The Letters of Sylvia Plath Volume 1 Read online

  Love

  “Siv”

  P.S. I am going to Maine, too, whether I’m invited or not! I am so sad that they evidently did not want me.

  TO Aurelia Greenwood Schober & Frank Schober

  Monday 15 July 1946

  ALS on Wellesley, Mass. letterhead,

  Indiana University

  Monday

  July 15

  Dear Grammy and Grampy,

  You don’t know how happy I was to receive the two dollars you sent me! I never expected anything like it. I have spent only a little as yet, and am putting the main part of the money towards crafts.

  It would be perfectly alright for you to drop by at camp when you come by on the 20th, as mother said you would. I’d love it if you could bring a little fruit, because the fruit we get here is usually all green and unripened. Lots of the girls have candy, but I wouldn’t want any of that. Do you suppose you could bring the nail nipper if you have it. My fingernails are really too terribly long. If you can find the camp, I would like to know about what time you will come, so I can go up to the office or the parking lot to meet you. Do write a card and tell me If and when you’re coming.

  I am so happy, because, in answer to my many requests, Ruth Freeman had been put in my unit and is in my very same cabin! We are going to have such fun together. Oh! Grampy, for the rest of my life I will cut my toenails straight across. Now that I have no nipper to dig the corners out with, the nails on both my big toes have grown in and become infected and swollen with pus. I made a beeling for the nurse, and she stuck cotton under the corners and way under my toe nail. This morning she actually soaked them in boiling sulfo-naphthol, or something like that, my feet were all raw and red when I took them out, but I am really glad that she is doing something to help.

  Betsy got stung by a bumble bee when getting wood, and her lips and whole left cheek are swollen. She looked so funny, like Mortimer Snurd* would probably look, that I couldn’t help laughing after I got out of her hearing! She is in the same cabin with Gayle Greenough in Cabin 13, and Ruthie and I are right next to them in cabin 9. The cabins run in a pattern, which is quite odd until you figure it out.

 

  I only have time for a short letter before the mails go out, so Goodbye for now.

  Love,

  Sylvia

  TO Aurelia Schober Plath

  Tues.–Wed. 16–17 July 1946

  ALS with envelope,*

  Indiana University

  July 16, 1946

  Dearest, Most-Revered, Twice Honored Mater,

  Last night was a red-letter night because I got two postcards and two nice big fat letters from you including those thrilling snaps of me. Why you sent that glamorous one of me hunched over, and snoring under the maple tree, I will never know. I have missed getting this letter in the mail, so naturally It will arrive late. This wonderful month at camp is certainly speeding by fast. Grammy and Grampy are coming on Saturday at about three o’clock. That just happens to be the day we are hiking to Fisherman’s Cove, so I won’t be able to go on the hike I looked forward to for so many weeks. I only wish it could be arranged that I go. Today I continued to work on my copper mint dish, which is rather small, but which I hope you will appreciate. I am very busy finding ideas for poems for the newspaper. Do you like this one about the lake:

  The lake is a creature,*

  Quiet, yet wild.

  Rough, and yet gentle, –

  An untamed child.

  Tranquil and blue

  Where the boats slip by,

  Whirlpools of silver

  Were the oars dip nigh.

  Emerald Green

  When the clouds scud across,

  And before the wind

  Gay white caps toss.

  The lake is really

  The earth’s clear eye

  Where are mirrored the moods

  Of the wind and the sky.

 

  July 17, 1946

  Wednesday

  Today I had the most fun I’ve yet had while at camp! Our unit hiked two miles to work as pickers on a blueberry farm! We were to be paid 10¢ for every quart box we picked and the blueberry bushes were taller than I was. Never have I seen such blueberries. I don’t know if even the country club can beat them! They come in clusters like small grapes. They were the most wonderful things I had ever seen – rows and rows of laden bushes! Ruthie and I each took a box that held six quart baskets and began to pick at one of the choicest spots. We both cooperated with each other and picked with the thought of the payment ahead of us. We had worked almost two hours, when we stopped for lunch. Ruth had just begun her fifth basket and I had just finished my fifth. However, I dropped the box, and the tops of the baskets fell off, so I used up half of the fifth basket in filling the others after lunch and rest hour we were eager to continue picking. Ruthie and I finished our fifth, sixth, and seventh baskets with ease. The eighth baskets were slightly harder. When Ruth had begun her ninth quart, and I my tenth (!) she filled my box up, so that I had earned $1.00 and I filled up her last boxes with her so that she also had earned $1.00. We turned in our boxes joyfully with no mishaps. We both received checks for $1.00 to be added to our camp fund. That covers what I paid for my stamp offer and also my nutspoon!!!! I really felt rich. Only one girl picked nine quarts, but she earned $1.10 for packing some boxes also. I am so happy that I could earn some money, even though it is not much, it helps! We came home rather tired, but joyous. I had received a slight burn, but it looked more like a tan. Ruthie and I certainly slept well.

