“Yes, depression is part of the story,” continued Prof Clark, “but I tried to refocus attention on her ambition and her drive and the boundaries that she broke.

Study English at University of Huddersfield I think she is one of the most important poets of the 20th century. Too much attention has been paid to her suicide rather than her writing and literary career. “I embarked on this book because I thought she had been overly pathologised in biographies, memoirs, TV dramas and so on. Professor Clark has set out to redress the balance. The tragedy of her end and controversy over her relationship with Yorkshire-born Hughes – who later became Poet Laureate – has often overshadowed Sylvia Plath’s literary career and accomplishments. She suffered from depressive illness and in 1963, after the marriage had broken down, Plath committed suicide while living in London.

Titled Red Comet: The Short and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath, the newly-published, 1,152-page book has been hailed as the definitive account of the life and work of the Boston-born writer who in 1956 married the English poet Ted Hughes. Along with illuminating readings of the poems themselves, Clark's meticulous, compassionate research brings us closer than ever to the spirited woman and visionary artist who blazed a trail that still lights the way for women poets the world over.Critical acclaim has greeted a major biography of the poet and novelist Sylvia Plath, written by the American scholar Heather Clark, who is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at the University of Huddersfield. Clark's clear-eyed portraits of Hughes, his lover Assia Wevill, and other demonized players in the arena of Plath's suicide promote a deeper understanding of her final days. Refusing to read Plath's work as if her every act was a harbinger of her tragic fate, Clark considers the sociopolitical context as she thoroughly explores Plath's world: her early relationships and determination not to become a conventional woman and wife her troubles with an unenlightened mental health industry her Cambridge years and thunderclap meeting with Ted Hughes and much more. 'One of the most beautiful biographies I've ever read.' -Glennon Doyle, author of #1 New York Times Bestseller, Untamed With a wealth of never-before-accessed materials, Heather Clark brings to life the brilliant Sylvia Plath, who had precocious poetic ambition and was an accomplished published writer even before she became a star at Smith College. PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST - The highly anticipated biography of Sylvia Plath that focuses on her remarkable literary and intellectual achievements, while restoring the woman behind the long-held myths about her life and art.

Red comet sylvia plath review