Plath, Sylvia
Plath, Sylvia ( 1932 – 63 ),poet and novelist, born in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of a German immigrant professor and entomologist, who died when she was 8. She was educated at Smith College, Massachusetts, and Newnham College, Cambridge. She married Ted Hughes in 1956 . After teaching for a while in America, she and Hughes returned to England in 1959 , where they lived in London before moving to Devon in 1961 . Her first volume of poetry, The Colossus, appeared in 1960 , and in 1963 her only novel The Bell Jar . Less than a month after its publication, in the coldest February for many years, she committed suicide in London. In 1965 appeared her best-known collection, Ariel, which established her reputation with its courageous and controlled treatment of extreme and painful states of mind. Much of her symbolism was deeply rooted in actuality; the poems on bee-keeping (‘The Bee...
[The entire page is 366 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
