Hey Emily – of course I’m always way late to the party, but I just want to say I’m loving your book and this post also is really important. I think so many of us love Plath because we knew. We knew (and experienced) the world was a fucked up place for girls, particularly girls with ambition, ambition to be something more than a mother and a housewife. I think we knew, too, there was fucked up stuff between boys and girls, men and women, which of course still exists, but I did not have any words in the late ‘80s to express what I knew. Still, I wrote my very important “junior theme paper“ (which all of us had to do in my high school, our first research paper), about Plath and The Bell Jar. A friend of mine had told me she tried to die by taking a bunch of pills and I really started to wonder about why a girl would want to do that (ah, innocence). I still have the paper (my English teacher was a huge influence on me) and there are problems with the essay—teenage logic, sweeping generalizations, superficiality, and that I quoted Alvarez (!) a few times as if he knew what he was talking about. But I can say I was pretty close to the mark in my conclusion of that paper, which said, “Many onlookers speculate that the victims [of death by suicide] have taken ‘the easy way out.’ Maybe society, recognizing only the obvious reasons for depression and self-inflicted death, is also taking the easy way out instead of providing a goal for everyone to live for.”
I felt in my bones before I knew about, or could name, misogyny, cycles of abuse, societal/cultural norms, and sexist institutions, that Sylvia wanted to end patriarchy much more than ending her own life. 🙏🏼🔥💕
I love you being at the party, Nancy, whenever you arrive. Thank you for this. Hope you are having a relaxing holiday. And I was also writing about Plath in high school!! I wish I still had some of it. (My mom might.) Love and gratitude to high school English teachers forever-- LSP is dedicated to two of mine. <3
Thank you for this. I too, discovered Plath as a teenager. This was during the seventies, so it was at the time her work was first emerging. I think I survived because of her. I’m going to order and read your book right away. I’m thrilled that @Ann Kennedy Smith linked your Substack!
Mary, thank you for this. I really think I survived because of Plath, as well. I would love to talk more with you sometime about Plath’s reception in the 1970s.
Yes, definitely. I read everything of hers that was available at the time, along with Letters Home, the Alvarez book, and the roommate’s memoir. Lots of articles. I memorized Ariel: every single poem. She became a feminist icon, queen of the confessional poets, object of projection. Yes, I’d be happy to tell you more. Feel free to DM me.
I got my copy of Loving Sylvia Plath today and have started reading it, enjoying so far and excited to read more. Why have I always felt lied to about her life was one of my spoken aloud ‘yes’ (es) in the first few pages.
You write that Plath was a victim of campus sexual assault. Do you have any references for this? I have read her journals and letters and I don’t recall her ever mentioning this.
Plath describes being assaulted by an army veteran named Bill in her Unabridged Journals during her freshman year at Smith College. She was also assaulted when she was a student at the Harvard Summer School in the summer of 1954. She was not, to the best of our knowledge, keeping a diary at the time. This was reported in her roommate, Nancy Hunter Steiner's, memoir, "A Closer Look At Ariel" (1973).
Hey Emily – of course I’m always way late to the party, but I just want to say I’m loving your book and this post also is really important. I think so many of us love Plath because we knew. We knew (and experienced) the world was a fucked up place for girls, particularly girls with ambition, ambition to be something more than a mother and a housewife. I think we knew, too, there was fucked up stuff between boys and girls, men and women, which of course still exists, but I did not have any words in the late ‘80s to express what I knew. Still, I wrote my very important “junior theme paper“ (which all of us had to do in my high school, our first research paper), about Plath and The Bell Jar. A friend of mine had told me she tried to die by taking a bunch of pills and I really started to wonder about why a girl would want to do that (ah, innocence). I still have the paper (my English teacher was a huge influence on me) and there are problems with the essay—teenage logic, sweeping generalizations, superficiality, and that I quoted Alvarez (!) a few times as if he knew what he was talking about. But I can say I was pretty close to the mark in my conclusion of that paper, which said, “Many onlookers speculate that the victims [of death by suicide] have taken ‘the easy way out.’ Maybe society, recognizing only the obvious reasons for depression and self-inflicted death, is also taking the easy way out instead of providing a goal for everyone to live for.”
I felt in my bones before I knew about, or could name, misogyny, cycles of abuse, societal/cultural norms, and sexist institutions, that Sylvia wanted to end patriarchy much more than ending her own life. 🙏🏼🔥💕
I love you being at the party, Nancy, whenever you arrive. Thank you for this. Hope you are having a relaxing holiday. And I was also writing about Plath in high school!! I wish I still had some of it. (My mom might.) Love and gratitude to high school English teachers forever-- LSP is dedicated to two of mine. <3
Thank you for this. I too, discovered Plath as a teenager. This was during the seventies, so it was at the time her work was first emerging. I think I survived because of her. I’m going to order and read your book right away. I’m thrilled that @Ann Kennedy Smith linked your Substack!
Mary, thank you for this. I really think I survived because of Plath, as well. I would love to talk more with you sometime about Plath’s reception in the 1970s.
Yes, definitely. I read everything of hers that was available at the time, along with Letters Home, the Alvarez book, and the roommate’s memoir. Lots of articles. I memorized Ariel: every single poem. She became a feminist icon, queen of the confessional poets, object of projection. Yes, I’d be happy to tell you more. Feel free to DM me.
I got my copy of Loving Sylvia Plath today and have started reading it, enjoying so far and excited to read more. Why have I always felt lied to about her life was one of my spoken aloud ‘yes’ (es) in the first few pages.
This is amazing and I’m already excited about your next book and that you are both a survivor and a fighter. You inspire me, my friend. ❤️
You write that Plath was a victim of campus sexual assault. Do you have any references for this? I have read her journals and letters and I don’t recall her ever mentioning this.
Plath describes being assaulted by an army veteran named Bill in her Unabridged Journals during her freshman year at Smith College. She was also assaulted when she was a student at the Harvard Summer School in the summer of 1954. She was not, to the best of our knowledge, keeping a diary at the time. This was reported in her roommate, Nancy Hunter Steiner's, memoir, "A Closer Look At Ariel" (1973).