Customer Reviews

Sylvia Plath (Great Writers)

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I am the author of this book, for which Linda Wagner-Marting graciouslessly wrote the Foreword. This new biography of Plath, the first to appear since the early 1990s, presents Plath the poet and Plath the person as inseparable. It's about her writing life.

The mini-review Amazon has is for the Harold Bloom collection of essays published in the late 1980s. I certainly hope that they fix this in order to prevent confusion and/or slower sales.

Cheers!

Peter Steinberg's new biography charts Sylvia Plath's tumultous career in moving prose. His narrative demonstrates precision and is informed by the recent landmarks in Plath scholarship. His own passion for Plath's writing and travels to Plath sites lend a significant dimension to his descriptions of the places and events that inspired some of Plath's most famous poems. I think this book will be a welcome addition to high school reading lists and will inspire students to explore Plath's poetry.

There are literally hundreds of Plath biographies out there but this is really the one to begin with. Steinberg painstakingly details every aspect of Plath's life without heavily weighing in with personal commentary or jaded viewpoints- it's as accurate and stark account of what happened as any other book out there, perhaps more chilling because of the detached voice. It allows the novice reader to decide for themselves, to give this narrative meaning. More importantly, what this book accomplishes that no other biography does is tie Plath's poems to specific events and places significant to the poet. The book is not just a progression of her life but a progression of her work as an author as well. Be sure to check out Steinberg's website, A Celebration, This Is which adds a whole other layer of depth as he painstakingly visited and photographed nearly all of the places mentioned in the book.

Peter K. Steinberg, who runs the blog [...] has a comprehensive, encyclopedic knowledge of all thing Sylvia Plath, making his book on her life and work insightful and essential.