Sylvia Plath

There are few writers of the late 20th century who have inspired as much enduring fascination for readers than Boston-born poet Sylvia Plath. She is considered, along with poets Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton, a member of the Confessional school of poetry because her work drew so much from the details of her personal life. Her most famous works are the semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, which chronicles a young woman’s descent into mental illness, and the poetry collection Ariel, which was published after her death by suicide at the age of 30. Her work and her difficult marriage to the English poet Ted Hughes have been the subject of many books, documentaries, and a biopic starring Gwyneth Paltrow.