Letters of Ted Hughes

by Ted Hughes, Christopher Reid (Editor)

At the outset of his career Ted Hughes described letter-writing as 'excellent training for conversation with the world', and he was to become a prolific master of this art which combines writing and talking. This selection of letters begins when Hughes was seventeen, and documents the course of a life at once resolutely private but intensely attuned to other lives (including a readership comprising both adults and children); a life pared down to essentials and yet eventful, peripatetic, at times publicly controversial.

Genres: Nonfiction, Poetry, Literature, Biography, Autobiography, Memoir

756 pages, Hardcover

First published October 29, 2007

About the author

Edward James Hughes was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984 and held the office until his death. In 2008, The Times ranked Hughes fourth on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
He married fellow poet Sylvia Plath in 1956, and they lived together in the United States and then in England, in a tumultuous relationship. They had two children before separating in 1962 and Plath ended her own life in 1963.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read much biography - probably fewer than ten volumes in my life. It doesn't appeal to me that much, for no clear reason, other than a lot of my reading is driven by the urge to stimulate my imagination - which is why SF and Fantasy figure strongly on my shelves. The biographies I have read are mainly of figures who have made a significant impression on me and left me with an urge to find out more about them as a person. Doing so hasn't been a waste of time so maybe I should read more?

Volumes of letters figure even less in my reading - in fact, this is only the second such volume I've read. The reasons for this are that I fear they may be dull and that on top of my not very rational avoidance of biographical material I feel that reading them is an invasion of privacy. I can't entirely overcome this feeling even though the letter-writer is generally dead when the letters are published and any living recipients must have given permission. The first volume were letters by Feynman. Now Hughes. These two are the great representative figures of the two major poles of my intellectual life, the scientific and the literary. Feynman was a great scientist and teacher of science - we would do well to attempt to be more like him, professionally. Hughes is someone writers should aspire to be more like; not by copying his style or themes but by ignoring everybody else and writing the way that is truest to themselves and their subjects. Both groups face significant institutionalised obstacles to acheiving these aims. So, to overcome my negative feelings about reading private letters it seems that the writer must be on the top tier of my personal pantheon of Great Figures.

Moving on to the book, at last: I was primarily motivated by the idea of gaining insight into Hughes' writing, particularly the poetry. I certainly got that, but I got many other things besides. As examples, an insight into the literary life of poets (bitter, sometimes public rivalry and resentment, deep friendships) a good look at Hughes' character (difficult at times, superstitious) and life (bleakly over-shadowed by tragedy). Some of the letters made me feel very uncomfortably voyeuristic, particularly Hughes' love letters to Sylvia Plath. Only a few were written for the public (letters to newspapers).

The insights into Hughes' writing come as two types; biographical and discursive. An crucial example of the former was learning that Hughes gave up studying English and persued Archaeology and Anthropology for his final year in Cambridge. This, coupled with learning that almost everything Hughes read as a child/teen was folklore or myth and that he was heavily influenced by reading Jung, explains the imagination and world-view that brought Crow, Cave-birds and even the Lauriette poems into being.

As to the discursive in letters to friends and students, Hughes explains at length the origins (often dreams) and symbolism of his work. It turns out that almost all his poetry is symbolic of something or other - frequently mythic figures. It's also clear that next to nobody would be likely to figure out these symbols without help, even when they have a good grounding in the world literature of myth and folklore. For instance, the Hawk in Hawk Roosting represents an ancient Egyptian god. This is indicated by the line, "The sun is behind me." We all picked up on that, didn't we? The giant pike that rises at the end of Pike is also symbolic. Really, if it could possibly be symbolic, even in the most apparently straight-foward poems, then it almost certainly was - and if it is barely conceivable that something could be symbolic, then it probably was, too. Then there are the overtly symbolic poems...

There is so much to learn from these letters that I was itching to read from my Collected Poems alongside this volume - but unable to do so - all my poetry is in a warehouse. I also wanted to get and read everything Hughes wrote and re-read everything I'd already read. I could so easily have veered into amateur Hughes student territory, too; I wanted to read all the published criticism of his work and also felt even more neglectful in not knowing Sylvia Plath's work at all. Plath is inescapable in this book; she haunts it, just as she haunted Hughes' life until the publication of Birthday Letters when Hughes was already terminally ill with cancer.

Anybody who wants to understand Hughes or his work needs to read this book.

[minnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a big book, over 700 pages of the poet Ted Hughes' letters, and still, as the editor says only a small fraction of Hughes' epistolary output. The letters start from 1947 onwards to the last, only a few days before his death in 1998. Most of the letters in this book refer in some way to poetry, language, and writing as you would expect from a Cambridge undergraduate who gets up at six and reads an hour or two of Shakespeare and Chaucer before nine. The correspondence is mostly to poets, critics friends and family. There are his letters to his first wife Sylvia Plath, when they were apart during the early part of the marriage, which show how they worked together so closely, not just on poetry but ideas and plots for stories too. There are the later letters after her death in which Hughes fiercely tries to protect her memory for his children Frieda and Nick. A long letter to former friend Al Alvarez asks him to stop lecturing and writing about Sylvia's suicide " You're putting their guardian angel in a pose that is going to make things as explosive for them, as if their lives weren't enough of a minefield already" he tells him. A lot of the letters are to Plath biographers clarifying points and always trying to protect his children. The later letters in 1998 show a regret in a way for keeping these memories locked up and when Birthday Letters is published Hughes writes to his son of a " Gigantic upheaval of transformation of my mind, I can think thoughts I never could think, I have freedom of imagination I've not felt since 1962 just to have got rid of all that"
The letters to his children are inspiring, as he guides Frieda through writing a play for school, or his letter to her describing his meeting with the Queen to collect the poetry medal. Ted Hughes had many interests from Shakespeare to Shamanism, and his letter to Swedish theatre director Donya Feur on the merits of 'Measure for Measure' is fascinating in its detail as is a letter to a bishop who invited Hughes to a lunch on poetry and the church. Hughes’ interest in astrology is prominent too, as whenever a book of his was to be published he wrote to Faber and Faber asking always for specific dates for best results. Some of the letters are very deep and academic and go into all kinds of heavy concepts, like Occult Neo-Platonism?! but the only ones I skimmed were those detailing angling activities and a rather long one to his parents covering in minute detail a bullfight. Overall I became totally absorbed in this collection, and anyone studying poetry or Shakespeare should read this for Hughes' enlightening insights.

[Chlöe Godsell · Rating 5 out of 5]

In February 1957, Ted Hughes wrote to his sister Olwyn. ‘What a place America is’, he noted, ‘everything is 10,000 miles from where it was plucked or made.’ From the home he was then sharing with Sylvia Plath in Northampton, Massachusetts, Hughes kept in touch with family and friends through long letters. ‘Love’, he wrote, ‘look after yourself. Eat well and speculate hopefully’.

From their new home, he went to great lengths to maintain alliances and instruct loyalists, providing a first hand account of the first year of his marriage.

It is clear from these letters that Hughes is reading an enormous amount at this time and he quotes and references furiously in his correspondence. This contextualizes his discontent and the reader is granted a fascinating insight into Hughes' frustrations with writers block and the financial pressure to maintain productivity. He despairs, suggesting that every attempt to forge a ‘normal profession’ is made impossible by the scale of his talent.

Hughes wrote to Lucas Myers in July 1957 and expanded on this point- ‘How very affable and very magically helpful and luck-bringing it is when I entertain it and its inventions, its fantasticalia, its pretticisms and infinite verballifictions’. Submitting to the unpredictability of the writer’s course is the only way he can live with it. As he cannot live without it, he resolves to do just this:

‘I think it would be the best and most sensible course to make a career out of humouring it. If you humiliate your devils, they avenge themselves, by paralysing your outer efforts.’

Simultaneously, we are alerted to the increasing strain that this unease is having on his marriage. Away from England, he has time to reflect while she continues to teach and write, thereby gaining increasing acclaim in the USA. Plath's success is matched by his despondency.

Hughes' ponderings provide us with an insight into the complexity of his feelings at this time, and the inspiration for work to come. From the Feast of Lupercal, Roman festival of etymological significance to the crucifixion, Goethe to astrology, illuminated is a vast and cavernous psyche.

In a letter to Olwyn in 1959, Hughes explains how his attitude to religion is borne of the notion of ‘God as the devourer’. The idea, he writes, ‘makes a metaphor of the Holy Family, and logically poses love- all derivatives of mother-love (of Mary, you see)- as the only protection against evil’. He goes on, explaining that the love between a mother and her child is the only love which does not need to devour to live. Therein, God exists as protective love, that which is most devoid of evil.

