Search Results: Signed Books by sylvia plath

(Wellesley, Mass): n.p., 1949. Near fine.. An original, bold portrait painted by a 16-year-old Sylvia Plath. Plath made visual art throughout her life in a wide variety of mediums: from collage and oils to watercolor and pastels. Before she settled firmly on poetry in college, she seriously considered majoring in art. This early piece, painted while she was in high school (and, given the inscription on the verso, likely submitted to an art contest or competition), is executed in colorful gouache in a decidedly modern, almost cubist style, and features an unnamed young woman resting her chin in her hand. The approach to this piece speaks to her early experimentation with the kind of art that would inspire her writing as an adult. Plath would later write to her mother, "I feel I'm developing a kind of primitive style of my own which I am very fond of" (August 28th, 1956). In 1958, she wrote that her "deepest source of inspiration" was "the art of primitives like Henri Rousseau, Gauguin and Paul Klee… Read More

Cambridge, 19 October, 1956. I'm sure you'll win this" - Plath foretells Hughes's prize-winning first book An extraordinary, long letter to Ted Hughes, announcing Plath's discovery of the poetry competition that would make his name. Plath recounts her previous evening's attendance at a sherry reception at the Union, something she had not been looking forward to. She sketches the venue – "white plaster and dark beams, very fine inner room" – and speaks to "various vintage toothy English women" and a gang of American students she had previously met but can't now remember. "I managed my usual story of being a cretin about remembering names and places." "All the time some Machiavellian little part of me was sitting in a corner scribbling notes and laughing and laughing; it is so strange now, to me – my social self is no longer all of me thrown out on a long leash and sniffing about enthusiastically – it is seated way deep down and doesn't give itself or commit itself, but watches and notes, and… Read More

Tuesday morning" [9 October 1956]. I love you I love you I love you. At breakfast I wrap myself up in your letters A lucid, longing letter from Sylvia Plath to Ted Hughes, reflecting on her anguish at being apart from him, and outlining two short stories she is working on, "The Wishing-Box" and "Invisible Man", which mark an important stage in her development as a prose writer. In the letter, Plath offers Hughes her thoughts on her own writing, as she reflects on the parallels between her characters and herself and Hughes, and recognizes her particular literary talents for psychological description and black humour. The couple had been together consistently since their marriage in June 1956, and Hughes's search for work in London that October forced the couple to live separately for the first time. Plath, still in Cambridge, begins the letter describing her feelings of isolation there: "O my darling Teddy... How I live for your letters; such queer things are happening to me; I feel that in myself I… Read More

[Wellesley, Massachusetts]: n.p., 1945. Fine.. Original autograph manuscript of one of Plath's earliest poems, in a version preceding the 1946 revision published in her junior high school literary magazine and collected nowhere else. "The Snowflake Star" was one of a small cluster of early poems in which Plath first began experimenting with a group of images that would in many ways come to define her later work. In "A Winter Sunset," written around the same time (and published in the same issue of her junior high literary magazine THE PHILLIPIAN), the moon hangs above "the bare, black skeletons of trees." And in "To Miss Cox," from later in 1946, "The winter skies are leaden / The flying snowflakes sting." Plath biographer Heather Clark identifies the beginnings of Plath's "mature poetic voice" in these poems, a voice also heard in "The Snowflake Star." Its opening lines ("On a dark and cloudy day / I wandered in the woods away") point, in all their simplicity, directly ahead to 1956, when Plath… Read More

Philadelphia: The Penn Publishing Company, 1927. American poet, novelist, and short-story writer Sylvia Plath with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, The Colossus and Other Poems (1960) and Ariel (1965), as well as The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her death by suicide in 1963.

