A closer look at Ariel: a memory of Sylvia Plath

This slim volume is exactly what I have been looking for. With all the countless books about Plath, her life, her death, and her art, it was exactly what the others were lacking. Nancy Hunter Steiner takes her limited time with Plath and sets her memories to page. She has quite a few interesting stories to reveal, which she recounts with her unique perspective. She acknowledges her fear and shortcomings, as well as those she found in Plath. Nancy takes her readers into her room at Smith and the apartment at Cambridge. She takes us back to a time when Plath was all raw ambition and dreams. The maturing, self-conscious student is the Plath we experience. How fortunate was Nancy to know her then, and how fortunate for us, too! It is an immensely interesting book. Plath is real and flawed and beautiful. The only problem with the book is that it ended too soon, but that is always the problem when any good book ends. Highly recommend!!

This is a brief memoir by a girl who knew Sylvia Plath at Smith College. It describes some events that have been recounted in the numerous biographies which quote from this book. These events include the cucumber sandwich gluttony at Mrs. Prouty's, the trip to Cambridge to attend Harvard summer school, the affair with the biology professor met on the steps of the Widener Library, and the resulting hemorrhage.