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.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. 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. 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. 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.
