Ted Hughes
England’s Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes created a new directness in British poetry and theatre. Born in 1930, Hughes was educated at Cambridge where he switched from literature to anthropology, and where he met Sylvia Plath in 1956. Plath and Hughes later married, producing two children before her suicide in a London flat in 1963. By then Hughes had already received awards for his first two books of poetry, Hawk in the Rain (1957) and Lupercal (1960). Hughes’ poetry was immediate, at times savage, and always deeply affecting. Hughes also wrote poetry for children including, Meet My Folks (1961), The Earth-Owl and Other Moon People (1963), and Nessie, The Mannerless Monsterin (1964). One of England’s most prolific poets and writers, Hughes’ books include, Wodwo (1967), Crow (1970), Cave Birds (1975), Gaudete (1977), Tales of the Early World (1988), Wolf Watching (1989), Flowers and Insects (1989), Moortown Diary (1989), Rain-charm for the Duchy (1992), Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being (1992), The Iron Woman (1993), Winter Pollen (1994), New Selected Poems 1957-1994 (1995), The Dreamfighter (1995), Collected Animal Poems (1995), and Difficulties of a Bridegroom (1995). Hughes has also had a significant influence on British theatre. In addition to his translations and adaptations of Aeschylus, Euripides, Ovid, and Racine, Hughes invented a language for the landmark experimental production of Peter Brook’s Orghast at the Persepolis festival in Iran. Hughes died in 1998, the same year that his Birthday Letters, poetry about his relationship with Sylvia Plath, was published.
