Ariel by Sylvia Plath - First Edition

The second poetry collection and final ever publication of Sylvia Plath’s work comes in the form of Ariel  – a book steeped in mastery and tragedy.

Published posthumously in 1965, two years after her suicide in 1963, Ariel contains some of Plath’s most iconic poems, including ‘Daddy’ and ‘Lady Lazarus’.

All of the poems in this collection were written between the publication of her previous poetry collection, The Colossus (1960) and her death. Plath’s husband and fellow poet, Ted Hughes, edited and executed the publication of Ariel, yet his creative licence resulted in heavy alterations of the manuscript that Plath left behind. The couple had separated in 1962, due to Hughes’ infidelity, but he remained the editor of Plath’s work after her death; the inside flap on the original dust jacket even includes recommendations to Ted Hughes’ own work.

The front flap of the dust jacket, however, is dedicated to Plath’s life and writing. The poems in Ariel are described as ‘represent[ing] a striking development on the mode of her earlier collection, and are sure to add to the many admirers of her work.’ By 1965, both The Colossus and The Bell Jar had already been published, leaving Ariel as the corrupted coda of Plath’s oeuvre, yet nothing short of her most prominent writing.

The book is dedicated to her two children, Frieda and Nicholas.

Both The Colossus and The Bell Jar (the latter originally published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas) were published by Heinemann, but Ariel was published by Faber and Faber. Our copy is a first edition of the UK publication from 1965, with the original dust jacket in very good condition. There is some slight foxing on the sides and endpapers, but other than that, it’s in great condition. It is being sold for £325.

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