Writer Joyce Carol Oates described Sylvia Plath as “one of the most celebrated and controversial of postwar poets writing in English.” Sylvia Plath was one of the most dynamic and admired poets of the 20th century. When she took her life at 30, Plath had a huge following in the literary community.
Her work attracted the attention of a multitude of readers, who saw in her singular verse an attempt to catalogue despair, violent emotion, and obsession with death.
Beautiful Sylvia Plath during a beach holiday, three years before she met Ted Hughes (1953)
Sylvia Plath was married to another poet Ted Hughes from 1956 until they separated in September 1962. They lived together in the United States and then in England. They had two children, Frieda and Nicholas.
Plath was clinically depressed for most of her adult life. She was treated multiple times with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). She committed suicide in 1963. Since her suicide at 30, Sylvia Plath has been celebrated for her impeccable and ruthless poetry.
Let’s take a look to see the life of this talented tragic poet through this collection of photos.
Baby Plath, October 13th, 1933
Plath was about nine months old with her parents Otto and Aurelia, July 1933
Plath as a young child, 1934
Sylvia Plath and her brother Warren in Winthrop, Massachusetts, August 1940
Plath sunbathing in the backyard at 26 Elmwood Road, June 1946
Fifteen-year-old Sylvia Plath in 1947
Plath at the Powley’s country home in East Colrain, Massachusetts, February 1947
Enjoying a cola in 1947
Sylvia Plath, almost seventeen, with her brother Warren and mother in September 1949
Portrait of Syvia Plath in 1949
Sylvia Plath, September 1950
Portrait of Sylvia Plath, 1952
Plath at Smith College, Northampton, Mass in 1952
Plath in her dormitory, Haven House, at Smith College, 1952
Sylvia Plath and Elizabeth Cantor at Nauset Beach, Cape Cod, 1952
Sylvia Plath at Cambridge, 1952
Plath with her mother and brother, circa 1952
Blonde Sylvia in 1953
At the beach in 1953
At the beach in 1953
Plath during a beach holiday, three years before she met Ted Hughes, 1953
Sylvia Plath interviewing Elizabeth Bowen for Mademoiselle, summer of 1953
With friend Myron in 1953
With Gordon Lameyer, 1953
Plath with her typewriter, 1953
Sylvia Plath on the Smith College campus, April 1954
At the Quadigras dance, Smith College, May 1954
Sylvia Plath with brown hair, 1954
Sylvia Plath, Spring 1954
Plath as maid of honour, 1955
Portrait of Sylvia Plath at Yale University in 1955
Plath in 1956
Plath in 1956
Sylvia Plath in Paris, 1956
Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes in Paris just after their honeymoon in Benidorm, Spain, 1956
Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, Yorkshire, England, 1956
Sylvia Plath in Italy, 1956
Sylvia Plath in Italy, 1956
Sylvia Plath with typewriter in Yorkshire, September 1956
Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes and his parents, 1956
Plath, 1956
Plath, 1956
Plath, 1956
Ted Hughed and Sylvia Plath, 1956
Sylvia Plath feeding deer in Ontario, Canada, 1959
Plath rowing on Yellowstone Lake, 1959
Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath in Concord, Massachusetts, December 1959
With her daughter, 1960
Plath in 1960
Plath and her son Nicholas, December 1962
Sylvia Plath and her children at Court Green, fall 1962
Sylvia Plath and her son Nicholas Hughes in Devonshire, December 1962
