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.