{"product_id":"pain-parties-work-sylvia-plath-in-new-york-summer-1953-isbn-9780062085498","title":"Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePain, Parties, Work\u003c\/em\u003e by Elizabeth Winder is a compelling look at a young Sylvia Plath and the life-changing month that would lay the groundwork for her seminal novel, \u003cem\u003eThe Bell Jar\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn May of 1953, a twenty-one-year-old Plath arrived in New York City, the guest editor of \u003cem\u003eMademoiselle\u003c\/em\u003e’s annual College Issue. She lived at the Barbizon Hotel, attended the ballet, went to a Yankee game, and danced at the West Side Tennis Club. She was supposed to be having the time of her life. But what would follow was, in Plath’s words, twenty-six days of pain, parties, and work, that ultimately changed the course of her life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThoughtful and illuminating, featuring line drawings and black-and-white photographs, \u003cem\u003ePain, Parties, Work: \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eSylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 \u003c\/em\u003eoffers well-researched insights as it introduces us to Sylvia Plath—before she became one of the greatest and most influential poets of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"I dreamed of New York, I am going there.\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn May 31, 1953, twenty-year-old Sylvia Plath arrived in New York City for a one-month stint at \"the intellectual fashion magazine\" \u003cem\u003eMademoiselle\u003c\/em\u003e to be a guest editor for its prestigious annual college issue. Over the next twenty-six days, the bright, blond New England collegian lived at the Barbizon Hotel, attended Balanchine ballets, watched a game at Yankee Stadium, and danced at the West Side Tennis Club. She typed rejection letters to writers from \u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e and ate an entire bowl of caviar at an advertising luncheon. She stalked Dylan Thomas and fought off an aggressive diamond-wielding delegate from the United Nations. She took hot baths, had her hair done, and discovered her signature drink (vodka, no ice). Young, beautiful, and on the cusp of an advantageous career, she was supposed to be having the time of her life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on in-depth interviews with fellow guest editors whose memories infuse these pages, Elizabeth Winder reveals how these twenty-six days indelibly altered how Plath saw herself, her mother, her friendships, and her romantic relationships, and how this period shaped her emerging identity as a woman and as a writer. \u003cem\u003ePain, Parties, Work\u003c\/em\u003e—the three words Plath used to describe that time—shows how Manhattan's alien atmosphere unleashed an anxiety that would stay with her for the rest of her all-too-short life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThoughtful and illuminating, this captivating portrait invites us to see Sylvia Plath before \u003cem\u003eThe Bell Jar\u003c\/em\u003e, before she became an icon—a young woman with everything to live for.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Elizabeth Winder has taken Sylvia Plath’s antediluvian summer in New York and given us a pixilated gem of a book. Winder has done nothing less than restore Sylvia to her time—she’s given us the young, brilliant, mischievous girl, and not the ponderous symbol, martyr, or muse. In prose as delightful and lively as the champagne cocktails Sylvia sipped at the St. Regis ball, Winder has made \u003cem\u003ePain, Parties, Work\u003c\/em\u003e a prose poem of the senses, and a true account of \u003cem\u003eThe Bell Jar\u003c\/em\u003e before the myth hit the fan.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger, New York Times bestselling authors of Furious Love\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A pixilated gem of a book. . . . In prose as delightful and lively as the champagne Sylvia liked to sip at the St. Regis ball, Winder has made \u003cem\u003ePain, Parties, Work\u003c\/em\u003e a prose poem of the senses, and a true account of \u003cem\u003eThe Bell Jar\u003c\/em\u003e.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger, New York Times bestselling authors of Furious Love\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A lovingly detailed inventory, as Technicolor-vivid as a Douglas Sirk film, of the fashions and foods that filled Plath’s summer. Winder convincingly shows that Plath should be recognized as much for her enjoyment of life and her enduring works as for her tragic death.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Winder resuscitates a young woman who, while sick, is electrically alive to her first real adventure, running through Manhattan, jumping into cabs with strange men, trawling the racks at Bloomingdale’s and experimenting with cocktails…is captivating…as she struggles with her choices, anxiety, and hope for the future. [Winder] makes a compelling argument that in New York…Plath moved closer to finding the voice that would define her writing.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSlate\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Will recalibrate your mind and heart. . . . We knew about Plath’s ambition - and angst - but her penchant for flaming-red lipstick and princess heels was a bit of a surprise” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMore magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Reading this book sparks feelings of impossible nostalgia for someone who didn’t live through the fifties; in this way, it is an experience akin to watching \u003cem\u003eMad Men\u003c\/em\u003e . . . The book is like a little jewelry box of fact-lets. . . . Winder’s Sylvia, young, tan, ‘more California than New York,’ sensitive but biting, literary but wrapped in earthly delight, is delightful to be with.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBookslut\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Winder poignantly captures a snapshot of a time that directly inspired one of Plath’s most famous works. She also captures Plath as bright, vivacious . . . For fans, particularly devotees of \u003cem\u003eThe Bell Jar\u003c\/em\u003e.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The book offers a new perspective on Plath’s life courtesy of Winder’s exhaustive research.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWomen's Wear Daily\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Winder has painstakingly sketched a fully fleshed out portrait of Plath’s life during that hot, seminal summer, offering a glimpse into the raison d’etre behind Plath’s revered 1963 roman a clef, \u003cem\u003eThe Bell Jar\u003c\/em\u003e. . . . Winder goes into the dizzying, delightful detail.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An illuminating biography . . . which floods clarifying light on a chapter of the poet’s early life that Plath painted in jaundiced tones in \u003cem\u003eThe Bell Jar.\u003c\/em\u003e” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times, Sunday Styles Feature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In this accessible, eye-opening new biography, which focuses exclusively on one crucial month of Plath’s life, June 1953, when she traveled to New York City to take up residence at the Barbizon Hotel and work as a guest editor for Mademoiselle magazine, it is the fun loving, Dylan Thomas-stalking, daiquiri-drinking Plath who takes center stage. . . . Winder’s biography reconsiders the familiar portrait, illustrating what makes Plath, for fans of \u003cem\u003eThe Bell Jar\u003c\/em\u003e, ‘as Holden Caulfield is for young men.’” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eO Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The world of ’50s NYC, in all its glamour, is irresistible reading.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMeg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44888050041061,"sku":"NP9780062085498","price":25.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780062085498.jpg?v=1730228036","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/pain-parties-work-sylvia-plath-in-new-york-summer-1953-isbn-9780062085498","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}