Ted Hughes with Carol Hughes in 1984. Photograph: Pa
The decision of the Ted Hughes estate to withdraw permission for Professor Bate to quote unpublished, copyright material from the late poet's archive, in the book he is writing about Mr Hughes's work, was not one taken lightly and I set out those reasons below. It should be noted that he has not, of course, been barred from studying documents in what is now the public Hughes archive at the British Library.
Mr Bate first approached Ted Hughes's publishers, Faber & Faber, in 2000 with a proposal to write an authorised biography of the poet. This was rejected by the estate in line with the stated wishes of Ted Hughes.
In 2009, he came back with a detailed proposal for something rather different – a literary life – focusing primarily on the poet's work and how that was affected by his life. This proposal was approved. (At the risk of disillusioning him, there was no significance to the restaurant or the street chosen for a lunch with Mrs Hughes and the poetry editor. The restaurant just happened to be a favourite haunt of Faber & Faber executives at that time. Nor was there any "symbolic anointing" of him in anyone's mind other than his own.)
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Mr Bate first approached Ted Hughes's publishers, Faber & Faber, in 2000 with a proposal to write an authorised biography of the poet. This was rejected by the estate in line with the stated wishes of Ted Hughes.
In 2009, he came back with a detailed proposal for something rather different – a literary life – focusing primarily on the poet's work and how that was affected by his life. This proposal was approved. (At the risk of disillusioning him, there was no significance to the restaurant or the street chosen for a lunch with Mrs Hughes and the poetry editor. The restaurant just happened to be a favourite haunt of Faber & Faber executives at that time. Nor was there any "symbolic anointing" of him in anyone's mind other than his own.)
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