Today, 14 November 2023, was the Bonhams Fine Books and Manuscripts auction of twenty-five lots of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes books from the property, or now former property of Frieda Hughes. In the last few years, the Plath and Hughes rare book market has been simply flooded with stock but this has not, at least in the case of Plath who is more collectible than Hughes, meant that prices in the rare and antiquarian book market has stalled or leveled off.  As I have done in the past, here are a list of the sales. All prices below show hammer price first and then the final price including the buyer's premium. Please see the Bonhams website for pre-auction valuation estimates. In addition to the property of Frieda Hughes, there was a scarce uncorrected proof of the Victoria Lucas edition of The Bell Jar  in: Lot 72 :  This gorgeous book is estimated to sell for £4,000 - £5,000 (US$4,900 - US$6,200) and ultimately went for £6,144. Estimated: Untracked Hammer Price: Unt...

The following are the lots in the 14 November 2023 auction of The Property of Frieda Hughes of Sylvia Plath (lots 108-118) and Ted Hughes (lots 94-107) items. Ted Hughes: Lot 94 : HUGHES (TED) Meet My Folks!, FIRST EDITION, DEDICATION COPY, INSCRIBED, Faber and Faber, 1961 Lot 95 : HUGHES (TED) The New Poetry. A Selection Selected and Introduced by A. Alvarez, FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY TED HUGHES TO HIS PARENTS, 1962; 3 carbons TH poems of 1960s, and annotated copy of Moorehead's Cooper's Creek (6) Lot 96 : HUGHES (TED) Wodwo, FIRST EDITION AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED "To Walter [Hughes] & Alice with love from Ted, May 67", Faber and Faber, 1967 Lot 97 : HUGHES (TED) Animal Poems, UNIQUE PRESENTATION COPY, ONE OF SIX COPIES INTERLEAVED WITH ALL 14 POEMS WRITTEN OUT BY THE AUTHOR, AND AN ADDITIONAL 18 POEMS ADDED IN MANUSCRIPT, [Richard Gilbertson, [1967] Lot 98 : HUGHES (TED) The Iron Man, FIRST EDITION, AUTHOR'S PRESENT...

Bonhams Knightsbridge is set to auction more than two dozen lots of books from the library and collection of Frieda Hughes that she was either given or inherited from her parents, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.  The date of the auction is 14 November 2023.  Copies of works by Sylvia Plath include: A Winter Ship, The Colossus, The Bell Jar, Ariel, Three Women, Crystal Gazer and Other Poems, Pursuit, Letters Home , and much, much more. Copies of works by Ted Hughes include: The Iron Giant, Birthday Letters, Howls & Whispers, Poems by Emily Dickinson, Animal Poems, Moortown Elegies, Meet My Folks!, Crow, The Iron Man, Wodwo , and more.

On 5 July 1943, Sylvia Plath wrote to her mother from Camp Weetamoe in New Hampshire that she consumed "5 Tollhouse cookies" ( Letters Vol I , 10). From Smith College seven years later, Plath casually mentioned that if her mother wanted to send her something that "Toll house cookies will be most welcome. I’m too hungry to share many, so will eat them with my before-bed glass of milk" (202). By summer 1951 when she was living with the Mayo family in their Swampscott house, Plath was making them herself (350). Her love of Toll House cookies is rather legendary. (What Plath called Toll House cookies are, largely, to us, the simple chocolate chip cookie). There are about sixteen references to these cookies between the two volumes of letters and just one in her journals.  When the batch of Plath's recipes cards (and rolling pin) hit the auction house last summer ( Lot 45 ), many were excited about the Tomato Soup Cake recipe . Being a lover a chocolate myself, I want...

On Thursday, six Sylvia Plath limited edition books are offered for sale through Forum Auctions in England. Lot 179 is a collectors dream, assembling the following books:  Lyonnesse , number 120 of 300 copies, original morocco-backed boards, , t.e.g., others uncut, slip-case, Rainbow Press, 1971; Three Women , number 168 of 180 copies, printed in red and black, illustrations by Stanislaus Gliwa, original pictorial cloth, gilt, glacine dust-jacket, Turret Books, 1978; Crystal Gazer and other poems , number 107 of 300 copies, light toning to endpapers, original cloth-backed boards, t.e.g., others uncut, slip-case, Rainbow Press, 1971; Child (Rougemont Press, 1971), A Day in June (Embers Handpress, 1981), and Million Dollar Month (Sceptre Press, 1971) round the lot out. In addition to this Plath lot, there are a number of Ted Hughes book lots. See lots 113 to 116. All links accessed 5 June 2022.

On 24 February 2022, Forum Auctions had two lots of Sylvia Plath books.  Lot 235 was just a single book, the limited edition of Lyonnesse , number 37 of 90 copies in full calf from an edition limited to 400 copies, original calf gilt by Zaehnsdorf, very slight rubbing to spine tips, t.e.g., others uncut, glacine dust-jacket, minor chipping to spine tips and corners, slip-case, folio, Rainbow Press, 1971. It sold for £460 which was more than double the high estimate of £150 - £200. Lot 236 included several limited edition books and sold for £700, which was more than double the high estimate of £200 - £300. Included in the lot were Lyonnesse , number 272 of 300 copies, original morocco-backed boards, , t.e.g., others uncut, slip-case, Rainbow Press, 1971; Three Women , number 171 of 180 copies, printed in red and black, illustrations by Stanislaus Gliwa, original pictorial cloth, gilt, Turret Books, 1978; Crystal Gazer and other poems , number 137 of 300 copies, light toning to end...

