Originally uploaded by carael
A stack of books by Sylvia Plath.
Her son, Nicholas Hughes has just committed suicide, as indeed she did herself when she turned on the gas oven whilst he and his sister slept next door.
What talent she must have had to write all of these books! What despair there must have been to drive her to suicide.
What a cruel end to two lives. Nicholas Hughes was 47 and hanged himself in his house in Alaska. He is said to have battled depression for some time. He was however a marine biologist and had enjoyed an academic career of considerable importance during a life filled with friends.
Plath is now a cult figure and has been since her death in 1963. Her suicide was no blessing for Nick Hughes or his sister Frieda nor indeed for their father the Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. Hughes was blamed for driving Plath to her untimely death as a result of his infidelity.
Ted Hughes left Plath for Assia Wevill, who curiously also gassed herself, but tragically killed her four year old child at the same time.
Phyllis Stephen blogs 