Red Comet : The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath

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. Prologue The beekeeper's daughter : Prussia, Austria, America, 1850-1932 Do not mourn : Winthrop, 1932-1940 The shadow : Wellesley, 1940-1945 My thoughts to shining fame aspire : Wellesley, 1946-1947 The voice within : Wellesley, 1947-1948 Summer will not come again : Wellesley, 1948-1950 The white queen : Wellesley and Smith College, 1950-1951 Love is a parallax : Swampscott, Smith College, Cape Cod, 1951-1952 The ninth kingdom : Smith College, September 1952-May 1953 My mind will split open : Manhattan, June 1953 The hanging man : Wellesley, July-August 1953 Waking in the blue : McLean Hospital, September 1953-January 1954 The lady or the tiger : Smith College and Harvard summer school, January-August 1954 O Icarus : Smith College and Wellesley, September 1954-August 1955 Channel crossing : Cambridge University, September 1955-February 1956 Pursuit : Cambridge and Europe, February-June 1956 Like fury : Spain, Paris, Yorkshire, Cambridge, July-October 1956 Itched and kindled : Cambridge University, October 1956-June 1957 In Midas' country : Cape Cod and Smith College, June 1957-June 1958 Life studies : Northampton and Boston, June 1958-March 1959 The development of personality : Boston, America, Yaddo, April-December 1959 The dread of recognition : London, 1960 Nobody can tell what I lack : London, January-March 1961 The moment of the fulcrum : London, March-August 1961 The late, grim heart of autumn : Devon, September-December 1961 Mothers : Devon, January-May 1962 Error : Devon, May-June 1962 I feel all I feel : Devon and London, June-August 1962 But not the end : Devon and Ireland, August-September 1962 The problem of him : Devon and London, October 1962 Castles in air : Devon and London, October-November 1962 Yeats's house : London, December 1962-January 1963 What is the remedy? : London, January-February 1963 The dark ceiling : London, February 1963 Epilogue : Your wife is dead Postscript: A poet's epitaph "An engrossing new biography of Sylvia Plath focuses on her remarkable literary and intellectual growth and achievement, restoring the vivid creative woman behind the longtime Plath myths perpetuated by a pathology-based approach to her life and art. With a wealth of never-before-accessed materials, Heather Clark here brings to life the brilliant daughter of Wellesley, MA who had poetic ambition from a very young age, and was an accomplished, published writer of poems and stories before she became the star English student at Smith College. Determined not to read Plath's work as if her every act, from childhood on, was a harbinger of her tragic fate, Clark presents new materials about Plath's scientist father, her juvenile writings, and her psychiatric treatment, and evokes a culture in transition in the mid-twentieth century, in the shadow of the atom bomb and the Holocaust, as she explores Sylvia's world: her early relationships and determination not to become a conventional woman and wife; her conflicted ties to her well-meaning, widowed mother; her troubles at the hands of an unenlightened mental health industry; her Cambridge years and thunderclap meeting with Ted Hughes, a marriage of true minds that would change the course of poetry in English; and much more. Clark's clear-eyed sympathy for Hughes, his lover Assia Wevill, and other demonized players in the arena of Plath's suicide promotes a deeper understanding of her final days, with their outpouring of first-rate poems. 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"-- Provided by publisher -- Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life The highly anticipated new 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. With a wealth of never-before-accessed materials--including unpublished letters and manuscripts; court, police, and psychiatric records; and new interviews--Heather Clark brings to life the brilliant daughter of Wellesley, Massachusetts who had poetic ambition from a very young age and was an accomplished, published writer of poems and stories even before she became a star English student at Smith College in the early 1950s. Determined not to read Plath's work as if her every act, from childhood on, was a harbinger of her tragic fate, Clark evokes a culture in transition, in the shadow of the atom bomb and the Holocaust, as she explores Plath's world: her early relationships and determination not to become a conventional woman and wife; her conflicted ties to her well-meaning, widowed mother; her troubles at the hands of an unenlightened mental-health industry; her Cambridge years and thunderclap meeting with Ted Hughes, a marriage of true minds that would change the course of poetry in English; 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 promotes a deeper understanding of her final days, with their outpouring of first-rate poems. 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 Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath is a 2020 book by Heather Clark that examines Sylvia Plath. It was selected for the New York Times Book Review's "10 Best Books of 2021" list and was the a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.