British Library gets important memento of Poet Laureate

A journal which launched the career of late Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, and led to him meeting first wife and muse Sylvia Plath, has been acquired by the British Library.

Saint Botolph's Review, which contains handwritten notes, was a poetry journal established by Hughes and his Cambridge peers and contained the first works published under his own name.

It was acquired by the Library from Hughes' widow, Carol, and is one of only three copies of the journal held in UK public institutions. It is the only one with Hughes' annotations.

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The dog-eared and stained copy features a note from Hughes on its cover explaining the discoloration came from a bottle of wine which smashed as his friend Luke Myers fell off his bike.

"He was out selling copies (of which this is one) from his pannier basket, which they shared with the bottles," Hughes wrote, before signing his name.

The first edition of Saint Botolph's Review was created by Hughes with Myers (after whose rectory home it was named), Daniel Huws, David Ross and Daniel Weissbort in February 1956.

He had previously written under the names Daniel Hearing and Peter Crew, but among the magazine's poetry and prose were the first contributions published under Hughes's own name. He had attended a party celebrating the launch at a venue where Hughes met his first wife, Sylvia Plath, an occasion documented in the poem St Botolph's, published in his 1998 volume Birthday Letters.

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A longer and unpublished version of the poem will be available to researchers at the British Library from next month after the final section of his archive was fully catalogued.

Helen Broderick, curator of modern literary manuscripts at the British Library, said: "This acquisition of an annotated first edition of the Saint Botolph's Review offers researchers insight into Hughes's early work and will I hope lead to further research into his life and development as a poet and writer."