Intimate feelings on life with and after Sylvia Plath, fatherhood and literature are recorded in great detail throughout. As poignant a selection of Hughes' personal thoughts as it is an insight into his art, this is a necessary read for any admirer of the poet and man.

[Demi van Doorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

De brieven lieten mij kennis maken met de sympathieke, nuchtere, maar goedgelovende man die Hughes was. Klassiek, intelligent maar bovenal openhartig. Het is een van de betere boeken om naast je te hebben liggen tijdens het slapen.

Het boek leerde mij geruchten tot onwaarheden maken en gaf een helder, breed en oprecht zicht in de andere kant van het dichtersdrama Hughes - Plath.

[Ian Durant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some terrific insights into Hughes’ poetic instinct, drive and craft, but less revealing about the tragedies which beset him - the suicides of Sylvia Plath and Asia Weevil (together with their daughter Shura). There are the expected insights into the bitchy world of literary endeavour and careers, but also the friendships and insights into others. Hughes’ mental world was inhabited by rural and ancient impulses, of wild animals and myth and legend as described in Graves’ The White Goddess. Was he too immersed in this world to notice the mental state of his closest? Physically he resembled granite and it is all to tempting to assume that he had an emotional blind spot, but unfortunately these letters don’t help a lot with this question. He was well aware of the role of letters as biography and literary legacy - they are interesting and absorbing in that context alone.

[Olivia Loving · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It was when I realized that my only chance of getting past 1963 was to blow up that log-jam, and assemble whatever I had written about your mother and me, and simply make it public -- like a confession -- that I decided to publish those Birthday Letters as I've called them. I thought, let the feminists do what they like, let people think what they like about me, let critics demolish and tear to bits these simple, unguarded, quite private for the most part, unsophisticated bits of writing, let the heavens fall, let your mother's Academic armies of support demolish me, let Carol go bananas, let Frieda and Nick bolt for their bomb-shelters -- I can't care any more, I can't lock myself in behind this glass door one more week.

So I did it, and now I'm getting the surprise of my life. What I've been hiding all my life, from myself and everybody else, is not terrible at all."

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Im not a poetry reader, and prior to reading this, knew next to nothing about Sylvia Plath, and even less about Ted Hughes. And while in retrospoect this seems to me a strange jumping off point, I found myslef enjoying both Hughes' examination of his craft, but even more so the way a gifted contemporary poet writes his correspondence. To my (very) untrained eye, even his most causual correspondence sings with a certain beauty and heft that shines with an aura that only an exceptional talent can issue. I may actually go out a buy a poetry book, of his or someone else.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are feeling a little weary, a dip into this book will restore you.Contains wonder on every page.

[Mary Amato]

"…one person cannot live within another's magic circle, as an enchanted prisoner."

[Diann Blakely]

Ted Hughes, for much of his life, appeared to the American literary community as a caricature: a brutal Lothario whose philandering had caused the suicide of Sylvia Plath. This volume of letters, pared from hundreds by Christopher Reid, restores him to more than human stature. For Hughes’s devotion to poetry, whatever his faults as a man, was monolithic as Stonehenge and, as a result, he emerges as a monumental figure in the history of twentieth century verse.

That devotion to poetry, but also to England, goes hand-in-hand with his interest in myth and folklore, evident in one of his earliest and most anthologized poems, “The Thought-Fox.” The pages here from Hughes’s earliest years, when he was wrested from his native Yorkshire moors into National Service and then Cambridge, reveal a sense of roots that was never to be severed, even though most of the volume’s letters are sent from Devon. Hughes moved there, in the sixties, first before and then back after Plath’s death, to the house they had shared, but he seems never to have given up the dream of returning to Yorkshire. The moors of Devon, one suspects, are the only other place in England where he could have felt remotely at home.

To many the main impetus for reading this volume will be Hughes's letters to and about Sylvia Plath. ARIEL is a better book because of his editorship, now that we have the original version as a basis of comparison. Is it a fantasy to say that he boosted and bolstered her writing at every turn while they were married, a time when she remained largely blocked?  For most of the work by which Plath is best-known was written after he left her.  Of course, it could be argued that it was the pre-abandonment boosting and bolstering that prepared his wife for the ARIEL poems in both editions--an argument not likely to resolved any time soon.


(originally published in the ANTIOCH REVIEW, Spring 2009, Vol. 67, No. 2)

[Betty]

I cannot fairly rate this book- I really only read it to read his letters to, and about, Sylvia Plath. Full disclosure- as a loyal Plathie, I hate Ted Hughes with a blinding passion.

