Earth-Moon:
A Ted Hughes Website
View of Mytholmroyd from Heights Rd. Mytholmroyd is the small town in Yorkshire, where Ted Hughes was born in 1930.
News & Announcements
17 December 2007
Sad news just arrived that Diane Middlebrook has died yesterday. I'm lost for words. Here is the link to one of the obituaries at SFGate.com. Thanks to Carol Bere for letting me know.
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12 April 2007
Handcart Ensemble, a theater company devoted to works which are rich in language and that allow for imaginative use of the stage, is staging the first New York full production of the Ted Hughes "Alcestis" from April 19th – May 5th. For further information please access their web site at www.handcartensemble.org or go to this page.
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17 January 2007
Ann Skea has been adding plenty of exciting content
to her website. Among the latest additions are
"'Creatures of Light': Why and how did Ted Hughes use Magic in his poetry?
An historical perspective." -- her paper presented a t Emory,
and
"Poetry and Magic 3: Capriccio : Capriccio and The Path of the Sword. Confronting
and controlling the demons.", her new work in progress.
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17 January 2007
A revised edition of Keith Sagar's Ted Hughes: The Laughter of Foxes has been published in paperpack. More on this item soon. Here's a review by Ann Skea.
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17 January 2007
Neil Roberts has completed his book Ted Hughes: A Literary Life, published by Palgrave Macmillan. More on this as soon as a review copy comes in. In the meantime, read Ann Skea's review of the book.
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17 January 2007
A Happy New Year everyone. Apologies for the slow progress with getting the site relaunched. It's just one of many projects that need to get done so it takes a little longer than originally expected.
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12-ix-2006
Eilat Negev & Yehuda Koren wrote that their biography of Assia Wevill will be published in London late September 2006. The book will be titled "A Lover of Unreason". Follow this link to read the publisher's note for the book.
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23-viii-2006
Joanny Moulin will present a sub-plenary paper at the ESSE Conference in London this September. It is titled "Ted Hughes's Impossible Biography" and will be given Thursday 31 August, 12 noon -- 1.15pm at the Institute of English Studies, University of London, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
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Roy Davids has updated his site with a new essay titled "Ted Hughes Tabletalk - a Counterblast", in which he answers Horatio Morpurgo's article of 2001. You will find the essays under the "Articles" Menu.
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Finally, while the migration to Typo3 is ongoing (see news entry of 12-vi-2006) this site has received StudySphere's Award of Excellence.
12-vi-2006
First Emory Conference Publication
Steve Enniss sent news on the publication of four papers from the Emory Conference. The little booklet, which was edited by Ron Schuchard, is titled Fixed Stars Govern A Life: Transforming Poetics And Memory With Emory's Ted Hughes Archive. Included are:
- "Hughes and Eliot: Possession," by Ronald Schuchard;
- "Ted Hughes's Memory," by Gavin Drummond;
- "The Ecology of Ted Hughes: Wolfwatching -- the Final Poetic Statement," by Terry Gifford; and
- "Hughes, Plath, and the Three Caryatids," by Diane Middlebrook.
The pamphlet comes with an introduction by Ron Schuchard and has appeared as No 6 in the Emory Across Academe series.
A small number of copies are available free of charge. To order contact Kathleen Carroll at libmkc@emory.edu
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Website Issues
If you are wondering about the recent scarcity of updates -- I'm in the process of migrating the entire site to a content management system. As the site completes its 11th year, it is time to put it on proper feet to get on top of the wealth of content and make it manageable once again. What will it mean? Among other advantages, the site will get a better layout and readability, accessibility of content will improve and there will be a proper site search engine. Moreover, I'll add modules that will allow selected contributors to add and manage their own content, special news corners etc. There'll also be RSS feeds so you'll always be up-to-date on what's going on, and much more.
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6-iv-2006
Carol Bere just forwarded some exciting news about the project for a Ted Hughes Centre in Mytholmroyd. According to the Yorkshire Post (3 April), over £2m were pledged for the centre which is to be housed in the former Mytholmroyd railway station. Yorkshire Forward, a regional regeneration agency, is to contribute £1,153,000, the Heritage Lottery Fund will give £1m to the project and further money will come from Calderdale Council (£185,000), the Railway Heritage Trust (£45,000) and HBOS (£50,000).
According to Alan Brooks, chairman of Mytholmroyd's Royd Regeneration, »negotiations for the lease on the old railway station are progressing and a business plan has been commissioned.« It is planned that the Ted Hughes Centre will eventually incorporate an archive, educational facilities and possibly a café and bookshop.
