Fifty years ago today, on August 22, 1961, Sylvia Plath sent her friend Jack Sweeney, then curator of the Woodberry Poetry Room, a letter and enclosed the worksheets/drafts of her poem "Tulips." Did you know that shortly thereafter - about two months - Sweeney put the poem on display at the Woodberry Poetry Room? The first notice of the exhibit appears in the "Metropolitan Boston Calendar: A Guide to This Week's Events" in the Boston Globe on October 29, 1961, on page 74. The notice reads, "A manuscript poem ("Tulips") on display at Lamont Library." Additional notices about the exhibit ran on November 5 (page 67); November 12 (page 65); and December 10 (page 83), of the editions I browsed via microfilm at the Boston Public Library. The worksheets and letter are now held by the Houghton Library (which oversees the Woodberry Poetry Room) and can be requested for research. It is one of only a few of the Ariel poems not held by Smith C...

University College Dublin Archives holds the papers of Jack and Máire Sweeney . Jack Sweeney was a friend to Plath and Hughes, but his contribution to the poetry world is most known because he was a long time curator of the Woodberry Poetry Room. Sweeney was instrumental in building the audio archive at the Woodberry Poetry Room, and first asked Ted Hughes read there in late 1957. In turn, Hughes was influential in securing the first reading Plath gave on Friday, 13 June 1958. In these papers at UCD are some correspondence between Plath, Hughes and Sweeney. In addition to the correspondence, they also have two photographs. In the absence of a list online, here follows an inventory the correspondence between Sweeney, Plath and Hughes. 1. Ted Hughes to Jack Sweeney, typed, 31 October 1957, 1 p. 2. Ted Hughes to Jack Sweeney, handwritten, 30 November 1957, 1 p. 3. Ted Hughes to Jack Sweeney, handwritten, Undated, 2 p. 4. Ted Hughes to Jack & Máire Sweeney, handwritten, 15 April 19...