65. LH, 18.
66. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Fran McCullough, 1973–75. 2.20, MSS 1489, Emory.
67. LH, 23.
68. Ibid.
69. Death certificate of Otto Plath, 5 Nov. 1940. Commonwealth of Massachusetts Division of Vital Statistics.
70. Paul Alexander, Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath (New York: Da Capo Press, 1999), 32. Alexander cites no source for this remark, which likely came from Aurelia Plath.
71. LH, 23.
72. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Richard Sassoon, 1974–76. 4.6, MSS 1489, Emory.
73. LH, 25.
74. Irving Johnson, “In Memoriam Otto Plath,” Bostonia 14 (Oct.–July 1940), 23.
75. BJ, 167.
76. LH, 25–28.
77. Ora Mae Orton to Edward Butscher, 26 Sept. 1973. 2.57, EBC, Smith.
78. Linda Heller, draft of “Aurelia Plath: A Lasting Commitment.” Interview with AP, 1976. 30.54, SPC, Smith.
79. LH, 24.
80. HM, 34.
81. JP, 124.
82. HC interview with Betsy Powley Wallingford, Feb. 2013, Sudbury, Mass.
83. Ibid.
84. HC interview with Janet Salter Rosenberg, Sept. 2015, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
85. 10.130, SPC, Smith.
86. Children who lost a parent before age thirteen, firstborn children, and boys who lost mothers (factors that apply to both Plath and her son, Nicholas, who also committed suicide) were particularly vulnerable. Mai-Britt Guldin et al., “Incidence of Suicide Among Persons Who Had a Parent Who Died During Their Childhood: A Population-Based Cohort Study,” JAMA Psychiatry 72.12 (2015): 1227–34.
87. See also K. M. Abel et al., “Severe Bereavement Stress During the Prenatal and Childhood Periods and Risk of Psychosis Later in Life: A Population-Based Cohort Study,” BMJ (2014): 348; f7679; and Holly C. Wilcox et al., “Psychiatric Morbidity, Violent Crime, and Suicide Among Children and Adolescents Exposed to Parental Death,” Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 49.5 (May 2010): 514–23.
88. Wilcox et al., “Psychiatric Morbidity.”
89. Max D. Gaebler, “Sylvia Plath Remembered,” delivered to the Madison Literary Club on 14 Mar. 1983. 2.22, Houghton Mifflin Collection, Smith.
90. Elizabeth Sigmund and Gail Crowther, Sylvia Plath in Devon: A Year’s Turning (Croydon, UK: Fonthill, 2014), 20.
91. HC interview with Janet Salter Rosenberg, Sept. 2015, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
92. HC interview with Suzette and Helder Macedo, May 2016, London.
93. TH, “Trial,” section 20. Add MS 88993/1/1, BL.
3. THE SHADOW
1. Harriet Rosenstein interview with William Sterling, 1971. 4.14, MSS 1489, Emory.
2. LH, 28.
3. SP, draft, “Superman and Paula Brown’s New Snowsuit.” 7.18, Lilly.
4. JP, 162.
5. JP, 336–37.
6. JP, 337–38. Gordon Lameyer’s German father, who was sent to such a camp, was also a model. Plath wrote to Gordon in 1959 asking for details of his father’s internment.
7. J, 475.
8. Harriet Rosenstein interview with David Freeman, 1974. 1.29, MSS 1489, Emory.
9. HC interview with Betsy Powley Wallingford, Feb. 2013, Sudbury, Mass.
10. Her starting salary was $1,800 a year, but she lost her state pension. LH, 28–29.
11. LH, 29.
12. WP to Edward Butscher, 31 Aug. 1975. 4.120, EBC, Smith.
13. SP, high school scrapbook. 10.O3, Lilly.
14. Andrew Wilson, Mad Girl’s Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted (New York: Scribner, 2013), 39. Linda Wagner-Martin writes in her biography that Plath was not capable of simply “enjoying an activity” unless she could justify it “in terms of possible payment or publication.” Sylvia Plath: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987), 38.
15. SP, “Poem,” Boston Herald (10 Aug. 1941), B-8.
16. SP, “Autograph transcript of 40 juvenile poems.” 127550, LHMS, Morgan.
17. Plath received recognition again a year later in Aug. 1942 when, at age nine, she won a “Funny Faces” children’s art contest (and $1) sponsored by the Boston Herald. Her portrait of an older, chubby society lady in a feathered hat was published alongside the other winners. “Funny Faces,” Boston Herald (2 Aug. 1942), B-10.
18. SP, 1944 notebook. 19.26, SPC, Smith. Though the notebook cover is dated 1944, several pieces inside post-date this year.
19. SP to AP, 20 Mar. 1943. L1, 6.
20. SP, “Autograph transcript of 40 juvenile poems.” 127550, LHMS, Morgan.
21. SP to AP, Jan. 1943. L1, 5.
22. SP to AP, 29 June 1943. L1, 9.
23. “Girls Camp Past Is Recalled as Weetamoe Condos Enter the Market,” Ossipee Lake Report 5.3 (July–Sept. 2006): 1–2.
24. SP to AP, 6 July 1943. L1, 11.
25. Ibid.
26. HC interview with Betsy Powley Wallingford, Feb. 2013, Sudbury, Mass.
27. SP, diary, 17 Jan. 1945. All subsequent “diary” citations are from Plath’s unpublished 1940s diaries, held in Box 7, Lilly.
28. SP to AP, 20 July 1943. L1, 15.
29. SP to AP, 31 July 1943. L1, 18.
30. Diary, 5 Jan. 1944.
31. Diary, 22 Jan. 1944.
32. Diary, 10 May 1944.
33. Diary, 27 Dec. 1943.
34. Diary, 1 Jan. 1944.
35. Diary, 8 Oct. 1944.
36. Anne Stevenson, Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath (London: Penguin, 1989), 4.
37. Perry Norton to HC, 7 Sept. 2012.
38. David Norton would eventually become friendly with Plath’s son, Nicholas, at the University of Alaska, where they both worked.
39. HC interview with Perry Norton, Oct. 2012, Auburndale, Mass.
40. William Norton to Edward Butscher, 15 Dec. 1973. 2.55, EBC, Smith.
41. HC interview with Perry Norton, Oct. 2012, Auburndale, Mass.
42. HC conversation with Don Colburn, Jan. 2017, Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
43. HC interview with Perry Norton, Oct. 2012, Auburndale, Mass.
44. HC interview with Betsy Powley Wallingford, Feb. 2013, Sudbury, Mass.
45. Diary, 15 Feb. 1946.
46. Diary, 20 Feb. 1946.
47. “A Great Poet’s Wellesley High Classmates Pay Her Tribute,” Wellesley Townsman (5 Oct. 2000).
48. Diary, 2 & 3 Feb. 1946.
49. BJ, 98.
50. Diary, 11 Apr. 1946.
51. Diary, 21 Apr. & 20 May 1946.
52. Diary, 31 Mar. & 23 Jan. 1945.
53. “A Great Poet’s,” Wellesley Townsman (5 Oct. 2000).
54. Ibid.
55. SP to Ann Davidow, c. 12 Jan. 1951. L1, 260.
56. Diary, 20 Jan. 1944.
57. Diary, 3 Jan. 1944.
58. Diary, 27 Jan. 1944.
59. Dorothy Humphrey to Edward Butscher, 4 Jan. 1973. 1.31, EBC, Smith.
60. Among the thirty books she listed for the certificate were Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Twain’s Tom Sawyer, Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, the Iliad and the Odyssey, Alcott’s Eight Cousins, and Graham’s The Wind in the Willows. She also listed many other books in her diary that do not appear on the reading certificates—notably Jane Eyre, which she read in April after seeing the film version (which she loved so much she watched it twice on the same day), The Swiss Family Robinson, and Gone with the Wind.
61. SP, “Autograph transcript of 40 juvenile poems.” 127550, LHMS, Morgan.
62. Diary, 19 Apr. 1944.
63. Diary, 10 Mar. 1944.
64. Diary, 18 June 1945.
65. Diary, 8 Feb. 1944.
66. Diary, 22 Mar. 1944.
67. Diary, 1 Mar. 1944.
68. Diary, 12 Sept. & 25 Oct. 1944.
69. Diary, 18 Feb. 1944.
70. Diary, 24 Apr. 1944.
71. Diary, 10 Feb. & 16 Mar. 1944.
72. SP, “Autograph transcript of 40 juvenile poems.” 127550, LHMS, Morgan.
73. Her homeroom teacher was Miss Brogatti, though her two favorites were her English teacher, Miss Raguse, and her social studies teacher, Miss Chadwick.
74. Diary, 19 Mar. 1944.
75. Diary, 28 Feb. 1944.
76. Diary, 28 Sept. 1945.
77. Diary, 2 Oct. 1945.
78. Diary, 27 Aug. 1945. See Elaine Showalter, The Female Malady: Women, Madness and Female Culture 1830–1980 (New York: Penguin, 1987).
79. Diary, 13 Dec. 1945.
80. SP, “Autograph transcript of 40 juvenile poems.” 127550, LHMS, Morgan.
81. Diary, 14 Nov. 1944.
82. Diary, 23 Apr. 1945.
83. Diary, 24 Dec. 1944.
84. Diary, 28 Dec. 1944.
85. SP to Dr. Ruth Beuscher, 22 Sept. 1962. L2, 831.
86. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Pat O’Neil Pratson, 1972. 3.12, MSS 1489, Emory.
87. Harriet Rosenstein interview with Marcia Brown Stern, 1972. 4.16, MSS 1489, Emory.
88. HC interview with Perry Norton, Oct. 2012, Auburndale, Mass.; Ruth Freeman Geissler to HC, 30 Nov. 2012.
89. HC interview with Louise Giesey White, Aug. 2014, Jamestown, R.I.; J, 53.
90. HC interview with Phil McCurdy, May 2016, Ogunquit, Maine.
91. HC interview with Louise Giesey White, Aug. 2014, Jamestown, R.I.
92. HC interview with Betsy Powley Wallingford, Feb. 2013, Sudbury, Mass.
93. Diary, 26 June 1945.
94. AP to Paul Alexander, Apr. 1983. Courtesy of Richard Larschan.
95. Diary, 7 Oct. 1944.
96. Mildred Norton to AP, 25 Apr. [c. 1944]. 29.32, SPC, Smith.
97. Diary, 2 Jan. 1945.
98. Diary, 20 Apr. 1945.
99. Diary, 30 Nov. 1946.
100. 21.8, SPC, Smith.
101. 8.14, Lilly.
102. SP to AP, Apr. 1946, Lilly.
103. Diary, 18 Jan. 1945.
104. Diary, 10 Jan. 1945.
105. Diary, 6 Mar. 1945.
106. SP, “Autograph transcript of 40 juvenile poems.” 127550, LHMS, Morgan.
107. Diary, 14 Jan. 1945.
108. Diary, 20 Jan. 1945.
109. Diary, 25 Apr. 1945.
110. Diary, 30 Mar. 1945.
111. Diary, 16–18 Apr. 1945.
112. Diary, 11 & 15 Apr. 1945.
113. SP, “Autograph transcript of 40 juvenile poems.” 127550, LHMS, Morgan. “The Wind” also dates from 1945.
114. SP, “Autograph transcript of 40 juvenile poems.” 127550, LHMS, Morgan.
115. Diary, 12 Feb. 1945.
116. Diary, 5 Apr. 1945.
117. Diary, 26 May 1945.
118. Diary, 14 June 1945.
119. Diary, 21 June 1945.
120. Diary, 20 June 1945.
121. Diary, 22 June 1945.
122. Diary, 1 July 1945. Sylvia referred to her cabin as a “tent.”
123. Diary, 7 July 1945.
124. Diary, 5 July & 2 July 1945. L1, 22; 24.
125. SP to Aurelia and Frank Schober, 13 July 1945. L1, 28.
126. Diary, 30 July 1945.
127. Diary, 6 Aug. 1945.
128. Diary, 3 Aug. 1945.
129. Diary, 10 Oct. 1947.
130. Diary, 18 & 19 May 1946.
131. SP, “The Mummy’s Tomb,” 17 May 1946. 8.15, Lilly.
132. “A May Morning,” for example, recalls a spring oriole sighting, “Morning in the Agora” concerns ancient Greek women at a market, and the Stardust novella is full of fairy-tale motifs.
133. SP, “Victory,” 15 Nov. 1946. 8.19, Lilly.
134. Diary, 8 Aug. 1945.
135. Diary, 10 Aug. 1945.
136. Diary, 15 Aug. 1945.
137. Diary, 20 Aug. 1945.
138. Diary, 21 Aug. 1945.
139. Diary, 27 Aug. & 5 Sept. 1945.
140. AP, “To My Sylvia.” Loose item in SP’s 1947 diary. 7, Lilly. Dated 27 Oct. 1945.
141. Diary, 15 Oct. 1945.
142. Diary, 12 Oct. 1945.
143. Diary, 7 Nov. 1945.
144. Diary, 28 Nov. 1945.
145. Diary, 4 Sept. 1945.
146. Diary, 25 Nov. 1945.
147. Diary, 26 Nov. 1945.
148. Diary, 18 Dec. 1945.
149. Diary, 11 Oct. 1945.
150. SP, 1944 Notebook. 19.26, SPC, Smith. This poem post-dates 1944.
151. Diary, 31 Dec. 1945.
152. Ibid.
153. “Sylvia’s scrapbook” (1940s poetry scrapbook). 8.6, Lilly.
4. MY THOUGHTS TO SHINING FAME ASPIRE
1. Diary, 30 Apr. 1946. All subsequent “diary” citations are from Plath’s unpublished 1940s diaries, held in Box 7, Lilly.
2. Diary, 7 June 1946.
3. SP, “Autograph transcript of 40 juvenile poems.” 127550, LHMS, Morgan.
4. Diary, 16 Jan. 1946; L1, 42–43.
5. 8.6, Lilly.
