American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath

Published on the fiftieth anniversary of Sylvia Plath's death, this biography draws from the recently-opened Ted Hughes archive at the British Library, including forty-one letters between Plath and Hughes and unpublished papers. Plath's life has become legendary. Educated at Smith College, she had a deeply conflicted relationship with her mother, Aurelia, and married poet Ted Hughes, entering the intense literary world of English and American letters. Her poems were disputed, rejected, and ultimately widely read. She died at thirty by suicide. Her poetry collection Ariel became a modern classic, and her novel The Bell Jar remains a standard on student reading lists. This biography presents Plath not as overshadowed by Hughes, but as a powerful literary force who drew from both high and low culture to establish her place in literature.