Books

First edition, first impression, of the author's second collection of poems, the first published following her suicide in 1963. Plath believed her Ariel poems to be the best she had produced and accurately predicted that "they will make my name" (Letters, p. 468). The collection was edited by Ted Hughes, who slightly altered Plath's ordering of the poems, omitting 13 pieces and adding another 10. According to Frieda Hughes, her father "wished to give the book a broader perspective in order to make it more acceptable to readers, rather than alienate them" (Hughes, p. xvi). While his decisions have been the subject of criticism, the volume was instantly successful, and won Plath enduring literary recognition. Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Gift inscription dated March 1965 on front free endpaper. Lean to spine, endpapers and edges foxed; jacket price-clipped, spine faded, corners nicked, stain to foot of rear panel: a very good copy in like jacket. Tabor A5a. Frieda Hughes, intro., Ariel: The Restored Edition, 2007; Sylvia Plath, Letters Home: Correspondence, 1950-1963, 1975.