The article further reports that the »proposals have also been given fresh impetus following the inaugural meeting of the Elmet Trust, a new organisation which, when formally constituted, will be responsible for managing the birthplace of Hughes –1 Aspinal Street, as well as the proposed centre and additional property close to the station.
The trust also plans to hold an annual festival in Mytholmroyd on Hughes's birthday –August 17 –to commemorate the poet's life and work.«
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19-ii-2006
Keith Sagar has published his Literature and the Crime against Nature, which also contains a chapter on Ted Hughes. A short review by Hans Beihl here.
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22-i-2006
A late happy New Year everybody.
A review of Ted Hughes's Collected Poems for Children and further details about the book have been published on this site. Ann Skea also has a review of the book on her site. [Link(s) will open in new window]
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14-xi-2005
Edinburgh Conference schedule published! Click here to read it.
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13-xi-2005
Ted Hughes' Collected Poems for Children has been published by Faber & Faber on 5 October 2005. Further information and a review soon on this site. [Link(s) will open in new window]
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13-xi-2005
Rachel Beckett, a wood engraver who has made some illustrations of Ted Hughes' Tales from Ovid, has set up a web site at www.stuchburypress.co.uk. [Link(s) will open in new window]
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13-xi-2005
Sylvia Plath's sketch of Ted Hughes (see entry for 26 Aug.) below) was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery.
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26-x-2005
The current (October/November) issue of the Rare Book Review (published in London) contains an article about Plath, Hughes, and the Grolier Club exhibition by Melissa Maday. It includes several photos from the exhibition as illustrations. [Link(s) will open in new window]
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18-x-2005
The Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, is pleased to announce FRIEDA HUGHES: »Poetry as Footprints.« Frieda Hughes talks about her life through her poetry. Monday 24 October, 5pm, Rothermere American Institute, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG. www.ox.ac.uk For further information, contact Cheryl Hudson on 01865 282711 or email academic.programme@rai.ox.ac.uk [Link(s) will open in new window]
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The Emory Conference was a very enjoyable, fruitful and stimulating event – great many thanks to the organisers and the team in the Special Collection Archives! A short summary of the conference will be published soon on this site.
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26-ix-2005
Changes to the preliminary Schedule for Emory Conference.
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15-ix-2005
Exhibition at the Grolier Club, New York: "No Other Appetite." Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and the Blood Jet of Poetry. The exhibition was curated by Karen V. Kukil and Stephen C. Enniss and will run through 19 November 2005. The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York, NY 10022, www.grolierclub.org [Link(s) will open in new window]
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12-ix-2005
The address of the Ted Hughes Conference Website has changed. Details
can be accessed on this site or at http://specialcollections.library.emory.edu/
Events/hughesconference.html [Link(s)
will open in new window].
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26-viii-2005: New Project by Matthew Howard; Course by Terry Gifford; Emory Conference Schedule; Sketch of Ted Hughes by Sylvia Plath
»I am currently working on a project focused on the Hughes letters
held within the various archives.
I would like to review all of the Hughes correspondence that is archived
and condense it down into individual ›cribs‹. These could
be as simple as providing the basic information such as date written,
where from, who to, number of pages of handwritten/typed and so on, but
will also include brief details of the content of the letter. In other
words, the crib could highlight where exactly TH writes about his own
work, the work of others, ecology, biographical facts, animal life etc.
My idea is that these cribs could then be made available to scholars
which would ultimately save time in the archive, or even visting the
archive as, if done thoroughly, the information would be pinpointed to
specific, individual letters. It may also be possible to put the 'cribs'
into a computer database which would enable even easier searching.
This idea evolved out of the intial thought of my producing a calendar
of all of TH's extant letters. Doubtless there will be a collected letters
produced at some stage and it would be essential to trace and have copies
of each letter as soon as possible as those not in collections are always
at risk of being lost forever. That said this original idea is likely
to be too great for one person, in the tracing alone. Formulating the
calendar thereafter would also be a mammoth task. Thus, the idea of doing
the same kind of thing for the letters in the various archives is a kind
of smaller version, but with the additional perceived benefit of making
a searchable database to aid Hughes scholarship.«
Matthew Howard
A tentative Schedule of the Ted Hughes Conference @ Emory has been published. Please click the Link to view it on this site.
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Update on Terry Gifford's one-week course:
‘Ted Hughes - a study week’with Dr. Terry Gifford, Oct 22nd –Oct 29th 2005 at the Almàssera Vella - Relleu SPAIN
MANY OF THE CENTRAL themes of Ted Hughes’s poetry concerning the relations between humans and the environment are present in the landscape and culture of this part of Spain. Hughes and Plath chose to spend their honeymoon in 1956 in the little fishing village of Benidorm. We will visit the house they stayed in. New and Selected Poems 1957-1994 will be the set text for this course –some references will be made to Collected Poems for those seeking further reading. We will use active individual or paired readings exercises in preparation for group discussion –not a master-class but an open exploration into the richly texture meanings of the poems. This will be of special interest to teachers of literature at any level as well as the interested general reader. Adjustments to cater for individual interests can be made. Each day will begin by exploring key questions via specific texts –‘How do we read and discuss a poem by Ted Hughes?”“What are the manifesto poems and where rooted?”“Plath/Hughes: a working relationship?”“What were the final achievements and frustrations?”
DR TERRY GIFFORD was former Reader in Literature and Environment at the University of Leeds. He co-wrote a monograph on Ted Hughes in 1981 and is currently engaged in assembling the Complete Critical Guide of his work for Routledge. He is the author of five collections of poetry, his latest being The Unreliable Mushrooms: New and Selected Poems (Bradford: Redbeck, 2003
RELLEU, Iberian in origin, is nowadays an unspoilt mountain village in the Marina Baja Range, a half hour drive from the sea. The village has a 10th century castle and a fine calvary. Bars, pharmacy and shops are a few minutes walk from the Almassera.
ALMASSERA VELLA was Relleu’s original olive press now fully refurbished as a Literature and Arts Centre and Retreat. Delightful bedrooms and bathrooms, generous reception, deep loggia, 3000 book library, and extensive rear terrace with swimming pool and almond orchard plus ruined Moorish farm-house and an olive grove.
£435 all inclusive (7 nights) save travel and insurance.
(Fly Alicante Airport –Easyjet, Flybe, Monarch BMI Baby etc)
Apply : Christopher and Marisa North
‘Almàssera Vella’
Carrer de la Mare de Deu del Miracle 56,
Relleu 03578 Alicante SPAIN –
(0034) 966 856003
oldolivepress@tiscali.es - web: www.oldolivepress.com
To Book; £50 cheque to ‘Pemberton North SL’
Sketch of Ted Hughes made by Sylvia Plath in 1957
to be auctioned on 3 October at Bonhams, London. Many thanks to Carol
Bere for pointing this out to me.
Articles @ bbc.co.uk,(includes
image), bonhams.com, guardian.co.uk [Link(s)
will open in new window]
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2-vi-2005
Terry Gifford will run a one-week course on Hughes for www.oldolivepress.com in Spain October 22-29. [Link(s) will open in new window]
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A major exhibition on Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes will
open in New York in the fall. Entitled »›No
Other Appetite‹: Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes and the Blood Jet of
Poetry,« it will run at the Grolier Club of
New York from September 14 – November 19, 2005.
The show is being curated by Karen Kukil of Smith College, and Stephen
Enniss of Emory University, and the books, manuscripts, photographs and
other objects on display have been drawn from the impressive archives
of both institutions. A more detailed press release is available
on the Grolier Club website: http://www.grolierclub.org/ExPlathHughes.htm. [Link(s)
will open in new window]
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21-v-2005
Roger Rees, kindly informed me that Edinburgh University will host a conference »Ted Hughes and the Classics«, to be held by the School of History and Classics, November 25th–27th 2005. For further information, please click here.
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09-v-2005
Terry Gifford has kindly sent a piece in memory of Len Scigaj. You can read it here.
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21-iv-2005
Sad news has just come in that Leonard Scigaj died on 16 April
2005.
I met Len only briefly during the 2000 conference in Lyon; he was a very
friendly and open man, someone who was great to talk and discuss with,
lively and humorous. Len's work on Ted Hughes includes three books – The
Poetry of Ted Hughes, Ted
Hughes, Critical
Essays on Ted Hughes (ed.) –, and various essays and articles.
A fuller obituary may be found at the Virginia
Tech Website [Link(s)
will open in new window]
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7-iii-2005
Plans for the Ted Hughes Centre in Mytholmroyd have seen a major setback as a major source of funding was withdrawn. Yet, there is no sense of giving up. Read more on www.mytholmroyd.net [Link(s) will open in new window]
Ted Hughes' birthplace, 1 Aspinall St in Mytholmroyd, has been sold. Apparently, it is to be rented out for holiday let and funds will go towards the Ted Hughes Centre.
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26-ii-2005
Call for Papers: »Fixed
Stars Govern a Life«: the 5th International Ted Hughes Conference
October 5-7, 2005, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University, Atlanta,
USA
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29-i-2005
The Times reported on the find of an unpublished poem with British bankers Duncan Lawrie, www.duncan-lawrie.co.uk [Link(s) will open in new window]