Aurelia Schober Plath and Otto Emile Plath gave birth to their first child, Sylvia on October 27, 1932 in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Her father was a professor at Boston University where he taught German and zoology. However, he is greatly known for his beekeeping. Otto was a harsh and distant father, only dedicating thirty minutes each day to spend with Sylvia and her younger brother Warren, born in 1935. He then died in 1940, shortly after Sylvia's eigth birthday, the same age as her first published piece. Her unpleasant relationship with her father became prevalent in

many of her works, and she went on to compare him to Hitler numerous times. Yet, after his death, Aurelia moved the family to Wellesley, Massachusetts. Since childhood, Plath had been brought up as a Unitarian Christian, but she struggled with differing religious opinions throughout her life.

Plath went on to attend Smith College, and she graduated with honors in 1955. However, during her third year in college she first became the guest editor of Mademoiselle magazine and lived in New York for a month, but she then has a period of depression and nervous breakdowns that culminated in her first suicide attempt. She then was admitted to a mental institution and soon recovered. These experiences, however, did give her much of the inspiration for her only novel, The Bell Jar in which she uses the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas".

After graduating from Smith, Plath received a Fulbright scholarship to Cambridge University. There she continued to write much poetry, and she met her future husband, Ted Hughes; they married on June 16, 1956. For the beginning of their marriage, they lived in the United States, but soon moved back to London and then a small town in Devon, England once they learned that Sylvia was pregnant. However, the pregnancy culminated in a miscarriage. The Colossus, her first anthology, was published in 1961, but it contained many pieces pertaining to the miscarriage.

Hughes and Plath were able to soon have two children, Frieda and Nicholas. But, in 1962, Plath took the children with her to London after discovering Hughes's affair. On February 11, 1963, Plath suceeded in committing suicide by putting her head in the oven with the gas on. She is now buried at Heptonstall Church in West Yorkshire.

Although Sylvia Plath only lived to be thirty years old, she published eight collections of poetry which she won a Pulitzer Prize for. She also wrote six prose pieces and four children's books.

(Source J)