Plath, Sylvia: 1932-1963
Information about Sylvia Plath
- General Information
- Facts
- Sylvia Plath's life, and especially her death, have never been fully understood. An acclaimed poet and novelist, she was the golden girl, who had everything--beauty and brains; a great and recognized talent. She was married to the British poet Ted Hughes, whom she met while studying in England on a Fulbright Scholarship. It was apparently love at first sight. Plath wrote in her journal, "He kissed me bang smash on the mouth and ripped my hairband off ... and my favorite silver earrings ... I bit him long and hard on the cheek and when we came out of the room, blood was running down his face." They were married in less than a year. They were both obsessed with poetry and got up at dawn every day to write their poems. They'd been married a year when Hughes's first book of poetry, The Hawk in the Rain (1957), was published, and he became one of the most respected poets writing in English. While they were married Hughes was much more famous than Plath. In 1963, they separated after he fell in love with another woman. That winter, while living with their children, Plath committed suicide by sticking her head in the oven.
Adapted from The Writer's Almanac - Brief biography read by Susan M. Johnson. Can be used as listening comprehension exercise.
- TranscriptSylvia Plath was born in Boston on October 27, 1932 as the daughter of German immigrant parents. Her father was a professor of biology at Boston University. He died when Plath was eight years old. Her mother, Aurelia, worked at two jobs to support Sylvia and her brother Warren.
At school Plath appeared to be a model student: she won prizes and scholarships.She entered Smith College on a scholarship in 1950, but in her junior year she made the first of her suicide attempts. She later wrote about her breakdown through the summer and winter of 1953 in the semi-autobiographical novel, "The Bell Jar."
After winning a Fulbright scholarship, Plath attended Newham College, Cambridge (England). She met there in 1956 the English poet Ted Hughes, whom she married a year later.
They lived in London for a while and then settled in a small market town in Mid Devonshire. The marriage was difficult and they were separated.Their separation was mainly due to Sylvia's mental illness, and the affair that Hughes had with a fellow poet's wife. Plath returned to London with their children, Frieda and Nicholas.
On February 11, 1963, Plath gassed herself in her kitchen, ending her life at the age of thirty.
- Transcript
- Biography and Bibliography
- Bibliography
- Sylvia Plath's life, and especially her death, have never been fully understood. An acclaimed poet and novelist, she was the golden girl, who had everything--beauty and brains; a great and recognized talent. She was married to the British poet Ted Hughes, whom she met while studying in England on a Fulbright Scholarship. It was apparently love at first sight. Plath wrote in her journal, "He kissed me bang smash on the mouth and ripped my hairband off ... and my favorite silver earrings ... I bit him long and hard on the cheek and when we came out of the room, blood was running down his face." They were married in less than a year. They were both obsessed with poetry and got up at dawn every day to write their poems. They'd been married a year when Hughes's first book of poetry, The Hawk in the Rain (1957), was published, and he became one of the most respected poets writing in English. While they were married Hughes was much more famous than Plath. In 1963, they separated after he fell in love with another woman. That winter, while living with their children, Plath committed suicide by sticking her head in the oven.
- Articles
- Hughes breaks silence over Plath; with audio. BBC News, January 1998
- The Willing Domesticity of Sylvia Plath: A Rebuttal of the "Feminist" Label, by Michelle Kinsey-Clinton
- Birthday Letter: Sylvia Plath and "Daddy". The Paris Review; October 12, 2012
- On February 11, 1963, Sylvia Plath turned her gas oven on. Then she placed her head in the oven and waited to die. What was going through her mind at that moment? That's the question at the center of the dark comedy called "Wish I Had a Sylvia Plath" by Edward Anthony. KCRW Radio, Santa Monica; March 29, 2011
- Audio (3:59)
Reading Sylvia Plath 50 Years After Her Death Is A Different Experience. NPR Radio; February 25, 2013
Transcript - Audio (7:39)
New Works Recall Life and Legacy of Confessional Poet. NPR Radio; October 17, 2003 - The marital relationship of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes was filled with pain and ended in tragedy.. From Spotify
- A Tribute To Sylvia Plath And Ted Hughes (part 1) - 7:30
(part 2 - 7:15) - Sylvia Plath's grave in Heptonstall Churchyard, Heptonstall, Yorkshire, England. (2:51)
- Other Authors on Plath
- Audio (3:32)
Unseen Hughes Poem Details Sylvia Plath's Suicide. A British magazine is publishing a poem by Hughes never seen before. It's called "Last Letter." And in it Hughes finally spoke of Sylvia Plath's Suicide. NPR Radio; October 8, 2010
Transcript - The real Sylvia Plath by Kate Moses Part 1 (six pages), Part 2 (5 pages). In this article Kate Moss supports a little-known theory about what drove Sylvia Plath to suicide.
- Kate Moses wrote a fictionalized portrait of Sylvia Plath's last days before her 1963 suicide, called Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath, 2003.
- Audio (7:25)
The 'Ariel' Poems: A Return to Form. Plath's daughter, Frieda Hughes, talks about Ariel: The Restored Edition and her mother's legacy. NPR Radio; December 2, 2004 - 'The Death Throes of Romanticism: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath' by Joyce Carol Oates, revised November 16, 1999.
- Heather Clark, author of the book, "Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath" talks about her research process for the book and the early life of Sylvia Plath. WNYC Radio, New York; February 8, 2022
- Heather Clark, author of the book, "Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath" talks about the time Sylvia Plath visited New York City in the summer of 1953 as a guest editor of Mademoiselle. WNYC Radio, New York; February 9, 2022
- Audio (3:32)