Sylvia Plath - The Spoken Word (audio)

Author: Plath, Sylvia; Hughes, Ted
Published by The British Library, 2010

This CD contains all the recordings of Sylvia Plath that survived in the BBC Sound Archives (with the exception of a reading of poems by Marvin Kane) and a recording of "Tulips" held by the British Library Sound Archive.

This recording also makes available the reading and interview with Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes in the Series "Two of a Kind".

The set is available from the British Library shop and from good booksellers.

Contents:

New Poetry: The Poet's Voice
Date of recording: 26.10.1960
Date of broadcast: 20.11.1960

1 Leaving Early (Duration: 2.28)

2 Candles (Duration: 2.13)

Two of a Kind: Poets in Partnership
Date of recording: 18.01.1961
Date of broadcast: 31.01.1961
Other speakers: Ted Hughes, Owen Leeming

3 Interview with Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes (Duration: 20.10)

4 Introduction to Mushrooms (Duration: 0.08)

5 Mushrooms (Plath) (Duration: 0.59)

6 Introduction to Pike (Duration: 0.15)

7 Pike (Hughes) (Duration: 2.24)

The Living Poet
Date of recording: 05.06.1961
Date of broadcast: 08.07.1961

8 Introduction (Duration: 0.57)

9 Introduction to The Disquieting Muses (Duration: 0.43)

10 The Disquieting Muses (Duration: 3.09)

11 Introduction to Spinster (Duration: 0.28)

12 Spinster (Duration: 1.29)

13 Introduction to Parliament Hill Fields (Duration: 0.47)

14 Parliament Hill Fields (Duration: 3.15)

15 Introduction to The Stones (Duration: 0.39)

16 The Stones (Duration: 2.44)

Live poetry reading at the Mermaid Theatre, London
Date of recording: 17.07.1961

17 Introducing Sylvia Plath (Duration: 0.46)

18 Introduction to Tulips (Duration: 0.13)

19 Tulips (Duration: 4.31)

The Poet's Voice
Date of recording: 10.08.1962
Date of broadcast: 24.08.1962

20 The Surgeon at 2 a.m. (Duration: 3.00)

What Made You Stay?
Date of recording: 14.04.1962
Date of broadcast: 07.09.1962

21 Surviving extracts from a recording made for, and partly used in, the programme What Made You Stay?, the first of a series in which seven Americans were asked why they chose to live and work in England (Duration: 6.44)

The Poet's Voice
Date of recording: 29.10.1962
Date of broadcast: 17.11.1962

22 Berck-Plage (Duration: 6.32)

New Comment
Date of recording: 10.01.1963
Date of broadcast: 10.01.1963

23  Sylvia Plath reviews an anthology called Contemporary American Poetry and reads extracts from the following poems:

• Memories of West Street and Lepke (Robert Lowell)
• There Is (Louis Simpson)
• Sunday in Glastonbury (Robert Bly)
• After Greece (James Merrill)
• Miners (James Wright)
• Flower Herding on Mount Monadnock (Galway Kinnell) (Duration: 9.07)