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| Aurelia, age 3, visiting her father's hometown |
"Mrs. Haskell and Dr. White, who evaluated the play, were pleased. Dr. Perrin congratulated me. I saw Mr. Plath's eyes beaming with enjoyment but he didn't come to speak with me. Mr. Haskell was appreciative. Mrs. Murphy, Annette's mother, a woman of distinguished personality and excellent education, came to me and said, 'My dear, you are a star of the first magnitude! You're wonderful. But don't let your head be turned -- although you deserve it, my dear.'
"Oh, it was all so sweet and wonderful, this praise! I must forget it and remember that I am only common, ordinary Aurelia Schober. But when I saw my friends Madeline Redmond and Grace Dickinson -- both of whom do not understand a word of German -- come to congratulate me on my voice and acting -- I felt like embracing the world.
"I am the happiest girl in the world tonight."
That was in 1926. Now it's 2026, and findings in the Plath Family archive at Yale are too momentous for this homey but limited Blogspot platform I've used since 2013. So I will be posting henceforth at Substack.com, where free subscribers receive new posts as emails the minute they are posted. Also I can choose to restrict with a paywall the viewing (and AI scraping) of some of the touchier items. Pioneering Plath research is moving from small town to big city. Please join those of us already there. I value as always your comments, suggestions, corrections, and advice.
Here is the Substack link to what I have named The Yale Diaries, in part because my favorite post here was "Diary of a Plath Researcher" (2023).
I like to remember the star of Aureliaplath.info as the happiest girl in the world, her whole life ahead of her and including two remarkable children. By their fruits you shall know them.
-Your researcher, Catherine