6. Several biographers (Butscher, Wagner-Martin, Alexander) have asserted that Plath was extremely close—even romantically involved with—Phil McCurdy during this time. However, Plath does not mention McCurdy once in her 1940s diaries, suggesting that he did not play a formative role in her adolescence. McCurdy, who was born in 1935, noted in our interview that he was two grade levels behind Plath, and that they did not date in high school. Warren Plath has also disputed McCurdy’s presence in Plath’s life in the 1940s, stating that his “sister and he had at most slight contact during the years he was in junior high school and she was in high school.” (WP to Edward Butscher, 31 Aug. 1975. EBC, Smith.) He and Plath did become close in the 1950s.
7. Diary, 11 Mar. 1946.
8. Diary, 22 Mar. 1946.
9. Diary, 10 Apr. 1946.
10. Diary, 8 Apr. 1946.
11. Diary, 5 Mar. 1946.
12. Diary, 8 Mar. 1946.
13. Diary, 27 & 28 May 1946.
14. Diary, 3 June 1946.
15. SP, 1944 notebook. 19.26, SPC, Smith. Though the notebook cover is dated 1944, several pieces inside post-date this year.
16. Diary, 15 & 31 Jan. 1946.
17. Diary, 7 May 1946.
18. Diary, 30 Mar. 1946.
19. Diary, 11 May 1946.
20. “Sylvia’s scrapbook” (1940s poetry scrapbook). 8.6, Lilly.
21. Diary, 26 Jan. 1945 & 13 June 1946.
22. Diary, 20 June 1946.
23. Diary, 23, 24, 25 June 1946. Plath refers to this novella as both Stardust and Star-Dust in these diary entries, though by early 1947 she refers to it regularly in her diary as Stardust.
24. Diary, 14 July 1946.
25. Diary, 28 July 1946.
26. Diary, 31 July 1946.
27. Diary, 2 Aug. 1946.
28. Diary, 18 Aug. 1946.
29. Diary, 4 & 19 Aug. 1946.
30. Diary, 25 Aug. 1946.
31. Diary, 26 Aug. 1946.
32. Diary, 17 Oct. 1946.
33. Diary, 30 Aug. 1946.
34. Diary, 7 Sept. 1946.
35. Diary, 3 Aug. 1946.
36. Helen Lawson to Edward Butscher, 27 Nov. 1972. EBC, 1.41, Smith.
37. Diary, 8 Sept. 1946.
38. Diary, 14 Sept. 1946.
39. Diary, 30 Sept. & 6 Oct. 1946.
40. Diary, 21 Oct. 1946.
41. Diary, 1 Nov. 1946.
42. Diary, 31 Oct. 1946.
43. Diary, 5 Nov. 1946.
44. Ibid.
45. Diary, 10 Nov. 1946.
46. J, 151.
47. Diary, 13 May 1947. Plath’s award certificates for these competitions are held at Lilly.
48. AP’s annotation in SP’s diary, 22 Nov. 1946.
49. Diary, 31 Jan. 1947.
50. Diary, 26 & 13 Nov. 1946.
51. SP, “From the Memoirs of a Babysitter,” 2 Dec. 1946. 8.12, Lilly.
52. Diary, 1 Nov. 1947.
53. Diary, 16 Apr. 1947.
54. Diary, 7 May 1947.
55. Diary, 28 Dec. 1946.
56. Ibid.
57. Diary, 30 Dec. 1946.
58. Diary, 5 Jan. 1947.
59. SP, high school scrapbook. 10.O3, Lilly.
60. Diary, 22 Jan. 1947.
61. Diary, 24 Jan. 1947.
62. Diary, 23 Mar. 1947.
63. Diary, 12 May 1947; diary, 23 Nov. 1946.
64. Diary, 3 Feb. 1947.
65. Diary, 8 Mar. 1947.
66. Diary, 12 Mar. 1947.
67. Diary, 9 Aug. 1947.
68. Diary, 31 Jan. 1947.
69. Diary, 11 Feb. 1947.
70. Diary, 22 Feb. 1947.
71. Diary, 29 July 1947.
72. Diary, 16 Aug. 1947.
73. Diary, 20 Feb. 1947.
74. Diary, 21 Feb. 1947.
75. Diary, 28 July 1947.
76. Diary, 25 May 1947.
77. Ibid.
78. “Sylvia’s scrapbook” (1940s poetry scrapbook). 8.6, Lilly.
79. Diary, 16 May 1947.
80. Diary, 18 Apr. 1947.
81. Diary, 30 May 1947.
82. Ibid.
83. 7.12, Lilly.
84. Plath biographer Paul Alexander, for example, says the poem “represents an early window into Plath’s potentially extreme emotional states.” He also pointed to the narrator’s “solipsism” and the poem’s “peculiar sentiments.” Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath (New York: Da Capo Press, 1999), 52.
85. Anne Stevenson, Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath (London: Penguin, 1989), 2.
86. Diary, 11 June 1947.
87. Ibid.
88. Diary, 3 Apr. & 26 Aug. 1947.
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