Houghton Mifflin Company Collection of papers on Bitter Fame, 1954-1991
General International Standard for Archival Description
Mortimer Rare Book Room Smith CollegeNorthampton, MA
Finding aid encoded using Perl scripts and edited in XMetal 2.0. Encoded by Eric S. Cartier. 2002-10-21
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Houghton Mifflin Company Collection of papers on Bitter Fame
Creation of Houghton Mifflin Company Collection of papers on Bitter Fame
Time of Creation of Houghton Mifflin Company Collection of papers on Bitter Fame
Houghton Mifflin Company (collector)
Scope and Contents of the Collection The Houghton Mifflin Company Collection of papers on Bitter Fame contain Houghton Mifflin's working papers for their 1989 publication of Anne Stevenson's biography Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath. In addition to correspondence and legal papers concerning the project, there are research notes, drafts, corrections, and press clippings. The papers span the dates 1954-1991, but the bulk of the material covers the years 1986-1990. The papers were presented to the Smith College Library Rare Book Room on October 1, 1992 by the Houghton Mifflin Company, through the kind offices of their consulting editor, Peter Davison. The papers begin with the correspondence of Peter Davison, which includes notes about telephone conversations as well as letters to and from the principal people involved in the project: Olwyn Hughes, Ted Hughes, and Anne Stevenson, among others. A draft of Anne Stevenson's poem, "Homage to Sylvia Plath" is housed in Box 1, folder 14. Olwyn Hughes's correspondence with Penguin Books is arranged separately in Box 1, folder 15. A few letters between Anne Stevenson (or her husband Peter Lucas) and Olwyn Hughes are housed in Box 1, folder 18. Four other letters by Anne Stevenson ask for information or request permission to quote. The rest of the collection relates to the writing, editing, and publishing of Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath (Boston, 1989). The original proposal for the project is in Box 1, folder 21, along with contracts and other business papers. Press clippings about Sylvia Plath: A Biography (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987) by Linda Wagner-Martin are filed with articles about Plath (Box 2, folder 22). Dido and W. S. Merwin's correspondence with Linda Wagner-Martin is also part of the research section of the collection, along with notes about interviews with Jillian Becker, James Michie, Suzette de Macedo, and Nicola Tyrer. Fourteen photocopies of letters to and from Aurelia Plath and Sylvia Plath complete the research section of the papers. Five separate drafts of the book are arranged in chronological order. A second copy of draft B (Box 4, folders 42-54) is heavily annotated by Peter Davison, who edited the biography. Later corrections by Davison may be found in Box 8, folders 88-89. Draft D (Box 6, folders 66-78) has been annotated by the copy editor and includes a second copy of Appendix I, with corrections by Lucas Myers (Box 6, folder 73). Draft E (Box 7, folders 79-87) includes Olwyn Hughes's changes, which are marked. Her suggested revisions are filed together in Box 8 (folders 90-99) and are arranged roughly by chapters. Additional suggestions may also be found in her correspondence with Peter Davison and Anne Stevenson. Ted Hughes, Dido Merwin and Anne Stevenson also submitted corrections which are filed separately. At the end of the Bitter Fame series are photocopies of illustrations used in the book, copy for the jacket cover, and press clippings.
Poets, American--20th century--Biography
lcsh
Davison, Peter
lcnaf
Hughes, Olwyn
Hughes, Ted, 1930-1998
Stevenson, Anne
Plath, Sylvia--Biography
series
Series I. Correspondence, 1963-91
Box 1 holds series I, Correspondence which is divided into the correspondence of Peter Davison, Olwyn Hughes, and Anne Stevenson. Each subseries is arranged alphabetically by correspondent and then chronologically.
Series II. Bitter Fame, 1954-90
Boxes 2-9 hold series II, Bitter Fame which is arranged in the order of creation, beginning with legal papers and ending with press clippings.
PETER DAVISON (391 items)
Flanders, Judith
See: Box 1, folder 7
Hughes, Olwyn (172 items) 1986-89
Hughes, Ted (5 items) 1987-89
Lacey, Tony
Myers, Lucas (2 items) 1989
See also: Box 6, folder 73
Penguin Books (39 items) 1987-90
Stevenson, Anne (100 items) 1986-91, n.d.
OLWYN HUGHES (5 items)
Lucas, Peter
See: Box 1, folder 18
Penguin Books (5 items) 1987-88
ANNE STEVENSON (14 items)
Barnhouse, Ruth Tiffany 1987 Sep 10
Harper & Row 1988 Dec 21
Hughes, Olwyn (10 items) 1987-89
Penguin Books 1987 Sep 20
Thomas, Trevor 1988 Dec 21
LEGAL PAPERS (42 items)
Includes business papers, contracts, proposals, and publicity 1986-90
RESEARCH (64 items)
Articles & notes about Plath (35 items) 1983-88
Database searches (8 items) 1987-88
Interviews (5 items) 1987
Merwin correspondence with Linda Wagner-Martin (2 items) 1985-86
Plath correspondence (14 items) 1954-66
DRAFTS (6 items)
Draft A: "Version 1"
Chapters I-III 1987
Chapters IV-VI
Chapters VII-IX
Chapters X-XII
Epilogue
Draft B: "Master Copy"
Preface 1987-88
Chapters I-III
Appendix I
Appendix II
Appendix III (2 copies) 1987 Aug 4
Notes
Draft B: "Final draft" with Peter Davison's manuscript corrections
Appendix II, with "Reactions to my first reading" 1987 Dec
Appendix II 1988 Feb
Appendix II 1988 May
Appendix II: "Revision" 1988 May
Appendix III: "Revised copy" 1988 Feb
Draft C: "August 1988 Draft"
Preface 1988 Aug
Appendix III
Bibliography
Notes on Sources
Draft D: " Orig. Ms.," with copy editor's marks
Preface 1989
Appendix I (photocopy), with corrections by Lucas Myers
Captions list 1989 Feb 7
Draft E: "Penultimate Printout w/ OH's Changes Marked"
Chapters I-III n.d.
Sources and Notes
CORRECTIONS by (5 items)
Davison, Peter 1988-90, n.d.
See also: Box 4, Folders 42-54
Preface 1987-89
Chapters X-XII 1987-89
Hughes, Ted 1987-88
Merwin, Dido 1988 Feb
Stevenson,Anne 1988-89
ILLUSTRATIONS (80 photocopies) n.d.
JACKET COPY 1990 Apr 3
PRESS CLIPPINGS (4 items) 1988-89
PRESERVATION
Fragile faxes