Biography of Sylvia Plath

Sylvia was born in Boston in 1932 to German immigrant parents. Her father was a professor of biology at Boston University, and had specialized in bees. When Sylvia was 8 years old in 1940, her father died from diabetes, this same year Sylvia published her first poem. Her mother went on to work two jobs. In 1950 she attended Smith College. Sylvia was offered an internship at Mademoiselle magazine. While on a month leave she suffered a nervous breakdown in the form of a suicide attempt and was admitted to a hospital where she received shock therapy. She returned to Smith College and graduated summa cum laude. On a Fulbright scholarship Sylvia traveled to Cambridge, England and attended Newnham College. Here in 1956 Sylvia met and wed British poet Ted Hughes. In 1957 Plath moved back to the States teaching literature at Smith College. From 1958 to 1959 she worked as a clerk in Boston and studied poetry at Robert Lowell's course. In 1959 Plath again moved to Ted's roots, England. There they had two children and Sylvia continued to write. In 1960 her first book The Colossus  was published. Ted had begun having an affair with Assia Gutmann Wevill, the wife of the Canadian poet David Wevill. Sylvia was told of the adultery by a friend on the phone, thus the poem, "Words" published in Ariel , published after her death.
Although Ted continued his affair with Assia, he and Sylvia traveled to Ireland in September of 1962 in an effort to reconcile. But a few days later Ted moved in with his mistress and Sylvia moved to a flat once lived in by the poet Yeats. There she wrote between the hours of 4am and 8am before the children awoke. On the morning of February 11, 1963, Sylvia took her own life. Six year later in 1969, Ted's new lover Assia Gutmann also committed suicide along with Assia and Ted's child, Shura, in the same way that Sylvia did. There has been much controversy over Sylvia's death, had she seen Ted the night before? Was a reconciliation in the works? In fact Ted had stated that he had hoped so. Feminist groups at the time held Sylvia up as a martyr and Ted as a villain. Although he went on to become England's poet laureate. Hughes died of Cancer in 1998. Aside from all of this, her words live on and have the amazing capability of transcending emotion in such a way that it haunts the reader. Piercing, sharp and natural fluidity within every line, of every poem. Her work is gut level, sheer astounding and profound perfection.

Excerpt from Ariel

First paragraph from the poem "The Rival" 

If the moon smiled, she would resemble you.
You leave the same impression
Of something beautiful, but annihilating.
Both of you are great light borrowers.
Her O-mouth grieves at the world; yours is unaffected.  

     Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath books and poetry collections

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath (2000 )her own diary written in true to poet form. Not all of her journal entries are in here, in fact the entries just before her death had been discarded by her husband Ted Hughes. This is a new edition of an abridged version published in 1982 and highly edited by Ted Hughes.

The Bell Jar This fictional story of a woman in a mental hospital is often refereed to as an autobiography, describing what may have happened to Sylvia during her stay in a hospital due to a nervous breakdown. The main first person character suffered her mental illness during a magazine internship, just as did the author. Read my Amazon.com review

The Colossus (1960) her first book of poems.

The Collected Poems (1986) largest publication of everything Sylvia wrote after 1956, edited by her husband Ted Hughes.

Ariel (1966) when she was in full stride, writing one to three good poems a day. These are her final poems written after her husband left her for another woman.
Read my review of the book Ariel here.

Sylvia Plath Movies

A Video Tape! Voices & Visions: Sylvia Plath (1999) interviews with her mother and the voice of Sylvia herself reading her poems.

Sylvia a major motion picture was released in 2003 starring Gwyneth Paltrow - it did not live up to my expectations, you can read my review of the movie here at amazon.com. It's the third review down on the page, I gave it two stars for not delving enough into Sylvia's past.