The Challenges of Writing Biographies

After Sylvia Plath's death, speculation grew and rumors were rife about her life and death. The scandal of her failed marriage, which was not earth-shattering when she was alive, became overblown and distorted in the minds of some insiders and a cause célèbre in the thoughts and opinions of others. Ted Hughes, who had left Sylvia for another woman three months before her suicide, was the easy target of those who thought that his actions pushed the fragile Sylvia over the edge. Others related that Sylvia was not easy to be around and that she had been suffering from depression and perhaps even from bipolar disorder for most of her life.

A line was drawn sharply between the two sides when the biographers, most of whom genuinely wanted to write the definitive story of Sylvia's life and death, emerged on the scene...