Who was Sylvia Plath, what are the Bell Jar author's best poems and how did she die?
SLYVIA Plath was an American writer and poet and is among the most well-known writers of the 20th century.
She was born in 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts, and passed away in 1963, aged just 30, in London, England.
Who was Sylvia Plath?
She was born to parents mother, Aurelia Plath, and Otto Plath, who died when she was just ten-years-old.
Sylvia showed creative flare from a young age, having a selection of poems published in the Boston Herald’s children section when she was eight-years-old.
She went on to have poems published in a selection of regional papers and magazines.
Not just writing, but she had an artistic streak too, with her paintings winning a Scholastic Art & Writing Award.
She attended Smith College, followed by Newnham College and later the University of Cambridge, and it is said she had an IQ of around 160.
By the time she arrived at Smith College, she already had a collection of more than 50 short stories published, and she continued to excel, winning multiple awards.
Choosing to study English, she was awarded a summer guest editor position at a women’s magazine, and after graduating in 1955 she won the Glascock Prize for Two Lovers and a Beachcomber by the Real Sea.
In 1956 she met and married fellow poet, Ted Hughes, and they lived in the US before relocating to the UK.
The couple went on to have two children together, Frieda and Nicholas.
Sylvia suffered from depression for most of the adult life, and given electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) multiple times in a bid to cure it.
Despite her personal problems, she published poety books and a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, in 1963.
Her other notable works are The Colossus and Other Poems, published in 1960, and Ariel, published in 1965, two years after her death.
Years following her death, in 1983, she was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Poems.
What are the Bell Jar author's best poems and quotes?
During her short life she published numerous poems, but her best are considered to be Daddy and Lady Lazarus.
Other notable works include The Moon and the Yew Tree, You’re, Morning Song, Poppies in October, Ariel, Edge, Waking in Winter and Crossing the Water.
- “Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I've a call.”
- “Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.”
- “If you expect nothing from anybody, you’re never disappointed”.
- “Is there no way out of the mind?”
- “There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.”
- “Kiss me and you will see how important I am.”
- “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my eyes and all is born again.”
How did she die?
Sylvia took her own life on February 11 1963.
She was found in her flat in Primrose Hill, where she and her two children were living, having separated from her husband around six months before.
A nurse arrived, and concerned that she could not gain access to the flat, enlisted the help of a workman.
There she found Sylvia’s body in the kitchen, and the room sealed off with tape and towels.
It was reported Sylvia died from carbon monoxide poisoning, after putting her head near the gas in the oven.
The mother-of-two had tried to take her own life before.
In 1953 she overdosed on pills, and in 1962 she drove her car into a lake.
She is buried at Heptonstall Church, in West Yorkshire.
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