[Northampton, MA]: [Smith College], 1952. Very good.. Mimeographed reading list from Sylvia Plath's Fall 1952 sophomore English 221 class at Smith College, with her handwritten notes - including library call numbers for the titles on the list and comments on an upcoming blind date. The syllabus lists Plath's assignments, including "The Mid-Victorian Novel" and "The Novel in the Modern World" as well as sections on Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Joseph Conrad, and Virginia Woolf, among others. Next to many of these titles Plath has written the call letters for the books at the Smith College Library. In addition, Plath's good friend Enid Epstein has written her summer address and telephone number with the instruction "Please please call & good luck." Above that Plath has written what is likely a line of an unfinished poem ("The slow and sickening circles of the clock"). Below that she has written a fragment of a tongue-in-cheek faux acceptance letter: "Why, for heaven's sake! Here's a superb story… Read More

[New York]: Triangle Publications [Seventeen Magazine], 1950. Very good.. Original signed contract for Plath's appearance in SEVENTEEN for her short story "And Summer Will Not Come Again." Plath had amassed almost fifty rejections from SEVENTEEN before finally garnering this acceptance in March of 1950 for her short story "And Summer Will Not Come Again." Often described as Plath's first professional publication (as this contract notes, she was paid $15), "Summer" details her relationship with a high school boyfriend, John Hodges. Published in August of that year, just before she began her freshman year at Smith, the story would mark the first of eight appearances in the magazine over the next several years. The contract is actually signed twice by Plath, once as herself (noting her age: "17"), and once as "Aurelia R. Schober" (her mother's maiden name) on the "Witness" line - presumably for convenience and expediency. Plath has additionally noted the date ("March 17, 1950"). Provenance: Purchased… Read More

[Third Programme: Future], 1960. 16 typescript sheets (title, and 15 numbered pages of poems, printed recto only). Small folio. Held by metal tab in upper left, first sheet loose, one letter corrected in black ink on p.2, some spotting to first and last sheet; signed on upper right of first sheet "Sylvia Plath, Court Green, North Tawton, Devonshire. 16 typescript sheets (title, and 15 numbered pages of poems, printed recto only). Small folio. Sylvia Plath's Copy, signed with her name and address. In early 1960 they had met the poet W.S. Merwin and his wife Dido, who became close to the couple and helped Plath and Hughes find a London Flat. In the spring of 1961 Merwin gave Plath the use of his studio, and she began work on the novel that was to become the Bell Jar, "working seven days a week from eight to one," and finishing the novel just before moving to Court Green, the house in Devon that Plath and Hughes had recently purchased, where she wrote the majority of her book Ariel, and where Hughes… Read More

[Wellesley, MA]: n.p., 1944. Very good plus.. Rare original drawing by the eleven-year-old poet featuring a lute-playing cherub singing with a robin sitting on a perch. Plath made visual art throughout her life in a wide variety of mediums: from collage to oils, watercolor to pastels. This early piece, executed in colored pencil and crayon, features two figures often symbolic of poets and poetry - the songbird and the lute - and is emblematic of Plath's art at the time: "She derived most of her early artwork [... ] from popular images of fairies and Mother Goose figures that she copied from all forms of publications, at a time when the Victorian aesthetic of flower bouquets and bluebirds, rosy-cheeked children, and cherubic angels dominated commercial and popular art forms" (Connors 10). Plath did not merely dabble in art: it was in many ways central to her creative practice. Before she settled firmly on poetry in college, she seriously considered majoring in art. As Dorothy Moss, curator of the… Read More

London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1981. First Edition. Near Fine/Very Good+. First edition, first printing. Sylvia Plath's daughter's copy. Signed and inscribed by Ted Hughes to Frieda Hughes and her first husband in the year of publication, "For Frieda and Des with love from Dad 2nd October 1981". Below the inscription, Ted Hughes has also added corrections for Frieda below, with the words: 'As per Daddy's inscription in Terence and Oona McCaughey's copy Jan 1982 corrections of pgs: pg 57: Leap (not 'lean') - line 10 pg 59: Delete 'O' - line 14 pg 269: Her (not 'his') - line pg 269:: Anaesthetized - is misspelt. Last Line Ted Hughes has also made corrections to the individual errors on each page, in pen. Additionally with Frieda Hughes with her ownership signature on the title page, and with publisher's compliments slip from editor Frank Pike laid. Near Fine with sunning to bottom margins with corrections by Frieda throughout. In a Very Good+ unclipped dust jacket with toned spine and light edge wear.… Read More

London: The Rainbow Press,, 1973 [but 1974]. The family copy First edition, sole impression, number 1 of 100 copies published by Ted and Olwyn Hughes at the Rainbow Press, together with an etching by Leonard Baskin loosely inserted, signed and numbered by the artist. Though unmarked as such, this copy was retained by Ted Hughes and passed by descent to his daughter, Frieda, with her signature on the title page. Pursuit collects 15 poems by Plath, 14 of which were previously unpublished. Quarto. Original dark green morocco by Zaehnsdorf, spine lettered in gilt, two raised bands, board edges and turn-ins ruled in gilt, decorated endpapers, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. With the original green cloth slipcase. Etched illustration, with tissue guard, loosely inserted as issued, and illustrations to the text, all by Leonard Baskin. A fine copy. Tabor A17.

