Sylvia Plath (1932–1963)
Author of The Bell Jar
About the Author
Sylvia Plath's best poetry was produced, tragically, as she pondered self-destruction---in her poems as well as her life---and she eventually committed suicide. She had an extraordinary impact on British as well as American poetry in the few years before her death, and affected many poets, show more particularly women, in the generation after. She is a confessional poet, influenced by the approach of Robert Lowell. Born in Boston, a graduate of Smith College, Plath attended Newnham College, Cambridge University, on a Fulbright Fellowship and married the British poet Ted Hughes. Of her first collection,The Colossus and Other Poems (1962), the Times Literary Supplement remarked, "Plath writes from phrase to phrase as well as with an eye on the larger architecture of the poem; each line, each sentence is put together with a good deal of care for the springy rhythm, the arresting image and---most of all, perhaps---the unusual word." Plath's second book of poetry, Ariel, written in 1962 in a last fever of passionate creative activity, was published posthumously in 1965 and explores dimensions of women's anger and sexuality in groundbreaking new ways. Plath's struggles with women's issues, in the days before the second wave of American feminism, became legendary in the 1970s, when a new generation of women readers and writers turned to her life as well as her work to understand the contradictory pressures of ambitious and talented women in the 1950s. The Bell Jar---first published under a pseudonym in 1963 and later issued under Plath's own name in England in 1966---is an autobiographical novel describing an ambitious young woman's efforts to become a "real New York writer" only to sink into mental illness and despair at her inability to operate within the narrow confines of traditional feminine expectations. Plath was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1982. In recent years, there have been a number of biographies and critical evaluations of Plath's work. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
Also published under the name Sylvia Plath Hughes and Victoria Lucas. Please do not combine this author page with the author page for Plath, as there are other authors with that surname. thank you.
Series
Works by Sylvia Plath
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose, and Diary Excerpts (1977) 1,637 copies, 12 reviews
Stings: Original Drafts of the Dreams of the Poem Facsimile Reproduced from the Sylvia Plath Collection at Smith College (1983) 8 copies
The Poems of Sylvia Plath 7 copies
American Poetry Now: A Selection of the Best Poems by Modern American Writers (Critical Quarterly Poetry Supplement, Num (1961) 7 copies
Mad Girl's Love Song 4 copies
Le muse inquietanti e altre poesie 3 copies
The Poetry of Sylvia Plath 3 copies
Rare WINTER TREES poems by Sylvia Plath - 1st/1st HC 1972 - poetry - Bell jar [Hardcover] unknown (1972) 2 copies
Above the oxbow 2 copies
رسائل سيلفيا بلاث 1940 - 1963 2 copies
The Bell Jar and Other Works by Sylvia Plath: The Colossus, Ariel, Collected Poems and Juvenilia 2 copies
ZÉ SUSTO E A BÍBLIA DOS SONHOS 2 copies
Fiesta melons: Poems and drawings 2 copies
Morning Song {poem} 2 copies
Poesía portátil en femenino (Plath | Sexton | Dickinson | Safo | Ajmátova | Bishop | Vilariño) (2022) 1 copy
سيلفيا بلاث اليوميات 1 copy
KAMBANA E QELTQË 1 copy
LULEKUQE TETORI 1 copy
Quả chuông ác mộng 1 copy
Plath letters - Heptonstall 1 copy
The Bell Jar 1 copy
Rare WINTER TREES poems by Sylvia Plath - 1st/1st HC 1972 - poetry - Bell jar [Hardcover] unknown 1 copy
Above The Oxbow prospectus 1 copy
Crystal Gazer 1 copy
Complete Works 1 copy
Child: [poem] 1 copy
The Prose of Sylvia Plath 1 copy
Black Rook in Rainy Weather (included in The Norton Introduction to Literature - 5th Edition) 1 copy
POEMS OF SYLVIA PLATH 1 copy
Plath Sylvia 1 copy
Letters of Sylvia Plath 1 copy
Sylvia Plath reads her works 1 copy
Uncollected poems 1 copy
Plath, Sylvia Archive 1 copy
The green rock 1 copy
The World of Sylvia Plath 1 copy
Associated Works
The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (2000) — Contributor — 1,469 copies, 9 reviews
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 1,012 copies, 7 reviews
Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas (2004) — Contributor — 900 copies, 10 reviews
