You can buy it on amazon.com and on other Amazon websites in Europe.
About the book:
“The Search for Sylvia Plath collects a selection of writings—some of which have not been published previously—on the American writer and poet who is most well-known for her novel, The Bell Jar (1963). The pieces in this volume are concerned primarily with Plath’s biography and bibliography and make intensive use of Plath’s archival materials.”
You can buy it on amazon.com and on other Amazon websites in Europe.
About the book:
“Sylvia Plath: A Bibliography presents listings of Sylvia Plath’s periodical and book publications of individual works, of monographs and limited editions where she is the author, of articles about the writer, reviews of her books, and finally of books about her including biographies, literary criticism, memoirs, and more. It is the first-time since the 1980s that this kind of aggregated information is available in book form.”
HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY to The Collected Prose of Sylvia Plath!
The “complete” 848-page edition of Sylvia Plath’s prose, including many unpublished and previously uncollected, fiction and non-fiction pieces - edited by the brilliant scholar Peter K. Steinberg (https://sylviaplathinfo.blogspot.com/) - is finally out today - on 12 September 2024!
Currently, the hard copy is only available in Europe on Amazon and in other big online shops.
The volume will be published in Canada in November and in Australia in December. There may be an American edition in the future, but not too soon.
If you want learn more, read the short article “The Dream Come True: Editing Sylvia Plath’s Prose”, where Peter K. Steinberg reflects on the journey of bringing this volume into print at https://www.faber.co.uk/ and his blog post at https://sylviaplathinfo.blogspot.com/
And follow him on Twitter and me on Instagram, as I only occasionally post here!
“The Collected Writings of Assia Wevill marks a significant
development in literary recovery efforts related to Assia Wevill
(1927–1969), who remains a critically important figure in the life and
work of the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Sylvia Plath and the British
Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. Editors Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick and Peter K.
Steinberg located over 150 texts authored by Assia Wevill and curated
them into a collected scholarly edition of her letters, journals, poems,
and other creative writings. These documents chronicle her personal and
professional lives, her experiences as a single working mother in 1960s
London, her domestic life with Hughes, and her celebrated translations
of poetry by Yehuda Amichai. The Collected Writings of Assia Wevill offers an invaluable documentary resource for understanding a woman whose life continues to captivate readers and scholars.
”
FOR MOTHER’S DAY - Sylvia Plath with her children Frieda and Nicholas
“Somewhere I have a vision, not of thwarting, of meanness, but of
fulness, of a maturer, riper placidity, a humor to bear nightmare, an
ordering, reshaping faculty which steadies & fears not. A housewife -
with children & writing & reading in the midst of business, but
fully, with good friends who are makers in some way. The more I do, the
more I can do.”
–The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, diary entry for 17 June 1958
Pictures: Sylvia Plath with her children among daffodils at her house Court Green,
North Tawton, Devon, United Kingdom around Easter in April 1962
Picture source: The black and white pictures are from Peter K. Steinberg’s Twitter @sylviaplathinfo
“Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted.”
- Sylvia Plath’s epitaph on her grave in Heptonstall, West Yorkshire, England
***
Where does this quote come from?
According to Ted Hughes, the quote comes from the Hindu sciptures, the Bhagavad Gītā (“Song of God”), written in the period between 200 BCE and 200 AD.
However, it is more likely that this quote is from the 16th century Chinese novelist and poet Wu Cheng'en. It can be found in his novel “Journey to the West” that is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, originally published anonymously in the 1590s during the Ming Dynasty. In English-speaking countries, the tale is also often known simply as “Monkey”, from the title of a popular, abridged translation by Arthur Waley or as “Adventures of the Monkey God”, “Monkey: Folk Novel of China”, and “The Adventures of Monkey”. And in a further abridged version for children, “Dear Monkey”.
In the Penguin Classics Edition, the quote can be found on page 23. It is spoken by a Patriarch who is teaching Monkey the way of a long life.
Here is the full quotation:
“To spare and tend the vital powers, this and nothing else is sum and total of all magic, secret and profane. All is comprised in these three, spirit, breath and soul; guard them closely, screen them well; let there be no leak. Store them within the frame; that is all that can be learnt, and all that can be taught. I would have you mark the tortoise and snake, locked in tight embrace. Locked in tight embrace, the vital powers are strong; even in the midst of fierce flames the Golden Lotus may be planted, the five elements compounded and transposed, and put to new use. When that is done, be which you please, Buddha or Immortal” .
“Sylvia Plath’s grave in the early morning rain at Heptonstall, 11 February 2014.”
McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts (model for the private mental hospital in New England with its houses Belsize, Caplan, and Wymark), where Sylvia Plath recovered after her suicide attempt in 1953.