In 2000, when The Journals of Sylvia Plath (unabridged) was published, readers got access to Plath's 1957-1959 journals, which had previously been sealed.  In her 31 December 1958 journal entry, written in Boston at 9 Willow Street, Plath talked about a letter she wrote to Ted Hughes' parents. A letter that before The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume II  was published readers could only dream about.  She remarked in the journal entry, "Ted read my signature on the letter to his parents as 'woe' instead of love. He was right, it looked surprising: the left hand knows not what the right writes" (452). Now that the letter---written on 30 December 1958---has been published, (and the original has been sold (Lot 33)  in July 2021), we can determine for ourselves whether or not Plath's sign-off looks like "love" or like "woe". What say you? Are you supporting Love or supporting Woe? All links accessed 20 November 2021.

The back-to-back auctions in June and July hosted by, respectively, Bonhams and Sotheby's , of items belonging to Frieda Hughes, and formerly belonging to either her mother Sylvia Plath, or father, Ted Hughes, were the focal points of this year in Sylvia Plath. The auctions featured very different items for each sale. The first was largely books published after Plath's death, both commercial books as well as remaining stock of limited editions. However there were some exceptions to that as there were items definitely owned by Plath in her lifetime. The ability to watch the auction live---and to bid---was something that is a truly magical experience. Nerve-wracking, too. The results of the Bonhams auction can be revisited here . From my point of view, the 24 total copies split between three lots of A Winter Ship , published by the Tragara Press in 1960, were the highlight here. (A 25th copy sold earlier this month via Bonhams, which was inadvertently left out of the June auctio...

Heritage Auctions has sold a copy of Sylvia Plath's A Winter Ship (Tragara Press, 1960). This just 8 days following Bonhams selling one. But there is a difference. While the Bonhams copy was a 25th originating from Plath and her Estate, Heritage sold one of the 22 copies from the very large lot ( Lot 141 ) of copies that sold at Bonhams last June. That sentence is confusing! The winner of that big June lot appears to be Nate D Sanders. In addition to selling this one via Heritage, he is offering two copies on eBay for $15,000 each. Copy 1 is here  and  Copy 2 is here . Sanders formerly had a copy of the publication on his website for $6,000 . Sanders was active in the 2018 Bonhams auction, too.   Lot 45118 of the Heritage Auction, which closed yesterday, the 9th, sold for $3,750 (including buyer's premium). The wrappers for all these copies have different marbled patterns, which makes each one in its own way a rather unique item. There appear to have been a total o...

On 1 December 2021, Bonhams in Knightsbridge sold a twenty-fifth unique copy of Sylvia Plath's A Winter Ship (1960) in Lot 159 their Fine Books & Manuscripts sale (26775). The final sale price was £2,167 (US$ 2,891) inc. premium, which for this edition may be an auction record. Earlier in the year, in June, an individual copy sold for £1,402 . So, a considerable amount more of money was needed this time around to win the limited edition pamphlet produced by Alan Anderson of the Tragara Press.  All links accessed 1 December 2021.

On 1 December 2021, Bonhams is offering in Auction 26775 a copy of Sylvia Plath's A Winter Ship , printed by the Tragara Press in 1960. 24 copies sold in three separate lots in their June auction, and this is a 25th copy with provenance to Plath, the Estate of Sylvia Plath, and Frieda Hughes.  The Lot is 159 , and the estimated price is £800-1,200/US$1,100-1,600. Happy bidding and good luck!   All links accessed 5 November 2021.

One of the most memorable days during the years-long process of editing The Letters of Sylvia Plath was the day that copies of 16 letters to Ted Hughes and 18 letters to Edith and William Hughes, his parents, arrived at my doorstep. I vaguely knew they were coming but that hardly actually prepares one to see an envelope, with my name written on it in Frieda Hughes' distinctive hand, appearing in the mailbox at the end of the driveway. I pulled it out of mailbox gingerly, like it was the most fragile object in the world. When I opened it, I'm pretty sure I squeaked. Truly. The black and white photocopies provided enough information about the letters to make transcription possible. There were a smattering of copies of envelopes included, some of which belonged to letters not included in the bounty of stuff Frieda sent. Which begs the eternal question: where are the letters that were stuffed into these envelopes? Who wrote it? Plath? Hughes? Both? And what would their Hollywood...

Christie's New York had an online auction that ended Friday, 17 September 2021, of a nice looking copy of the 1963 Heinemann edition The Bell Jar with Victoria Lucas as author.   In the auction of "The Exceptional Literature Collection of Theodore B. Baum: Part Two, the copy was Lot 355 . Theodore B. Baum (1935-    ) is an American cable television company executive. The details from the auction are: "First edition of Plath's thinly veiled autobiography published in England pseudonymously a month before her February 1963 death. Plath had returned to London with her two young children during the brutally cold winter of 1962, renting a flat at 23 Fitzroy Road (an address once inhabited by William Butler Yeats). Though that autumn had been a period of intense activity as she produced the poems that would comprise Ariel , depression nonetheless overtook her. The Bell Jar , her only novel, did not appear under her own name until 1967 and, in accordance with the wishes of...

In 2017, Eva gave me a tomato soup cake that she made (frosting on the side and as I have no pride left I can admit that I ate what did not make it onto the cake directly out of the jar with a spoon. It was that good).  Plath's tomato soup spice cake is fairly legendary. Plath herself mentions it just once in her letters (15 September 1961, from Court Green;  Letters,  Vol. II , p. 649, Amazon ) and no times, that I could find, in her journals. Plath did make several references to it in her 1962 Letts tablet. On 22, 25, and 26 February and 10 May. The cake has a life of its own on the internet, frequently being written about, but always using someone else's recipe. Until now. Lot 45 of Frieda Hughes' auction of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes items includes some recipe cards and a rolling pin. One of the recipes is "her" Tomato Soup Spice Cake. I say "her", in quotes, but really the recipe is not Sylvia Plath's at all. Sotheby's did not include the...