| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| | '''Anne Sexton''' (1928-1974) was an American author and poet. Her works include ''Live or Die'' (1966) and ''Love Poems'' (1969). She won a Pulitzer Prize for ''Live or Die''.<ref>''The New York Public Library Student's Desk Reference''. Prentice Hall, New York: 1991.</ref> | | '''Anne Sexton''' (1928-1974) was an American author and poet. Her works include ''Live or Die'' (1966) and ''Love Poems'' (1969). She won a Pulitzer Prize for ''Live or Die''.<ref>''The New York Public Library Student's Desk Reference''. Prentice Hall, New York: 1991.</ref> |
| | + | |
| | + | ==Life and Works== |
| | + | Anne Sexton was born Anne Gray Harvey on November 2, 1928, in Newton, Massachusetts, to Ralph Harvey, a middle-class wool manufacturer, and his wife Mary Gray Staples.<ref>http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/sexton/sexton_life.htm</ref> As a child, she attended boarding school, and had a physically comfortable life but dangerous relations with her parents.<ref>https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/anne-sexton</ref> She went to Garland Junior College for one year, married Alfred Muller Sexton, and took a modeling course at the Hart Agency.<ref>https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/anne-sexton</ref> |
| | + | |
| | + | Throughout the 1950s, she suffered from depression brought on by the death of her grandmother and her being uncaringly nurtured at a boarding school, at which point her therapist recommended she write poetry.<ref>http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/sexton/sexton_life.htm</ref> She channeled these emotions which had haunted her since childhood into confessional poetry, which was criticized by her mother, |
| | + | which encouraged her development into a feminist without curing her mental issues.<ref>http://www.fembio.org/english/biography.php/woman/biography/anne-sexton/</ref> Afraid, she entered a poetry workshop with John Holmes, where she met her friend Maxine Kumin, and her work was immediately acclaimed. She wrote "The Double Image" |
| | + | in response to Snodgrass's "Heart's Needle," which she felt permitted her to write confessional poetry although it was discouraged by her poet friends.<ref>https://www.poemhunter.com/anne-sexton/biography/</ref> Her works continued after her first volume, ''To Bedlam and Part Way Back'' (1960), a book about her psychiatric struggles, with ''Love Poems'', ''Live or Die'', and a play called ''Mercy Street'' (1969). In her 1972 ''Transformations'', she retells Grimm's Fairy Tales, |
| | + | and ends her works in the ''The Death Notebook'' and several volumes published after her death.<ref>https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/anne-sexton</ref> On October 4, 1974, she committed suicide in Weston Massachusetts, as a likely result of her severe untreated mental illness.<ref>http://www.biography.com/people/anne-sexton-9479863</ref> |
| | + | |
| | + | ==See Also== |
| | + | *[[Robert Lowell]] |
| | + | *[[Sylvia Plath]] |
| | | | |
| | ==References== | | ==References== |
| | {{reflist}} | | {{reflist}} |
| | + | |
| | + | ==External Links== |
| | + | *[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/anne-sexton Extensive Biography] of Anne Sexton |
| | + | *[https://www.poemhunter.com/anne-sexton/poems/ Poems] of Anne Sexton |
| | | | |
| | {{DEFAULTSORT:Sexton, Anne}} | | {{DEFAULTSORT:Sexton, Anne}} |
| | [[Category:American Authors]] | | [[Category:American Authors]] |
| | [[Category:American Poets]] | | [[Category:American Poets]] |