Glasgow A rare first edition of poems by the American poet Sylvia Plath has been found in a box of books handed in to a charity shop in Glasgow and is to be sold in time for Christmas.

Eddy Steele, an assistant in the Oxfam bookshop in the city’s Victoria Road, spotted the copy of ‘Ariel’, as he was examining the anonymous donation.

The hardback book is in very good condition, with its dustjacket intact, and has been valued at £350.

Mr Steele, who is manager of the store, said: “It’s always exciting to find a first edition because you know you are holding something which is going to help Oxfam.

“In the third world £350 is a huge amount of money and can do an awful lot of good. The book would make an absolutely gorgeous Christmas present, and would be very unusual. Sylvia Plath books like this don’t turn up that often.”

The copy handed in to Oxfam was in a box with a mixture of general fiction and poetry. It is thought somebody may have brought in the donation after clearing out a house.

Ariel was published posthumously following Plath’s suicide in 1963. Literary experts say the poems in ‘Ariel’ mark a departure from Plath’s earlier work into a more personal arena of poetry. The publication of Plath’s manuscripts, including ‘Ariel’ in 1965 were overseen by Ted Hughes, her husband.

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