In May 1956, Sylvia's letters to Aurelia were gushing about her wonderful fiance Ted Hughes. Aurelia had never met Ted; she knew only that her daughter had met him three months before and that he was a poet with no job. Aurelia inked some Gregg shorthand notes on the letters, transcribed here for the first time:
On a letter of May 18, 1956, AP wrote: "About settled with Ted! I hope this will work out! Please God."
On a letter of May 26, 1956: Next to SP's text "[o]ur children will have such fun," AP wrote, "if they don't starve first."