Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)

American poet and author credited with advancing the

genre of confessional poetry in Ariel, her collection of poems,

and The Bell Jar, her semi-autobiographical novel;

clinically depressed for most of her adult life, she died by

suicide following a tumultuous marriage and children with

the English poet Ted Hughes;

became a posthumous feminist icon as a "symbol of

blighted female genius" during her life in pre-feminist days;

posthumously awarded many literary prizes, including

the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.