Read Online Sylvia Plath: A Biography by Linda Wagner-Martin - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Linda Wagner-Martin
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the dark surface of the river leered up at her. If she leaned just a little farther, just a little ... there would be no more apartment, no more ugly brown cloak, no more.... The wind would bear her up. She would be floating on the wind; light as a feather she would be caught and tossed up, up. For one breathless exultant moment she leaned out, her eyes shining. She laughed giddily. She was going to...
But with a shift in the wind, Minton leaves her fantasy and goes home, forgetting the episode and, Plath suggests, losing as well those moments of clarity that the elf had made possible. “Sane” survival has also meant a kind of loss.
In senior year Sylvia continued her writing, submitting to magazines, and being undisturbed at rejections. It was a year of French III, art, biology, English, and American history with Mr. Upham, who wrote on her final report, “You are what makes teaching worthwhile.” It was also a year of leadership in the Unitarian Church’s youth group and membership in the United World Federalists, a club to promote world peace.
The most important event of her senior year was her decision to attend Smith College. She wrote, “I know my whole life will be different because of my choice.” (Her choice was either to live at home and go to Wellesley College, or to use a number of scholarships and go to Northampton.) Attending Smith, however glamorous, meant increased financial worry for both Sylvia and her mother. Scholarships were given for one year only, so each spring was a trial while various awards were announced. For her freshman year, Sylvia had a $450 scholarship from the local Smith Club and an $850 scholarship from the Olive Higgins Prouty fellowship fund at Smith. Mrs. Prouty, the well-known author of Stella Dallas , the novel and radio serial, as well as other novels, became one of Sylvia’s lifelong benefactors and friends. She lived in Brookline, Massachusetts, and befriended Aurelia and Warren as well as Sylvia.
At her high school graduation, Sylvia was recognized for winning the Boston Globe contest (first prize for a news story and honorable mention for a poem) and for winning top prize in The Atlantic Monthly Scholastic contest for fiction. The uneasiness of her hard-won popularity, however, showed in the school paper’s Class Prophecy on June 6, 1950. There Sylvia appears, intent and serious-minded, “explaining her theory of relativity to Pat O’Neill who is listening, as always, with the patience of Job.”
The triumph of Sylvia’s graduation from Bradford High was, in some ways, foreshadowed by her earlier essay, “Childhood Fears,” a writing assignment for Crockett’s English class. According to the essay, Sylvia had never been afraid of anything but, knowing that she should have some fears to be normal, she chose carpet sweepers (for noise) and opening umbrellas (for motion). Later, she described the way she and her friend Ruthie Freeman talked themselves into being afraid of escalators and subways, of circular stairs and cut-out steps, of people hiding in closets, and of dreams (the girls studied dreams with a book from the Freeman attic). The impertinence of Sylvia’s essay suggests that she had experienced a childhood that was generally peaceful and secure and that, at fifteen, she felt in control of her life. But a careful reader might have noticed that her flippant essay did not mention the various losses and worries she had actually known: her fear of change, worries about money, her father’s death, academic pressure. Whether Sylvia was a fearless high school student, the remainder of her school years would not be carefree.
4 - Beginning Smith College
1950-51
“Blameless as Daylight”
In the summer of 1950, with her characteristic discipline, Sylvia began keeping a serious journal. In it she described scenes from dates and summer jobs and meditated about issues important to her — the Korean War, the “decline” of America,
But with a shift in the wind, Minton leaves her fantasy and goes home, forgetting the episode and, Plath suggests, losing as well those moments of clarity that the elf had made possible. “Sane” survival has also meant a kind of loss.
In senior year Sylvia continued her writing, submitting to magazines, and being undisturbed at rejections. It was a year of French III, art, biology, English, and American history with Mr. Upham, who wrote on her final report, “You are what makes teaching worthwhile.” It was also a year of leadership in the Unitarian Church’s youth group and membership in the United World Federalists, a club to promote world peace.
The most important event of her senior year was her decision to attend Smith College. She wrote, “I know my whole life will be different because of my choice.” (Her choice was either to live at home and go to Wellesley College, or to use a number of scholarships and go to Northampton.) Attending Smith, however glamorous, meant increased financial worry for both Sylvia and her mother. Scholarships were given for one year only, so each spring was a trial while various awards were announced. For her freshman year, Sylvia had a $450 scholarship from the local Smith Club and an $850 scholarship from the Olive Higgins Prouty fellowship fund at Smith. Mrs. Prouty, the well-known author of Stella Dallas , the novel and radio serial, as well as other novels, became one of Sylvia’s lifelong benefactors and friends. She lived in Brookline, Massachusetts, and befriended Aurelia and Warren as well as Sylvia.
At her high school graduation, Sylvia was recognized for winning the Boston Globe contest (first prize for a news story and honorable mention for a poem) and for winning top prize in The Atlantic Monthly Scholastic contest for fiction. The uneasiness of her hard-won popularity, however, showed in the school paper’s Class Prophecy on June 6, 1950. There Sylvia appears, intent and serious-minded, “explaining her theory of relativity to Pat O’Neill who is listening, as always, with the patience of Job.”
The triumph of Sylvia’s graduation from Bradford High was, in some ways, foreshadowed by her earlier essay, “Childhood Fears,” a writing assignment for Crockett’s English class. According to the essay, Sylvia had never been afraid of anything but, knowing that she should have some fears to be normal, she chose carpet sweepers (for noise) and opening umbrellas (for motion). Later, she described the way she and her friend Ruthie Freeman talked themselves into being afraid of escalators and subways, of circular stairs and cut-out steps, of people hiding in closets, and of dreams (the girls studied dreams with a book from the Freeman attic). The impertinence of Sylvia’s essay suggests that she had experienced a childhood that was generally peaceful and secure and that, at fifteen, she felt in control of her life. But a careful reader might have noticed that her flippant essay did not mention the various losses and worries she had actually known: her fear of change, worries about money, her father’s death, academic pressure. Whether Sylvia was a fearless high school student, the remainder of her school years would not be carefree.
4 - Beginning Smith College
1950-51
“Blameless as Daylight”
In the summer of 1950, with her characteristic discipline, Sylvia began keeping a serious journal. In it she described scenes from dates and summer jobs and meditated about issues important to her — the Korean War, the “decline” of America,
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