After reading most of this book I have come away with two main conclusions . One- if Sylvia Plath had not met and married Ted Hughes he probably would have lived out his days as some hick reading Yeats on the moors of Yorkshire, who had never heard of modern dentistry, rather than becoming Poet Laureate. The amount of work she put into getting him published is astounding.
Two- it became very clear to me that had Ted Hughes made different choices regarding Plath’s estate, she would not have become the icon she is today.
I still hate this man bloody murder, not only for his behavior in their marriage, but I generally hate blowhards who hunt and fish and talk about themselves endlessly. But it is very clear to me I also have TH to thank for publishing Ariel, Collected Poems, and other writings that essentially gave the public Sylvia Plath. So maybe I hate him a little bit less than I initially did.
Just a little.

[Jane Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading for lovers of poetry.

From other reviews here, it is also clear that this book changes the minds of those pre-disposed to see Hughes as a monster. Personally, I came to it loving Hughes's entire body of work and bitterly disappointed that I never managed to meet the man while he was alive, and it has not disappointed. These selected letters speak clearly of a man in love with his vocation as poet, private about the emotional pain of his past, and deeply generous to everyone who asked for his help, even complete strangers.

Worth every penny.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a time when I saw Ted Hughes as a monster. With maturity, I have gained a more sympathetic view. I cam eo tthe book most interested in the Plath angle (his relationship with Sylvia, his dealings with Aurelia and the followers of Plath after her death, etc) but ended up most interested in his descriptions of his craft.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to read part of this collection every day for the rest of my life.

[Martin Kerr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martin Kerr

Ted Hughes’ Letters a poetic and intellectual revelation
January 18, 2019
Letters of Ted Hughes
Selected and edited by Christopher Reid
Faber and Faber 2007, 756 pages

Ted Hughes (1930-1998) was a big Yorkshire man, from a hard working family who supported and educated him. His brother was Gerard and sister Olwyn. Gerard, ten years older, served in World War Two and migrated to in Australia.
Ted was brought up close to where he hunted and fished. He was not an excellent student but managed to secure a place at a public school on the intervention of a teacher who was impressed by his writing abilities.
Though not an autobiography, the revelations and arguments in his letters shows the influences of his upbringing which leads him into shamanism, the study of ancient lore and astrology. Later he was an active supporter of the environment. He was also fortunate to be stimulated into forming a close association with Shakespeare’s works.
At Cambridge University (he did not achieve a first) Hughes formed a group with other writers and published poetry and other works. He was by then an older student who had competed two years of National Service in the Air Force. Meeting young American scholarship student Sylvia Plath was love at first sight. The steamy romance ended in a secret marriage so Sylvia could keep her scholarship.
Moves to the country, the birth and upbringing of two children Frieda and Nicholas, difficulties with the marriage are revealingly covered.
After Path’s suicide (on medication) in 1963, Hughes’ letter to Sylvia’s mother, Aurelia (p. 217-20), is thoughtful, fearing problems for the children if she visited at that time. Her daughter had attempted suicide (on medication) before coming to Cambridge (p. 323).
‘… for a large part of his life he was the most crudely vilified of writers…’ (p. xvii)
Anything Ted did, wrote or said was misconstrued by feminists of the time. As executor of Plath’s Estate he was blamed for not looking after Sylvia’s grave. From these letters Ted shows frustration and yet humanity in his advice to his children and comments to his friends. He was a trenchant critic of the university literary establishment (‘Academy tower machine-gunners’ - p. 661) quoting evidence throughout his letters of how young poets were treated and put down by critics. He was forever a supporter of young writers seeking to establish themselves, and very few did.
He reluctantly accepted the appointment of Poet Laureate 1985 (p. 496-7) and was awarded The Order of Merit in 1998. He had sympathies for the Monarchy, no doubt coming from his study of Shakespeare, Celtic and Anglo Saxon history. His letter to Prince Charles (p. 651-2) is most respectful, as were his letters to the religieux.
His second marriage also ended in the suicide of his wife Assia Wevill and her daughter Shura in 1969. Was Ted destined to find and marry women with problems? Fortunately he ended up with Carol Orchard who looked after the farm and encouraged his final production, Birthday Letters, 1998.
Ted Hughes may have gained the reputation of being a bully. His letters reveal no evidence of this. His output of published works is large. Says his editor, ‘Hughes scholarship is in its early days, and the subdivision dedicated to tracing the poet’s every step through a study of his letters and miscellaneous documentary ephemera is not going to be short of work’. (p. xvi)
Several circumstances lead me on… Ted’s service with the Air Force brings back notions of TE Lawrence. Hard yakka doing very little of substance. A time for thinking and planning. Similarities between Australian author George Johnston (My Brother Jack) and Charmian Clift (a poet who committed suicide in 1969), and perhaps between New Zealand born author Ruth Park and her writer husband D’Arcy Niland (died of cancer early in the marriage). Could creative partnerships cause unforeseen outcomes?
There is a great story in Ted’s letters. A subsequent review of internet sources in no way made up for the literary revelations in Ted’s letters: advice and encouragement for young poets and writers seeking to become themselves as persons and to how they can contribute to the body politic.
Of further interest, Felicity Plunkett writes a long review of The letters of Sylvia Plath Volume II, 1956-1963 edited by Peter K. Steinberg and Karen V. Kukil in The Australian Review, December 15-16, 2018. Frieda (brother Nicholas committed suicide in 2009) supported this project outlining her mother’s final days recognising that her aunt, Olwyn was a ‘”monster”’. Another critic, Erica Wagner in The Australian Financial Review, September 28, 2018, says of these letters, ‘To be blunt: at the end, Ted Hughes comes across as a monster’.

