Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1932. She graduated from Smith College in 1955 and won a Fulbright Scholarship to Cambridge University. Her books include the poetry collections The Colossus, Crossing the Water, Winter Trees, and the Collected Poems, which won the Pulitzer Prize, as well as the classic novel The Bell Jar. She was married to the English poet Ted Hughes, and together they had two children. Sylvia Plath died in London in 1963.
On our shelves
Search the library's catalogue for material about Sylvia Plath.
Poetry
- The Colossus."The Colossus" was the only volume of Sylvia Plath's poetry published during her lifetime.
- Crossing the water. This is a 1971 posthumous collection of poetry by Sylvia Plath that was prepared for publication by Ted Hughes.
- Selected poems edited by Ted Hughes.
- The Restored edition of Ariel - A facsimile edition of Plath's manuscript which reinstates her original selection and arrangement.
Fiction
- The Bell Jar. This was Sylvia Plath's only work of fiction. It is now considered to be semi-autobiographical.
Short stories and additional prose writings
History and criticism
- The Cambridge companion to Sylvia Plath edited by Jo Gill. [Cambridge Companion to Literature].
- Sylvia Plath: a literary life by Linda Wagner-Martin. [From Macmillan Literary Lives series].
- Sylvia Plath: comprehensive and research guide edited with an introduction by Harold Bloom [From Bloom's Major Poets series].
Biography
- Rough Magic: a biography of Sylvia Plath by Paul Alexander.
- The Other Ariel by Lynda K. Bundtzen.
- The Silent woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes by Janet Malcolm.
- Mad girls' love song: Sylvia Plath and life before Ted by Andrew Wilson.
Collections
- Catching life by the throat: how to read poetry and why, poems from eight great poets by Josephine Hart. This book includes an introduction to Sylvia Plath and the accompanying CD-ROM allows you listed to Harriet Walter reading 3 of her poems.