13th Annual Professor John Howard Birss, Jr. Memorial Library Exhibition
February 1 – March 10, 2013
Sylvia Plath and The Bell Jar
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Bell Jar
Featuring items courtesy of:
Sylvia Plath Collection
Mortimer Rare Book Room
Smith College Libraries
Northampton, Massachusetts
&
Redwood Library
Newport, Rhode Island
Sponsored by: The Professor John Howard Birss, Jr. Memorial Library Fund
Prepared by:
Professor Christine S. Fagan, Collection Development / Acquisitions Librarian
Roger Williams University
Karen V. Kukil, Associate Curator of Special Collections
Smith College Libraries
Featured Items:
- First edition of The Bell Jar published by Heinemann in England under the pseudonym of Victoria Lucas (1963)
- First American edition of The Bell Jar published by Harper & Row (1971)
- Facsimile of Sylvia Plath’s holograph outline for The Bell Jar (1961)
- Royal manual typewriter owned by Sylvia Plath, 1950’s
- Original typescript of “Dirge,” annotated by Alfred Young Fisher, [1955]
- Original typescript of “Mad Girl’s Love Song”, 1959
- Correspondence between Sylvia Plath and her publishers.
- Articles from the Boston Herald regarding Sylvia Plath’s attempted suicide, 1953.
- [Study of a Woman], gouache and ink, [cs. 1950-1952]
- Reviews from various sources upon the publication of The Bell Jar, 1963.
- Death Certificate of Sylvia Plath, certified copy from the General Register Office, Somerset House, London
- Correspondence between Aurelia Plath, Sylvia’s mother, and Olwyn Hughes, sister of Ted Hughes, regarding the potential publication of The Bell Jar in the United States, 1968.
-
Page Images from Eugene D. Fleming, "Psychiatry and Beauty" Cosmopolitan Vol. 146, no. 6 (June1959)
In her journal, Sylvia Plath resolves to write a novel about a college girl suicide after reading the June 1959 issue of Cosmopolitan cover to cover.
pages: 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 57 58 59 60 61
Additional resources produced by the Library in support of this event include:
Sylvia Plath and The Bell Jar: A Selective Bibliography
Selected titles located on the Featured Collection display case near the Bestsellers Collection
Photo Gallery
Sylvia Plath, Crossing the Water. London: Faber and Faber, 1971.
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar. Annotated by Marcia Br
Sylvia Plath and Marcia Brown skiing in New Hampshire.
Mademoiselle, vol. 37, no. 4 (August 1953).
“Wellesley Girl Found in Cellar,” Boston Herald, 27 August 1953.
Eye Rhymes: Sylvia Plath's Art of the Visual
Royal manual typewriter owned by Sylvia Plath.
Sylvia Plath with typewriter in Yorkshire, photograph by Elinor Friedman Klein.
Laurence Lerner, “New Novels,” The Listener, 31 January 1963.
Anthony Burgess, “New Novels” The Observer, 27 January 1963.
Rupert Butler, “Three Disappointing Novels—But One Good One,” Time & Tide, 1963.
Jack House, “If You Are Squeamish Don’t Read This Book!” Evening Times, Glasgow.
“Under the Skin” The Times Literary Supplement, 25 January 1963.
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar. London: Heinemann, 1963.
Death Certificate of Sylvia Plath, Somerset House, London, 27 September 1973
First U.S. edition of the The Bell Jar.
Deposition of Jane V. Anderson, 3 April 1986.
Deposition of Jane V. Anderson, 3 April 1986. p. 2
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