[Vwoolf] Virginia Woolf, Syvia Plath, and a decommissioned lighthouse (Belle Tout)

[Amanda Golden]

I do not believe Plath visited Sussex at that time. I am not sure I have seen evidence that she
visited Susex at all. She did visit Cornwall late in her life. 

Amanda Golden, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of English 
New York Institute of Technology 
P.O. Box 8000
Northern Boulevard
Old Westbury, NY 11568
www.agoldenphd.com <http://www.agoldenphd.com/>
Editor of This Business of Words: Reassessing Anne Sexton <http://upf.com/book.asp?id=GOLDE004> (UPF, 2016)
Book Review Editor of Woolf Studies Annual
















> On Apr 13, 2017, at 3:00 PM, Laurie Reiche <lauriereiche at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello All,
> Sandra Gilbert wrote a wonderful, short(ish) essay called, "On the Beach With Sylvia Plath" (in the book the Unraveling Archive - essays on Sylvia Plath, edited by Anita Helle) that looks at another Plathian landscape: Berck-Plage. This essay may perhaps give some insight into Plath's writerly retreat/"vacationing" choices.  If we think about Gilbert's conclusion that she "regard[s] Plath  herself as our our most highly sensitized and representative poet not, as if often asserted, of suicidal extremism but rather of later-twentieth-century mourning (italics mine) " ---then we might see what Plath saw and/or was drawn to in a different light. 
> Cheers,
> Laurie
> 
> On Apr 13, 2017, at 10:20 AM, <kllevenback at att.net <mailto:kllevenback at att.net>> wrote:
> 
>> A dear friend of mine living in Australia just wrote to ask the following; he also included the attached photo.
>>  
>> Can anyone help?
>>  
>> “I have a literary favour to ask. On a clifftop in Sussex stands a decommissioned lighthouse that rejoices under the name of Belle Tout (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Tout_lighthouse) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Tout_lighthouse)>. My question is this. Is it true that Sylvia Plath stayed there while writing some of the poems in her posthumously published collection Crossing the water? There is no particular reason you should know, but with your literary connections I thought perhaps you might know where to look. There is a solitary passing reference to it on-line, but since it's the only one, I must treat it with caution.
>>  
>> My curiosity was aroused by a possible synchronicity. Of all the writerly retreats that Plath could possibly have chosen, why choose the only one that looks out on the world's premier suicide spot, Beachy Head? The attached photo shows the view that Plath would have had from her window. Given the acres of print that have been written about her, you would think that other writers would have spotted the premonitory connection. But apparently not.
>>  
>> Surely I am not the first? Any guidance, or indeed incisive thoughts, would be welcome.”
>>  
>> With thanks--
>> Karen Levenback
>> <Beachy Head_1.jpg>_______________________________________________
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> Laurie Reiche
> lauriereiche at gmail.com <mailto:lauriereiche at gmail.com>
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