Letters to SP from Eddie Cohen, Dick Norton, Elizabeth Drew, Gordon Lameyer, and Richard Sassoon are at Lilly.
In SPWW, Gordon Lameyer says of his first impression, “I felt she came on too strong with her enthusiasms, as if a little too sophomoric and immature.” SP, however, seems to have detected no such resistance to her ebullience.
For the meaning of skalshalala meat I am indebted to Susan Plath Winston, Warren Plath’s daughter. She adds in an email to Karen V. Kukil, “We used that term in our household, too, growing up, but I believe it originated with my dad and Sylvia.”
SP’s letter to Olive Higgins Prouty: LH.
The originals of SP’s letters to her mother are at Lilly and make fascinating reading, especially when set beside the edited versions in LH.
I am indebted to Nanci A. Young, College Archivist at Smith, for information about the college’s posture exams and photographs.
“Initiation”: JP.
AP’s letter to Dick Norton is at Lilly.
Chapter 3: Robert Gorham Davis’s letter to AP is at Lilly, and SP’s letters to Gordon Lameyer are at Maryland. For Davis’s and George Gibian’s impressions of Plath, see George Gibian’s letter in EBP.
SP’s letters to Warren and Olive Higgins Prouty’s letters to AP are in LH and at Lilly.
See SPWW, for Laurie Levy’s recollections of SP’s Mademoiselle month.
SP’s listing of her extracurricular activities at Smith is reprinted in a 1/5/53 letter sent to her from Mademoiselle, now at Lilly, as are other correspondence and materials relating to Plath’s guest editorship.
“In the Mountains,” “Tongues of Stone,” and “The Wishing Box”: JP.
“much of a commitment”: Jane Anderson, Smith.
“Anyone who did not know”: 2/9/82, Emory.
Wilbury Crockett’s impressions of Sylvia: WC to AP, 26/7/74, Maryland.
I’m grateful to Karen V. Kukil for making available to me a photocopy of SP’s senior thesis, “The Magic Mirror: A Study of the Double in Two of Dostoevsky’s Novels.”
SP’s description of Alfred Kazin jibes exactly with the man I knew. His letter of recommendation is at Smith.
I am indebted to Helen Lane for her memoir, Constance Blackwell, Kathleen Knight, Judy Denison, Marilyn Martin, Ellen Ouelette, Barbara Russell Kornfield, Anne Mohegan Smith, CB Follett, Barbara Schulz Larson, Darryl Hafter, and Ravelle Silberman Brickman for speaking to me about SP’s years at Smith and for answering my email inquiries.
SP’s mention of her “very attractive, but nervous mother” is in an undated letter (c. December 1954) at Smith.
Constance Blackwell says that Sassoon’s friends called him “Dick,” but since SP refers to him in her journal as Richard, I have adopted her practice.
Chapter 4: SP’s letters to Elinor Friedman Klein and Marcia Brown are at Smith. SP’s letters to Mallory Wober are at Kings College, Cambridge, and Wober’s letter to Edward Butscher is in EBP. An excerpt from Elinor Friedman Klein’s memoir of Plath appears in SPCH. Wendy Campbell’s memoir is included in Newman.
See SPWW for Jane Baltzell Kopp’s memoir and Dorothea Krook’s reminiscences, including Krook’s description of SP’s girlish clothing. For more on Kopp, see SP to AP, 5/3/56 in LH.
Edward Butscher could find no one in the amateur theater group who had a distinct impression of Plath, but then she belonged to the club for only one term and appeared in just a few minor roles.
SP to AP: 24/3/56, LH.
Selling matches on the Place Pigalle: SP to Elinor Friedman Klein, 10/2/56.
TH’s description of the “large fine room”: THL.
OH had a characteristically benign gloss on the first encounter between Sylvia and Ted. On 11 March 1987, she wrote to scholar Marjorie Perloff to say that Ted’s own recollection of the meeting was that he “accidentally dislodged an earring and the headband in the embrace—when Sylvia was rather drunk. One has to read this description in the context of her then Baudelairean, Grande Amoureuse image of herself—heavily under the influence of Sassoon”: ECS.
