researchy spamming...

[gwynnega]

A couple of cool researchy links I found while looking up stuff for chapter six:

New Musical Express table of contents, 1953-1969

1960s British Rock and Popular Music: A Selected Chronology (includes political/historical info within the musical timeline)

ETA: And a research-related question: Does anybody know what Sylvia Plath's citizenship status was in the UK once she was married to Ted Hughes? Did she become a naturalized citizen? the_red_shoes, do you know the answer to this one?

Comments

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

MWAHAH I love how I'm the Plath expert. Well, expert or junkie....My recollection is Ted wanted his children to be born in England so they'd be UK citizens, not Americans. IIRC if an American citizen marries a Brit, they don't lose American citizenship and vice versa for the Brit. I don't know what her legal status might've been after the divorce was final, but that became moot....

[gwynnega]

Probably she couldn't vote in England when she lived there, yes? That's what I'm trying to figure out regarding the citizenship thing. I gather if you're American and married to a UK citizen, you eventually can become a naturalized citizen when you've lived there long enough, and then you can vote...

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

I don't think she would have voted -- she might've filled out an overseas ballot, but I don't remember mentioning it in her letters. Info about that is at http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_web/acs/scs/voting.htm but I don't know whether or not that would've been true in the early 60s as well. (Weren't there rumors she was trying to get Aurelia to come live in Britain as well to help out with babysitting possibly?)

[gwynnega]

Thanks for the link! I don't remember her writing about voting, ever, though I do remember other political stuff in her letters and journals.

(Weren't there rumors she was trying to get Aurelia to come live in Britain as well to help out with babysitting possibly?)

That does ring a bell...

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

I remember in Letters Home she tells Aurelia to vote Kennedy, but there's nary a peep about her sending in an overseas ballot herself. Maybe they weren't available at the time....

The Aurelia rumors I think were mainly in the chop job Bitter Fame, altho I think if that happened at all, it was before the breakup of the marriage -- Sylvia seemed scalded it had all happened IN FRONT of her mother, and she pretty strenuously avoided all Aurelia's "come home, the family will take care of you" overtures after that. Have to wonder what might've happened if she had gone home even for just a visit and seen her psychiatrist or maybe another doctor....

[gwynnega]

Sylvia seemed scalded it had all happened IN FRONT of her mother,

Yes, particularly since Plath had represented the marriage in such a rosy light to her mother in all those letters.

Have to wonder what might've happened if she had gone home even for just a visit and seen her psychiatrist or maybe another doctor....

Yes, if she'd been able to see that psychiatrist she liked, it probably would've made a difference. Heck, if she'd managed to avoid that giant London blizzard, she probably would've made it through...

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

I think part of what's so sadly fascinating about her very last months is the sense that if just one thing hadn't gone wrong -- the weather, the telephone, the freeze, being so ill, and so on -- she might just have made it. I d'know how actually true that is, but that's sort of the mystique that hangs about it....

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

It's great what you find when researching, isn't it?

Shall save those in case I ever need them, ta.

Gina

[gwynnega]

I was quite amazed by that NME website!

[velvetink.livejournal.com]

hey thanks for the links.neat sites.
these are the songs/people on NME the day I was born......
"Singing Stars Shine in Pantomime [Eve Boswell, Dickie Valentine, Alma Cogan, Joan Regan, Jimmy Young, Beverly Sisters, Teddy Johnson]"

now who the hell are they!!!!!!!!!

[gwynnega]

I've never heard of any of those people! :-)