Mystery Fanfare: Cat

Saturday, October 29, 2022

Authors and their Cats: Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath, American poet, novelist, and short story writer, was photographed multiple times with her cat, Daddy.

Sylvia Plath: October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) Plath was one of the literary greats of the 20th Century. She advanced the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, The Colossus and Other Poems (1960) and Ariel (1965), as well as her novel The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her death in 1963. The Collected Poems was published in 1981, which included previously unpublished works. Plath was awarded a Pulitzer Prize (posthumously) in Poetry in 1982 for this collection. Sadly she committed suicide at the age of 30.

“I am only thirty
And like the cat I have nine times to die."

Drawings by her were unearthed in 2011. They included this charming depiction of a ‘curious French cat.’ This drawing was done in 1956, most likely during her stay in Paris.

Read more about her drawings and their relationship to her work, here.

Saturday, October 15, 2022

Authors & their Cats: Colette

Clearly Colette (1873-1954), a prolific French fiction writer who wrote over 50 novels, was a major cat lover. She bought a pearl gray Chartreuse at a cat show in 1926. In 1933 she wrote La Chatte (The Cat).

"Time spent with cats is never wasted" -- Colette

Don't miss the final photo of Colette dressed as a cat, bien sur.