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Sylvia Plath wrote at least three "stories" for children: "The Bed Book", "The It-Doesn't-Matter Suit", and "Mrs. Cherry's Kitchen". Plath wrote all three stories prior to having children of her own. After she and Ted Hughes had Frieda, Plath's only writing for children were spectacular poems about her children. Like her children's stories, these poems are tender and full of care and concern, showing a nurturing instinct and ability to her writing that is largely over-shadowed by the raw power of her more famous compositions. What these stories for children to show, ultimately, is Plath's range. She attempted to write in many genres, and although she found more success in poetry These three works receive, generally, very little attention. However, they are fun, quirky, and creative; enhanched in each instance by illustrations by well known illustrators. Faber & Faber published The Bed Book in the UK on 23 February 1976. Harper & Row published it in the US on 6 October 1976. The British edition features illustrations by Quentin Blake; the American edition has illustations by Emily Arnold McCully. The Bed Book first appears in Plath's journals on 29 March 1959 (p. 476). She experienced a deep fear when starting this story, commenting, "If you are dead, no one can criticize you, or, if they do, it doesn't hurt" (478). It took Plath a full month to get something written and by 3 May 1959, she had sent her manuscript to the Atlantic Press. Atlantic kept the manuscript for months and Plath ceases to mention it after November when she was at Yaddo. In The Bed Book, Plath's beds can fly through air into space, fit in a pocket, travel under water, or in a tank over land. One can watch birds or have a snack, or one can sleep on an elephants back. One can sleep under ground under layers of snow - or bounce or paint, the possibilities are endless. Plath creates thirteen beds: fishing, cats, acrobats, submarine, jet-propelled, snack, spottable, tank, bird-watching, pocket-size, elephant, north-pole, and bounceable. Plath's imaginary beds are reminiscent of her "Green Rock", a short story she wrote in 1949. In "The Green Rock", Plath and her brother invent castles, mountains, and sailboats out of a rock visible in Winthrop Bay at low tide. The It-Doesn't-Matter Suit was published in the UK on 4 March 1996 by Faber & Faber, and in the US on 27 May 1996, by St. Martin's Press. Both editions feature illustrations by German illustrator Rotraut Susanne Berner. Plath wrote The It-Doesn't-Matter Suit on or before 26 September 1959. She first mentions the story on this date in her journals (p. 508), while she was at Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, New York. She references only the character, Max Nix. This is the only children's story Plath wrote during pregnancy. Plath's story is set in Winkelburg and is about Max Nix and his family. Max is one of seven brothers, and notices that everyone around him has a suit - and these suits identify and define their wearers. But, Max wants an anything suit for any occasion; in short, an it-doesn't-matter suit! One day a package arrives and inside is a suit of mustard-yellow color. The entire family tries on the suit, and each finds fault with it, expressing concern for what others might think about this radical mustard-yellow suit - a suit we are told repeatedly that "had never been seen before in all of Winkelburg." Papa Nix works at a bank. Paul is a skier. Emil is a tobogganer. Otto is a paperboy. Walter is an ice-fisher. Hugo is a fox-hunter. Johann milks cows. Each succeeding Nix requires the suit to be hemmed to make a perfect fit. After Johann, it is Max's turn to try on the suit - and after final alterations, it too fit him perfectly. For all the various reasons the other Nix's did not want the suit, Max did and he wore it for every activity, finding it always to be advantageous. Perhaps this story's message, that it is dangerous to be over concerned with what other people think, is better than the story itself? Plath herself dealt with such self-consciousness constantly, growing up as she did in the 1940s and 1950s. It is more important to be yourself than to let society - or the clothes you wear or the occupation you hold - define who you are and who you become. The It-Doesn't-Matter Suit appears on audio, read by Andrew Sachs and Susan Jameson, and published by Penguin Audio. Published by Faber & Faber on 9 April 2001, Collected Children's Stories assembles all three of Plath's stories for children. The edition prints, for the first time, her story "Mrs. Cherry's Kitchen." The illustrator for the stories is David Roberts. Plath's story mrs. cherry's kitchen originates to 4 January 1958. The story was meant for the children's magazine Jack & Jill and was titled Changeabout in Mrs. Cherry's Kitchen (304). The notes add some depth to the story because certain kitchen gadgets fail to make her final cut (i.e. roasting spit and electric fry-pan). By 26 January, Plath finished and submitted the story to Jack & Jill. Mrs. Cherry's Kitchen is a brief, whimsical story. But, a lot happens despite its brevity. Each of Mrs. Cherry's kitchen and household appliances thinks it can perform another's duties better. Coffee-Percolator wants to make ice cream; Toaster wants to make ice cubes; Iron wants to put dimpled-squares into waffles; Egg-Beater wants to make white ruffles in shirts; Oven wants to iron; and Washing Machine wants to bake a sponge cake. Of course, this makes a mess and the kitchen pixies, who authorized the change-about, must clean up the mess quickly before Mr. and Mrs. Cherry return home. Andrejevic, Helen B. Parents's Magazine and Better Homemaking. January 1977: 70. