Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath (1932-63) was an American poet born in Massachusetts, USA. She published several poetry collections including The Colossus, Crossing the Water, Winter Trees, Ariel, and The Collected Poems, which won the Pulitzer Prize. In 1963, Plath's semi-autobiographic novel The Bell Jar was published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas"; it was reissued in 1966 under her own name. Her work expresses a sense of alienation and self-destruction which strongly resonated with the situation of women in mid-20th-century America. She was married to the poet Ted Hughes, with whom she had a daughter, Frieda, and a son, Nicholas. She died in London in 1963. Mushrooms is from her poetry collection The Collossus and reflects the struggle women endured for equal rights at the time.