ted Hughes, ‘Lines to a Newborn Baby’, New Poetry, BBC Third Programme (24 July 1960); pre-recorded on 14 July 1960. Not read by TH. Programme selected, introduced, and produced by Anthony Thwaite. The Programming-as-Broadcast sheet from the BBC lists the poem as containing 62 lines. In TH’s Collected Poems, the poem is 32 lines.
*Arnold Wesker, Roots (1958); played at the Royal Court Theatre.
*Scottish poet, novelist, and BBC producer George MacBeth (1932–92).
*According to SP’s submissions list, she sent MacBeth ‘Sleep in the Mojave Desert’, ‘Flute Notes from a Reedy Pond’, ‘The Colossus’, ‘Suicide Off Egg Rock’, ‘The Stones’, ‘The Burnt-out Spa’, ‘The Eye-mote’, ‘Aftermath’, ‘Ouija’, ‘The Beekeeper’s Daughter’, ‘The Ghost’s Leavetaking’, ‘Departure’, ‘Frog Autumn’, and ‘Moonrise’.
*According to SP’s address book, Grace Berry (Mrs Courtice H. Berry) of 45 Brookline Drive, West Hartford, Connecticut.
*Alan Anderson printed two special copies of A Winter Ship on pale grey Ingres paper, bound in Cockerell marbled wrappers. He gave one to SP and kept the other. SP’s inscribed copy to Anderson reads, ‘for Alan Anderson / with thanks and / warmest good wishes ~ / Sylvia Plath’; held by Morgan Library.
*Alfred Lunt (1892–1977) and his wife Lynn Fontanne (1887–1983), actors.
*Swiss author and dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–90); his The Visit (1956); performed at the Royalty Theatre, Portugal Street, London.
*Ted Hughes, ‘Thistles’ and ‘The Captain’s Speech’ from The House of Aries, BBC Third Programme (21 August 1960).
*Harry Gordon (c. 1920–2009) and Norah Gordon. The Gordons operated Parkway Gallery, then at 58 Parkway, London N.W.1.
*Editor for The New Yorker, Robert Hemenway.
*Robert Hemenway to SP, 29 July 1960; held by Smith College.
*Probably Sylvia Plath, ‘The Manor Garden’ and ‘Water Color of Grantchester Meadows’, Best Poems of 1960: Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards 1961 (Palo Alto, Calif.: Pacific Books, 1962): 102–3.
*Fortnum & Mason is a department store best known for its food products, at 181 Piccadilly, London.
*Probably James Mansie, who had his consulting room at 112a Harley Street, London, according to SP’s address book.
*Helen M. (Saunders) Churchill (b. 1904), wife of Wilmer Holton Churchill (1903–89), a Wellesley neighbour, who lived at 30 Crown Ridge Road, according to SP’s address book.
