Frieda Plath--Hymnal | German hymnal, 1907

Frieda Plath--Hymnal

Evang.-Lutherisches Gesandbuch fur Kirche, Schule und Haus. Milwaukee, Wis: Northwestern Publishing House, 1907

12mo (138 x 85mm), inscribed on front free endpaper ("In memory of confirmation Kingston Wisconsin"), with a cutting on the 50th wedding anniversary of Mr and Mrs Ludwig Kuehn, black calf with floral sprays and a cross in metalwork and mother of pearl, dated 1911 on the lower cover, clasp, edges gilt, binding worn, upper hinge split

Frieda Plath was Sylvia Plath's paternal aunt. She had had married and moved to California many years before, and Sylvia had not met her before her American road trip with Ted Hughes in the summer of 1959. They spent a weekend at the beginning of August with Sylvia's aunt and her husband Walter Heinrichs (a retired surgeon) at their home in Pasadena (see next lot). The visit was an important moment for Plath's reconnection with her father's family, and she was presumably given this German hymnal as a memento. The couple's daughter was born in April 1960 and was named Frieda after Plath's aunt.