jonkers rare books
an autograph postscript, “love you, every bit of you, and kiss your damn london-gone mouth and love you - please go on writing - I love your letters - your own sylvia”. A vivid snapshot of Plath juggling her creative and academic work with her depressive states and the struggles of solitude. She had been submitting stories and poems on both of their behalves to American magazines since May but had been particularly industrious since September in offering work. The rejec - tion by Mademoiselle of her three stories obviously hurt, but the previous week she had de - scribed these as “incredibly dull”, and in any case she felt that her prose work was continuing to improve. Plath had been wrestling with Augustine in recent tutorials with Dr Krook, but her plans to complete her paper on The City Of God that afternoon did not come to fruition, not complet - ing the 13-pager until 2am. Ted’s work continued to be a focus too, and she was pleased that Nimbus magazine had asked him to contribute, even if she didn’t approve of Auden’s recent contributions. Sylvia’s dreams were a source of fascination for Ted, who encouraged her to record them and report them to him. Replying to this most recent account, he wrote, “What’s happened to your dreams? Probably now you’ve started writing all that out, you have - as you say - exorcised it, or at least got it under control. Perhaps it’s been pushing and glooming your imagination for long enough But if you keep up a detailed and vivid looking at things, your dreams will go on improving” (18 October 1956). PROVENANCE: Ted Hughes (1930 - 1998); Frieda Hughes (1960-). Price: £45,000
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