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PLATH (SYLVIA)] HUGHES (TED) The Hawk in the Rain, FIRST EDITION, 1957; Lupercal, first American edition, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1960; Meet My Folks!, FIRST EDITION, 1961, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPIES INSCRIBED "To Winifred [Davies] and Garnett with my best wishes from Ted, October 1962" (the second and third with addition of "North Tawton"); Wodwo, FIRST EDITION, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED "To Winifred [Davies] gratefully from Ted, April 21st 1967", AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("yours Ted H.") loosely inserted, 1967, unless otherwise stated Faber & Faber (4) image 1
PLATH (SYLVIA)] HUGHES (TED) The Hawk in the Rain, FIRST EDITION, 1957; Lupercal, first American edition, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1960; Meet My Folks!, FIRST EDITION, 1961, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPIES INSCRIBED "To Winifred [Davies] and Garnett with my best wishes from Ted, October 1962" (the second and third with addition of "North Tawton"); Wodwo, FIRST EDITION, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED "To Winifred [Davies] gratefully from Ted, April 21st 1967", AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("yours Ted H.") loosely inserted, 1967, unless otherwise stated Faber & Faber (4) image 2
Lot 173

PLATH (SYLVIA)]
HUGHES (TED) The Hawk in the Rain, FIRST EDITION, 1957; Lupercal, first American edition, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1960; Meet My Folks!, FIRST EDITION, 1961, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPIES INSCRIBED "To Winifred [Davies] and Garnett with my best wishes from Ted, October 1962" (the second and third with addition of "North Tawton"); Wodwo, FIRST EDITION, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED "To Winifred [Davies] gratefully from Ted, April 21st 1967", AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("yours Ted H.") loosely inserted, 1967, unless otherwise stated Faber & Faber (4)

15 June 2016, 14:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £2,125 inc. premium

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[PLATH (SYLVIA)]

HUGHES (TED) The Hawk in the Rain, FIRST EDITION, 1957; Lupercal, first American edition, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1960; Meet My Folks!, FIRST EDITION, 1961, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPIES, INSCRIBED "To Winifred [Davies] and Garnett with my best wishes from Ted, October 1962" (the second and third with addition of "North Tawton"); Wodwo, FIRST EDITION, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED "To Winifred [Davies] gratefully from Ted, April 21st 1967", AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("yours Ted H.") loosely inserted, 1967, publisher's cloth, dust-jackets (the first with some loss at upper edge, the others slightly frayed at extremities of spine, the last mentioned with short tear), 8vo, unless otherwise stated Faber & Faber (4)

Footnotes

A collection of books inscribed by Ted Hughes to Winifred Davies and her son Garnett. As Garnett recalls "On a few occasions [when home from school] I accompanied my mother to meals with the Hughes family at Court Green. It was during this time that we were given a number of books that had been signed by Ted and Sylvia".

The autograph letter to Winifred, sent from Court Green in Devon, requests that "If you hear of anybody with bits & pieces of beehives for sale - apart from frames - could you let me know. I want to keep him [his son Nicholas] interested, & at present he is trying to get his hives together...". Winifred, the local midwife who helped deliver Nicholas, played an important role as a friend and inspiration to Sylvia Plath during her time in Devon. Plath wrote to her mother on June 15 1962 "Today, guess what we became beekeepers! We went to the local meeting last week (attended by the rector, the midwife, and assorted beekeeping people from neighboring villages)...", and after her death it was Winifred who inherited the bees that Plath had subsequently kept at North Tawton, and inspired the celebrated sequence of "Bee" poems that appeared in Ariel. The letter, most probably written in 1967 when he inscribed the copy of Wodwo, shows that Hughes had kept in touch with Winifred, at a time when she was still corresponding with Sylvia's mother Aurelia.

Provenance: Winifred Davies - see above for relationship with Hughes and Plath; by descent to her son Garnett.

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