The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists (2000) — Contributor, some editions — 622 copies, 9 reviews
World Poetry: An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time (1998) — Contributor — 499 copies, 2 reviews
No More Masks: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Women Poets (1993) — Contributor, some editions — 226 copies, 3 reviews
From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas 1900-2002 (2002) — Contributor — 182 copies
The Universe in Verse: 15 Portals to Wonder through Science and Poetry (2024) — Contributor — 162 copies, 8 reviews
The Graphic Canon, Vol. 3: From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest (2013) — Contributor — 162 copies, 1 review
Poetry Speaks Expanded: Hear Poets Read Their Own Work from Tennyson to Plath (2007) — Contributor — 158 copies, 2 reviews
An American Album: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Harper's Magazine (2000) — Contributor — 145 copies, 1 review
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Volume 2: 1865 to Present (1979) — Contributor, some editions — 136 copies
The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Concise Edition (2003) — Contributor — 73 copies, 1 review
Cape Cod Stories: Tales from Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard (1996) — Contributor — 59 copies, 5 reviews
Spores of Doom: Dank Tales of the Fungal Weird: 59 (British Library Tales of the Weird) (2025) — Contributor — 36 copies, 2 reviews
About Women: An Anthology of Contemporary Fiction, Poetry, and Essays (1973) — Contributor — 25 copies
Possibilities of Poetry: An Anthology of American Contemporaries (1970) — Contributor — 17 copies, 1 review
Works in Progress Number 4: Selections from the Best in Books to be Published in Coming Months (1971) — Contributor — 7 copies
Sylvia Plath's Tomato Soup Cake: A Compendium of Classic Authors' Favourite Recipes (2024) — Contributor — 6 copies
Edexcel Poetry Anthology for Advanced subsidiary and advanced GCE examinations in English Literature (2000) — Contributor, some editions — 6 copies
Die englische Literatur 10 in Text und Darstellung. 20. Jahrhundert 2. (2001) — Contributor — 6 copies
Ein Haus mit vielen Zimmern: Autorinnen erzählen vom Schreiben (edition fünf 27) (German Edition) (2015) — Contributor — 2 copies
The London Magazine : April 1963, New series Volume 3, No. 1 — Contributor — 1 copy
In'hui, No.9 — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Hughes, Sylvia Plath (married name)
- Other names
- Lucas, Victoria
Hughes, Sylvia Plath - Birthdate
- 1932-10-27
- Date of death
- 1963-02-11
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Smith College (AB|English|1955)
Newnham College, Cambridge (MA) - Occupations
- poet
teacher
novelist
short story writer - Awards and honors
- Glascock Poetry Prize (1955)
Fulbright Fellowship (Cambridge, 1955)
Pulitzer Prize (1982) - Relationships
- Hughes, Ted (husband)
Hughes, Frieda (daughter)
Lowell, Robert (teacher)
Alvarez, Al (friend)
Sexton, Anne (friend) - Short biography
- Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, The Colossus and Other Poems and Ariel, as well as The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her death. In 1981 The Collected Poems were published, including many previously unpublished works. For this collection Plath was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1982, making her the first to receive this honour posthumously.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Plath studied at Smith College in Massachusetts and at Newnham College in Cambridge, England. She 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.
Plath was clinically depressed for most of her adult life, and was treated multiple times with electroconvulsive therapy. She died by suicide in 1963. - Cause of death
- suicide
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Places of residence
- Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, USA
Winthrop, Massachusetts, USA
Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
London, Middlesex, England, UK
Devon, England, UK (show all 8)
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK
Northampton, Massachusetts, USA - Place of death
- London, Middlesex, England, UK
- Burial location
- Heptonstall Parish Churchyard, West Yorkshire, England, UK,
- Map Location
- USA
- Disambiguation notice
- Also published under the name Sylvia Plath Hughes and Victoria Lucas.
