Q & A Sylvia Plath-Life and works

Sylvia Plath

“I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart.”

Sylvia Plath

Quiz#1

Sylvia Plath-Life and works

Plath was born in 1932.

Plath wrote only two books before her suicide at the age of 31.

Plath was married to the poet Ted Hughes.

Sylvia Plath was born in New York.

Sylvia Plath’s Pseudonym was Elizabeth.

Plath’s father was a professor of biology at Boston University, and had specialized in bees.

Plath’s father has been characterized as authoritarian and died of diabetes in 1940 when Plath was six years old.

Plath’s mother, Aurelia, worked at two jobs to support Sylvia and her brother Warren

In her diary Plath reveals her hatred for her father.

At school Plath appeared to be a model student: she won prizes and scholarships.

Plath studied at Gamaliel Bradford Senior High School (now Wellesley High School) and at the Smith College from 1952 to 1955.

Plath’s first awarded story, "Sunday at the Mintons," was published in 1952

"Sunday at the Mintons” was published while she was at college.

Plath worked in 1953 on the college editorial board and suffered a mental breakdown which led to a suicide attempt.

Plath described this period of her live in Ariel.

THE BELL JAR was her fictitious novel.

THE BELL JAR was published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas in 1963, a month before her death.

Plath also attended Newnham College, Cambridge (England)

She met Ted Hughes in 1956 Newnham College, Cambridge (England)

They first met at a student party, where Plath bit Hughes on the cheek, really hard.

Plath decided to be a good wife, but Hughes was not the ideal husband she imagined

According to Plath: Hughes was moody, penchant for nose picking, and dressed slovenly.

Plath’s first child, Frieda Rebecca, was born in 1960 and second, Nicholas Farrar, in 1962.
Plath died in London on February 11,1964; she committed suicide.

Plath’s gravestone is in London.

Assia Wevill killed herself in the same way as Plath - by gas.

Plath's 'COLLECTED POEMS' (1981), assembled and edited by Ted Hughes, won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize.

Quiz#1

Sylvia Plath-Life and Works

1-True

2-True

3-True

4-False

5-False

6-True

7-False

8-True

9-False

10-True

11-False

12-True

13-True

14-True

15-False

16-False

17-True

18-True

19-True

20-True

21-True

22-True

23-True

24-False

25-False

26-True

27-True

Correct Answers

4- Boston

5- Victoria Lucas

7- Eight

9- Mother

11-1950

15- THE BELL JAR

16- Autobiographical

24-1963

25- Yorkshire

SELECTED WORKS:

A WINTER SHIP - - Published anonymously
THE COLOSSUS AND OTHER POEMS, 1960
THE BELL JAR, 1961
AMERICAN POETRY NOW, 1961
THREE WOMAN, 1962 - radio play, BBC
ARIEL, 1965 –
UNCOLLECTED POEMS, 1965
CROSSING THE WATER, 1971
CRYSTAL GAZER & OTHER POEMS, 1971
FIESTA MELONS, 1971
WINTER TREES, 1971
LYONESSE: HITHERTO UNCOLLECTED POEMS, 1971
PURSUIT, 1973
LETTERS HOME: CORRESPONDENCE 1950-1963, 1975
THE BED BOOK, 1976
LETTERS HOME, 1976
JOHNNY PANIC AND THE BIBLE OF DEAMS, 1977
COLLECTED POEMS, 1981 - (ed. by Ted Hughes) - posthumous Pulitzer Prize
THE JOURNALS OF SYLVIA PLATH, 1982 (ed. by F. McCullough)
SELECTED POEMS, 1985 - (ed. by Ted Hughes)
JOURNALS 1950-62, 1982 - (Introduction by Frances McCullough, foreword by Ted Hughes; the last journal which ended in Jan. 1963, was destroyed by Hughes, one journal is missing from the Neilson Library at Smith's College)
THE IT-DOESN'T MATTER SUIT, 1996
THE JOURNALS OF SYLVIA PLATH 1950-1962, 2000 (ed. by Karen V. Kukil - an exact and complete transcription of the journals kept by Sylvia Plath over the last twelve years of her life)