Martin Kerr’s New Guinea Patrol was first published in 1973. His cult memoir, short stories and seven novels are available on Kindle.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is something rather unseemly and prurient about reading other men's letters, even when they are dead (and 25 years dead in Ted Hughes' case still seems rather soon). But whereas Philip Larkin's letters are enjoyable in a rather spiteful way - and feature in this collection when Hughes discovers that Larkin loathed him, and most other poets - Hughes' letters are courteous, thoughtful and decidedly un-personal. This might be down to the survival of the blandest (he instructed Assia Wevill to burn his letters to her), but also because Hughes comes across as a man who was deeply locked in upon himself, perhaps (as he thought) owing to the lifetime legacy of Sylvia Plath's death; perhaps because he was a traditional South Yorkshire man for whom open expression of emotion did not come easily.

This is not to say that this is a dry and uninteresting collection, only that those seeking revelations about his relationships to Plath and Wevill will not find them here. What is present is quite a considerable amount about fishing, some (but thankfully not all) of his correspondence about Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being and various letters to his children, friends and Plath's mother.

The letters complement Jonathan Bate's biography well. You get even more of an idea of Hughes' curious obsession with astrology and folklore. A number of his letters to Faber & Faber plead with them to publish his next volume of poetry on a precise day due to the astrological alignment. All but one footnote comments that the deadline was missed by a week or so. Hughes held such a firm belief in traditions that most of his readers would consider borderline loony that after three weeks of reading these letters, I almost became convinced. Perhaps the missed publication dates explain why Lupercal and Gaudate are so unreadable!

Of more interest are his writings on animals, which are so beautiful whether it is the hedgehog snuffling in the garden, a fox or a pike. He also has some interesting observations on the relationship between poetry and religion and when he does reflect on Plath's life he does so with pathos and an earnest attempt to defend her life and legacy against sensationalism. "I tell you all this to qualify your attitude to the notion of her as a young woman hurtling to disintegration shedding rags of poetry - leaping into Aetna and bursting into flames as she fell."

When he finally published his superb Birthday Letters, a year before his death, he believed that he had finally, in his mid-60s removed the psychological log jam that had prevented him from writing well for 25 years. He hoped that it was not too late. Sadly it was.

[Piet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een indrukwekkende bundel brieven vanaf 1952 tot 1998, het jaar dat de schrijver sterft. Wat de bundel zo intrigerend maakt is natuurlijk zijn relatie met Sylvia Plath en de jaren na haar zelfdoding. En dus krijgen we ook te lezen wat het hem deed toen hij de bagger over zich heen kreeg van met name Amerikaanse feministen die hem - pas in een later stadium overigens - de dood van Sylvia verweten. Je krijgt een inkijkje in zijn relatie met Sylvia (natuurlijk vanuit één kant belicht) en wat haar dood in hem bewerkstelligde. Ook zijn brieven aan hun beider kinderen (Frieda en Nicholas) zijn erg boeiend. Maar veel brieven gaan ook over literaire detailonderwerpen. Die sloeg ik soms over. Maar het merendeel las ik gretig. Een aangrijpend document humain.