Please do not combine this author page with the author page for Plath, as there are other authors with that surname. thank you.
Members
Discussions
26Shorts2026: ShortsRead --- Anisha's 2026 log in 26 Short Stories for 2026 (Wednesday 1:07pm)
the bell jar in Club Read 2023 (July 2023)
Interested to swap replacement titles in Canada in Folio Society Devotees (October 2022)
Fine press Plath in Fine Press Forum (March 2022)
Reviews
Some claim that the enormous interest in Sylvia Plath’s poetry has more to do with the drama of her life, marriage, and death than with the quality of the poetry itself. That may be true, but it says nothing about the quality. Crossing the Water is solid; unlike Winter Trees, the other volume that collects poems she left behind, not a single one seems unfinished. All are well-crafted yet seem less formal than those in her first collection, The Colossus. They abound in memorable lines and show more internal rhyme. Plath is a masterful observer of landscape, which not only abounds in life but in intimations of death. “Wuthering Heights,” the opening poem, begins: “The horizons ring me like faggots,” a menacing image. “If I pay the roots of heather / Too close attention, they will invite me / To whiten my bones among them.” The combination of landscape and death recurs in other poems, such as “I Am Vertical.” Another motif that appears more than once is “blue Mary,” along with other religious imagery. At times I felt that Plath was creating poems meant to be read together, as a set, rather than individual lyrics. While reading the book, I learned that some figured in her plan for the Ariel collection, but that Ted Hughes disregarded her intention when he issued it, both in the selection of poems and their order. I don’t intend to join Team Hughes or Team Plath, but I’m sorry he did this, whatever his reasons. Regardless, this is an excellent collection. show less
Un romanzo che ti entra dentro con una violenza assoluta.
Molto autobiografico, racconta la caduta di Ester e il tentativo di rinascita: una giovane donna mangiata da pressione sociale e da forti aspettative da tutti quelli che la circondano. La descrizione del vortice che la inghiotte, fitto di piccoli e grandi autoinganni non può non colpire: chi non si è trovato in situazioni più o meno analoghe, in prima o in terza persona?
Una scrittura coinvolgente e con un uso della parola e delle show more immagini strepitosi sono poi l'elemento che mi ha portato a divorare questo libro e ad amarlo come non avrei mai immaginato e come non mi sarei mani aspettata, specialmente da una autrice che ha dedicato la sua vita alla poesia.
E fa male pensare ai forti tratti autobiografici e alla fine dell'autrice. show less
Molto autobiografico, racconta la caduta di Ester e il tentativo di rinascita: una giovane donna mangiata da pressione sociale e da forti aspettative da tutti quelli che la circondano. La descrizione del vortice che la inghiotte, fitto di piccoli e grandi autoinganni non può non colpire: chi non si è trovato in situazioni più o meno analoghe, in prima o in terza persona?
Una scrittura coinvolgente e con un uso della parola e delle show more immagini strepitosi sono poi l'elemento che mi ha portato a divorare questo libro e ad amarlo come non avrei mai immaginato e come non mi sarei mani aspettata, specialmente da una autrice che ha dedicato la sua vita alla poesia.
E fa male pensare ai forti tratti autobiografici e alla fine dell'autrice. show less
The Colossus was the only collection of poems published in Sylvia Plath’s lifetime. It’s also the title of one of three poems in the volume that deal with the early loss of her father. In it, he is depicted as a ruined statue that his daughter is heroically but unsuccessfully trying to preserve. In “Full Fathom Five,” he is the old man of the sea, Neptune; the speaker, his daughter, is a mermaid, choking on air; she would rather breathe water. The mermaid imagery turns up again in show more the collection. The third is “The Beekeeper’s Daughter.” Her father was an entomologist, and Plath herself tried her hand at beekeeping. Yet it contains the oppressive line: “My heart under your feet, sister of a stone.”
Family relations also turn up in poems that treat the ambivalent experience of pregnancy, such as the poem that opens the collection, “The Manor Garden.”
