The Book of Folly

Anne Sexton (1928-1974) is one of the most influential & frequently discussed American poets. She lived all her life in the Boston area. (Publisher Provided) Poet Anne Sexton was born in Newton, Massachusetts in 1928. She attended Garland Junior College for a year and at nineteen, married Alfred Muller Sexton II. After the birth of her first show more daughter in 1953 and her second daughter in 1955, Sexton suffered mental breakdowns, which included attempting suicide on her birthday in 1955. She had been diagnosed with postpartum depression. Both times she was hospitalized at Westwood Lodge and it was there that her doctor got her to pursue her interest in writing poetry. She enrolled in a poetry workshop at the Boston Center for Adult Education in 1957, which is where she met fellow poet, and soon to be close friend, Maxine Kumin. Sexton then wrote "To Bedlam and Part Way Back" (1960), "All My Pretty Ones" (1962), and in 1966, Sexton won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for "Live or Die." Sexton wrote about controversial subjects, which included abortion and drug addiction. As with many other "confessional" poets, Sexton wrote of emotional anguish which came from her battle with mental illness. In 1974, she lost that battle and committed suicide. (Bowker Author Biography) show less