  With love

  Sylvia

  TO Margot Loungway Drekmeier

  Thursday 18 July 1946*

  ALS with envelope,

  Estate of Margot Drekmeier

  Dear Margot,

  It pains me to use up this valuable three cent stamp on you, but my offer is enclosed. Do not open the inner envelope unless you wish to buy, which you won’t. It was very good thinking on your part to invite Mater and Warren up while I’m away, so I won’t have to come. I do hope you show this newsy letter to my Mater so I won’t have to bother to write her.

  From

  Sylvia

 

  TO Aurelia Schober Plath

  Friday 19 July 1946

  ALS with envelope,

  Indiana University

  July 19

  Friday

  Dear Mother,

  Today is a beautiful day, save that it is very hot and humid. I would much rather have cool weather at camp. I turned in my two poems to the newspaper. The editor, who evidently did not think too much of me, went as far as to say they were excellent! The second one which I made up is not as good as the first, and is called

 

  Mornings of Mist

  Frail cobwebs of lacy filigree

  Clutched by gnarled fingers

  Of a tree.

  Where mornings lips have kissed

  The grassy meadow, there are

  Fields of mist.

  Between the trees twine

  Trails of silver fog like a

  Misty vine

  Now the sky is a tinted rose

  As the first pale little

  Sunbeam shows.

  Dimpling and blue the lake is won

  By the golden beams of the

  Morning sun.

 

  I am receiving your daily cards joyfully. Your latest one sounded like a lovely poem in blank verse. I really will always treasure it. I regret to say that I will not have time to make dear grampy an ashtray, and besides, they are dinky little copper ones. So I’m giving him the nut spoon and grammy the mint dish. Do you think I could give it to them for Christmas, or maybe for grampy’s Birthday. I have something that I made, or am making rather to show them, so I hope that they won’t suspect. Everything I am making in crafts seems to be of metal. Last night was rather hectic. Some men in canoes were se
en in the cove, and word got around among the campers that the councilors were going to meet them. So, after taps, a whole brigade headed for the Cove beach. I was out filling a pail of water from the tap, and so did hear lots of whistles and noises. Ruthie and I climbed out of our back window, leaving the front door locked, and went down to Betsy and Gayle’s cabin. We stayed there a short while with them, but were horrified to here Skees, (on taps duty) pounding on the locked door of our cabin, and shining her light on the empty beds. I ran out of the other cabin with Ruth. She had to climb in the back window under Skees’ glare, and meekly unlock the front door for me, who stood there innocently and mumbled something about “What’s all the noise!” Skees said sternly that I was contributing my part to the racket, and watched until Ruth and I had got in bed. I like everyone in general, (by the way, Gayle, Betsy, Ruth, and I pal around together alot and have such fun doing things in fours. That’s the way true friends should be I think, not coveting every minute of each others time. I do hope Warrie wasn’t hurt badly when playing “Murder.” The weather here has been lovely the last few days. Tonight I went on another sketching trip. This time I did quite a good job. Frenchie said, as well as some others, when judging drawings, that mine had such depth that they could almost step into it! Frenchie also says I’ll be foolish if I don’t take art lessons, for I’ve an “interesting technique.”

 

  “Siv”

  TO Aurelia Schober Plath

  Saturday 20 July 1946

  ALS with envelope,

  Indiana University

  July 20, 1946

  Dear Mother,

  How do you like this stationary? Rather gaudy, don’t you think! However a girl at camp gave this piece to me so I might as well use it. At least there is plenty of room to write on it, so it will probably take a long time to fill all the space. Ruthie is only a red cap, and she has not been able to go in swimming and work up to a white cap. I am spending almost all my spare time in crafts trying to finish up a rather tremendous project. It just happens to cost 50¢ fifty cents, that is. But seeing that I have not quite spent three dollars yet, I hope that you won’t mind. I am really quite saving when it comes to spending money.

  Well, grammy and grampy are supposed to be coming in a few hours. To my joy, the unit did not go on the hike to Fisherman’s Cove, so I will be able to go if we do go in the coming week. The end of camp is drawing to a close so speedily, that I’m afraid that I’ll wake up some morning soon, and find Grammy saying, “Better get up! Time for school.” I am having a perfectly beautiful time being in the same cabin with Ruthie. She is really so much fun. She also wrote an excellent article for the camp newspaper about blueberrying. Today is another perfect day. The sun is shining, and a cool breeze is swishing through the trees and rippling up the lake. There is also a fresh, piny odor in the air.

