"A variorum, short for (editio) cum notis variorum, is a work that collates all known variants of a text. It is a work of textual criticism, whereby all variations and emendations are set side by side so that a reader can track how textual decisions have been made in the preparation of a text for publication." (Wikipedia)
"My guests on this week’s Book Club podcast are Amanda Golden and Karen V. Kukil, editors of the new The Poems of Sylvia Plath, a variorum collection of every poem Plath wrote. They tell me what light her juvenilia sheds on her later work, how art and music fed into her poetry, and how deep her poetic partnership with Ted Hughes ran."
— Sam Leith. Listen: "The Poems of Sylvia Plath," The Book Club podcast, The Spectator, 7 May 2026
Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) was an American poet.
There will be an event in Bath, hosted by the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute, on the evening of Mon 29 June.
"Imagine being able to read the poems of Sylvia Plath without knowing how she died. It’s a near-impossible thought experiment, given how her name and image have been reduced to what her daughter, the poet Frieda Hughes, called the “Sylvia Suicide Doll”. ... Read the poems away from the letters, the journals and the blurbs, and the page clears to reveal jewel-like perception and virtuoso music."
— Jeremy Noel-Tod, Here, at last, is Sylvia Plath: A new collection of the poet’s work puts away the suicide doll and replaces it with wit, wordplay and truth. Prospect Magazine, May 6, 2026
Here's the cover reveal from last November.
Buy it from the publisher, Faber.
..jpg){kind=link}