#paul alexander

The “Sylvia Plath Calendar” - 62 years ago today:

Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes’ daughter, Frieda Rebecca Hughes was born on 1 April 1960 at 5:45 a.m. at 3 Chalcot Square, near Primrose Hill, North London, UK

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“Finally, on the night of March 31 [1960], after she and Ted had taken a walk along Primrose Hill and Regent’s Park that had tired her enough so she fell asleep immediately, Sylvia awoke to labor pains. Then everything happened quickly. By two o’clock when Ted called the midwife, Sylvia’s contractions were violent. By five, she was fully dilated. By five-thirty, when the nurse called the doctor, Sylvia believed the baby would come any minute. And it did—at five-forty-five. A girl, she weighed seven pounds and four ounces and measured twenty-one inches in length. Sylvia called her Frieda Rebecca, and the source of the name was clear. It was Otto’s [Sylvia’s father] sister Frieda, Sylvia’s aunt whom she had described as “resembl[ing] daddy—the same … blue eyes and shape of face.”

During labor and the actual birth, Ted remained at Sylvia’s side; he often held her hand and rubbed her back. As he had hypnotized her over the past few weeks, Ted had offered a posthypnotic suggestion that she have a quick and painless delivery. Though by no means painless, it was—at four and a half hours—relative quick.”

In a letter, Plath stated that “[t]he whole experience of birth and baby seem[s] much deeper, much closer to the bone, than love and marriage.”

–Excerpt from Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath by Paul Alexander, 1991

Picture: Sylvia Plath with Ted Hughes and their daughter Frieda at Knole, UK in May 1960

The “Sylvia Plath Calendar” - 90 years ago today: Otto Emil Plath married Aurelia Frances Schober on Monday, 4 January 1932 at the Ormsby County courthouse in a civil ceremony in Carson City, Nevada. From ‘Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath’ (1991) by Paul Alexander: “Drawn closer together by the letters they had exchanged that summer, Otto and Aurelia began dating when Aurelia returned to Boston in September to assume the Brookline High School faculty post she had been offered. Almost immediately, weekend hiking trips, afternoon strolls through the Arnold Arboretum, and nights at the theatre launched the couple into a serious romance. Before long, they openly discussed marriage. Finally, just after Christmas 1931, they left Boston by car and, chaperoned by Aurelia’s mother, drove cross-country to Carson City, Nevada, where on Monday, January 4, 1932, Otto filed for and received a divorce from Lydia Bartz, the woman he had not seen in over a decade. Later that same day, Otto Plath and Aurelia Schober, each of whom swore in writing to be a current resident of Reno, Nevada, were married in a civil ceremony in Carson City, at Ormsby County’s courthouse. Following a honeymoon in Nevada, the Plaths, still accompanied by Aurelia’s mother, drove back to Boston to begin their married life. Aurelia moved into Otto’s apartment, a six-room first-floor rental in a house at 24 Prince Street in Jamaica Plain. Before she could resume her teaching job at Brookline High, Otto insisted that she resign, which she did even though she was a successful teacher and probable future chairman of the German Department. Otto wanted Aurelia to become a full-time housewife, and he wished to start a family as soon as possible. In fact, they would become parents much sooner than even Otto had hoped: only weeks into the marriage Aurelia became pregnant (with Sylvia).” . If you want to learn more about Otto’s and Aurelia’s family histories, I can definitely recommend Alexander’s ‘Rough Magic’, as it provides many details. . . Photo: Sylvia Plath (9 months old) with her parents in July 1933 at the Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts (Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College, Northampton, MA, USA) #sylviaplath #onthisday https://www.instagram.com/p/CYUmECVL2tD/?utm_medium=tumblr

The show was extended. If you haven’t seen Paul Alexander’s “TRINKETS” ..come on down to the Gene Frankel theatre in Nyc…there’s still tickets for the Sept 6,7,8 and 13.