[Courtenay Schembri Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always held a balanced view of Ted Hughes, but reading his letters truly shows him for the manipulative, bitter, spineless, and controlling hack he was. No amount of good poetry can ever redeem that.

[Okidoki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Läsvärt för den intresserade. Han ger intryck av att vara en mycket omtänksam och vänfast person. Givande att därefter se filmen "Sylvia" från 2004.

[Deepak Chatarji · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice, elegant and perfect!

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I began to read this collection of letters, I wrote: "Trying to change my mind about this guy (as an ardent Sylvia Plath fan)..."
What I discovered was how full and interesting a good collection of letters can be as a biography. A collection that spans this period of time (1947-1998) also corresponds nicely with my own timeline, and allows you to place aspects of his developing consciousness within familiar territory. I was predisposed to not like Hughes (irrationally holding him responsible in part for Plath's early death/suicide), but I came away from this experience with admiration for how he lived his life, before and after losing Plath. It is clear, when you read his description of Birthday Letters (the collection of poems written to Plath, over the years after her death), and in all of the references to her work in his letters, that he had profound respect and love for her. I am now interested in reading more of his own work (listen to what he has to say about it: "... my aim was to direct readers (listeners) towards certain faculties--inner concentration, inner listening, dependance on the spontaneous mind rather than on the calculating & remembering mind etc.") There are some chilling bits, given recent history (after Hughes' own death), like: "And when I visit my son, who at thireen was a gifted writer and natural very original poet, now living on a lonely stream in the Alaska wilderness, burowing miles deep into his scientific data an an Arctic fish, and evading any attempt I might make to bring up Sylvia, I wonder if he hasn't searched out too perfect a removal from what the literary documentary dramatists have made of his mother." (Nicholas, his son, committed suicide earlier this year.)

[Sam Schulman · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you don't care for Hughes' poetry, it doesn't matter - this is a terribly sad, fascinating and horrifying book about a much more extraordinary and complicated man, much less naive though still fundamentally ingenuous, than I had thought him to be, from his poems and from the Plathiana. I admired his diligence, his curiosity, his pages on living among Americas in America in the 50s - in Northampton and elsewhere - his hondling of his family and Plath's family, and his unwilling bonding with Plath's mother after Sylvia's suicide, his letters to his children, his sense of the public role of the poet - and his attraction to unstable women which led to a second woman checking herself out on his watch, for me unbearable to go through. He is a real human being, which is more than I thought he was. To read these letters is an experience - not necessarily a pleasant or a constructive one, however.

[Emma]

I haven't finished this book (I am half way through it) but so far I am loving it. It really highlights just how phenomenal a poet he really was. Just the way he writes normal every day prose and his descriptions...wow.

All right so I have finished The Letters of Ted Hughes. Once again; WOW. He was the most interesting of men and his letter writing is wonderful, even his conversation flows beautifully. I knew I would cry once I finished the book-even though I knew the end.

[Annelies · Rating 5 out of 5]

De Brieven van Ted Hughes wilde ik lezen omdat ik zijn gedichten in de 'birthday letters' zo schokkend prachtig vind. In zijn brieven schrijft hij over schrijven & over poëzie. Behalve bij Rutger Kopland, heb ik nooit zo van binnenuit het proces van schrijven en de worsteling ermee, gelezen. Zijn tragische leven zoemt altijd mee op de achtergrond, maar op de voorgrond staat zijn schrijversleven en dat vind ik boeiend.

[Andrew Mcgowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazingly clairvoyant look into one of the worlds greatest writers and his artistry. Filled with passion, witticisms, and cogent love letters to plath, it's an education in the vocation of poetry to apiculate. A posthomous milestone, if ever there was one of any poet.

[Lili · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enormous book, containing only a fraction of the letters written by Ted Hughes. It gives insights into how this man worked, into his marriage and his loves. Interesting details emerge and keep one's interest.

[MeneerJanssen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ted Hughes schrijft prachtige brieven bij een tragisch leven. En ondanks alle tragiek een verbazingwekkende opgewektheid van toon. Ik kende hem inderdaad alleen als de man van. Ik ben hem door deze collectie brieven bijzonder sympathiek gaan vinden.

[Michael]

I'm a devout Plathian in the Plathian-Hughesian wars, but this still looks like a really good book.

[Jodi Kasten · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid...

[Chris S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apparently this on;y scratches the surface in terms of the number of letter that TH produced. I hope ther are further volumes.