Letters Home: Correspondence 1950-1963 [Paperback]

Sylvia Plath (Author), Aurelia Schober Plath (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 1992

Sylvia Plath's correspondence, addressed chiefly to her mother, from her time at Smith College in the early 1950s up to her suicide in London in February 1963. In addition to her capacity for domestic and writerly happiness, these letters also hint at her potential for deep despair.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Finally now, young women writers can cease to identify with the apparent self-destroyer in Sylvia Plath and begin to understand the forces she had to reckon with." -- --Adrienne Rich

"One is left willing to bestow on Sylvia Plath the compassion and charity she so relentlessly and fatally denied herself." -- --Saturday Review

About the Author

Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 in Massachusetts. Her books include the poetry collections The Colossus, Crossing the Water, Winter Trees, Ariel, and The Collected Poems, which won the Pulitzer Prize. A complete and uncut facsimile edition of Ariel was published in 2004 with her original selection and arrangement of poems. She was married to the poet Ted Hughes, with whom she had a daughter, Frieda, and a son, Nicholas. She died in London in 1963.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; First Edition edition (April 8, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060974915
• ISBN-13: 978-0060974916
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #245,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( P ) > Plath, Sylvia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sylvia Plath-An insight, April 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Letters Home: Correspondence 1950-1963 (Paperback)

This book gives an great insight into the mind of one the most incredible writers ever. All her thoughts and feelings are expressed so wonderfully. Even in her letters she keeps the same dry wit and rage that draws so many people to her. She was an incredible writer and this is just another example of her fine work.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Happy Girl, May 27, 2006

By 

bubblyhayhay (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letters Home: Correspondence 1950-1963 (Paperback)

Letter Home contains all of the letters that Sylvia wrote to her Mother, Warren and Mrs Prouty from 1950-1963 and span her university life, up to her marriage to Ted Hughes and beyond.
The best thing about this book is the enthusiasm for study, success and a family that Plath shows in the letters.
As a fan I often imagine her as a moody person like her poems sometimes suggests but Plath appears happy and full of life and love in each letter.
I particularly enjoyed the letters from the time she met Ted and started a family with him as their plans and gaining success were so well deserved and interesting.
Letters Home comes with an introduction by Plath's Mother who also adds a few bits of context throughout.
I stopped reading after the birth of her second child as the letters became quite sad and as a fan I knew what was going to happen and didn't want to ruin the way the book showed a very happy side of Plath.
I particularly liked the following passage that Plath wrote advising a boy suffering a breakdown similar to hers:
`When he dies, his marks will not be written on his gravestone. If he loved a book, been kind to someone, enjoyed a certain colour in the sea - that is the thing that show whether he has lived.'
I recommend this to all Plath fans.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must, October 22, 2005

By 

PERFECT PILLOW "PERFECT PILLOW" (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letters Home: Correspondence 1950-1963 (Paperback)

From Aurelia Plath's intimate introduction and comments throughout to Sylvia's personal words and insights, I can't praise this book enough. Sylvia's growth as a writer and a woman are charted here. Her relationship with Mrs. Prouty is more intimately revealed as well. A must!