[Children's]

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PLATH, Sylvia

The Bed Book

New York. Harper and Row, 1976. First US edition.

Quarto. 40pp. Original publisher's illustrated cloth boards, with the corresponding clipped dustwrapper illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully, along with full colour illustrations throughout. Bumping to corners, foot of spine, and a little shelf-wear to both boards and wrapper, with slight smoke damage to the lower board and rear wrapper panel. Internally bright and clean. From the estate of Olwyn Hughes, recently dispersed; while much of her library was seriously damaged as the result of an errant cigarette dropped by Olwyn down the back of her settee - causing a serious fire - this copy has escaped comparatively unscathed.

Sylvia Plath's (1932-1963) first children's book, published posthumously by Ted Hughes. from one of Plath's longer children's poems. Olwyn Hughes (1928-2016) was a translator, agent and literary executor who had worked in Paris for NATO, Martonplay, and King Peter II of Yugoslavia, among others. After the death of her sister-in-law Sylvia Plath, she returned to England to assist her brother, Ted Hughes, raise his young children, though also took over the management of both his career and Plath's literary estate. While she did have some other clients as a literary agent, including Jean Rhys, much of the rest of her life was dedicated to preserving - and defending - both Plath and Hughes.

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