WRITER

Sylvia Plath

1932 - 1963

Photo of Sylvia Plath

Icon of person Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for The Colossus and Other Poems (1960), Ariel (1965), and The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her suicide in 1963. The Collected Poems was published in 1981, which included previously unpublished works. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Sylvia Plath has received more than 13,236,130 page views. Her biography is available in 80 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 78 in 2019). Sylvia Plath is the 413th most popular writer (down from 396th in 2019), the 389th most popular biography from United States (up from 402nd in 2019) and the 38th most popular American Writer.

Sylvia Plath is most famous for her novel The Bell Jar, which was published in 1963. The novel is semi-autobiographical and tells the story of Esther Greenwood, a young woman who is slowly going insane.

Memorability Metrics

  • 13M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 68.24

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 80

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 4.65

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 6.02

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

The colossus
1960
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams
Fiction
1975
The bed book
1976
The colossus & other poems
Poetry, Modern
19624 / 5
Bell Jar
Biography & Autobiography / Literary Figures
A vulnerable young girl wins a dream assignment on a big-time New York fashion magazine and finds herself plunged into a nightmare. An autobiographical account of Sylvia Plath's own mental breakdown and suicide attempt, "The Bell Jar" is more than a confessional novel, it is a comic but painful statement of what happens to a woman's aspirations in a society that refuses to take them seriously... a society that expects electroshock to cure the despair of a sensitive, questioning young artist whose search for identity becomes a terrifying descent toward madness. <p>"A fine novel, as bitter and remorseless as her last poems -- the kind of book Salinger's Fanny might have written about herself ten years later, if she had spent those ten years in Hell." -- Robert Scholes, "The New York Times Book Review." <p>"By turns funny, harrowing, crude, ardent and artless. Its most notable quality is an astonishing immediacy, like a series of snapshots taken at high noon." -- "Time." <p>"A special poignance... a special force, a humbling power, because it shows the vulnerability of people of hope and good will." -- "Newsweek."
19634 / 5
Ariel
Poetry
Sylvia Plath's famous collection, as she intended it. When Sylvia Plath died, she not only left behind a prolific life but also her unpublished literary masterpiece, Ariel. When her husband, Ted Hughes, first brought this collection to life, it garnered worldwide acclaim, though it wasn't the draft Sylvia had wanted her readers to see. This facsimile edition restores, for the first time, Plath's original manuscript -- including handwritten notes -- and her own selection and arrangement of poems. This edition also includes in facsimile the complete working drafts of her poem "Ariel," which provide a rare glimpse into the creative process of a beloved writer. This publication introduces a truer version of Plath's works, and will no doubt alter her legacy forever. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
19654 / 5
The Bell Jar
women college students, summer, Classics
The Bell Jar is the only novel written by American poet Sylvia Plath. It is an intensely realistic and emotional record of a successful and talented young woman's descent into madness.
1963
Ariel
American poetry, Poetry, Textual Criticism
1965
The colossus & other poems
Poetry (poetic works by one author)
1962
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams
American prose literature, Manners and customs, Fiction
1975
Collected Poems
Poema, Poetry, English poetry
1963
The Journals of Sylvia Plath
American Poets, Biography, Diaries
Self-Portrait of the Artist as a Woman No other major contemporary American writer has inspired such intense curiosity about her life as Sylvia Plath. Now, the intimate and eloquent personal diaries of the twentieth century's most important female poet reveal for the first time the true story behind *The Bell Jar* and her tragic suicide at thirty. They paint, as well, a revealing portrait of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet whose stature has seldom been equalled.
1982

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Sylvia Plath ranks 413 out of 7,302. Before her are Dan Brown, René Guénon, Michel Houellebecq, Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, Alfred de Musset, and Qu Yuan. After her are Thomas Bernhard, Patrick Modiano, Ivar Aasen, Savitribai Phule, Heinrich Mann, and John Keats.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1932, Sylvia Plath ranks 20. Before her are Luc Montagnier, Miriam Makeba, Fernando Botero, Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary, Víctor Jara, and Anouk Aimée. After her are François Englert, Dian Fossey, Roh Tae-woo, Glenn Gould, Anthony Perkins, and Anatoliy Solovianenko. Among people deceased in 1963, Sylvia Plath ranks 18. Before her are C. S. Lewis, Abd el-Krim, Yasujirō Ozu, Nâzım Hikmet, Theodor Heuss, and Francis Poulenc. After her are Paul Hindemith, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Herbert Spencer Gasser, Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria, Thích Quảng Đức, and Abd al-Karim Qasim.

Others Born in 1932

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Others Deceased in 1963

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In United States

Among people born in United States, Sylvia Plath ranks 389 out of 20,380. Before her are Henry James (1843), Angela Davis (1944), Ryan O'Neal (1941), Dan Brown (1964), Ruth Handler (1916), and Edward Drinker Cope (1840). After her are Kurt Cobain (1967), Brian De Palma (1940), Anthony Kiedis (1962), Martin Sheen (1940), Jimmy Wales (1966), and Ben Roy Mottelson (1926).

Others born in United States

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, Sylvia Plath ranks 38. Before her are Mario Puzo (1920), Paul Auster (1947), O. Henry (1862), Raymond Chandler (1888), Henry James (1843), and Dan Brown (1964). After her are Philip Roth (1933), Frank Herbert (1920), Kurt Vonnegut (1922), Susan Sontag (1933), Jack Kerouac (1922), and Eugene O'Neill (1888).

American born Writers

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous