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Originally published in 1960, The Colossus was the only volume of Sylvia Plath’s poetry published before her death in 1963. Showing a scholarly dedication to the craft, the poems in this collection are brimming with originality and the startling imagery that would later confirm her status as one of the most important poets of the twentieth century.
‘On every page, a poet is serving notice that she has earned her credentials and knows her trade.’ Seamus Heaney
‘She steers clear of feminine charm, deliciousness, gentility, supersensitivity and the act of being a poetess. She simply writes good poetry. And she does so with a seriousness that demands only that she be judged equally seriously . . . There is an admirable no-nonsense air about this; the language is bare but vivid and precise, with a concentration that implies a good deal of disturbance with proportionately little fuss.’ A. Alvarez in the Observer
Sylvia Plath (1932–63) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and studied at Smith College. In 1955 she went to Cambridge University on a Fulbright scholarship, where she met and later married Ted Hughes. She published one collection of poems in her lifetime, The Colossus (1960), and a novel, The Bell Jar (1963). Her Collected Poems, which contains her poetry written from…
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Sylvia Plath, poet, novelist, short story writer, was born ninety years ago on 27 October, 1932.
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Faber will publish ‘Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom’, a previously unpublished story by Sylvia Plath, as part of the …
Read Peter K. Steinberg n bringing Plath to life through her correspondence in the Letters of Sylvia Plath Vol. II.
Read a fascinating essay by Karen V. Kukil, editor of The Letters of Sylvia Plath, on the rare material behind …
'Winter Words', a new, unseen poem by a 23-year-old Sylvia Plath, was written in 1955 whilst she was at Smith …
'Plath is most powerful when she explores what it means to be a woman in an unequal world - and …