‘This book is by no means the last word on Sylvia Plath. Over time, new material will surface and new questions will emerge.’
Sylvia Plath (27 October 1932 – 11 February 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. In 1981, The Collected Poems were published, including previously unpublished works. Sylvia Plath was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1982.
Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts and the University of Cambridge, England, where she was a student at Newnham College. Sylvia Plath married fellow poet Ted Hughes in 1956, and they lived together in the United States and then in England. They had two children before separating in 1962. Sylvia Plath took her own life on 11 February 1963, aged thirty.
I first read some of Ms Plath’s poetry in the 1970s, and recently reread The Bell Jar. And now, having read Ms Clark’s exhaustive biography, I feel that I have a greater understanding of the woman as well as the poet. I would need to revisit Ms Plath’s poetry now: what made an intuitive sense to me as an angst-ridden teenager would read differently now. I remember my sadness when I learned that Ms Plath died at the age of thirty. I wondered —and still wonder— what if … she had lived longer? Found the peace and space required to create?
Ms Clark presents a comprehensive, well-researched account of Sylvia Plath’s life. The nine-hundred-and-thirty-page biography is accompanied by almost two hundred pages of notes and index.
I finished this book grateful to Ms Clark for presenting a more nuanced account of Sylvia Plath’s life and work. And yes, by the end of the book even though I resisted strongly, I felt a small degree of sympathy for Ted Hughes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Book 12 in my 2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge. I’ve entered as a ‘Nonfiction Grazer’ and this book should be included under the heading of ‘Memoir/Biography.
Tasmanian Bibliophile @Large 