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. Februar 1977: 96. Croome, Lesley. "Pictures of the Mind." Times Literary Supplement. April 2, 1976: 396. Dill, Barbara. "Picturely Books for Children." Wilson Library Bulletin. October 1976: 132. Fisher, Margery. The Times. February 29, 1976: 41. H., M. R. Junior Bookshelf. June 1976: 167. Hearne, Betsy. Booklist. September 1, 1976: 41-2. Karlin, Barbara. New York Times Book Review. November 14, 1976: 38. Kirkus Review. September 15, 1976: 1037-8. Lewis, Marjorie. "The Bed Book." School Library Journal. September 1976: 104. May, Derwent. "Panicky, Pictures." Listener. November 11, 1976: 626-7. McLellan, Joseph. "Whatever Happened to Mother Goose?" Washington Post. November 7, 1976: 5-6. Meek, Margaret. School Librarian. June 1976: 138. Publishers Weekly. June 21, 1976: 92. Reading Teacher. October 1977:22. Silvey, Anita. Horn Book Magazine. October 1976: 493. Steese, Ellen. "Quiet Stories for Bedtime, Anytime." Christian Science Monitor. November 3, 1976: 28. Stein, Ruth M. Language Arts. March 1977: 325. Baker, Candida. Making nix out of almost naught." Sydney Morning Herald. July 20, 1996: 10. Burr, Ty. "The week." Entertainment Weekly. May 3, 1996: 72. "Children's Books; Bookshelf." The New York Times. July 14, 1996: 19. Devereaux, Elizabeth and Diane Roback. "Forecasts: Children's books." Publishers Weekly. May 20, 1996: 258. "Diary." The Independent. December 14, 1995: 17. Dunbar, Robert. "Max and his sixth-hand suit The It-Doesn't-Matter-Suit, by Sylvia Plath." The Irish Times. March 6, 1996: 14. Feay. Suzi. "33 years on, a new book by Sylvia Plath." The Independent. January 14, 1996: 1. "For Children." The Independent. March 3, 1996: 35. Gerrard, Nicci. "The Primrose Plath; Nicci Gerrard reads a newly discovered children's book by the suicidal poet." The Guardian. February 18, 1996: 15. Goring, Rosemary. "Touching tale from a depressive dressed up with joy: The It-Doesn't-Matter- Suit, Sylvia Plath: Faber, £8.99." Scotland on Sunday. March 3, 1996: 12. Hardyment, Christina. "Children's Books: They tuck you up, your Mum and Dad ...; Mustard suits, wanton queens and a millionaire Teacake. Christina Hardyment picks the most vivid new stories for 7-11s." The Independent. March 30, 1996: 9. Hart, Carolyn. "Lost treasure restored." Financial Times. March 2, 1996: XIV. Lambert, Angela. "She is the feminists icon, but the real Sylvia Plath liked bouncy cotton frocks, adored to flirt and longed for Ted Hughes's babies; the discovery of an unpublished children's story explodes the feminist myth about the tragic poet." Daily Mail. December 16, 1995: 46. Lockerbie, Catherine. "If it's in the bottom drawer, it's bound to be rubbish." The Scotsman. November 11, 1997: 14. "My Many Colored Days." Publishers Weekly. July 22, 1996: 240(2). Neumark, Victoria. "Well dressed in Whimsy." Times Educational Supplement. March 1, 1996: 12. Op De Beeck, Nathalie. "A children's book by Sylvia Plath resurfaces." Publishers Weekly. April 1, 1996: 32. Porlock, Harvey. "Critical List." Sunday Times. March 10, 1996. Turner, Jenny. "Books: A tuck-and-stitch routine." The Guardian. March 8, 1996: T14. Rothwell, Nicolas. "Urge to pick at Plath's literary bones speaks volumes." The Australian. January 19, 1996. Shulman, Polly. "Is hell satisfied?" Salon.com. August 25, 1999. Sigmund, Elizabeth. "Sylvia's mothering." The Scotsman. February 24, 1996: 18. Slung, Michele. "Posthumous Plath." The Washington Post. January 14, 1996: X15. "Sylvia Plath's little book will suit children well." Detroit News. March 13, 1996. Tabor, Mary B W. "Book Notes." The New York Times. November 1, 1995: C17. "The boy in the mustard-yellow suit; Books." Sunday Times. March 3, 1996: 8. "The It-Doesn't-Matter Suit." Publishers Weekly. May 20, 1996: 258(1). "The It-Doesn't-Matter Suit." The New Yorker. November 18, 1996: 101. "The It-Doesn't-Matter Suit." Times Educational Supplement. March 1, 1996: 12. Wildman, Joanna. "Children's book of the week; The It Doesn't Matter Suit, by Sylvia Plath, illus. by Rotraut Susanne Berner." The Guardian. February 3, 1998: 3. Paul, Lissa. "'Writing poetry for children is a curious occupation': Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath." Horn Book Magazine. May/June 2005: 257-67. |
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© 1998-2008, Peter K. Steinberg
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