I have been especially fortunate in speaking and corresponding with several Smith College alumnae who knew Sylvia Plath, and with some who encountered Ted Hughes. Thank you Jody Simon, Constance Blackwell, Kathleen Knight, Judy Denison, Marilyn Martin, Ellen Ouelette, Barbara Russell Kornfield, Anne Mohegan Smith, CB Follett, Barbara Schulz Larson, Daryl Hafter, Clare Goldfarb, Helen Lane, Nanci A. Young, and Ravelle Silberman Brickman. These women provided a fresh perspective, new material, and—in one case—an unpublished photograph of my subject, always a splendid dividend. They all made it a joy to talk about Sylvia Plath, and they inspired my effort to do justice to her protean personality and work. I’m grateful to Aubrey Menard for putting me in touch with Richard Larschan, a friend of Aurelia Plath. Larschan described someone who was very much her own woman, and not just Sylvia’s mother, a view corroborated by Aurelia’s annotations to Judith Kroll’s scholarly study, a copy of which is in the Mortimer Rare Book Room at Smith College. I am also indebted to Professor Larschan for providing a copy of Trevor Thomas’s privately printed memoir.

ALSO BY CARL ROLLYSON

Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress

Lillian Hellman: Her Legend and Her Legacy

Nothing Ever Happens to the Brave: The Story of Martha Gellhorn

The Lives of Norman Mailer: A Biography

Rebecca West: A Life

Susan Sontag: The Making of an Icon

Beautiful Exile: The Life of Martha Gellhorn

To Be a Woman: The Life of Jill Craigie

Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carl Rollyson, professor of journalism at Baruch College, The City University of New York, has published more than forty books, ranging in subject matter from biographies of Marilyn Monroe, Lillian Hellman, Martha Gellhorn, Norman Mailer, Rebecca West, Susan Sontag, Dana Andrews, and Jill Craigie to studies of American culture, genealogy, children’s biography, film, and literary criticism. He lives in Cape May County, New Jersey.

AMERICAN ISIS. Copyright © 2013 by Carl Rollyson. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com

Jacket design by Olga Grlic. Jacket photograph by Judy Denison.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Rollyson, Carl E. (Carl Edmund)

    American Isis: the life and art of Sylvia Plath / Carl Rollyson. — 1st U.S. ed.

           p. cm.

    Includes bibliographical references and index.

    ISBN 978-0-312-64024-8 (hardcover)

    ISBN 978-1-250-02315-5 (e-book)

  1.  Plath, Sylvia.   2.  Poets, American—20th century—Biography.   3.  Plath, Sylvia—Psychology.   4.  Plath, Sylvia—Criticism and interpretation.   5.  Women and literature—United States—History—20th century.   I.  Title.   II.  Title: Life and art of Sylvia Plath.

    PS3566.L27Z849 2013

    811'.54—dc23

    [B]

2012037393

e-ISBN 9781250023155

First Edition: January 2013