Sylvia Plath: Drawings

I beamed benevolently at them over my third atheistic cup of coffee and ate my existentialist egg;

I very much like having both volumes available, as my father’s edition is influenced by his own preferences and what I consider to be his incredibly astute editorial eye, whereas my mother’s edition is very much a work in progress, halted in its evolution at the point of her death.

1963, 14 January: The Bell Jar was published, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, by William Heinemann, Ltd.

1962, October–November: Almost all the poems in Ariel were written in these two months, often two or three each day, including ‘Daddy’ on 12 October.

Study of a Seated Figure, c. 1957
Pen and ink on paper, 21 x 14cm

Carreró dels Gats, 1956
Pen and ink on paper, 19.8 x 9.5cm

I can write and do good exams if my Teddy is with me.

When Ted and I begin living together we shall become a team better than Mr. and Mrs. Yeats—he being a competent astrologist, reading horoscopes, and me being a tarot-pack reader,

I write and think and study perfectly when with him; apart, I’m split and only can work properly in brief, stoic spells. . . .

show her how creative Ted’s made me! . . .