Sylvia Plath writes seriously but optimistically to her mother, informing her of her decision to separate from her husband.
August 27, 1962
Dear Mother,
…I hope you will not be too surprised or shocked when I say I am going to try to get a legal separation from Ted. I do not believe in divorce and would never think of this, but I simply cannot go on living the degraded and agonized life I have been living, which has stopped my writing and just about ruined my sleep and health…
I feel I need a legal settlement so I can count on so much a week for groceries and bills and the freedom to build up the happy, pleasant life I feel it in myself to make and would but for him…
I have too much at stake and am too rich a person to live as a martyr…I want a clean break, so I can breathe and laugh and enjoy myself again…
The kindest and most helpful thing you can do is send some warm articles of clothing for Frieda at Christmas. I have plenty for Nicholas, AND a big bottle of Vitamin C tablets for me…I can’t afford another cold like this one.
I do hope Warren and dear Maggie will plan to come in Spring and that I can have Marty and Mike Plumer as well. I try to see the Comptons weekly and have met some nice couples with children there.
I would, by the way, appreciate it if you would tell no one but perhaps Margaret and Warren of this and perhaps better not even them. It is a private matter and I do not want people who would never see me anyway to know of it. So do keep it to yourself.
I am actually doing some writing now Kathy is here, so there is hope. And I feel if I can spend the winter in the sun in Spain, I may regain the weight and health I have lost in the last six months. I meant you to have such a lovely stay; I can never say how sorry I am you did not have the lovely reveling and rest I meant you to have…
I love you all very very much and am in need of nothing and am desirous of nothing but staying in this friendly town and my home with my dear children. I am getting estimates about rebuilding the cottage so I can someday install a nanny and lead a freer life.
Lots of love,
Sivvy
From Letters Home by Sylvia Plath: Correspondence 1950-1963. Edited by Aurelia Schober Plath. New York: HarperPerennial, 1992. 502 pp.
FURTHER READING
Find an interview with Sylvia Plath’s daughter, Frieda Hughes, about a forthcoming book of her mother’s drawings here.
Though best known for her confessional poetry and sometimes overshadowed by her tragic life story, Plath also wrote a cheerful children’s book, The It Doesn’t Matter Suit. Read about it here.
This year, fifty years after Plath’s death, many poets and critics are supporting a renewal of her image. Read about it here.