Sylvia Plath’s 'The Bell Jar' – £3000 at Young’s.
Published in 1963 under her pseudonym of Victoria Lucas, the author’s own revised proof copy and her signed copy of the first edition sold for £60,000 and £70,000 respectively at Bonhams in March 2018.
Both were sent to auction by Sylvia’s daughter, Frieda Hughes, as was a 1986 paperback copy bearing the annotation of her father, Ted Hughes, that sold for in the same auction at £5500.
A couple of uncorrected proof copies have made £4000 and £4200, again at Bonhams.
However, the price achieved by Young’s (25% buyer’s premium) of Farnham on February 22, which was selling the second portion of a local gentleman’s library, could well be a record for any straightforward first.
