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The History of Literature

397 Plath, Hughes, and the "Other Woman" - Assia Wevill and Her Writings (with Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick and Peter Steinberg)

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

Arts, History, Books

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

šŸ—“ļø 7 April 2022

ā±ļø 48 minutes

šŸ§¾ļø Download transcript

Summary

In 1961, poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath rented their flat to a Canadian poet and his wife, the beautiful, accomplished, and slightly mysterious Assia Wevill. Soon afterward, Ted and Assia began having an affair. Within a year, Assia was pregnant with Ted's child and Sylvia, after years of suffering from depression, had committed suicide. Six years later, Assia would do the same. It's a horribly tragic tale, like something out of Shakespeare, with genius and artistic ambition and love and sex and poetry entangled with themes of power dynamics, infidelity, and mental health problems. The poetic gifts of Ted and Sylvia - and the tragic ending of their marriage - has kept biographers and essay writers busy. But what about the third woman, Assia Wevill, a successful professional with ambition of her own? What did she write? How did she fit into this triangle? In this episode, Professor Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick and Peter Steinberg, editors of The Collected Writings of Assia Wevill, join Jacke for a discussion of the "Other Woman" in the Plath-Hughes marriage. Additional listening ideas: Sylvia Plath (with Mike Palindrome) Episode 120 - The Astonishing Emily Dickinson Episode 325 - Philip Larkin Help support the show atĀ patreon.com/literatureĀ orĀ historyofliterature.com/shop. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more atĀ www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglomerate Network and LitHub Radio.

0:09.6

Hey folks, it's Jack here to talk about the History of Literature Podcast.

0:14.3

No, not to ask you to listen, but to ask you to consider becoming a patron through our

0:19.3

Patreon account.

0:21.5

Producer Emma and I are extremely grateful to all our patrons, and this month we'd like

0:25.8

to invite you to become a patron too.

0:28.8

The money you share helps us to cover the costs of hosting, editing, and generally

0:33.5

putting out the best version of this humble little podcast that we can.

0:38.1

If you're finding some value in the history of literature and you're willing to send

0:41.2

us a little something each month, we would appreciate it.

0:44.7

Think of it as buying us a coffee each month.

0:47.4

Only if you can afford it, of course, that's patreon.com slash literature.

0:52.1

Or if you'd like to make a one-time donation, a lump sum with no questions asked.

0:57.4

You can do that at historyofliterature.com slash donate.

1:02.2

That's patreon.com slash literature or historyofliterature.com slash donate.

1:09.0

Thank you.

1:10.0

Hello.

1:11.5

She was born in Berlin.

1:13.0

Her father, a Jewish doctor from Latvia, her mother, a German Lutheran nurse.

1:18.2

The family fled the Nazis in 1933 when she was six, settling in Tel Aviv.

1:24.0

By the time she was 36, she had already lived an eventful life traveling to London and

1:29.1

Burma, finding success as an advertising writer and leaving one husband for another and then

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