“biggest seducer in Cambridge”: TH’s friends have complained about this comment, made by Hamish Stewart, who, Daniel Huws claims, hardly knew TH. Lucas Myers and others insist TH had very few girlfriends. Huws can only remember two and is certain Sylvia was far more experienced than TH. Huws may well be right, but as he acknowledges, that is not what Sylvia wanted. Perceiving TH as a seducer was in keeping with the kind of danger and risk taking she seemed determined to pursue.
For Marilyn Monroe’s quest for a “white knight,” see my biography of Marilyn Monroe.
See PA for a discussion of Olive Higgins Prouty’s letter to SP about TH.
TH’s 7 July letter to his brother, Gerald, is at Emory and is not included in THL.
SP’s response to the bullfight: PA, EB, AS.
Sassoon’s letter to SP: Lilly.
“The Widow Mangada”: JP.
OH’s letters to Diane Middlebrook: Emory.
Fragments of “Falcon Yard”: Emory.
Chapter 5: “She was very amusing”: 8/7/57 BL.
“tall, thin”: TH to OH, 8/7/57 BL.
The Roches’ response to SP’s journals is included in the TH archive at Emory.
Grace Schulman’s remarks stem from my brief conversation with her in the corridors of the Baruch College English department, where she gave me a copy of her book, First Loves and Other Adventures, which includes her essay on SP and TH at Yaddo.
“laughter and even tears”: BL.
Daniel Aaron’s impressions of SP’s teaching are quoted in Davison, The Fading Smile.
slapping Sylvia out of her rages: Frances McCullough to David McCullough, 7/7/74, Maryland.
“Hardcastle Crags”: The place is identified in TH’s notes to CP.
a “tense and withdrawn SP”: Davison, The Fading Smile.
“clumsy irony”: Davison, Half Remembered.
“very deferential”: Davison, The Fading Smile.
“willowy, long-waisted”: Quoted in Davison, The Fading Smile.
“The Fifty-Ninth Bear”: JP.
Chapter 6: SP’s calendar and letters to Marcia Brown and Lynne Lawner are at Smith.
“craggy Yorkshire handsomeness”: quoted in Leeming.
OH’s hectoring letters: Several example of OH’s riding herd on Stevenson are in Stevenson’s papers at Smith and in Frances McCullough’s papers at Maryland.
“virtuoso qualities”: SPCH includes important reviews of The Colossus.
“the white of human extinction”: See Marjorie Perloff, “Angst and Animism in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath,” Wagner, Critical Essays on Sylvia Plath.
“Mothers”: JP.
“dutiful” and “hardworking”: SP to James, Smith, 14/11/61.
“to great effect”: See the notes section of CP.
Chapter 7: Letters to SP from Dr. Beuscher and A. Alvarez are at Smith, as are SP’s letters to Clarissa Roche and OH. TH’s last week of visits to SP, recounted in diary notes he wrote up about a week after her death, are in BL. Winifred Davies’s letter to Aurelia, and Aurelia’s description of a letter Ted’s mother sent to her, are at Maryland.
Assia as a Jezebel: Trevor Thomas recalls SP called Assia such. SP’s reaction may seem melodramatic, but as Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev report, Assia had a reputation as a femme fatale. Edward Lucie-Smith, a friend to Assia, later called her “devious,” although he did not explicitly relate this trait to her seduction of TH. On the contrary, both Lucie-Smith (two of his letters are included in EBP) and OH, as she later told Butscher, thought Sylvia’s jealousy had driven TH into Assia’s arms. Assia later told OH that she had asked a man to call Court Green on her behalf. Was it Lucie-Smith? He worked in the same office as Assia. He told Butscher he was writing on OH’s request and that Butscher was not to quote him. OH gave her account of how her brother’s affair with Assia began in letters to Anne Stevenson that are now in the Smith archive.