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118 PLATH, Sylvia, as Victoria Lucas. The Bell Jar. London: William Heinemann, 1963 Once inscribed by Plath, and kept in the family First edition, first impression, a superb association copy with contemporary annotations by Ted Hughes and more recent annotations by Frieda Hughes; this copy at one time also had the ownership inscription of Plath herself on the front free endpaper. It has two pencil annotations in Hughes’s hand in the text and marginal pencil lines in four locations. The marginal marks are next to passages relating to the recognition of truth, the “windowless corridor of pain . . . waiting to open up and shut [women] in again” (p. 68), and the persistence of life “no matter how much you knelt and prayed” (p. 174). His annotations relate to Olive Higgins Prouty (1882–1974), the novelist and poet widely thought to be the basis for the character Philomena Guinea in this work. Hughes has added “Mrs Prouthy” at the head of page 5, and written “The Trout”, perhaps a play on Prouty’s name, above Guinea’s first appearance in the text on page 41. Prouty, whose 1941 novel Now, Voyager was a pioneering exploration of psychotherapy, sponsored Plath at Smith College. From there, the two developed a close and ongoing friendship, with Plath writing letters continuously to Prouty regarding her life, family, and work until her death. Hughes’s first annotation is at the head of the section introducing Doreen, Esther’s fellow intern and resident at the Amazon, perhaps identifying Prouty as part inspiration for the character of Doreen, as well as that of Guinea. The Bell Jar was released on 14 January 1963, just five weeks before Plath’s suicide. Shortly after her death, Hughes discovered Prouty had been encouraging Plath in her last weeks to contact a solicitor to file for divorce (Gifford, p. 23). In her letters to Prouty, Plath had repeatedly depicted Hughes as a “brutal womanizer”, relating instances of Hughes’s emotional
117 PLATH, Sylvia. Annotated typescripts of five poems. Smith College: 1950–55 “this experiment is a most successful one” A significant collection of five early poems by Plath, with authorial substantive corrections and occasional annotations by Evelyn Page, one of Plath’s teachers at Smith College. Later versions of two of these poems were included in Hughes’s edition of Plath’s Collected Poems . One example shows Plath responding to the critical comments of her teacher. “The Dark River (P.N.)” comprises 16 lines in four stanzas, commencing “You are near and unattainable”. A date (“1948”) has been added by hand. This poem, the earliest in this sequence, was written before Plath went to Smith College. The initials refer to Plath’s boyfriend, Charles Perry Norton. “The Invalid” comprises 20 lines in five stanzas, commencing “Half-past four on an April morning”. The title has been added by hand, together with a date (“1950”). One incorrectly spelled word has been substituted and a comma changed to a full-stop. During Plath’s first year at Smith College, she did not study creative writing; the poem belongs to this period. Plath retained it and later submitted a typescript for one of her courses. “Aquatic Nocturne” comprises 36 lines in 13 stanzas, commencing “Down where sound”. This shows extensive reworking with deletion of the original first two stanzas and repositioning of the final three stanzas at the top. Three lines have substantive corrections and, of significant interest, we can see comments from an early reader, Evelyn Page. During the fall of 1951 and spring of 1952, Plath completed English 220 (Practice in Various Forms of Writing) with Evelyn Page. This poem was written in the fall of 1951 and the present sheet provides comments from Ms Page (“This experiment is a most successful one” and “I don’t quite get these lines”). Of particular importance is the original line “in wily spirals”
abuse and financial manipulation, and Prouty was keen to extract Plath from the situation (Egeland, p. 155). Frieda was less than three years old when The Bell Jar was published. It appears she inherited this copy from Hughes and annotated it as an adult, writing out one of her own poems, “The Signature”, on the front free endpaper. On the clipped corner just above the poem she has noted that “Somewhere there is a square of paper with my mother’s signature on it that fits exactly here. FH”. In “The Signature”, Frieda meditates on the removal of her mother’s signature and the nature of sharing her mother’s legacy (“One for you, one for me / The books are being / Divided between us . . . ”). The second stanza reads, “Each book is opened, and there / She has written her name. A mother / For you, a mother for me / Another for you, another for me, / And suddenly, a small square / Cut from the page corner where / Her ink had dried”. “The Signature” was first published in Frieda Hughes’s The Stonepicker (2001) and again in Out of the Ashes (2018), both appearances also noted here by Frieda. She has decorated the clipped endpaper and the dust jacket verso, adding an illustration of a zip along torn edge, labelled “Pull here”. Octavo. Original black boards, titles to spine in gilt. With dust jacket, designed by Thomas Simmonds. Housed in a black quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. A very good copy, light foxing to edges and endpapers, in the bright jacket, portion of loss to upper outer corner of front panel and flap, some creasing and rubbing to extremities, else bright, not price-clipped. ¶ Tabor A4. Marianne Egeland, Claiming Sylvia Plath: The Poet as Exemplary Figure , 2013; Terry Gifford, The Cambridge Companion to Ted Hughes , 2011. £37,500 [150371]
which has produced a question of “Color?” on the second word and Plath has therefore changed “wily” to “ivory”. The poem is included in Plath’s Collected Poems . “Van Winkle’s Village” comprises 14 lines in four stanzas, commencing “Today, although the slanting light remains”. This is annotated “Rewritten” with substantive changes to three lines. The poem first appears in Plath’s journal for 15 January 1952 (see Kukil, p. 102). “Terminal” comprises 14 lines in two stanzas, commencing “Bolting home from credulous blue domes”. One line shows Plath’s deletion in ink of a single word and the substitution of two words. Plath completed a Special Studies course in Poetry with Professor Alfred Young Fisher (1902–1970) in the Spring of 1955. It was for this course that Plath wrote the present poem and it was later included in Plath’s Collected Poems . Five leaves. Comprising: 1) “The Dark River (P.N.)”, typescript, single leaf (269 × 207 mm, no watermark, unevenly trimmed at top), with pencil annotation “67a”; 2) “The Invalid”, carbon typescript, single leaf (279 × 216 mm, “Atlantic Duplicator Liquid” watermark), with pencil annotation “52b”; 3) “Aquatic Nocturne”, typescript, single leaf (280 × 217 mm, no watermark), headed “S.P.” with pencil annotation “85”; 4) “Van Winkle’s Village”, typescript, single leaf (275 × 216 mm, no watermark), headed “Sylvia Plath / Lawrence House / Smith College / Northampton, Mass.” with pencil annotation “80/2”; 5) “Terminal”, typescript, single leaf (275 × 216 mm, no watermark), headed “Sylvia Plath / Lawrence House / Smith College / Northampton, Mass.” with pencil annotation “16/2”; each housed in a white paper folder and contained within a black cloth folder. Minor paper marks and closed cut to “The Invalid”, minor closed tear at the top edge of “Aquatic Nocturne”, crease to left edge of “Terminal”, other minor nicks and creases; a near-fine collection. ¶ Sylvia Plath, The Collected Poems , 1981; Karen V. Kukil, ed., The Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950–1962 , 2000. We are grateful to Karen V. Kukil, Research Affiliate in English Language & Literature, Smith College, Prof. Amanda Golden, New York Institute of Technology, and Nanci Young, College Archivist, Smith College for their valuable insights into these poems. £40,000 [161779]
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