So Weird March 26, 2007
Posted by amanda in : Uncategorized , trackbackLinda Wagner-Martin, author of “Sylvia Plath: A Literary Life,” thinks there might be more early, unpublished works by the prolific writer.
Okay, so now that i’m pretty much just waiting to for the Lilly Library to decide whether I can publish that Plath poem on this blog, I’ve been reviewing the articles that came out around the time that “Ennui” was published in Blackbird and I am continually surprised by the quotes I find! For instance the one listed above which I found in both The Washington Post and USA Today. In an effort to remain unbaised and fair I was giving Dr. Donovan (the editor of Blackbird) and Anna Journey (the graduate student who “found” “Ennui) the benefit of the doubt and hoping that they had just been rather vague in describing how she “found” the sonnet, rather than simply claiming it a true discovery (in every sense of the word). However, it seems that everyone i’ve spoken with, and everyone in conjunction with Sylvia Plath (ie: Linda Wagner-Martin) were all under the same assumption I was: that Anna Journey did find an undiscovered poem. It seems completely inconceivable that no one ever flipped to the end of Plath’s Collected Poems and saw the list that allowed me such easy access to Plath’s unpublished poetry! I hate to harp on this, but i’m going to…All of Sylvia Plath’s unpublished juvenilia is accounted for and catalogued and safely stored in her archive at the Lilly Library. For a minimal fee, and a reasonable reason, any student/teacher/scholar can get a copy of these poems and a chance to try to get them published. It is criminal, in my opinion, that this is not common knowledge, and has been, in effect, further hidden from the public due to the publication of “Ennui”.
I really hope that they do allow me to publish the poem here, not simply because I want a chance to share this poem, but because maybe it would give me the chance to tell people (even a small number of people) what the situation really is. I am also working on a letter to Dr. Donovan that urges him (if he gets anymore attention from the press) to set the record straight.
Maybe I am naive, and i’m certainly idealistic, but I truly think that if enough poetry loving people understand the situation, steps will be taken to get all of these poems published once and for all. I also think this would happen quickly because if I were an editor or worked for Faber and Faber, I would see this as a deeply embarrassing oversight!
Poetry is pointless if it just sits in some library, where no one reads it and hardly anyone knows of its existence. Even if it only benefitted the small minority of scholars (as Hughes predicts) at least it’s serving some kind of purpose, and I really think it would get more attention then anyone is giving it credit for.
Anyway, there’s a small rant just to let you know i’m still here, still obsessing and still haven’t heard back from the library…so keep those fingers crossed 
On another note, thanks to Jim Groom my Flickr photos from Barcelona are up now, and he also got rid of that stranger who was making meaningless comments!!! Awesome
Comments»
Amanda,
I feel like I enter this conversation in media res. How have Dr. Donovan and Anna Journey been unclear? Was their “discovery” already indexed in The Collected Poems?
By the way, you’re blog rules -particularly since you are lit critic, soon-to-be publisher, and an investigative journalist all-in-one -and now you have pictures too!
haha yea, I should probably avoid really late night rantings…but the gist of my argument is that their “discovery” is indexed in Plath’s Collected Poems (incidently the volume that won the Pulitzer). I do not know if they were ever aware of this and thus they may have felt like they discoverd a new poem, but they really haven’t and I feel like now it is kind of my job to make sure that people know that these poems are all accounted for, just unpublished. It seems like this wouldn’t make a huge difference, but I think it does, because the fact that these poems are catalogued makes it even more terrible that no one has collected them into a complete published volume. If people think that they aren’t even all collected or accounted for, they might become further discouraged from trying to create said volume.
And thanks for the pictures….I am really proud of how my blog has progressed!
Amanda!
I know it is 5am London time and I should be sleeping….but, I happen to be awake, and to have just gotten a second-hand account of the happenings in your Plath independent study since last reading your blog. Firstly, Amanda I am so proud of you. Secondly, this is so incredible–actually unbelievable! Is the Lily Library you speak of the one attached to Indiana University? My reaction is similar to yours: is such an oversight on the part of ‘Blackbird’ actually possible?
We must talk soon! I want to ride your coat tails all the way to the top. ;o)
I am reeling.
I’m glued to your blog for more news.
And once again…I am so, so proud of you!
WHITNEY!!!!!
it’s so good to hear from you
Yep, it’s the lilly library at indiana university. The whole situation is getting pretty surreal, I keep expecting it to start spinning out of control but possilby the most surreal part is that everything keeps falling into place…so we shall seeeee
I hope you’re having fun in London…I miss you terribly
(and you don’t have to ride my coat tails….you will totally blaze your own trail
)
Dear Amanda,
In the introduction to Sylvia Plath’s “Ennui” in the fall issue of Blackbird, the journal is careful to state that I “discovered that this poem was unpublished, and brought it to the attention of our editorial staff” (http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v5n2/poetry/plath_s/intro-ennui.htm), which provides no false information. The index in Plath’s Collected Poems does indeed list “Ennui” as “uncollected” (as I’ve mentioned during interviews), though it was from the Lilly Library’s records and the estate of Sylvia Plath that I learned the poem remained unpublished. Best of luck with your independent study.
Sincerely,
Anna Journey
Dear Anna,
I appreciate you saying that and bringing that article to my attention. My worry through this study is simply that as careful as you may have been the world still seems unaware that this is the case. It came across (and this could be the journalists need for a more sensational story) that you “discovered” the poem. As I have stated and will continue to assert, I am truly glad that you did work so hard to have this unpublished piece published but I wish that you had mentioned the other hundreds of catalogued and unpublished poems. I am sure you agree that these poems are just as precious and it is a huge problem that they are neglected by the public at the Lilly Library. Quotes like that from Linda Wagner-Martin regarding your accomplishment mirror that of my own initial response which was that I was under the understanding that you had literally stumbled upon the sonnet and that there “may” be more unpublished poems. My subsequent posts and research then are responses to how available these pieces of junvenilia are. I want to bring this fact, not the specific poems, to the forefront. I hope that by making people aware of the sheer amount of collected unpublished juvenilia just sitting there in the library we can take what you did one step further and correct this misunderstanding.
Sincerely,
Amanda