Sylvia Plath | Typed letter signed, to Ted Hughes, "your voice is like the spirit of god on the waters", 19 October 1956

Sylvia Plath

Typed letter signed, to Ted Hughes ("dearest love teddy...")

describing her evening at a reception ("...suddenly hundreds of strange americans converged on me, calling me, disquietingly enough, by my name, and begging didn't I remember them...") at which she had met the poet and critic John Press and his wife Janet and returned to their home for dinner ("...I have never heard such talk: they knew, with the accuracy of history, the marital affairs of spender, macneice, kathleen raine, hugh sykes-davis (whom I met at johns last year) and natasha and hedley (louis macneice's wife) and auden and erica mann. I never heard such a fascinating and disgusting story..."), with news of the Harper's poetry contest, before turning in conclusion to her love for Hughes ("...I love you and perish to be with you..."), 10-line autograph postscript, 6 pages, 8vo (176 x 139mm), headed stationery of Newnham College, Cambridge, 19 October 1956

"...I'm strangely sure that that the whole purpose I went to this dull gathering was to find out about this contest. I feel our luck coming..."

SYLVIA PLATH FIRST HEARS OF THE POETRY CONTEST THAT WOULD BE HUGHES'S BREAKTHROUGH AS A POET. During an evening filled with gossip about the love affairs of fellow poets (a subject that would of course become all-too familiar to Plath within a few years) she was informed by John Press (1920-2007) about the 92 St. Y/Harper’s poetry contest: it was open to any poet who had not yet published a book, with the prize being publication by Harper's. Immediately on learning of the competition Plath was determined that Hughes should enter:

"the hitch, if such there be, is that the judges are: wh auden, marianne moore and, o god, stephen spender. what queer bed-fellows. but I trust miss moore's exactness & love of form; and you certainly have enough wit to win auden and social war consciousness to please spender."

Hughes's reply admitted that he had previously heard of this competition but "I wasn't greatly interested"; however, now prompted by Plath, he changes his mind. Plath typed up Hughes's manuscript and submitted it to the competition the following month. For the letter written by Plath announcing that Hughes had won the competition see lot 25.

LITERATURE:

The Letters of Sylvia Plath: Volume One, pp.1310-13