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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What literary genre emphasizes the intimate, and sometimes unflattering, information about details of the poet's personal life, such as in poems about mental illness, sexuality, and despondence?

2. What biography mentioned a cloth beneath Sylvia's head as she inhaled the gas fumes and a testimonial statement by her doctor that she had been in a dire mental condition?

3. In the second version of The Journals of Sylvia Plath, Hughes indicated that he might be able to get his hands on what?

4. What was the address where Sylvia committed suicide?

5. Who was named the literary agent for the writings of Sylvia Plath after her death?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Anne Stevenson's response at a meeting of the University Women's Club in London where she was being taken to task for her portrayal of Sylvia in her book?

2. What did Anne Stevenson do with the manuscript she had been commissioned to write about Sylvia Plath for a series at Penguin Books?

3. What is Plath's book The Bell Jar about? What was Sylvia's mother's reaction to the work?

4. What was A. Alvarez's first impression of Ted and Sylvia? How did that opinion change?

5. What was the first official bad review of Bitter Fame? Who wrote it?

6. How did Anne Stevenson find she related to Sylvia Plath in their youths?

7. Where did Olwyn and Malcolm go together in Part One: Chapter VII? What did Malcolm learn there?

8. What qualities of Sylvia Plath's work made her appealing to feminists?

9. Ted Hughes wrote two introductions to The Journals of Sylvia Plath. What did he write in the first introduction, and when was this edition published?

10. What portrait of Sylvia Plath did Anne Stevenson paint in her biography of Sylvia? Why did critics refute that image?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe Linda Wagner-Martin and Ronald Hayman. When was Wagner-Martin's biography written? Was it published?

Essay Topic 2

Describe and discuss the life and career of the author. What led Janet Malcolm to approach this subject and book?

Essay Topic 3

Describe and discuss the relationship between Janet Malcolm and Anne Stevenson at the University of Michigan. When did Stevenson's writing career take off?

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