Sylvia Plath: A life in photographs: 1960-1963

This is the last photograph gallery and includes places Plath lived, visited, and wrote about after her return to London in December 1959. In April 1960, Plath gave birth to a daughter, Frieda, at home. In 1961, she suffered an appendicitis and a miscarriage before channeling her creative efforts into her novel The Bell Jar. After this, Plath's creative writing escalated to such a degree that by October 1962, she was writing poems that would make her famous. By the Autumn of 1961, Plath and Hughes purchased Court Green, in North Tawton, Devon. Her son, Nicholas, was born in January 1962. Within the year her marriage collapsed and she moved back to London in early December 1962. The Bell Jar was published in January 1963, and within a month, she took her life. Sylvia Plath is buried in Heptonstall, in Yorkshire, England.

Please contact me regarding use of the photographs on this website. No photographs may be used without my consent.

	Caption: 3 Chalcot Square London	Reference: Plath and Hughes lived here from 1960 through August 1961.
	Caption: 3 Chalcot Square London	Reference: After it was recently painted but before the blue plaque.
	Caption: 3 Chalcot Square London	Reference: With the blue plaque in place.
	Caption: Chalcot Square	Reference: One of the lovely squares in the Primrose Hill neighborhood of London.
	Caption: Near Chalcot Square	Reference: A street just off Chalcot Square.
	Caption: Primrose Hill London	Reference: The Faber paperback of Winter Trees uses a similar view on its cover.
	Caption: Primrose Hill London	Reference: A lovely park with views of London from the top.
	Caption: York Minster Pub 49 Dean Street Soho, London	Reference: Plath signed the contract for Heinemann edition of The Colossus here on 10 February 1960. Now called the French House.
	Caption: St. George's Terrace London	Reference: Dido and W.S. Merwin lived on this street.
	Caption: House of Dido & W.S. Merwin 11 St. George's Terrace London	Reference: Plath drafted most of The Bell Jar here in the spring of 1961.
	Caption: Close-up of 11 St. George's Terrace London	Reference: Plath used the Merwin's study which was on one of the upper floors.
	Caption: Parliament Hill Fields Hampstead	Reference: See Plath's poem "Parliament Hill Fields".
	Caption: The sea Berck-Plage, France	Reference: See Plath's poem "Berck-Plage", section 1, "This is the sea, then, this great abeyance." Photo courtesy of Gail Crowther.
	Caption: Concrete Bunkers Berck-Plage, France	Reference: See Plath's poem "Berck-Plage", section 2, "Behind the concrete bunkers / Two lovers unstick themselves." Photo courtesy of Gail Crowther.
	Caption: Concrete Bunkers Berck-Plage, France	Reference: See Plath's poem "Berck-Plage." Photo courtesy of Gail Crowther.
	Caption: Plath with Frieda and Nicholas.	Reference: See Hughes's poem "Perfect Light" in Birthday Letters.
	Caption: Town centre North Tawton	Reference: Court Green is up the street and to the right.
	Caption: Fore Street North Tawton	Reference: Leading toward the River Taw.
	Caption: Market Street North Tawton	Reference: Leading toward Essington Road and Court Green.
	Caption: St. Peter's Church North Tawton	References: Plath attended some services and set part of her story "Mothers" here.
	Caption: The Yew Tree, St. Peter's	Reference: The Yew Tree in St. Peter's Churchyard. Photo courtesy of Gail Crowther.
	Caption: The row of headstones between the cemetery and Court Green.	Reference: See Plath's poem "The Moon and the Yew Tree".
	Caption: Essington Road North Tawton	Reference: Court Green is on the right.
	Caption: The cottages at Court Green	Reference: Rose and Percy Key lived here. See Plath's Journals and poem "Berck-Plage".
	Caption: The gate at Court Green.	Reference: This gate is built against the wall separating Court Green from the cemetery. Plath refers to this wall as "the wall of old corpses" in her poem "Letter in November".
	Caption: Court Green North Tawton	Reference: The thatched cottage of Court Green.
	Caption: Property at Court Green.	Reference: Notice the clusters of daffodil stalks and the apple trees.
	Caption: Property at Court Green	Reference: One of the apple trees.
	Caption: Near the River Taw	Reference: The approximate location of Plath's poem "The Bee Meeting". See also her Journals, pages 656-9.
	Caption: Town clock & Bloggs garage North Tawton	Reference: See Plath's The Journals, Appendix 15, page 633.
	Caption: "Sheep in Fog" Dartmoor	Reference: Plath rode horses near here.
	Caption: Pier Bar Cleggan, Ireland	References: Plath & Hughes stayed near here with Richard Murphy in September 1962.
	Caption: The harbour Cleggan, Ireland	Reference: Plath & Hughes set off from here with Richard Murphy to visit the island of Inishbofin.
	Caption: Monument to the Cleggan Distaster.	Reference: The subject of a Richard Murphy poem Plath judged in 1962 for the Guinness award at the Cheltenham Festival.
	Caption: Road to the Old Forge.	Reference: An unpaved road is one of two ways to the Old Forge.
	Caption: The Old Forge Cleggan	Reference: Plath & Hughes stayed here.
	Caption: Second building at The Old Forge.	Reference: A quiet cul-de-sac in a quiet town.
	Caption: Autograph Tree Coole Park Gort, Ireland.	Reference: Plath and Hughes visited Coole Park in September 1962.
	Caption: Initials on the tree.	Reference: Did Hughes add his initials to the tree? A "TH" is visible diagonally up to the right from the number 8?
	Caption: Yeats' Tower Thoor Ballylee	Reference: Nearby to the town of Gort is Thoor Ballylee.
	Caption: Albion House 59 New Oxford Street London	Reference: On 30 October 1962, Plath read her poems and was interviewed by Peter Orr here.
	Caption: Fitzroy Road London	Reference: The row houses on Fitzroy Road. The blue plaque for W.B. Yeats is visible.
	Caption: 23 Fitzroy Road London	Reference: Plath lived here from December 1962 until her death on 11 February 1963.
	Caption: The door and plaque at 23 Fitzroy Road	Reference: The Irish poet and dramatist W.B. Yeats lived in this house as a boy.
	Caption: Front doors and facades	Reference: The road ends at Primrose Hill.
	Caption: Mountfort Crescent London	Reference: The Becker's lived at No. 5. Plath stayed with them the last weekend of her life.
	Caption: Coroner's Court University College Hosptial.	Reference: Plath was taken here after her death.
	Caption: A way to Heptonstall.	Reference: A footpath leads from Hebden Bridge to Heptonstall.
	Caption: The spires of Heptonstall Church	Reference: From the moor.
	Caption: Me at Plath's grave September 1996	Reference: I have much less hair now.
	Caption: Sylvia Plath's grave	Reference: Are these tulips "too excitable"?
	Caption: Sylvia Plath's grave Heptonstall	Reference: Photograph taken on 11 February 2003.
	Caption: New cemetery Heptonstall.	Reference: Plath's grave is in this row.
	Caption: Neilson Library Smith College	Reference: Home to the Sylvia Plath Collection.
	Caption: A dedication plaque at Wellesley High School.	Reference: Erected in 2000, the 50th anniversary of her high school graduation.
	Caption: Frieda and Nicholas Hughes at 3 Chalcot Square	Reference: Take at the unveiling of Plath's Blue Plaque.
	Caption: Sylvia Plath's blue plaque.	Reference: On her former home at 3 Chalcot Square.