Add MS 83685

Hughes-Baskin Papers. Vol. ii (ff. 226). Correspondence and postcards between Ted Hughes and Leonard Baskin, including enclosures of poetic manuscripts and other material; 1973-1998. Partly typewritten. Also includes two sequences of letters from Faber & Faber to Baskin. The letters include discussion of individual poems and collections, comments on the nature and purpose of art (ff. 136-139), the Poet Laureateship (ff. 143-146), Sylvia Plath and the publication of her letters and journals (ff. 27-28, f. 38, f. 54), The Bell Jar libel case in Boston (ff. 156), Hughes's attitude to public speaking (f. 109), Hughes's children (ff. 112-113, f. 115, ff. 165-167), fishing (f. 61, f. 79), Hughes's trips to Kenya and Egypt including photographs (ff. 117-120, ff. 121-123, ff. 143-146) and 4 postcards with proverbs in the hands of Hughes and Baskin (ff. 33-37). Individual poems and sequences discussed and enclosed include: Crow (f.1, ff. 140-142), Prometheus on his Crag (ff. 1-24), Season Songs (ff. 27-28, f. 32), Cave Birds (ff. 41-53, ff. 140-142, f. 158), Moortown (ff. 70-75), What is the Truth? (ff. 106-108, ff. 121-123), The Hanged Man and the Dragonfly (ff. 121-123, f. 126), 'Cormorants' (f. 135), series of Head poems (ff. 148-155), Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being (ff. 162-164, ff. 165), The Oresteia and Tales from Ovid (f. 173, f. 176, ff. 182-184, ff. 178-179), Birthday Letters (ff. 182-184, ff. 207-208), Howls and Whispers (ff. 186-212, f. 214, f. 218). Also includes mock-up of title page for Plath's Dialogue Over a Ouija Board (ff. 90-91), one letter from Baskin to Hughes discussing his current projects (ff. 168-170) and 3 photocopied communications of Baskin's (ff. 224-226). Publishers' letters from Faber and Faber to Baskin relate to Cave Birds and to The Epic Poise: a celebration of Ted Hughes (ff. 83-88, ff. 220-223).