jonkers rare books
“I’ll stick to Yeats and you, thanks” 5. “thursday afternoon 2:30 october 17” [18 October 1956]. A reflective letter from Sylvia Plath to Ted Hughes, on Cambridge and their literary progress. Four sides of NewnhamCollege letter paper (two sheets, folded horizontally, approximately 1,000 words) signed “your sylvia” with a four line autograph post- script. Plath is writing following her Thursday morning tutorial with Dr Krook, “having, miraculously, as usual, completed in the small hours of 2am or so a 13 page paper outlining the uniqueness & chief tenets of the christian gospel.” Her paper, she writes, particularly objected to the Christian view of the origin of evil, “god’s foreknowledge and man’s free will, and the low, debased view of physical love between man and women even in ‘blameless wedlock’”. Plath is still taken with her tutor in the “lovely dr krook”, who she sees as “my one woman friend, here; she is the kind of teacher I would slave to be and these next two terms should be deeply rewarding just for what I can learn of lecturing and discus- sion-leading from her”. She contrasts this friendship to the difficulty she has spending time with college-mates whom she is accompanying to the Union. She takes particular exception to “vehement catholics; narrow, secure, and incredibly pious”, and as a re- sult, she writes “so I walk alone. and I really am all right.” She shares the news of her story ‘The Day Mr Prescott Died’ being accepted by Granta with little thrill (“it seems slight to me now”), and “all else is quiet as death; in a week from the day after tomorrow I shall be seeing you again.” Plath then turns to their future living arrangements, sharing Dr Krook’s suggestion that Ted might teach locally at the American Army Base, but is resolved that he will probably head to Spain as planned, “Spain is probably best. I would almost rather be either fully with you for a long period and fully away while I must work, than be torn when with you by knowing I must leave in a day, and torn when away by counting the days till I return.” Plath is more excited by the prospects for Ted’s children’s fables, which she continues to edit and type for submission to The Atlantic , while awaiting a decision on them from the children’s program at the BBC, “I would fly up with joy if your children’s fables-- -any or all---get accepted by the BBC.” Her other editorial and agency enterprises on his behalf are also represented by asking for a copy of Hughes’s ‘Egg-Head’, “so I can make copies of them to keep on eternal file”. She closes by dismissing the work of Peter Redgrove and John Crowe Ransome, in
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