  I am going on another sketching trip tomorrow with “Frenchie.”

  I have plenty of clothes left now that Ruthie’s here, and probably will not need to wear one or two of my new jerseys at all. I am now dressed in my blue shorts, white belt, socks, jersey, and saddle shoes, writing this to you during rest hour while waiting for grammy and grampy to arrive. My hair is full of dandruff, and rather oily. It does no good to wash our hair here in the icy water, because it never even gets clean the least bit. I do enjoy boating, especially rowing. I am in no great hurry to get out in a canoe after taking my tippy test. I always wear my bathing suit top when rowing, and there are two white splotches in the exact shape of my ribbon that hang down. That is where I have not gotten tan. My face is no perfect example of a peaches and cream complexion by any means. I am regularly taking magnesia, although I’m drinking all the water I can get, I’m still not drinking enough. Our diet is mainly a startchy one – potatoes and bread, bread and potatoes with mayhap a sickly leaf of cooked cabbage thrown in. On the last page I will give you an example of my expenditures, as well as my deposits

  Deposits

  Spent

  Reason

  $3

  $1.20

  Crafts

  (you sent)

  $3

  .10

  Postcards

  (Grampy grammy)

  $2

  .60

  Stamps (etc.)

  blueberries

  $1

  .33

  Stamps

  Total

  $9

  (nine dollars)

  $2.23

  .05

  Gloria

  .25

  Sketch pad

  2.53

  So far I have spent two dollars and 53 cents. Imagining that by the time I come home I will have spent three dollars at the most, it seems I have a balance of about six dollars. I only hope that my figuring is correct.

  Our food prospects are brighter, for on Sunday we always have good meat and ice cream. Our soups and cocoa, however, are made with water, and are terribly thin or much too thick. Having a perfect time.

  Love,

  “Siv”

  TO Aurelia Schober Plath

  Sunday 21 July 1946

  ALS with envelope,

  Indiana University

 

  July 21, 1946

  Sunday

  Dear Mother,

  Oh! Poor grammy and grampy! The time they had in finding this camp! Dear grammy thought that it was Four Winds, and for some strange reason kept insisting that this was Four Winds. Our unit and Ridge were playing a softball game, and Ruth and I were not on the team, so when Grammy and Grampy at last drove up at 4:00, we ran to meet them, and showed them the way to the guest house so they drove up. As they got up, Skipper came out to meet them. I do not think the Skipper was especially overjoyed at their visit, but she welcomed them graciously, and Ruth and led them to our unit, after they unloaded the car for us. When they were cosily seated in our comfy little cabin, they displayed what they had bought for us. Ruthie and I were goggle-eyed! All the fresh fruit we could possibly divide between us two – six oranges, ten peaches, eleven plums, two pounds of cherries, and, to cap it all, a bag of Ritz crackers and cheese complete to the little spoon with which to spread the cheese on the crackers. Ruthie and I had never seen such a piece of wonder! Grammy and grampy sat watching contentedly as we carefully devoured one lb. of the ripe red-black cherries. Ah! What utter delight. I put the oranges and peaches in Ruthie’s tiny, empty, suitcase. We were so happy, because it was really exciting to get so much stuff. Out of the kindness of his heart grampy slipped me another two dollars!!!!!!!!!! I just had to give them my little nut spoon. It has “S” for “Schober” on it. We walked back to the car with them, and, after putting into the trunk my dirty clothes, we saw them off. Tears fill my eyes at the though of having such wonderfully grand grand parents!

  After taps it was very muggy. Ruth and I kept dozing off and waking up. With our stomachs rolling, growling, and complaining. We just had to finish our cherries. We awoke again in the middle of the night in the midst of a wonderful thunderstorm. The lightning was magnificent, but when I looked I was blinded, and only could see black, so---I drifted back into a fitful slumber.

  When we awoke this morning, the out-of-doors looked as if it had come from one of Arthur Rackham’s* pictures. The black, gnarled trees were dark and forbidding. There was a thick fog, and the air was cold and nasty.

  I was one of the few who went swimming. The water was like a warm bath. To make it happier, Ruthie was moved from red cap (lowest) to white cap (middle) group. She was beaming happily when she jumped down off the dock. We had a royal dinner this noon. We had chicken, boiled potatoes, gravy, butter, cranberry sauce, carrots, beets, pickled egg (no greens!) cupcakes and icecream. The weather is the type that really makes me long for home and my stampcollection. I will be rather sad to get away from camp, but I will be very glad to get to my own little mummie’s house.

  Well, rest hour’s over, and I must prepa
re for another sketching trip.

  Love,

  Siv

  TO Aurelia Schober Plath

  Monday 22 July 1946