Chapter 2: Sisters and Brothers Anne Sexton

Anne Sexton (1928-1974)

Anne Sexton was born in Massachusetts and lived there until her suicide in 1974. She began writing poetry as a way to recovery after suffering a nervous breakdown. Her poetry includes To Bedlam and Back (1960); All My Pretty Ones (1962); Selected Poems (1964); Live or Die (1966), which won a Pulitzer Prize; Love Poems (1969); Transformations (1971); The Book of Folly (1972); The Death Notebooks (1974); and the posthumously published The Awful Rowing Toward God (1975). A complete edition of her poems appeared in 1981. Sexton's poetry is generally confessional, mirroring the unhappiness and estrangement in her life. Her favorite themes are love, death, insanity, motherhood, and daughterhood; she is important for her imaginative and witty way of breaking taboos that have faced women poets. Author Links Anne Sexton: A Biography The site features an excerpt from Middlebrook's biography of Sexton, an audio file, and an account of the controversy Middlebrook's biography generated. The Academy of American Poets: Anne Sexton This site includes a brief biography of Sexton, an audio file of her work, the text of several of her poems, and a bibliography.

"Cinderella" "Hansel and Gretel" Anne Sexton: A Biography The Academy of American Poets: Anne Sexton

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