Sylvia Plath
A Boston-born poet who studied at Smith and Cambridge, published one novel under a pen name, and won a Pulitzer Prize nearly two decades after her death.
The Bell Jar
Her only novel, first published in London in January 1963 under the name Victoria Lucas; it appeared under her own name in Britain in 1966 and in the U.S. in 1971.4
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At a glance
- Born
- Oct. 27, 1932, in Jamaica Plain, Boston3
- Parents
- Otto Plath, a professor of German and biology, and Aurelia Schober, once his student31
- Education
- Smith College, summa cum laude, 1955; Fulbright student at Newnham College, Cambridge24
- Married
- The poet Ted Hughes, June 16, 1956; the marriage ended in 196231
- Children
- A daughter, born in 1960, and a son, born in 19623
- Pen name
- Victoria Lucas, for The Bell Jar4
- Died
- Feb. 11, 1963, in London, aged 3043
- Major awards
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 1982, for The Collected Poems2
Sylvia Plath's Backstory
Early life
Sylvia Plath was born on Oct. 27, 1932, in Jamaica Plain, Boston, the daughter of Otto Plath, a German immigrant who taught German and biology, and Aurelia Schober, who had been one of his students.31 Her father died in 1940, and the family later moved to Wellesley, Massachusetts.31 Her first poem was published in 1941, when she was eight, and she was placing stories and poems in national magazines while still in her teens.31
Smith and Cambridge
She went to Smith College on a scholarship and in 1953 spent a summer in New York as a guest editor at Mademoiselle.13 That August she attempted suicide and was treated in hospital, including with electroshock therapy.1 She returned to Smith and graduated summa cum laude in 1955, then went to Newnham College, Cambridge, on a Fulbright.24
Marriage and The Colossus
At Cambridge she met the poet Ted Hughes on Feb. 25, 1956, and they married on June 16 that year.43 From 1957 to 1959 they lived in the United States, where she took Robert Lowell’s seminars in Boston and met Anne Sexton.3 Back in England, her first book of poems, The Colossus, was published in 1960; it appeared in the U.S. in 1962.2 Her daughter was born in 1960 and her son in 1962, and the family moved to Court Green, a house in North Tawton, Devon.3
The last year
Her marriage ended in 1962, leaving her with two young children.1 She moved to London, to a flat in a house where W.B. Yeats had once lived.3 Her novel The Bell Jar was published in January 1963 under the name Victoria Lucas.4 She died by suicide in London on Feb. 11, 1963, aged 30.41
After her death
Hughes published Ariel in 1965, rearranging the manuscript she had left; her own arrangement appeared in 2004 as Ariel: The Restored Edition.45 His edition of The Collected Poems (1981) won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1982, the first awarded to a poet after death.23 Her mother published Letters Home in 1975, and her journals appeared in 1982 and, unabridged, in 2000.12 In May 2026 Faber published The Poems of Sylvia Plath, a complete edition of more than 500 poems edited by Amanda Golden and Karen V. Kukil, whose notes read the poems less through her biography than Hughes’s did.968
Fun facts
- Her first poem was published in 1941, when she was eight.3
- She met Ted Hughes on Feb. 25, 1956, at a party to launch the Cambridge literary journal St. Botolph's Review; they married four months later.43
- In the last months of her life she rented a London flat in a house where W.B. Yeats had once lived.3
- She was the first poet to win a Pulitzer Prize after death, for The Collected Poems in 1982.23
- The Magic Mirror, published in 1989, is her undergraduate thesis from Smith.4
- The new complete edition includes "Mad Girl's Love Song," which Hughes apparently did not know about.6
Books
In order of first publication. Each series is kept together, in reading order, starting where its first book appeared. Titles and first-publication years from the 2026 copy of Wikipedia's Sylvia Plath article, checked against the Academy of American Poets' bibliography and New World Encyclopedia; the 1985 Selected Poems, the UK compilation of children's stories and the single story Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom are left out.423
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- 1960
- 1963
- 1965
- 1968Three Women: A Monologue for Three Voices
- 1971Crossing the Water
- 1971Winter Trees
- 1975
- 1976The Bed Book
- 1977Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams
- 1981
- 1982The Journals of Sylvia Plath
- 1989
- 1996The It-Doesn't-Matter Suit
- 2000
- 2001Mrs. Cherry's Kitchen
- 2004Ariel: The Restored Edition
- 2017The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume 1
- 2018The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume 2
- 2024The Collected Prose of Sylvia Plath
- 2026
Latest news
Reviewing the new complete edition for the Los Angeles Review of Books, Heather Treseler noted that it gathers 542 poems from Plath's published work and archives in 944 pages.7
Faber published The Poems of Sylvia Plath, edited by Amanda Golden and Karen V. Kukil, with more than 500 poems; Ted Hughes's 1981 Collected Poems had 274.968
Faber announced a year of Plath publishing, including new editions of The Bell Jar and Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams and a selection of her writing about writing.10
Adaptations and other media
Film
- The Bell Jar1979Based on The Bell Jar
A film directed by Larry Peerce, with Marilyn Hassett as Esther.4
Television
- Letters Home1986Based on Letters Home
An experimental television film by Chantal Akerman.4
Myth and record
Timeline
Born in Jamaica Plain, Boston.3
Her father, Otto Plath, dies.3
Publishes her first poem, at age eight.3
Guest editor at Mademoiselle in New York.3
Graduates summa cum laude from Smith College and goes to Cambridge on a Fulbright.24
Meets Ted Hughes at a Cambridge party.4
Marries Hughes.3
The Colossus, her first book of poems, is published in England.2
The Bell Jar is published under the name Victoria Lucas.4
Dies in London, aged 30.4
Ariel is published, in an arrangement by Hughes.4
The Collected Poems wins the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the first awarded to a poet after death.23
Ariel: The Restored Edition publishes the book in her own order.5
Faber publishes The Poems of Sylvia Plath, a new complete edition.96
What came after
Faber's 2026 program also includes new editions of The Bell Jar and Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams and a selection of her reflections on writing.10
Sources
- Sylvia Plath Poetry FoundationReference
- Sylvia Plath Academy of American PoetsReference
- Sylvia Plath New World EncyclopediaReference
- Sylvia Plath Wikipedia (March 2026 copy)Reference
- Ariel Redux Slate (Meghan O'Rourke)News
- Review: The Poems of Sylvia Plath, edited by Amanda Golden and Karen V Kukil Prospect (Jeremy Noel-Tod)News
- Who's Afraid of Sylvia Plath? Los Angeles Review of Books (Heather Treseler)News
- Complete Plath Smith CollegePrimary record
- The Poems of Sylvia Plath Topping & Company BooksellersWebsite
- Faber unveils ambitious raft of Sylvia Plath publishing The BooksellerNews