Sylvia Plath | Guy Portman's Blog

8 Posthumously Famous Authors

May 01 2015

Here are 8 posthumously famous authors.

Franz Kafka

(July 3rd 1883 – June 3rd 1924)

Franz Kafka is today regarded as one of the greatest European writers of the 20th Century. Born in Prague in what was then The Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka did not find fame during his lifetime, and what little of his writing was published received only scant attention from the public. Kafka, though always committed to his craft, spent his days working in a variety of roles in the insurance sector, and later managing a family-owned asbestos factory.

Click here to read my review of The Metamorphosis and Other Stories.

Emily Dickinson

(December 10th 1830 – May 15th 1886)

Emily Dickinson was a prolific poet with over 1700 poems to her name. During her lifetime Dickinson had fewer than a dozen poems published, and it was only after her death that she became famous. Her very private nature was undoubtedly one reason for her lack of acclaim during her lifetime. Today she is remembered as an iconic poet and one of the most acclaimed American female writers of all time.

Karl Stig-Erland ‘Stieg’ Larsson

(August 15th 1954 – November 9th 2004)

Larsson was a renowned journalist and an independent researcher. However, at the time of his death in 2004 aged 50, his Millennium Series were unpublished manuscripts sitting in his house. The trilogy saw the author achieve posthumous fame. In 2008 Larsson was the second highest selling author in the world. The Millennium Series has been adapted for film and television. To date over 60 million copies of the Millennium Series have been sold worldwide.

Sylvia Plath

(October 27th 1932 – February 11th 1963)

Sylvia Plath was a well-regarded poet during her short-life. Examples of her early success included winning The Glascock Prize for poetry in 1955. Plath, who had a history of depression, committed suicide in 1963. Her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, published a month before her death in the UK and in the US in 1971, went on to achieve critical acclaim. In 1982 Plath won the coveted Pulitzer Prize posthumously for The Collected Poems.

Click here to read my review of The Bell Jar.

Jane Austen

(December 16th 1775 – July 18th 1817)

Jane Austen achieved a degree of recognition during her lifetime, but she received little personal renown, due in part because she published anonymously. After her death her books became steadily more popular. It was the 20th Century that saw Jane Austen’s meteoric rise to iconic status. Today the author’s fame has transcended the literary world, evidence of which is her being ranked number 70 out of ‘100 Greatest Britons of all time’.

Jim Thompson

(September 27th 1906 – April 7th 1977)

Thompson is best remembered for his paperback pulp novels. He became well known for The Killer Inside Me (1952), and later wrote and co-wrote Hollywood screenplays. This success was only fleeting however and when he died in 1977 he was largely forgotten. Today he is widely acclaimed as being one of the greatest crime writers of all time. His novels are back in print and two of them have been adapted for the silver screen.

Click on the links to read my reviews of The Killer Inside Me and Savage Night.

Henry David Thoreau

(July 12th 1817 – May 6th 1862)

Henry David Thoreau’s prodigious writing output consists of nearly 20 volumes of writing. He self-published one of his book’s, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, but only sold 300 of the 1000 copies that he had printed. It was only after his death in 1862 that he began to receive the attention that he deserved. The event that was to herald this transformation was the publishing of his journal in 1906.

Edgar Allan Poe

(January 19th 1809 – October 7th 1849)

Edgar Allan Poe was an author, poet, literary critic and editor who flirted with fame for much of his working life. If it were not for his rather premature death, the cause of which is debated to this day, Poe might have become famous. Today he is remembered not only as being one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story, but is also generally considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre.

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7 Institutionalised Female Writers

Jan 16 2015

Authors’ suffering from mental instability is a subject that has interested me since reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

Here are 7 female writers who were institutionalised:

Unica Zürn(July 6th 1916 – 19th October 1970)

Unica Zürn was a German born author, poet and painter. Zürn began writing radio plays and short stories shortly after the end of World War II. In 1957 whilst living in France she began to suffer increasingly from mental health issues. The writer went on to spend time in various psychiatric facilities in Paris and Berlin. Her struggle with mental illness influenced much of her writing, most notably Der Mann im Jasmin. She committed suicide in 1970.

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald(July 24th 1900 – March 10th 1948)

Novelist, poet and short story writer Zelda Fitzgerald was the wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. The party-going pair’s tempestuous marriage came under strain due to Scott’s rampant alcoholism. Zelda suffered from increasing mental instability, and in 1930 she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Zelda was a patient in the Sheppard Pratt sanatorium in Towson when in 1932 she wrote the semi-autobiographical novel Save Me the Waltz. In 1948 the author died when the mental hospital she was residing in burnt down.

Janet Frame(August 28th 1924 – January 29th 2004)

Novelist, poet, short story writer and essayist Janet Frame is widely considered to be one of New Zealand’s best ever authors. Frame’s traumatic childhood saw 2 of her sisters drowned. In 1945 she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalised. The author was saved from a lobotomy, when days prior to the procedure, she unexpectedly won a national literary contest. In 1961 her novel Faces in the Water was published. It went on to become a best seller in her native country.

Sylvia Plath(October 27th 1932 – February 11th 1963)

Sylvia Plath was well known for her poetry during her short-life. Examples of her early success included winning The Glascock Prize for poetry in 1955. Plath suffered from bipolar disorder, and in 1953 spent 6 months in a psychiatric facility after a suicide attempt. In 1963 Plath committed suicide. She went on to achieve posthumous fame for her mental health themed semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, which was published in the UK a month after her death.

Suzanna Kaysen (Born: November 11th 1948)

American author Suzanna Kaysen is best remembered for her memoir Girl, Interrupted. In 1967 she was sent to the McClean Hospital for psychiatric treatment for depression. It was here that she was diagnosed as having borderline personality disorder. Her 18-month stint in the facility provided the material for her seminal work, Girl, Interrupted. In 1999 the book was adapted for the silver screen. In the film Winona Ryder portrays Kaysen.

Valerie Valere(November 1st 1961- 17th December 1982)

French author Valerie Valere was only 13 years old when she was incarcerated in an asylum due to her anorexia. She later wrote a novel, Le Pavillon des infants fous, which is about this traumatic period in her life. Valere went on to write several other books before her premature demise at the age of 21. The exact cause of her death remains unknown, but it is suspected it was due to an overdose.

Anne Sexton(November 9th 1928 – October 4th 1974)

Anne Sexton was a Pulitzer Prize winning American poet. Themes in her confessional style verse included her mental instability and depression. Sexton, who suffered from bipolar disorder and had suicidal tendencies, was institutionalised on multiple occasions. It was during a stint in Glenside Hospital that her therapist suggested she start writing poetry as a form of therapy. Madness and depression are reoccurring themes in much of Sexton’s writing. The poet committed suicide at the age of 45.

I haven’t forgotten about male authors who were institutionalised. There will be a post dedicated to them.

8 Authors Who Committed Suicide

Dec 05 2014

Admittedly this is a rather depressing subject for a blog post, but it is an interesting one. Here are 8 famous authors who committed suicide:

Anne Sexton

(November 9th 1928 – October 4th 1974)

Anne Sexton was a Pulitzer Prize winning American poet. Themes in her confessional style verse included her mental instability and depression. On October 4th 1974 the 45 year-old poet put on her mother’s old fur coat, poured herself a glass of vodka, locked herself in her garage, started the engine of her car and died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Hunter S. Thompson

(July 18th 1937 – February 20th 2005)

The father of Gonzo journalism was an iconic figure in the counter-culture. Hunter S. Thompson suffered from health problems in later life, culminating in him shooting himself in the head aged 67. His ashes were fired out of a cannon in a ceremony funded by friend and star of the movie adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Johnny Depp.

Click here to read my review of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Yukio Mishima

(January 14th 1925 – November 25th 1970)

Yukio Mishima is widely considered to be Japan’s greatest ever author. On November 25th 1968 Mishima and 4 members of his private militia barricaded themselves in the Tokyo headquarters of the Eastern Command of Japan’s self-defence forces. Having delivered a speech from the balcony to the soldiers below, Mishima committed Seppuku, a Japanese ritual suicide consisting of disembowelment followed by beheading.

