The Bell Jar

A searing portrait of a young woman's struggle for identity and of the world that closes around her, The Bell Jar is Sylvia Plath's only novel. The story chronicles the slow unraveling of Esther Greenwood, a brilliant college student facing a profound identity crisis while coming of age in 1950s America, as she navigates the pressures of society along with her own ambitions. After earning a coveted summer position at a prestigious New York City magazine, Esther finds herself struggling with the looming expectations of marriage, motherhood, and giving up on her dreams to achieve them. As she grows increasingly disillusioned with the life laid out for her, her mental health deteriorates, ultimately leading to hospitalization and psychiatric treatment.

First published in the United Kingdom under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas in 1963, The Bell Jar is considered to be in part autobiographical, mirroring the author's own descent into mental illness. Plath died by suicide a month after the novel's UK publication. Scholars suggest the author began writing the novel in the spring of 1961 after publishing her first collection of poetry, and may have finished in August of the same year, though subsequent changes were made throughout the editing process. Plath had applied for the Eugene F. Saxton Fellowship, affiliated with publisher Harper & Row, and was awarded the grant late in 1961. It required her to submit the finished manuscript to the Saxton committee; the editors who read it found the novel disappointing, juvenile and overwrought, and the book was turned down. Early working titles included Diary of a Suicide and The Girl in the Mirror. When it was published in the United States eight years later, The Bell Jar became an instant success. Deeply intimate and universally resonant, The Bell Jar remains one of the twentieth century’s most powerful literary achievements.

The limited edition of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is presented in three states: Numbered Edition, Lettered Edition and Designer's Edition.

The Lettered Edition has a 5½" x 8¼" trim size and 304 pages. It is limited to 26 copies and is signed by Peter K. Steinberg, Harriet Lee-Merrion, and Sonja Ahlers. The book features a full goatskin binding with leather onlays sourced from Harmatan and Oakridge, hand-finished by traditional methods, and a foil-blocked cover. It is printed letterpress on mouldmade Arches paper. The title page and chapter openings are printed in a second color, requiring an additional pass through the press. The endsheets are Hahnemühle Bugra, and the book includes hand-sewn endbands in two colors of thread. It is housed in a clamshell enclosure covered in cloth printed with a design from one of the book's illustrations, with a letterpress-printed paper label on the spine. The edition includes a fold-out of the Numbered edition cover art and a new afterword by Peter K. Steinberg. It is bound by hand by Lorna McCurdy in Berkshire, United Kingdom. A letterpress printed bookmark is included with all pre-orders. Published editions may differ slightly from mockups and prototype designs. Illustrations are by Harriet Lee-Merrion and calligraphy is by Sonja Ahlers.