Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath - who was born on October 27th, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. - was an American poet, novelist, and short-story-writer.  After having her first poem published at age eight, Plath had numerous more printed in local publications over the next few years.  At age eleven, she began a journal, and showed early promise as a painter; she was also diagnosed with an I.Q. of around 160.  Raised as a Unitarian, Plath became ambivalent about religion after her father's death when she was eight.  Graduating from high school in 1950, she then attended Smith College in Massachusetts where she became editor of The Smith Review and guest editor of Mademoiselle magazine.  Becoming depressed and angry after failing to meet poet Dylan Thomas at a meeting, Plath slashed her legs to see if she had enough "courage" to kill herself.  Following electroconvulsive therapy for depression, Plath attempted suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping tablets on August 24th, 1953.  After six months in psychiatric care, she returned to college, graduating in June of 1955.  She was then awarded a scholarship to Cambridge University in England, where she spent the next two years.  Plath met the English poet Ted Hughes in February, 1956; the two were instantly attracted, and married on June 16th that year in London.  In June of 1957, the couple moved to the U.S.A., where Plath taught at her old college and resumed psychoanalytic treatment for her depression.  They travelled across the U.S.A. and Canada in 1959, returning to live in London, England that December.  Their first child, Frieda, was born on April 1st, 1960, with Plath's first volume of poetry, The Colossus, following in October.  In February, 1961, Plath's second pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, with Plath later claiming that Hughes had beaten her two days earlier.  That August, Plath finished writing (it was published in 1963) her semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, before the couple immediately moved to North Tawton in Devon, where Plath gave birth to her second child, Nicholas, in January, 1962.  Plath and Hughes had rented their London flat to two poets, Assia and David Wevill.  Plath had a car crash in June of 1962, which she described as one of many suicide attempts.  In July, she discovered that her husband was having an affair with Assia Wevill, and separated from him in September.  Plath now entered a period of great creativity, writing at least 26 poems between then and February, 1963.  In December of 1962, Plath returned to live in London with her children, her depression worsening during one of the coldest Winters in one-hundred years.  During January of 1963, Plath spoke to her doctor about her depression; he prescribed her anti-depressants, but failed to persuade her to enter hospital, instead arranging for a live-in nurse to help her look after her children.  The nurse tried to gain access to the property on February 11th, 1963, but was initially unable to do so.  With the help of a workman, she eventually broke in, only to discover Plath dead with her head in the gas oven.  She had sealed the rooms between her and her sleeping children to prevent them inhaling the fumes.  An inquest ruled that Plath had committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.  On March 16th, 2009, her son, Nicholas - a wildlife biologist - hanged herself after suffering from depression.  Sylvia Plath was just 30 years old.