Sylvia Plath: A life in photographs: 1957-1959
In June 1957, Plath and Hughes returned to New York, and then spent time in Eastham on Cape Cod. They wrote and explored the area. By September, they were in Northampton and Plath prepared for her classes. Teaching was hard and prevented Plath from having the energy to really write, and by Spring 1958, they made plans to leave academia and live as full-time writers. They moved to Beacon Hill in Boston; Plath took odd jobs and both found productivity in their freedom. Plath resumed seeing Dr. Ruth Beuscher, and in the spring of 1959, audited a writing course with Robert Lowell, and befriended Anne Sexton. Plath & Hughes travelled across the US and Canada in the summer and then spent the autumn writing at Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, NY. At this time Plath was also pregnant. Plath and Hughes sailed for England in December. The next photograph gallery covers the period of 1960-1963, when Plath & Hughes lived in London and North Tawton, England.
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Plath & Hughes honeymooned in a cottage much like this.
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"Where it pours bean green over blue
In the waters off beautiful Nauset."
(from "Daddy").
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Sand cliffs, looking north.
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See Plath's first New Yorker poem "Mussel Hunter at Rock Harbor".
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See Plath's poem "Mussel Hunter at Rock Harbor"
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Plath & Hughes lived here whilst from 1957-1958.
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See Plath's poem "Child's Park Stones".
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See Plath's poem "Child's Park Stones".
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Child's Park has stones like this throughout.
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See Plath's poem "Fable of the Rhododendron Stealers" and Journals, pages 393-5.
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See "Fable of the Rhododendron Stealers".
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See Journals, pages 386-391.
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Plath & Hughes lived on the sixth floor of this building.
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The red arrow designates 9 Willow Street.
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Just around the corner from 9 Willow Street, Plath recorded her poetry here for the Woodberry Poetry Room.
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Plath, Sexton, and others came here to drink after attending Robert Lowell's class at Boston University.
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The home of Dr. Ruth Beuscher in the late 1950s.
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Plath & Hughes spent the fall of 1959 here. Plath wrote the majority of poems from The Colossus here.
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See Plath's poem "The Manor Garden".
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Plath resided in West House off the left hand side of this photograph.
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A quiet place for inspiration.
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See Plath's poem "Dark Wood, Dark Water".
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