PLATH, Sylvia (her copy) - FREEMAN, Don.

£9,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Come One, Come All! Sylvia Plath's copy of the first edition, signed on her ex-libris bookplate, and with a gift inscription from her cherished friend Ruth Freeman on the half-title: "With Love from Ruthie to Sylvia on her [19th] Birthday, October 27, 1951". Plath wrote of this copy in her letters, "I love Come One, Come All!. The illustrations alone are exquisite, and the book as a whole is an impressive addition to my slowly growing 'library'" (p. 399).Sylvia Plath and Ruth Freeman (b. 1933; no relation to the author, Don Freeman) were inseparable in childhood and celebrated many birthdays together. They partied at Plath's overnight when she turned 13, and for Freeman's 14th birthday, Plath bought them tickets to see her friend's favourite film, The Red Shoes (1948). Their families were neighbours on Johnson Avenue, Winthrop, Massachusetts, from 1937 to 1942. The pair spent "countless hours together in one house or the other. Until summer arrived, [then] the children passed the hot, muggy months playing on the beach" (Alexander, p. 25).Plath's early letters brim with enthusiasm for Freeman. On 13 July 1946, Plath wrote to her mother Aurelia, in all capitals, "Ruth Freeman is coming to [camp] and is being in my cabin when she comes on Sunday!!!" (Letters, p. 65). Plath also bonded with Freeman's mother Marion, telling her on 4 November 1946, "You will always be like a second mother to me, you know" (p. 84). After Plath left Winthrop, she and Ruth Freeman visited each other o

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