Sylvia Plath's "Gramercy Park" Typescript at Auction

A six-page typescript story, "Gramercy Park" (1948), with holograph corrections in Sylvia Plath's hand is up for auction via RR Auctions.

"Gramercy Park" originally sold in the 1982 Sotheby's auction, then reappeared in their failed December 2014 auction. It did sell last June via Bonhams as part of a two-story lot along with 1949's "The Green Rock".

Indiana University at Bloomington holds, in Plath mss II, two typescript copies of "Gramercy Park". One of them has, on the back of a cover page, a small reproduction of George Wesley Bellow's 1920 painting Gramercy Park, pictured below.

The copy at auction appears to be the draft Plath edited to reach the final version as the edits are reflected in one of the copies at Lilly. It also features some comments in another hand, likely one of her teachers at the Bradford High School.

My thanks to Jett W. Whitehead of Jett W Whitehead Rare Books, THE specialist in poetry in the rare books and collectibles world, for letting us know about this auction. With a web address of www.poetryjett.com, how could you, as a reader of Sylvia Plath, not like this guy!

All links accessed 24 January 2016.

Sylvia Plath's Gravestone Vandalized

The following news story appeared online this morning: HEPTONSTALL, ENGLAND (APFS) - The small village of Heptonstall is once again in the news because of the grave site of American poet Sylvia Plath. The headstone controversy rose to a fever pitch in 1989 when Plath's grave was left unmarked for a long period of time after vandals repeatedly chiseled her married surname Hughes off the stone marker. Author Nick Hornby commented, "I like Plath, but the controversy reaching its fever pitch in the 80s had nothing to do with my book title choice." Today, however, it was discovered that the grave was defaced but in quite an unlikely fashion. This time, Plath's headstone has had slashed-off her maiden name "Plath," so the stone now reads "Sylvia Hughes." A statement posted on Twitter from @masculinistsfortedhughes (Masculinists for Ted Hughes) has claimed responsibility saying that, "We did this because as Ted Hughes' first wife, Sylvia de

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