Red Comet
The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
by Heather Clark
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Knopf
Biographies & Memoirs
Pub Date 06 Oct 2020
I am reviewing a copy of Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath through Knopf and Netgalley:
If you are looking for a feel good read, this is not that, but if you are looking for a comprehensive biography on a brilliant but broken woman, Sylvia Plath this is a book I would definitely recommend.
Using never before accessed material including unpublished letters, Manuscripts, court and police records as well as new interviews, Heather Clark brings to life Sylvia Plath, the daughter of Wellesley, Massachusetts, who from a very young age had poetic ambitions. She was an accomplished writer of stories and poems before she became a star English Student, while attending Smith College in the 1950’s.
Sylvia Plath was born October 27 1932 at Robinson Memorial Hospital in Boston’s South End.
By eleven Sylvia Plath had received her 100th book. In eight grade Sylvia was elected president of her homeroom as well as secretary of her English Class.
In January 1946 Sylvia received a special gift from her Grandfather, a fountain pen with her name inscribed in gold. She put her pen to good use that year. But five months after she received the gift it was stolen, an event that left Sylvia so distraught, two months after it was stolen her Mom replaced it with an exact duplicate.
In September of 1951 Sylvia Plath wrote a story dealing with Anti Semitism called The Perfect Set Up based on the time she spent with the Mayos.
On Saturday June.27.1953 when Aurelia and Grammy Schober met Sylvia at the Route 128 station they were shocked to see her looking hollowed and blurry eyed, wearing borrowed clothes. Plath’s month in New York left her reeling and disoriented and she was unable to put up a front.
In her book The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath goes into the horrors of her earlier psychiatric treatment.
Before meeting Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath knew his poetry.
In the Summer and much of the fall of 1958 Sylvia Plath was once again battling crippling depression.
By Mid December of 1960 Sylvia Plath knew she was pregnant, and would give birth to her daughter, Frieda Rebecca Hughes was born on April.01.1960.
She would become pregnant again, but have a miscarriage, but on January..17 1962 she would give birth to her Son Nicholas Hughes, her son’s life would come to a tragic end in 2009.
On October 27. 1962 Sylvia Plath turned thirty, she wrote two poems on her birthday, poems that spoke of her state of mind. That same year it became evident that her marriage with Ted Hughes was not going to be a lasting one.
In Mid January of 1963, The Bell Jar was published, an event that should have been a cause of celebration was a Hollow victory
On February 11.1963 while one year Nicholas Hughes and two and a half year old Frieda slept upstairs, Plath had taped the doorframe in which the children slept and then placed towels around the kitchen door, making sure the Toxic fumes did not get into the Children’s room before she committed suicide using toxic gas.
Many looked at Sylvia Plath as a tortured soul, a depressive, but she saw herself as passionate, in her writings and her relationships. But I’m this book Heather Clark is determined not to act as if every act from Plath’s Childhood on was a Harbinger of her tragic fate. In this book Clark shows a culture in transition from the Holocaust to the atom bomb. She paints a picture of a woman who was in very many ways ahead of her time, in voicing her opinions, something she was not afraid to do from a young age.
In Red Comet Clark’s tireless and compassionate research of Sylvia Plath’s legacy brings us closer than ever to Sylvia Plath, the visionary artist, who made a way for Women poets throughout the world.
If you are looking for a powerful, comprehensive biography on Sylvia Plath I highly recommend Red Comet.
Five out of five stars !
Happy Reading
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