Ted Hughes papers and related collections

The papers of British poet Ted Hughes are among MARBL's most distinctive 20th-century literary collections. The papers provide insight into the entire spectrum of Hughes' personal life and career, from his first published volume of poetry, The Hawk in the Rain (1957), through his seven-year marriage to the American poet Sylvia Plath, his tenure as the Poet Laureate of Great Britain in 1984, and up until his death in 1998.

Hughes’ personal papers, which offer exclusive access to his creative process, include manuscript drafts of nearly all of Hughes' published and unpublished works, sound recordings, journals, photographs, scrapbooks, and collected printed materials. Of particular interest is the extensive correspondence series, which reveals his wide circle of literary association.

The books in Ted Hughes personal library (more than 6,000 in number) offer students and scholars a detailed map of Hughes' creative and intellectual development. In addition to many works of poetry by a wide literary circle, the library reflects Hughes' wide-ranging interests far beyond the field of literature. The library includes many works devoted to natural history, folklore, mysticism, religion, and esoteric knowledge, among other subjects. Also present are several volumes belonging to Hughes' wife Sylvia Plath.

Several supplementary collections provide further access to Ted Hughes' creative development and personal experiences, including letters to his daughter Frieda Hughes, friends W.S. and Dido Merwin, Janos Csokits, Lucas Myers, Peter Redgrove, Ben Sonnenberg, and Assia Wevill. The papers of his sister Olwyn and his brother Gerald offer more extensive details about the life and work of Ted Hughes and also of the relationships between the Hughes family members.

More detailed descriptions these collections are available in the EmoryFindingAids database, including the finding aid for MARBL's most extensive Hughes collection, the Ted Hughes papers.