A Closer Look at Ariel: a memory of Sylvia Plath

New York: Harper's Magazine Press, in association with Harper & Row, 1973. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Very Good. 12mo 7" - 7. I do not believe that Sylvia meant to die, and I suspect that when she did die, on that bleak and lonely February day when she stuck her head into the oven, it was because no one was there to pull her out--to submit to the final macabre threat: "I'll die if you desert me." A particularly nice-looking exemplar of this homage to "Ariel" of the title, the ill-fated poet Sylvia Plath, and with an Introduction by George Stade, from whom we get, "Sylvia Plath would have been a good poet even if she had not committed suicide. Our knowledge comments on the poetry as we read it." The text is by Nancy Hunter Steiner, friend to Ariel and her roommate one Summer following her first year spent at Smith College in 1953. Brown paper over boards, light brown linen cloth over spine, with sharp and distinct brown lettering to spine. Illustrated paper dust wrapper, little worn but along edges. Purple endpapers. 83 pp.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets.