Search Results: Signed Books by sylvia plath

[21 October 1956]. It is simply a sin not to live with you An exceptionally emotionally charged letter from Sylvia Plath to Ted Hughes, on being unable to live without him and begging a return to living together, her hand growing broader and more impassioned with each page. This extraordinary letter marks the end of Plath's third week back in Cambridge, and the culmination of unbearable separation, growing bouts of depression, and a crisis of identity. Being apart from Ted had been affecting her work, creative and academic, as well as her mental state, which is characterised here as a "constant, deep sense of terror". Here she emphatically goes back on her statement in an earlier letter that she would rather be away from him when working, now asking for him to join her in Cambridge. Plath writes to Ted in a state of despair at being apart from him "in spite of all my spasmodic calm & resolve I feel horrid & very black & wicked. it is simply a sin not to live with you. I could cry". The first part… 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.

[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

[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).

Powys: Embers Handpress,, 1989. First published edition, limited issue, number 110 of 226 copies, this copy additionally signed and numbered by Ted Hughes. The Magic Mirror prints Plath's special honours thesis, submitted while she was a student at Smith College in 1955. As well as being the subject of her academic thesis, Dostoevsky was an important literary influence on Plath, particularly so on the writing of The Bell Jar. In that novel, Plath's writing on Dostoevsky's doubles is itself mirrored by Esther's on twins in Joyce's work: "I was taking one of those honors programs that teach you to think independently, and except for a course on Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and a seminar in advanced poetry composition, I would spend my whole time writing on some obscure theme in the works of James Joyce. I hadn't picked out my theme yet, because I hadn't got round to reading Finnegans Wake, but my professor was very excited about my thesis and had promised me some leads on images of twins". The idea of "the… Read More

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: Ferrington, Bookseller & Publisher, , 2002. First edition, first impression, signed by the author on the title page. The slight, simply told and truthful account of the days directly before Plath's death, described by The Independent as fitting in "more good sense and compassion on the subject of Sylvia Plath than books ten times as long." Plath was a personal friend and stayed with Becker for the last weekend of her life. Octavo. Original blue-green cloth. With dust jacket. A fine copy in like jacket.

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.