Sylvia Plath
Posted by Tel on March 20, 2009
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)
American Poet and Novelist, Known for The Bell Jar, her only Novel
Sylvia Plath was a renowned American poet whose brilliant career was cut short by her tragic suicide. Nearly 20 years after her death, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her Collected Poems. Two of her well-known books are The Colossus, Poetry Collection, 1960, and an autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar (pseudonym Victoria Lucas, 1963).
Early Life of Plath
Plath was born in Boston, Massachussetts, in 1932, a daughter of a German immigrant and biology professor, and her mother, a secondary school teacher. Her father died when she was eight. Close to her father, the trauma of his death inspired her to publish her first poem.
Plath’s Published Books After She Died
- Ariel, Poetry Collection, 1965
- Crossing the Water, Poetry 1971
- Winter Trees, 1971
- Collected Poems, edited by ex-husband Ted Hughes 1981
- The Journals of Sylvia Plath, 1983
- Selected Poems, 1985
Suggested Additional Readings
- Letters Home by Sylvia Plath, Faber and Faber (1975)
- Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes, Faber and Faber (1998)
- Sylvia and Ted, a Novel by Emma Tennant, Flamingo (2001)