[London: Steam Press, 1973. Unbound. Fine. First edition. Illustrated by Ralph Steadman. One 12" x 19" sheet folded ([6]pp.) as issued. Color illustration. Inscribed by Steadman to Sir Joseph Gold in the year of publication. *OCLC* locates a single copy (SUNY Buffalo).

Exeter, England: Rougemont Press, 1971. Limited . Hardcover. Very Good+/No Jacket. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. Plath, Sylvia. 21pp.; HB burgundy w/gilt; some rub w/wear on edges&corners; clean,tight pgs. PON inscription by Sir Ray Shaw, Secretary General of the Arts Council of Great Britain. illustrated poems w/intro.by Ted Hughes. 1 of 150

1971. Hard Cover. Dust Jacket. (Exeter: The Rougemont Press 1971). LIMITED EDITION of 150 copies issued (the first 75 being signed by Ted Hughes). this copy being "Out of Series" and un-signed. Maroon cloth covered boards with gilt lettering on face and spine. Tan end papers. The book itself is fine and unread (with the merest hint of rubbing to the tips of spine) and the dustwrapper is partially sunned (there is a 5cm band at to the right-hand edge of the back panel rear flap and a lighter in shade 2.5cm band to the left-hand edge of the front panel. The partial fading is likely caused by the book having been sandwiched on the shelf between two books differing in size. A very nice copy indeed. Photographs/scans available upon request.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969., 1969. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Fine/Dust Jacket Included. First printing, advance review copy with publisher's slip laid in referring to a publication date of September 15, 1969. First publication of Alistair MacLeod in a book, though he had previously contributed to journals. 8vo, hardcover, dustjacket. Very tight, fresh, unworn copy. Appears unread but has two minor flaws: slight bumps to bottom edge of the front boards and half-inch closed edge-tear to the rear of the dj. No owner's marks, dj not clipped. Uncommon book in NF/NF condition. SIGNED by Alistair MacLeod.

London[]: The Critical Quarterly, 1964. Softcover. Fine. Offprint from The Critical Quarterly. Stapled printed wrappers. Slightly age-toned else fine. Signed by Lucie-Smith. Rumingation on poetry as life-threatening inspired by A. Alvarez's radio broadcast after the death of Sylvia Plath. *OCLC* locates a single copy.

Knotting, Bedfordshire: The Sceptre Press, 1979. 220 x 143 mm. Fine. The Function of Tears by Ruth Fainlight. The Sceptre Press, Knotting, Bedfordshire. A limited edition of 150 copies, hors de commerce, signed by the poet. Ownership inscription of Frieda Hughes to title page - Ruth Fainlight was married to Alan Sillitoe, one of Ted Hughes' closest friends. A fine copy. Provenance: from the sale by Frieda Hughes, daughter of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes of 'my personal family items' at Bonhams, London (21 March, 2018) which she described in the catalogue as 'redolent of my parents' joint history... the books and the pamphlets and the poems signed by my mother and father, represented important aspects of their literary lives and were evidence of their powerful partnership.' Most of these items contain the Bonhams sale bookmark and can be accompanied by a signed guarantee of the item's authenticity from modernfirsteditions. Fine 1979

London: Paladin Press. Very Good+. 1989. Softcover. 0586087478 . SIGNED by Graham Swift at his entry, "Seraglio," on page 164. SIGNED by editor, Alan Ross, on full title page. Ships same or next business day. Book has minor edge wear, creased down spine, tiny tears and creases on fore-edge of pages 27-64, head edge of pages is lightly tanned near spine. Protected in archival plastic bag. ; Drawings; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 307 pages; Signed by Editor .

Portland, OR: Self-published by the author at Portland Community College, 2004. 24p., 5.5x8.5 inches, poetry, excerpts, illustrations, personal inscription signed by the compiler, mild stain to cover otherwise very good booklet in stapled cream wraps. Student publication as a class assignment using credited but likely lifted content.