Famous patients:Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Robert Lowell, John Nash, James Taylor, Ray Charles, Zelda Fitzgerald, Susanna Kaysen, David Foster Wallace, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Steven Tyler, Marianne Faithfull (see full list here).
Order: If you are lucky and live in England, you can order it here or here. Otherwise you can pre-order: here and wait till 5th November (the anniversary of Otto Plath’s death).
“Published today by Faber & Faber in England is Sylvia Plath: Drawings, edited and introduced by Frieda Hughes.”
Besides featuring the drawings that were part of the Mayor Gallery exhibit “Sylvia Plath: Her Drawings” back in 2011, there are a few additional drawings included from archival collections. In addition to Frieda’s introduction, there is a letter from Sylvia to Ted written in October 1956 as well as two letters from Sylvia to her mother written 25 August 1956 and 21 October 1956, along with a journal entry from 21 August 1957, serving as contextual devices for the drawings.
Fifty years ago today, on January 14, 1963, The Bell Jar was published. 28 days later Sylvia Plath killed herself.
“What I’ve done is to throw together events from my own life, fictionalizing to add color- it’s a pot boiler really, but I think it will show how isolated a person feels when he is suffering a breakdown…. I’ve tried to picture my world and the people in it as seen through the distorting lens of a bell jar”*
“an autobiographical apprentice work which I had to write in order to free myself from the past”**
*Source: Plath, Biographical Note 294-295. From: Linda Wagner-Martin, Sylvia Plath: The Critical Heritage (1988), p. 107
**Source: Plath, Biographical Note 293. From: Linda Wagner-Martin, Sylvia Plath: The Critical Heritage (1988), p. 112
***
This week, we will have a - SURPRISE SURPRISE - The Bell Jar-week! ;) So stay tuned! ;)
***
If you want to learn more about the creation and publication history of The Bell Jar, I highly recommend Peter K. Steinberg’s blog post!
Book trailer: American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath by Carl Rollyson
Publication date: January 29, 2013 (80 days left!!) Pages: 336 Pre-order: here
Recommended reading:
Ted and I. A Brother’s Memoir
by Gerald Hughes, with a foreword by Frieda Hughes
Publication date: 4th October 2012 Pages: 228 Illustrations: 24 pages (including never published before photographs)
Aurelia Frances Schober Plath - Sylvia’s mother - died on Friday, March 11, 1994 (aged 87 years) at the North Hill Health Center in Needham, Norfolk County Massachusetts, USA, due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
“Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted.”
- Sylvia Plath’s epitaph on her grave in Heptonstall, West Yorkshire, England
***
Where does this quote come from?
According to Ted Hughes, the quote comes from the Hindu sciptures, the Bhagavad Gītā (“Song of God”), written in the period between 200 BCE and 200 AD.
However, it is more likely that this quote is from the 16th century Chinese novelist and poet Wu Cheng'en. It can be found in his novel “Journey to the West” that is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, originally published anonymously in the 1590s during the Ming Dynasty. In English-speaking countries, the tale is also often known simply as “Monkey”, from the title of a popular, abridged translation by Arthur Waley or as “Adventures of the Monkey God”, “Monkey: Folk Novel of China”, and “The Adventures of Monkey”. And in a further abridged version for children, “Dear Monkey”.
In the abridged Penguin Classics Edition, the quote can be found on page 23. It is spoken by a Patriarch who is teaching Monkey the way of a long life.
Here is the full quotation:
“To spare and tend the vital powers, this and nothing else is sum and total of all magic, secret and profane. All is comprised in these three, spirit, breath and soul; guard them closely, screen them well; let there be no leak. Store them within the frame; that is all that can be learnt, and all that can be taught. I would have you mark the tortoise and snake, locked in tight embrace. Locked in tight embrace, the vital powers are strong; even in the midst of fierce flames the Golden Lotus may be planted, the five elements compounded and transposed, and put to new use. When that is done, be which you please, Buddha or Immortal” .
"The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt." --The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
- Anna, born in Poland, raised in Germany, forever 29 ;) - I have been loving Sylvia Plath since I read "The Bell Jar" back in 1998! ♥ (This was probably longer ago than when you stared wandering this earth ;)
Your friendly "Sylvia Plath police" of the Internet, trying to debunk Internet myths & "educate" on everything Plath, even though it's mostly quotes these days... with focus on Plath referenced in popular culture and "Sylvia Plath 101".
Follow me on instagram @lovingsylviaplath for the really good stuff!
P.S.: Don't forget to visit my second tumblr sylviaplathink.tumblr.com and instagram @sylviaplathink entirely dedicated to Sylvia Plath-inspired tattoos :) And if you want to submit your tattoo or anything, tag me #lovingsylvia or #sylviaplathink or write me.
