A remarkable collaboration produced this edition of The Letters of Sylvia Plath. We have many people to thank. Editing Sylvia Plath’s letters began as an academic interterm course taught at Smith College by Karen V. Kukil for the Archives Concentration Program. Students in Editing Sylvia Plath’s Correspondence learned the art of exact and accurate transcription, proofreading, and emendation based upon primary resources. A few years before the class began, Rebecca Rosenthal, class of 2007, processed the correspondence in the Sylvia Plath Collection held by the Mortimer Rare Book Room at Smith College. From January 2009 to January 2013, students in Kukil’s interterm classes transcribed all the letters at Smith College. In January 2012 Plath scholar Peter K. Steinberg co-taught the course and then proceeded to locate, transcribe, and annotate all the extant Sylvia Plath letters in other collections. This edition of Sylvia Plath’s letters is the product of our partnership with many students at Smith College, including Robin Whitham Acker ’12; Sylvia L. Altreuter ’12; Taylor A. Barrett ’15; Taylor M. Bayer ’12; Rachel E. Brenner ’14; Ingrid Brioso-Rieumont ’15; Virginia Choi ’11; Melanie S. Colvin ’13; Emily Cook ’11; Ellen Cormier ’11; Kristen L. De Lancey ’15; Caroline F. T. Doenmez ’09; Amanda P. Ferrara ’13; Hope C. Fried ’14; Alexandra Ghiz ’12; Noa R. Gutterman ’14; Kristen F. Haseney ’04; Catherine Hatas ’13; Victoria K. Henry ’13; Cheryl R. Holmes ’11; Katherine M. Horning ’13; Angelica Huertas ’10; Eve N. Hunter ’12; Salma Hussain ’14; Esra Karamehmet ’12; Jinjin Lu ’13; Emerson M. Lynch ’15; Taylor A. Marks ’15; Grace K. Martin ’13; Katherine A. Nelson ’12; Rebecca L. O’Leary ’13; Lois Jenkins Peters ’09; Emma Ramsay ’12; Anne M. Re ’13; Maris E. Schwarz ’15; Chelsea A. Seamon ’13; Joyce P. Shalaby ’13; Jihyun J. Shim ’14; Naomi Sinnathamby ’14; Gabrielle E. Termuehlen ’16; Dior Vargas ’09; Alexandra B. von Mering ’14; Drew L. Wagner ’11; Genevieve C. Ward- Wernet ’13; Erin M. Whelchel ’09; Kaidi Williams ’11; and Alison R. Winger ’14. Professor Adrianne Andrews and other faculty members at Smith College also participated in the project.
A number of family, friends, and professional contacts of Sylvia Plath provided information reflected in the footnotes. In addition to Frieda Hughes, we would like to thank Warren Plath and his daughters Susan Plath Winston and Jennifer Plath. We also appreciate the information received from Jane Baltzell-Kopp, Joan Cantor Barnes, Sarah Christie Bellwood, James B. Biery, Susan O’Neill-Roe Booth, Janet Burroway, Jonathan Christie, Susan Stetson Clarke, David Compton, Liadin Cooke, Blair Cruickshank, Ann Davidow-Goodman Hayes, Dena Dincauze, Jacquie Dincauze, Ruth Fainlight, Aidan Foster, Marian Foster, Johannes B. Frankfort, Nicholas Frankfort, Michael Frayn, Cary Plumer Frye, Charles S. Gardner, Ruth P. Geissler, Leo A. Goodman, Carol Hughes, Daniel Huws, Judy Kahrl, David N. Keightley, Elinor Friedman Klein, Lynne Lawner, Philip E. McCurdy, James McNeely, Eugene L. Mark, Doug Miller, Marcia Momtchiloff, Jane Nalieri, Kenneth Neville-Davies, Dr Richard Newell, Dr Perry Norton, Dr Richard A. Norton, Judith Raymo, Simon Sidamon-Eristoff, Elizabeth and William Sigmund, Robert Truslow, Louise Giesey White, Rosemary Wilson, J. Melvin Woody, and Nicolette Zeeman.
