Letters of Sylvia Plath Volume II: 1956 – 1963

So, first off -- Plath's letters should have been published in one volume. There's no separating the wheat from the chaff here, no tough editorial decisions -- you get every scrip and scrap she wrote, obsessively footnoted, whether it is of any literary interest or not. Ted Hughes lived till his 60s, and Faber managed to publish a superbly edited doorstop-sized SINGLE volume of his letters! They should have done the same for Plath.Putting that aside -- I'm next expecting a Sylvia Plath cookbook to come out! There are at least two recipes included in these letters, as well as numerous ideas for meal plans -- not to mention housekeeping and gardening tips, some home remedies, and ways to organize your schedule to work from home! No complaints here -- reading an author's letters immerses you in their daily life. In Plath's case, you get that in spades. I'm simply astonished at how incredibly energetic and capable she was across all fronts. And you can bet I'm going to try the recipes!Until the devastating end, negativity is rarely in evidence. Readers of her Letters Home will be familiar with this -- she was consistently positive, and this was not a false front. Yes, she struggled -- but her life WAS amazing and good, and she did glory in her family and friends, her writing, and the beauty of nature and art. The only ambiguous relationships worth noting in the letters -- and no surprise if you know anything about Plath -- are with her mother, her sister-in-law Olwyn Hughes, and with the poet W.S. Merwin and his wife Dido.As Plath's daughter makes clear in the foreword, the real story here is the revelation of her letters to her psychiatrist in the last months of her life. Like most fans of Plath, I'd previously read quotes from her letters written during that time -- and the biographer Diane Middlebrook summed it up best when she talks about fantasies of rescuing Sylvia Plath. Her suicide was nothing like that of her fellow poets Anne Sexton or John Berryman -- she was much younger, was struggling with depression but not with more severe forms of mental illness, and was at the height of her poetic powers. These letters make clear what a perfect storm it was -- literally, a storm, when faced with a horrific English winter -- plus no phone, no hospital bed, and especially no nanny to help with the kids.With Plath's journals from the end of her life missing, I often wondered about her real state of mind. Yes, there are clearly exaggerations in these letters, which leave the reader wondering what really happened. But mostly, I was floored by how clearly she saw the truth. Reading the letters to her psychiatrist, I kept in mind that Ted Hughes never saw these letters -- nor would his widow Carol have seen them, unless she's read them now that they are published. Plath knew that she was seeing the real Hughes at last -- the serial adulterer, bound to proving his freedom, even as he loves his wife at home -- and this is the man he remained for the rest of his life. She also realized that she couldn't be the "sweet homebase" of a country wife "to take him back refreshed", as he requires -- the very homebase that he had in his second wife Carol Hughes, his widow who still lives in Plath's beloved Court Green.But most devastatingly of all, she knew exactly what she had to do for her own mental health and was desperately trying to get the help she needed. Once she faced the worst, she ran on adrenaline until she got into that damn flat of poet W.B. Yeats in London, when a sinister destiny seemed to conspire to bring her to her knees in front of a gas oven. The act that she is most famous for. O we are superstitious, as Plath says -- but I can't think anything else, after reading these letters. I've been reading Plath -- and reading about Plath -- for many years. But nothing has affected me like reading her last letter, a week before her suicide. Each reader will have their own reaction, based on who they are. I'm Eastern Orthodox and see much intense -- even desperate -- spiritual woundedness and spiritual longing in Plath's work and in her letters. May God have mercy on us all.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed reading these letters. I miss the days, not so long ago, when people would write long letters to one another as a primary mode of communication with distant family or friends. Although this volume does offer an overview of Plath's life and a chronology in the introductory pages, it was certainly helpful to be already mostly familiar with her biography and her poetry. The letters filled in some missing pieces in Sylvia's own voice-- preserved in the moment when events were unfolding. The last minute addition of the letters to her American psychiatrist were a wise decision—a choice made by her daughter, who offers opening remarks that were meaningful as well. The letters to the psychiatrist allow a more authentic and uncensored voice to emerge. Even though she would occasionally tell the same news to more than one recipient of her letters, I am glad the whole collection was given to us and did not find the repetition bothersome—there would be a few different details in each. It would have been helpful if we knew the location of the recipient, that is, where the letter was mailed to, instead of having to figure that out from clues. I was pleased to learn that Plath believed that she was writing poetry for those who would benefit from her honest and bold expression. She did not want to write happy verse where, as she states it, "birds go tweet, tweet." As someone who has experienced at least one episode of severe depression, I found comfort reading her poetry at the time I was struggling—she has the gift to describe what the experience of despair is like, and she had the courage to state it outright in her amazing language. Thank you, Sylvia! Finally, it was a moving experience to come to the last letter of the book and turn the page to hear her voice no more—I almost wished there were an epilogue, but the abrupt silence fits the sudden loss of this magnificent poet and remarkable woman. It must have been a huge project for the editors of this collection to prepare all these pages—I am grateful for their attention to details. I have not read volume one, so I cannot comment on that. I was able to close this book with a more complete understanding of the events of her life during this period and the possible and various elements that led to her suicide. Now I plan to return to the poems again and will look forward to reading some literary criticism. As an added bonus, there are some photographs of Plath and pictures of a few letters and other documents—some of these in color. Overall, a quality hardbound book and the font is large enough to read easily.