Hughes claimed both that the manuscript went missing after 1970 and that Aurelia Plath, Sylvia’s mother, was the last to possess it, although none of his claims have been verified. Because they were still married at the time of her death, Hughes became the executor of Plath’s literary estate and he is known to have burned at least one journal, her last, “to protect their children.” And then there is the rumor that Smith College may have a secret copy stashed away in their archives.
While these rumors haven’t helped scholars get any closer to locating the missing second novel, that doesn’t mean all hope is lost. After all, unknown poems and journals of Plath’s continue to be discovered.
RELATED: I wrote about Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton here.
