Letters of Ted Hughes

808 Pages·2008·72.816 MB·English

by  Ted Hughes, Christopher Reid (editor)

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$45.00
Ted Hughes described letter-writing as
"excellent training for conversation
with the world." From several thou -
sand letters, his longtime editor Christopher
Reid has selected nearly three hundred, which
show him in all his aspects: poet, husband and
father, lover of the natural world, proud En -
glishman, and a man for whom literature was
a way of being fully alive to experience.
There are letters dealing with Hughes's
work on his classic books, from the early
breakthrough Lupercal to the wonder-working
Crow and the late, revelatory Birthday Letters.
There are letters discussing, with notable
frankness, his marriages to Sylvia Plath and
then to Assia Wevill. After marrying Carol
Orchard in 1970, Hughes ran a farm in Dorset
for several years, and there are report·, l, · , ,
from both farmyard and desk-letters touch
ing on his interest in astrology, his strong and
original views of Shakespeare. ;i,,,1 I ·,:,, -, ,
for fishing and for <. ..unnw,, .. cTil'.·
Letters to his close frienu . , .. : · .. • a!
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to Philip Larkin (his predecessor.,. · ng:. ·
best-known poet) situate Hughes a11,11, l11.,
peers as never before.
Letters of Ted Hughes reveals the author as
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THE WORKS OF TED HUGHES
POETRY PROSE
THE HAWK IN THE RAIN POETRY IN THE MAKING
LUPERCAL A DANCER TO GOD
WODWO SHAKESPEARE AND THE GODDESS OF
COMPLETE BEING
CROW
WINTER POLLEN: Occasional Prose
GAUDETE
DIFFICULTIES OF A BRIDEGROOM
MOORTOWN
MOORTOWN DIARY
FOR CHILDREN
FLOWERS AND INSECTS
HOW THE WHALE BECAME
WOLFWATCHING
MEET MY FOLKS!
RAIN-CHARM FOR THE DUCHY
THE EARTH-OWL AND OTHER MOON
THREE BOOKS: Remains of Elmet,
PEOPLE
Cave Birds, River
NESSIE, THE MANNERLESS MONSTER
ELMET (with photographs by Fay Godwin)
THE COMING OF THE KINGS
NEW SELECTED POEMS 1957-1994
THE IRON MAN
TALES FROM OVID
MOON-WHALES
BIRTHDAY LETTERS
SEASON SONGS
COLLECTED POEMS
UNDER THE NORTH STAR
FFANGS THE VAMPIRE BAT AND THE
SENECA'S OEDIPUS
KISS OF TRUTH
WEDEKIND'S SPRING AWAKENING
TALES OF THE EARLY WORLD
LORCA'S BLOOD WEDDING
THE IRON WOMAN
RACINE'S PHfDRE
THE DREAMFIGHTER AND OTHER
THE ORESTEIA OF AESCHYLUS CREATION TALES
ALCESTIS COLLECTED ANIMAL POEMS, Vols. 1-4
SELECTED POEMS OF SHAGGY AND SPOTTY
EMILY DICKINSON
THE MERMAID'S PURSE
SELECTED VERSE OF SHAKESPEARE
THE CAT AND THE CUCKOO
THE RATTLE BAG
COLLECTED POEMS FOR CHILDREN
(edited with Seamus Heaney)
( illustrated by Raymond Briggs)
THE SCHOOLBAG
(edited with Seamus Heaney)
SELECTED TRANSLATIONS
(edited by Daniel Weissbort)
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LETTERS OF TED HUGHES
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LETTERS OF
TED HUGHES
SELECTED AND EDITED BY
CHRISTOPHER REID
FARRAR. STRAUS AND GIROUX
NEW YORK
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FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Leners copyright © 2007 by The Estate of Ted Hughes
Introduction and selection copyright © 2007 by Christopher Reid
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Originally published in 2007 by Faber and Faber Limited, Great Britain
Published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
First American edition, 2008
Owing to limitations of space, all acknowledgements for ownership of the
original letters are noted in the text. A list of ownership abbreviations
can be found on pages xxiii-xxiv. illustration credits can be found on pages 757-758.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hughes, Ted, 1930-1998.
[Correspondence. Selections]
Leners of Ted Hughes / selected and edited by Christopher Reid.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-374-18530-5 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-374-18530-1 (alk. paper)
Hughes, Ted, 1930-1998--Correspondence. 2. Poets, English-
1.
20th century-Correspondence. I. Reid, Christopher, 1949- II. Title.
PR6058.U37Z48 2008
821'.914--dc22
[BJ
2008027507
www.fsgbooks.com
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