Professor Linda Wagner-Martin first articulated the need for a full edition of Sylvia Plath’s letters during her plenary lecture at the Sylvia Plath 75th Year Symposium at Oxford University in 2007. A number of other scholars later contributed their insights and expertise as well. We would particularly like to thank professors Lynda K. Bundtzen (Williams College), Anita Helle (Oregon State University), Dianne Hunter (Trinity College), and Susan Van Dyne (Smith College) for their guidance. In addition, we would like to thank Dr Amanda Golden (New York Institute of Technology) for sharing her expansive knowledge of Plath’s and Hughes’s pedagogy, marginalia, poetry, and literary influence. Dr Gail Crowther provided invaluable research and information, as well as immeasurable support during the project. Gail was a vital contributor in building the notes to add context to Plath’s activities. Gail located the two late letters to Gilbert and Marian Foster, which in addition to being fascinating documents add a new dimension to Plath’s late interpersonal relationships. Her friendship, advice, and expertise helped to make this book possible. Likewise, without the dedication, passion, and camaraderie of David Trinidad, this book would be a shell of itself. David compiled an initial list of known letters, believed in the project since its inception, shared tireless thoughts with us in Plath-like ‘bull sessions’, located letters, and provided information for the notes. The amount of credit Golden, Crowther, and Trinidad deserve is unquantifiable.
The archivists, librarians, and curators responsible for photocopies and scans of Plath’s letters, as well as for research assistance, who must be thanked for their tireless and important work are: Christine Barber and Peter Nelson at Amherst College; Elizabeth Maisey at Assumption College; Louise North at the BBC Written Archives Centre; Andrew Gough and Helen Melody at the British Library; James Maynard at the University of Buffalo; Jacqueline Cox, Patricia McGuire, and Anne Thomson at the University of Cambridge; Rochelle Rubinstein at the Central Zionist Archives; Christine Colburn and Barbara Gilbert at the University of Chicago; James Merrick at Colby College; Tara C. Craig and Brigette C. Kamsler at Columbia University; Rebecca Parmer at Connecticut College; Allyson Glazier, Barbara L. Krieger, and Morgan R. Swan at Dartmouth College; Emily Erwin Jones at Delta State University; Claudia Frazer at Drake University; Seamus Helferty at University College, Dublin; Sara J. Logue and Kathy Shoemaker at Emory University; Robert Brown, archivist at Faber & Faber; Dr Caroline Oates, Folklore Society Librarian, Allison Haack at Grinnell College; the reference staff at Harvard University; Cara Bertram and Anna Chen at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Zachary T. Downy, David Kim Frasier, Sarah McElroy Mitchell, Cherry Dunham Williams, and the staff of the Lilly Library, Indiana University at Bloomington; Karen Cook at the University of Kansas; Alexander Koch at Kenyon College; Fran Baker at University of Manchester; Anne L. Moore and Caroline White at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Renu Barrett at McMaster University; Katie Wood at the University of Melbourne; James Moske at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Erin George at the University of Minnesota; Melina Baron-Deutsch and Deborah Richards at Mount Holyoke College; Michelle Harvey at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Lyndsi Barnes, Isaac Gewirtz, Tal Nadan, Lee Spilberg, Weatherly Stephan, and Kyle R. Triplett at the New York Public Library; Connor Gaudet at New York University; Brooke Guthrie at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Susan Liberator and Lindy M. Smith at Ohio State University; Sylvie Merian and Maria Isabel Molestina-Kurlat at Pierpont Morgan Library; James Booth at the Philip Larkin Society; AnnaLee Pauls and Gabriel Swift at Princeton University; Ellen Shea at the Radcliffe Institute; Natalie Ford and Jean Rose at the Random House Group Archive & Library; Laura Buchholz at Reed College; Jenifer Monger at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Blair A. Benson at the University of Rochester; Matthew Reynolds at Sewanee: The University of the South; Jason Wood at Simmons College; Kevin Auer, Jean Cannon, Susan C. Floyd, Kurt Johnson, Jordan P. Mitchell, Marian Oman, Emily Roehl, Richard B. Watson, and Richard Workman at the University of Texas at Austin; Milissa Burkart and Kristina Rosenthal at the University of Tulsa; Amanda Leinberger at the United Nations Archives; Lisa Jonsson and Lotta Sundberg at Uppsala University; Molly Dohrmann and Teresa Gray at Vanderbilt University; Victoria Platt at the Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum Archives; Sarah Schnuriger at Washington University, St Louis; Chery Kinnick and Carla Rickerson at the University of Washington; Sue Hamilos at the Wellesley Free Library; Kathleen Fahey at the Wellesley Historical Society; Linda L. Hall at Williams College; and Heather Abbott, Jessica Becker, Michael Frost, Nancy F. Lyon, and William Massa at Yale University. Smith College colleagues and former colleagues who deserve special thanks include Martin Antonetti, Barbara Blumenthal, Mary Irwin and her student assistant Erinn Summers ’16, Dr Meg Meiman, Christina Ryan, and Nanci Young.
