The Letters of Sylvia Plath Vol 2: 1956-1963 - Hardcover

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) was one of the writers who defined the course of twentieth-century poetry. Her vivid, daring, and complex work continues to captivate new generations of readers and writers.

In The Letters of Sylvia Plath Volume 2, 1956–1963, we discover the art of Plath’s correspondence. Most of these materials have never before been published, and are presented here unabridged, without revision—so that she can speak directly in her own words. Refreshingly candid and offering intimate details of her personal life, Plath’s letters are playful, too, entertaining a wide range of addressees, including family, friends, and professional contacts, with inimitable wit and verve.

The letters document Plath’s extraordinary literary development and the genesis of many poems, short and long fiction, and journalism. While her endeavors to publish in a variety of genres had mixed receptions, she was never dissuaded. Through acceptance and rejection of her work, Plath strove to stay true to her creative vision. Well-read and curious, she simultaneously offers a fascinating commentary on contemporary culture.

Peter K. Steinberg, leading Plath scholar, and Karen V. Kukil, editor of The Journals of Sylvia Plath, 1950–1962, provide comprehensive footnotes and an extensive index informed by their meticulous research. Alongside a selection of photographs and Plath’s own drawings, they masterfully contextualize what the pages disclose.

This selection of later correspondence details Plath and her husband, Ted Hughes, becoming major influential contemporary writers, as it happened. Her recorded experiences include early publications; teaching, committing to writing full time, and making professional acquaintances; traveling, settling in England, building a family, and buying a house; and, through a series of letters to her psychiatrist, previously unknown insight into the breakup of her marriage. Throughout, Plath’s voice is completely, uniquely her own.

Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 in Massachusetts. Her books include the poetry collections The Colossus, Crossing the Water, Winter Trees, Ariel, and Collected Poems, which won the Pulitzer Prize. A complete and uncut facsimile edition of Ariel was published in 2004 with her original selection and arrangement of poems. She was married to the poet Ted Hughes, with whom she had a daughter, Frieda, and a son, Nicholas. She died in London in 1963.