'I spat out Plath and Pinter' - Faster

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SYLVIA PLATH
(born Oct. 27, 1932, Boston, Mass., U.S.- died Feb. 11, 1963, London, Eng.), American poet and novelist whose best-known works are noted for their preoccupation with alienation and with death and self-destruction. Little-known at the time of her death by suicide, her reputation and popularity grew rapidly afterward, and by the mid-1970s she was considered a major contemporary poet.

Plath's early life was dominated by a drive to excel at writing, and she published her first poem at age eight. She entered and won many literary contests and received a scholarship to Smith College. From 1955 to 1957 she attended the University of Cambridge on a Fulbright grant; there she met and in 1956 married the English poet Ted Hughes

Her first major publication was The Colossus (1960), a collection of poems written from 1956 to 1960. This was followed by her only novel, The Bell Jar (1963), which first appeared under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. Drawn from Plath's own experiences, the book describes the mental breakdown, attempted suicide, and eventual recovery of a young college girl. Works published posthumously include Ariel (1965) and Crossing the Water (1971), both poetry collections, and Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams (1977), a book of short stories and prose. The Collected Poems, which includes many previously unpublished poems, appeared in 1981.