The following array of scholars and friends have also provided assistance that in various ways greatly benefited this book: Anna Arays, Sir Jonathan Bate, Carol Bere, Laura Joy Broom, Sarah Funke Butler, Ruby Butler-Weeks, Jessica Butterworth, Heather Clark, Rosemary Clark; Vanessa Cook, Diane Demko, Suzanne Demko, Joseph J. Feeney, SJ, Gunnar Fernlund, Amanda Ferrara, Pamela Fox, Susan France, Gwen Fries, Peter Fydler, Andre Gailani, Mackenzie Garrity, Sarah George-Waterfield, Sara Georgini, Jonathan Glover, Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick, Julia Gordon-Bramer, Alix de Gramont, Nicholas M. Hasenfus, Kelly Holbert, Eric Homberger, Richard Honan, John Hopkins, Shaun Kelly, An Kieu, Jocelyne Kolb, Barbara F. Kozash, Arthur Languirand, Paul Lannon, Richard Larschan, Jane Lawrence, Carol Lewis, Amy S. Li, Maria R. Lichtmann, Annika J. Lindskog, Kim Maddever, Ieuan Mahony, Ann Safford Mandel, Sherry Marker, Laura Anderson Martino, Lisa Matchett, Gesa Matthies, Aubrey Menarndt, Mark Morford, Catherine Morgan, Abby Norman, Maeve O’Brien, Kevin O’Donnell, Laura de la Paz Rico, Cornelia Pearsall, Hannah Piercy, Dipti Ramnarain, Neil Roberts, Carl Rollyson, Harriet Rosenstein, Judith A. Salinas, Angelyn Singer, Ann Skea, Tristine Skyler, Nick Smart, Benjamin M. Stern, Jeffrey Summers, Angélique Thomine, Angeline Wang, Louise Watson, Reverend Nick Weldon, Ian Widdicks, Dianne Wieland, Lydia K. Wilkins, Andrew Wilson, Elizabeth Winder, and Mark Wormald.
For permission to quote from published material, we gratefully acknowledge Carcanet Press Ltd.
Our gratitude must extend to those at Faber & Faber who were instrumental in parts of this project, including Erica Brown, Emma Cheshire, Pauline Collingridge, Matthew Hollis, Hamish Ironside, Lavinia Singer, Camilla Smallwood, Donald Sommerville, and Martha Sprackland. The commitment of Matthew Hollis and his team at Faber & Faber to publish a complete edition of Sylvia Plath’s letters is greatly appreciated. We also thank Terry Karten and her colleagues at HarperCollins: Milan Bozic, Laura Brown, Lily Lopate, and Jennifer Murphy.
Personally, Karen is grateful to Sylvia Plath’s friends who recognized her talent, preserved her letters, and donated them to Smith College where they are cherished. Generous support from President Kathleen McCartney, Provost Katherine Rowe, Dean of Libraries Susan Fliss, former President Ruth Simmons and alumnae, including Rachael Bartels, also added select letters to the collection. Karen also thanks Beth Myers, director of special collections, and Christopher Loring, former director of libraries, who extended all the resources of the Smith College Libraries for the duration of this independent project. In addition to former curator and mentor Ruth Mortimer, who collected the papers of Sylvia Plath for Smith College with the support of former President Jill Ker Conway, Karen would like to recognize her first professional mentor, Wilmarth S. Lewis, who edited the Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence and taught her the exacting art of editing letters. Karen is particularly indebted to her brilliant coeditor, Peter K. Steinberg, who completed the lion’s share of work on this edition with superior erudition and dedication. Most profoundly, Karen wishes to thank her extended Valuckas and Kukil families, especially her husband, Bohdan Kukil, for his humour and unwavering love and support during this intense editing project.
Peter would like to thank his wife Courtney for her love, extraordinary patience, and support for the duration of this project. The love and understanding of the families Steinberg, Levine, Little, and Plocinski at home and during vacations over the last five years must be recognized. Peter would not have pursued his interest in Sylvia Plath were it not for the initial encouragement from Andrea Holland and Jamie Wasserman. Since meeting Karen V. Kukil in 1998, she has always been a mentor and inspiration, helping both personally and professionally. Peter would like to thank Karen for her complete belief and trust in him, which made his contribution to this project possible.