Anne Sexton facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Anne Sexton
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Anne Sexton photographed by Elsa Dorfman
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| Born | Anne Gray Harvey November 9, 1928 Newton, Massachusetts, United States |
| Died | October 4, 1974 (aged 45) Weston, Massachusetts, United States |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | American |
| Literary movement | Confessional poetry |
| Spouse | Alfred Muller Sexton II (1948–1973) |
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Anne Sexton (born Anne Gray Harvey; November 9, 1928 – October 4, 1974) was an American poet. She was known for her very personal style of poetry. This style is called confessional poetry. In 1967, she won the important Pulitzer Prize for poetry. She won it for her book called Live or Die. Her poems often shared details from her own life. This included her family and her struggles with her emotions.
Contents
Early Life and Family
Anne Gray Harvey was born in Newton, Massachusetts. Her parents were Mary Gray and Ralph Churchill Harvey. She had two older sisters, Jane and Blanche. Anne spent most of her childhood in Boston.
In 1945, she went to Rogers Hall boarding school. Later, she spent a year at Garland School. For a while, she worked as a model in Boston. On August 16, 1948, she married Alfred Muller Sexton II. They were married until 1973. Anne had her first child, Linda Gray Sexton, in 1953. Her second child, Joyce Ladd Sexton, was born two years later.
Becoming a Poet
Anne Sexton faced challenges with her mental health for much of her life. After a difficult period in 1955, she met Dr. Martin Orne. He became her therapist. Dr. Orne was the one who encouraged her to start writing poetry.
Anne's first poetry class was taught by John Holmes. She was nervous about joining. She even asked a friend to call for her and go with her to the first class. But she quickly found success with her poems. Many of them were accepted by famous magazines. These included The New Yorker and Harper's Magazine.
Later, Sexton studied at Boston University. She was in a class with other poets like Sylvia Plath. Anne Sexton wrote a poem in 1963 called "Sylvia's Death". It honored her friendship with Sylvia Plath. Anne's first book of poems, To Bedlam and Part Way Back, came out in 1960. This book included the poem "Her Kind". This poem used the idea of witches to talk about how women were treated in society.
A poet named W. D. Snodgrass was a mentor to Anne Sexton. She met him in 1957. His poem "Heart's Needle" inspired her. It was about a father separated from his daughter. Anne read this poem when her own young daughter was living with her mother-in-law. This inspired Anne to write "The Double Image." This poem explored the special bond between mothers and daughters through generations. Anne and Snodgrass became friends and wrote letters to each other.
Anne Sexton also became good friends with Maxine Kumin. They met while working with John Holmes. They stayed close friends for Anne's whole life. Kumin and Sexton often read and gave feedback on each other's poems. They also wrote four children's books together.
In the late 1960s, Anne's health challenges began to affect her work. But she still wrote and published many poems. She also gave readings of her poetry. She even worked with musicians. They formed a jazz-rock group called Her Kind. This group added music to her poems. Her play Mercy Street was performed in 1969. Anne also worked with artist Barbara Swan. Barbara illustrated some of Anne's books.
Within 12 years of starting to write, Anne Sexton became a very honored poet in the U.S. She won a Pulitzer Prize. She was also a member of the Royal Society of Literature. She was the first woman to join the Harvard chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.
Later Life and Legacy
On October 4, 1974, Anne Sexton had lunch with Maxine Kumin. They were working on a new book of poems called The Awful Rowing Toward God. This book was set to be published in 1975. After returning home, Anne Sexton died. She is buried at Forest Hills Cemetery & Crematory in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts.
In an interview before her death, Anne Sexton said she wrote the first drafts of The Awful Rowing Toward God very quickly. She said she would not let the poems be published until after she died.
Themes in Her Work
Anne Sexton is seen as a leading example of a confessional poet. This is because her poems were very personal and emotional. She often wrote about her struggles with mental health. Some people criticized her for sharing such personal topics in her poetry.
Her eighth book of poems was titled The Awful Rowing Toward God. The title came from a meeting she had with a priest. He told her, "God is in your typewriter." This gave her the strength to keep living and writing. The Awful Rowing Toward God and The Death Notebooks were among her last works. Both of these books focused on the idea of dying.
At first, her work was mostly about herself. But as her career went on, she tried to write about other topics too. Transformations (1971) is one example. This book retold classic Grimm's Fairy Tales in a new way. (Transformations was even used for an opera in 1973.) Later, she used the Bible as inspiration for some of her work.
Many people have talked about how her writing, her life, and her challenges were connected. Other poets like Robert Lowell and Adrienne Rich commented on how her creativity was linked to her life's difficulties.
Legacy
Anne Sexton's work continues to inspire others. The musician Peter Gabriel dedicated his song "Mercy Street" to her. This song was named after her play Mercy Street. It was also inspired by her poem "45 Mercy Street." Anne Sexton has also been mentioned as an inspiration for the singer Morrissey. She is remembered on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail. The famous singer Madonna has also talked about Anne Sexton in interviews.
See also
In Spanish: Anne Sexton para niños
