The Legacy of Sylvia Plath -- Was This Poetic Madness?

What happened to Sylvia Plath? Why is The Bell Jar so famous (and controversial)? Sylvia Plath was a poet and writer, famous for the passionate intensity of her poetry, and for her untimely death. Read more about the life and works of Sylvia Plath. And, discover a few suicidal novels.

In The Bell Jar, Plath writes: "There ought, I thought, to be a ritual for being born twice--patched, retreaded and approved for the road."

Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932.