Syliva Plath: 1932-1963

Sylvia Plath was born in Boston on October 27, 1932 as the daughter of German immigrant parents. Her father was a professor of biology at Boston University. He died when Plath was eight years old. Her mother, Aurelia, worked at two jobs to support Sylvia and her brother Warren.

At school Plath appeared to be a model student: she won prizes and scholarships.She entered Smith College on a scholarship in 1950, but in her junior year she made the first of her suicide attempts. She later wrote about her breakdown through the summer and winter of 1953 in the semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar.

After winning a Fulbright scholarship, Plath attended Newham College, Cambridge (England). She met there in 1956 the English poet Ted Hughes, whom she married a year later.

They lived in London for a while and then settled in a small market town in Mid Devonshire. The marriage was difficult and they were separated.Their separation was mainly due to Sylvia's mental illness, and the affair that Hughes had with a fellow poet's wife. Plath returned to London with their children, Frieda and Nicholas.

On February 11, 1963, Plath gassed herself in her kitchen, ending her life at the age of thirty.