Sylvia Plath

Sylvia and Ruth Sylvia and Ruth
Ruth Tiffany Barnhouse was therapist for the most famous, and famously troubled, poet of our time. Shortly before her own death, she agreed to speak about her treatment of Sylvia Plath, and the regrets that still haunted her decades after Plath's suicide.
"Her Husband" "Her Husband"
Diane Middlebrook talks about why the marriage of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes was a soaring success despite his infidelity and her suicide -- and why promising to be sexually faithful is folly.
Letters
"No wonder people hate Americans -- we're vultures." Readers leap to the defense of Sylvia Plath's daughter.
"Sylvia" "Sylvia"
Gwyneth Paltrow and director Christine Jeffs create a complex portrait of the legendary poet/suicide/heroine -- but this Lifetime-esque movie is too pretty and plays too safe.
Whose Plath is it anyway? Whose Plath is it anyway?
England's longest-running literary soap opera enters a new chapter, as Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes' daughter wages war against ghouls, obsessives and the makers of "Sylvia" (as well as novelists like me).
"Leaving You: The Cultural Meaning of Suicide" by Lisa Lieberman "Leaving You: The Cultural Meaning of Suicide" by Lisa Lieberman
A new book argues that suicide can be a rational response to an intolerable world -- and says that by medicalizing suicides, we rob them of their free will.
Interview: Kate Moses Interview: Kate Moses
Laura Miller speaks with the author of "Wintering," a novel about Sylvia Plath.
A lioness in winter A lioness in winter
Novelist Kate Moses on her portrait of Sylvia Plath during the grim London winter when she changed literary history -- and then killed herself.
Sylvia Plath
"The Bell Jar"
The Voice of the Poet: Sylvia Plath
Plath reads her poems "Sow" and "On the Difficulty of Conjuring Up a Dryad"
Sylvia Plath
"November Graveyard" and "Black Rook in Rainy Weather"
Poetic justice
"There could be no greater tribute"
The real Sylvia Plath The real Sylvia Plath
Her newly published, unexpurgated journals support a little-known theory that PMS drove her to suicide. Second of two parts.
The real Sylvia Plath The real Sylvia Plath
Her newly published, unexpurgated journals reveal the poet's true demons -- and support a little-known theory about what drove her to suicide. First of two parts.
Tell-tale hearts
The author of "A Prayer for the Dying" picks five tales of creeping madness.
Janet Malcolm
In her relentless pursuit of the truth she's left a few bodies in her wake, but isn't that part of a journalist's job?
Is hell satisfied?
In keeping with their authors' dark histories, "The Iron Giant" and other children's tales by Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath tell ominous fables about ambition, despair and people's disregard for nature and one another.
Traumas in adolescent life
A judge of the Seventeen magazine fiction contest recalls what was endearing about the writers of the 400 stories she read --even the really bad ones.
Ted Hughes, R.I.P.
A brief obituary of the British poet Ted Hughes, who died Wednesday Oct. 28, and links to Salon's glowing review of his last book of poems, 'Birthday Letters.'
The Good Father
Ted Hughes' 'Birthday Letters' makes it clear, once and for all, whom his silence has been protecting all these years -- his children.
Bitter fame
Ted Hughes' long silence about his life with Sylvia Plath was considered by many as a sign that he did not care. But in "Birthday Letters," his book of brilliant, evocative poems about their life together, one begins to understand, for the first time, the nature of their love, and its tragic dimensions.
SALON Daily Clicks: Newsreal
From Elton John to William Blake, rhymes have been used -- and misused -- in the service of royalty.

Daily Newsletter

Get Salon in your mailbox!