From Library Journal
Feminist icon and patron saint of moody coffeehouse poets, Sylvia Plath has been so overexposed that it is hard to see her with fresh eyes. This book, part of a useful series that focuses on writers' working lives, builds on such works as Jacqueline Rose's The Haunting of Sylvia Plath (Harvard Univ., 1992) to remind readers that, Plath's well-known personal suffering notwithstanding, "to read autobiographically...is to dismiss the artistry Plath demands of her writing, and often achieves in it." Thus, this study marks less a paradigm shift in Plath studies than a cutting away of the inessential and a consolidation of the best that is known. Collections that already have a substantial number of Plath studies, including Wagner-Martin's own Sylvia Plath: A Biography (1987), may not wish to add yet another item to an already groaning shelf, but readers who are familiar with Plath's writing and want to know more about its personal and professional contexts would do well to begin with this succinct, commonsensical study.ADavid Kirby, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
". . . readers who are familiar with Plath's writing and want to know more about its personal and professional contexts would do well to begin with this succinct, commonsensical study."--Library Journal



Review
". . . readers who are familiar with Plath's writing and want to know more about its personal and professional contexts would do well to begin with this succinct, commonsensical study."--Library Journal



Book Description
Sylvia Plath: A Literary Life examines the way Plath made herself into a writer. Close analysis of Plath's reading and apprenticeship writing both in fiction and poetry sheds considerable light on Plath's work in the late 1960s. In this updated edition there will be discussion of the aftermath of Plath's death, including the publication of her Collected Poems--edited by Ted Hughes--which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1982. Biographies of Plath will be examined along with the publication of Hughes's Birthday Letters. A chronology maps out key events and publications both in Plath's lifetime and posthumously.



About the Author
Linda Wagner-Martin is the Frank Borden and Barbara Lasater Hanes Professor of English at theUniversity of North Carolina.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Sylvia Plath: A Literary Life explores the way Plath made herself into a writer. This close analysis of Plath's reading and apprenticeship writing, both in fiction and poetry, sheds considerable light on her late work of the 1960s. Updated to further explore Plath's literary life, this study examines the aftermath of Plath's death on her work and her reputation as a writer, including the posthumous publication of her Collected Poems, edited by Ted Hughes, which won the Pulitizer Prize for Poetry in 1982. Plath biographies are also looked at along with Hughes's Birthday Letters together with a discussion and comparison of Hughes's and Plath's poems. A chronology maps out key events and publication both in Plath's lifetime and posthumously.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Feminist icon and patron saint of moody coffeehouse poets, Sylvia Plath has been so overexposed that it is hard to see her with fresh eyes. This book, part of a useful series that focuses on writers' working lives, builds on such works as Jacqueline Rose's The Haunting of Sylvia Plath (Harvard Univ., 1992) to remind readers that, Plath's well-known personal suffering notwithstanding, "to read autobiographically...is to dismiss the artistry Plath demands of her writing, and often achieves in it." Thus, this study marks less a paradigm shift in Plath studies than a cutting away of the inessential and a consolidation of the best that is known. Collections that already have a substantial number of Plath studies, including Wagner-Martin's own Sylvia Plath: A Biography (1987), may not wish to add yet another item to an already groaning shelf, but readers who are familiar with Plath's writing and want to know more about its personal and professional contexts would do well to begin with this succinct, commonsensical study.--David Kirby, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews