American princess priestess poet

After her death by suicide in 1963, the young American poet Sylvia Plath became a feminist icon, a mythically brilliant and doomed figure. Her last poems, published after her death in a format edited by her estranged husband, the poet Ted Hughes, established her reputation and made her a commercial success, but it was her tumultuous personal life, rather than her work, that got most attention. Hughes became known as the philandering husband of Sylvia Plath as well as poet, and poet laureate. Why, however, all these years later, are biographers and critics still writing about her? Carl Rollyson argues that Plath’s greatness as a poet has been overshadowed. In this podcast, he explains to Karen Christensen, a Plath skeptic, how he is setting the record straight in a series of books about Plath.


Carl Rollyson is a prolific biographer as well as a critic who writes and podcasts extensively about the art of biography. His next book is Making the American Presidency: How Biographers Shape History (University of Virginia Press). Read more about him here (https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Contri...) .


CarlRollyson.com (http://CarlRollyson.com)


Amongst Carl’s books about Plath:


The Last Days of Sylvia Plath (https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/...)


Sylvia Plath Day by Day, Volume 2: 1955-1963 (https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/...)


The most recent and most comprehensive biography of Ted Hughes is by Jonathan Bate. Here is Carl’s review (https://kirkcenter.org/reviews/the-de...) .


Get full access to The Way We Live Now at karenchristensen.substack.com/subscribe (https://karenchristensen.substack.com...)