A close friend of Sylvia Plath revealed that the author didn't want her book "The Bell Jar" to be published under her name till her mother was alive.

Elizabeth Sigmund, a close friend of Plath says that she didn't want her mother to know that the book was her semi-autobiographical novel. Sigmund also said that Plath's former husband, Ted Hughes, and his sister, Olwyn Hughes deliberately left out the dedication in the first set of the novel that were published under Plath's names so as to keep the Press away from getting in contact with her.

The book was first published in 1963 under the name Victoria Lucas because Plath didn't want her mother Aurelia Plath or any other person mentioned in the book taking offence. When Aurelia died in 1994, the book was republished under Plath's name by the dedication "For Elizabeth and David" - referring to Elizabeth Sigmund and her husband, David, the science fiction writer that was present in the first publication was not included.

Sigmund said she wrote to the Times Literary Supplement to bring to their notice that her name was missing and received an apology letter stating they hadn't noticed the dedication. This didn't go down too well with Sigmund who said, "I don't believe they didn't notice it, because it was in an unusual place. It was directly opposite chapter one. You couldn't miss it."

Faber and Faber told the Guardian that it had nothing in its archive "which would support the view that Faber had any knowledge that Plath allegedly did not want the novel to be published under her own name in the event of her death. There's also nothing that would suggest that Elizabeth Sigmund was deliberately left off the dedication for our original hardback edition of the novel."

Sigmund said in an interview with the Guardian: "There are two sides to this, of course. Because it was a brilliant book, one is glad that it was credited to her. But also you have to regard her wishes. If she said she didn't want to hurt people's feelings, by having it published under her own name ... I certainly think that Ted and Olwyn should have mentioned that. And then Faber would have had to make up their minds. But for Monteith to say that he'd certainly never heard that - it just seems that they were keeping it from Faber."