Silvia Plath (1932-1963) was born in Boston. She had a complicated relationship with her father, who died from diabetes when she was 8. She later said that his death was the reason for her emotional turmoil in her adult years. Her mother was an English teacher and she encouraged Plath to write. Plath published her first piece in the newspaper around the time her father died (“Silvia Plath.” 1046-1047). She attended Smith college and her junior year she won a prize from the Mademoiselle magazine and spent that summer as the guest editor in the magazine’s New York office (Lague 1148). At the end of the summer, Plath attempted suicide and got psychiatric treatment and electroshock therapy, this event inspired her piece The Bell Jar, which