Ernest Hemingway

(July 21st 1899 – July 2nd 1961)

Ernest Hemingway is today remembered as a pillar of American literature. His accolades include winning The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1953) and The Nobel Prize in Literature (1954). In the early morning hours of July 2nd 1961, following a period of deteriorating health and depression, Hemingway shot himself in the head with his favourite shotgun.

Click here to read my review of The Old Man and the Sea

John Berryman

(October 25th 1914 – January 7th 1972)

John Berryman was an American poet, scholar, and a key figure in the Confessional school of poetry. The poet was a heavy drinker for much of his life. He also suffered from periods of emotional instability. On January 7th 1972 Berryman met his demise when he plunged to his death from a bridge in Minneapolis.

Virginia Woolf

(January 25th 1882 – March 28th 1941)

Novelist and critic Virginia Woolf was an influential interwar writer and one of the foremost modernists of the 20th Century. Shortly after finishing the manuscript of her last novel, Between the Acts, Woolf entered a deep depression. On the 28th March 1941 the author put on her overcoat, filled her pockets with stones and walked out into the River Ouse near her home in Sussex.

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Akutagawa

(March 1st 1892 – July 24th 1927)

Akutagawa was a Japanese writer, who is considered to be the father of the Japanese short story. Japan’s premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him. The author suffered from deteriorating physical and mental health, and at the age 35 he committed suicide by taking an overdose of Veronal.

Sylvia Plath

(October 27th 1932 – February 11th 1963)

Sylvia Plath was well known for her poetry during her short-life. Examples of her early success included winning The Glascock Prize for poetry in 1955. Plath, who had a history of depression, committed suicide in 1963, by poisoning herself with carbon monoxide in her own kitchen. She went on to achieve posthumous fame.

Click here to read my review of The Bell Jar

Posthumously Famous Authors II

Jul 26 2013

The following blog post is dedicated to two authors, who became more famous after they died.

Franz Kafka

(July 3rd 1883 – June 3rd 1924)

Notable works: The Trial, The Castle, Amerika, Contemplation, The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka is today regarded as one of the greatest European writers of the 20th Century. Born in Prague in what was then The Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka did not find fame during his lifetime and what little of his writing was published received only scant attention from the public. Kafka, though always committed to his writing, spent his days working in a variety of roles in the insurance sector and later, managing a family-owned asbestos factory.

The author, who had suffered bad health for many years met his demise when a bout of laryngeal tuberculosis left him being unable to eat because of the pain, resulting in Kafka starving to death in Vienna in 1924.

Posthumous fame came quickly for the German language author when the first of his three novels, The Trial, was published a year after his death in 1925. The following year, The Castle was published and the third of Kafka’s novels, Amerika, followed in 1927. The author’s reputation has only increased over time and his insights into the human condition are viewed by many as being amongst the most poignant of any writer.

Sylvia Plath

(October 27th 1932 – February 11th 1963)

Notable works: The Bell Jar, Ariel, The Collected Poems

The Boston born American writer studied at Cambridge University and later wed British poet Ted Hughes. Sylvia Plath was well regarded as a poet during her short-life, examples of her early success included winning The Glascock Prize for poetry in 1955. In 1960 Plath’s first book of poems, The Colossus, was published.

Plath, who had a history of depression, committed suicide in 1963 by poisoning herself with carbon monoxide, in her own kitchen. Much controversy surrounded her death, with some claiming that Plath had not meant to kill herself, whilst others, particularly feminists blamed Hughes, Plath’s husband, claiming that he had been abusive.

Death did nothing to stop the writer’s growing popularity and respect from the literary establishment. Her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, published a month before her death in the UK, was published in the US in 1971 and went on to achieve critical acclaim. In 1982 Plath won the coveted Pulitzer Prize posthumously for The Collected Poems and then in 1985 her letters, titled Letters Home: Correspondence 1950 -1963 were published.

There is no doubt that Sylvia Plath’s premature death brought her much attention and was a major factor in her becoming something of a martyr to the feminist movement. However her lasting legacy is that today she is regarded as one America’s greatest ever female writers.

Click here to read Posthumously Famous Authors part 1.