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The History of Literature

Sylvia Plath

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Books, Arts

4.61.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2019

⏱️ 67 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) was born in Boston in 1932, the daughter of a German-born professor, Otto Plath, and his student, Aurelia Schober. After her father died in 1940, Plath's family moved to Wellesley, Massachusetts, where her mother taught secretarial studies at Boston University and Plath embarked on a path that she would follow the rest of her life: she was a gifted student, she wrote poetry and stories, she won awards and prizes and scholarships - and she began to suffer from the severe depression that would ultimately lead to her death. Plath's life, including her incendiary marriage to British poet Ted Hughes, will be discussed in a separate episode. In this episode, we focus on Plath's poetry, as superfan Mike Palindrome, President of the Literature Supporters Club, selects five poems to introduce Plath: The Applicant, Lady Lazarus, Morning Song, The Colossus, and The Stones. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to [email protected]. Music Credits: “Allemande Sting” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. 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 Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.

0:07.0

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0:39.8

Hello. Sylvia Plath was born in Boston in 1932, the daughter of a German-born professor, Otto Plath, and his student

0:49.1

Aurelia.

0:50.8

After her father died in 1940, Plath's family moved to Wellesley, Massachusetts,

0:56.0

where her mother taught secretarial studies at Boston University,

0:59.0

and Plath embarked on a path that she would follow the rest of her life. She was a gifted

1:04.7

student, she wrote poetry and stories, she won awards and prizes and

1:09.8

scholarships, and she began to suffer from the severe depression that would ultimately lead to her death.

1:17.0

She left behind her estranged husband, the British poet Ted Hughes, and their two young young children and she left the world an

1:25.0

astonishing body of work for a 30-year-old. Her works include the novel The

1:30.0

Bell Jar, her journals, and above all her poetry.

1:34.2

As Joyce Caroloates said, her best poems, quote, many of them written during the final turbulent

1:39.4

weeks of her life read as if they've been chiseled with a fine surgical instrument out of Arctic ice."

1:47.0

End quote.

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