Many of the poems record observations from nature, juxtaposing life and death. “Water Colour of Grandchester Meadows,” for instance, updates Tennyson’s “red in tooth and claw.” However, the poet’s observation of nature is faulty in one case. In “The Ghost’s Leavetaking,” a powerful description of the departure of a dream upon waking, she speaks of the “new moon’s curve,” but that is visible in the west just after sunset, not in the east just before dawn. Picky, you might think; bear with me on a pet peeve. A surprising number of otherwise excellent writers evoke the moon, but inaccurately.
The language throughout is elevated. It seems there was one word I needed to look up in nearly every poem. In only one case, the latinate “palustral” in “Frog Autumn,” did I feel she was trying too hard for enriched vocabulary. There are also some beautiful neologisms, such as “lapsing” in “The Lorelei” to describe the sound of waves at the shore (in “The Winter Ship,” the speaker tells us “the water slips and gossips in its loose vernacular”). Whether set in the U. S. or in England, the seacoast is a recurrent source of inspiration.
It’s all too easy to read these poems in the wake of the author’s suicide; death does indeed haunt many of them. Had she resisted the urge to end her life, the reader might take equal note of the will to live that is also present. Back in university, long ago, Plath’s recently-publish posthumous collection, Ariel, was the lodestone for more than one aspiring poetess in my acquaintance. Perhaps that’s why, at the time, I only read some of her most famous poems, such as “Daddy.” I’m glad enough time has passed that I can read and appreciate these. show less
Family relations also turn up in poems that treat the ambivalent experience of pregnancy, such as the poem that opens the collection, “The Manor Garden.”
Many of the poems record observations from nature, juxtaposing life and death. “Water Colour of Grandchester Meadows,” for instance, updates Tennyson’s “red in tooth and claw.” However, the poet’s observation of nature is faulty in one case. In “The Ghost’s Leavetaking,” a powerful description of the departure of a dream upon waking, she speaks of the “new moon’s curve,” but that is visible in the west just after sunset, not in the east just before dawn. Picky, you might think; bear with me on a pet peeve. A surprising number of otherwise excellent writers evoke the moon, but inaccurately.
The language throughout is elevated. It seems there was one word I needed to look up in nearly every poem. In only one case, the latinate “palustral” in “Frog Autumn,” did I feel she was trying too hard for enriched vocabulary. There are also some beautiful neologisms, such as “lapsing” in “The Lorelei” to describe the sound of waves at the shore (in “The Winter Ship,” the speaker tells us “the water slips and gossips in its loose vernacular”). Whether set in the U. S. or in England, the seacoast is a recurrent source of inspiration.
It’s all too easy to read these poems in the wake of the author’s suicide; death does indeed haunt many of them. Had she resisted the urge to end her life, the reader might take equal note of the will to live that is also present. Back in university, long ago, Plath’s recently-publish posthumous collection, Ariel, was the lodestone for more than one aspiring poetess in my acquaintance. Perhaps that’s why, at the time, I only read some of her most famous poems, such as “Daddy.” I’m glad enough time has passed that I can read and appreciate these. show less
What an amazing book! Esther Greenwood is a brilliant, young woman who has a bright future in front of her but is slowly unwinding. Plath's descriptions of Esther's descent is frighteningly real and rational. Esther dispassionately (or coolly) talks about being cut off from the world around her, about giving up her scholarship, and finally about her plans for killing herself. The depression drips off the pages like large, black drops of pooling blood. This is always a personal story with so show more many clues to Esther's descent but the story never really explains why or what caused this break - was it because of her push to be the "scholarship girl", her indecision about what to do after college or her fear of losing herself to a man. Esther feels as if she wouldn't be able to do anything once she is married and yet they call her and wonders why because the only thing that is more clear than the depression is her contempt (fear?) of men. An excellent story that will have me reading, "Letters Home: Correspondence, 1950-1963", to find out how much of this story was just really good writing and how much was auto-biographical. show less
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- Works
- 131
- Also by
- 77
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