{"id":4370,"date":"2018-03-24T10:09:01","date_gmt":"2018-03-24T15:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/?p=4370"},"modified":"2018-03-24T10:11:45","modified_gmt":"2018-03-24T15:11:45","slug":"sylvia-plath-auction-shows-the-comparative-value-of-author-typewriters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2018\/03\/24\/sylvia-plath-auction-shows-the-comparative-value-of-author-typewriters\/","title":{"rendered":"Sylvia Plath auction shows the comparative value of author typewriters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/files\/2018\/03\/Screen-Shot-2018-03-24-at-9.05.54-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4372\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/files\/2018\/03\/Screen-Shot-2018-03-24-at-9.05.54-AM-300x196.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/files\/2018\/03\/Screen-Shot-2018-03-24-at-9.05.54-AM-300x196.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/files\/2018\/03\/Screen-Shot-2018-03-24-at-9.05.54-AM-459x300.png 459w, https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/files\/2018\/03\/Screen-Shot-2018-03-24-at-9.05.54-AM.png 721w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Somewhere in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/booksblog\/2018\/mar\/22\/is-sylvia-plaths-drivers-license-worth-more-than-a-letter-from-dickens\"><em>Guardian<\/em> article<\/a> about a recent auction of Sylvia Plath miscellany there&#8217;s a comparative mention of the value of author typewriters, and Updike&#8217;s name comes up:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;. . . a proof of <em>The Bell Jar<\/em>, complete with her corrections, sold for \u00a360,000; her own first edition of the novel, poignantly signed and dated \u201cChristmas 1962\u201d, a few weeks before her death, went for \u00a370,000; and the typewriter on which she wrote it, a mint green Hermes 3000, for \u00a326,000. This puts Plath\u2019s typewriter comfortably above Jack Kerouac\u2019s, also a green Hermes, which pulled in $22,500 (\u00a316,000), and <strong>John Updike\u2019s<\/strong> $4,375 (\u00a33,110) \u2014 but below the \u00a356,250 paid for Ian Fleming\u2019s gold-plated Royal and the stunning $254,500 (\u00a3181,000) for Cormac McCarthy\u2019s humdrum Olivetti.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to the unsigned Books Blog article, Plath is so hot right now that &#8220;Even Wordsworth and Napoleon couldn&#8217;t compete with Plathinalia going under the hammer this week\u2014including clothes, a typewriter and her thesaurus.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The positive takeaway for Updike collectors and, more importantly, those inclined to purchase and donate items to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.johnupdikechildhoodhome.com\">The John Updike Childhood Home<\/a>, John Updike items remain affordable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Somewhere in a Guardian article about a recent auction of Sylvia Plath miscellany there&#8217;s a comparative mention of the value of author typewriters, and Updike&#8217;s name comes up: &#8220;. . . a proof of The Bell Jar, complete with her &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2018\/03\/24\/sylvia-plath-auction-shows-the-comparative-value-of-author-typewriters\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":818,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collectors-corner"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/818"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4370"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4375,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4370\/revisions\/4375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}