Major Sylvia Plath Collection Coming to New York Antiquarian Book Fair
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An original painting of a young woman created and signed by Plath at age 16. Before she settled firmly on poetry in college, she seriously considered majoring in art. $135,000.
“Many of these items have never before been seen publicly,” said Rebecca Romney, co-founder of Type Punch Matrix. “For decades most were in the private collection of a friend of Plath’s mother Aurelia, and he acquired them directly from her. We’re excited to give people the chance to see these items in person for the first time.”
Among the most significant is a copy of Karl Jaspers’s Tragedy is Not Enough (1953), a book Plath used for one of her first classes at Cambridge in 1955. “It’s heavily underlined and annotated by Plath throughout,” said TPM co-founder Brian Cassidy. “But what is most remarkable and moving are two particular annotations.”
The first references her 1953 first suicide attempt and subsequent institutionalization, events that would inspire and inform her novel The Bell Jar. The second is a passage marked by Plath in Jaspers’s discussion of Shakespeare, specifically the characters Prospero and Ariel from The Tempest. “This section was underlined by Plath 10 years before her collection Ariel appeared," said Cassidy. "In many ways, you can see the beginnings of her two most famous books right here.”
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Sylvia Plath’s annotated copy of a book on tragedy she used at Cambridge, Tragedy is Not Enough by Karl Jaspers (1953) with marginal notes connecting the text to her own 1953 The Bell Jar and a prophetic description of Ariel as a poet. $35,000.
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Review copy of the first US edition of Ariel, $750
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The true first edition of The Bell Jar (1963), published in the UK under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. $26,000
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An original signed contract for Plath’s first professional publication, Seventeen's purchase of her short story And Summer Will Not Come Again published when Plath was herself 17. $10,000
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An original autograph manuscript of one of Plath’s earliest poems, The Snowflake Star, completed in early 1945, just before she turned 14. $45,000.
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Another book from Plath's library, White Isle (1940) by Caroline Dale Snedeker, signed twice by Plath, with an original drawing by her and her bookplate laid in. Read by Plath as a tween, it is a YA novel of a young Roman girl exiled to the soggy shores of Britain and burdened with a literal-minded mother named Aurelia. $20,000.
Other highlights include:
the signed contract for Plath’s first appearance in Seventeen magazine, an important early supporter of her writing
original works of art by Plath, including a Fauvist-inspired gouache portrait of a young woman
a juvenile poem The Snowflake Star written entirely in her hand
a mimeographed reading list for one of her sophomore English classes at Smith College, with notes in her hand about an upcoming blind date
These items will be displayed alongside important editions from throughout Plath’s career including her first separate publication, A Winter Ship, one of only 60 copies printed, as well as a beautiful example of the true first edition of The Bell Jar, published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas.
“Taken as a whole, we hope the collection presents an intimate and revealing look at one of our most enduring and influential poets,” said Romney. “It’s also a great introduction to the delights of collecting and the excitement of the New York Book Fair.”
